Weekend wrap up...

Ray had to travel on Sunday for work, so we elected to stay in town. I love being outside and since I didn't have access to a pool, lake, river...I laid out next to the closest body of water I could find...our waterfall fountain in the backyard!


Then on Sunday, Ray headed to Nashville and I headed to Cabot. Enjoyed spending the day with my Grandma!


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Lunch date!

I had a fun lunch date with Lily and mom! It was such a fun break in my day!


Lunch was pretty tasty and Lily was loved her dessert!


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Happy 5th Birthday Lily!

We had such a fun time celebrating with Lily and her friends.  Lily brings such joy to our lives and we love being her Aunt and Uncle!  The Birthday girl has her goggles on and she's ready for the slip n' slide!

Cute Cousins

 Sweet Ava

 The cupcakes looked so pretty and from the compliments, I would say they tasted pretty good too!

Lily with her Momma and Daddy!

Making a wish!

 Layne warming up to the party!

 Some of the kids jumping on the slide!

 Lauren had such a fun time!  She loved showing off her jumps...so precious!

 Lily and Josie eating dinner!

 Loved seeing sweet Riley!

 What 5 year only doesn't want a lighted Budweiser sign sign above their food table?!?

Layne finally wanted in on the action and he loved it...Thanks Addi for catching him!

Neil and Lily smile for the camera!

5 tries, but Emily made it in!!

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Party Day!

Today is Lily's 5th Birthday party, so this weekend has been spent getting ready and doing some shopping! On Friday night, I went to Breakaway for some new running shoes. I had never been to Breakaway, but they were offering a discount to everyone signed up for the Memphis Ladies Running group. They were awesome. Locally owned...they spent alot of time evaluating my feet and arch and my running patterns. They fit me in some Brooks and so far so good!


Came home and baked 120 cupcakes for Lily's birthday party!


On Saturday I took my Brooks for a spin, went to the farmer's market and then went shopping with mom and Molly for party supplies and Mullen's baby furniture. While shopping Molly and I were asked by multiple people if we were twins (thank you R+F for making me look 8 years younger!!)! Then we came home and finished the cupcakes, made some decorations and had a big Farmer's Market dinner outside!
I'm pretty happy with the way the cupcakes turned out. Mom made white chocolate shells for the top!











Then this morning, I woke up extra early, so decided to put the 5 cake pan mom bought to good use!


Now all 120 cupcakes are all packed up, so I best go get myself ready for Lily's mermaid and pirate party!


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35 and Strong...

Ray and I took the Trillium Gap trail to the top of Mt LeConte on Saturday. For weeks Ray has been talking about wanting to climb Mt LeConte, but I just wasn't sure and by the looks of the weather forecast I didn't think we were going to get a chance this trip. I climbed it when I was 19 and he has climbed it several times in his younger days. We attempted when we were in our mid 20's, but we got a late start, it started storming and honestly, I just didn't have it in me. I'm quite proud of our accomplishment...13.8 miles round trip!


It was muddy, it rained on us and the trail was pretty much one big stream, but we had fun! We chose Trillium for this trip because of all the waterfalls and I'm so glad we did! This trail is also the only waterfall you can walk behind in the Smokys.











There were a lot of water crossing due to the excessive rain...basically my feet were wet for 8 hours!


We made it to the lodge in 4hrs and 10 mins (all the sites said it would take @ 5 hrs)!


But from there we decided to go on up to the cliff tops! As you can tell, the smoky mountains were extra smoky on Saturday!






We spent about an hour up there. We saw a deer


And enjoyed our peanut butter and jelly sandwiches!


It took us just as long to get down due to all the mud!


Honestly, going up was much easier for me than going down. Next time, we will plan well in advance and spend the night at the lodge and I'll invest in some hiking boots! Great day and I'm so glad we did this!

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4th of July...

We enjoyed this long 4th of July weekend with Ray's family at a cabin in the Smoky Mountains. Despite all the rain (it rained and rained) everyone seemed to enjoy themselves. Ray got in a few wet rounds of golf with his Uncle Keith. I read some, went to the spa with Ray's mom and enjoyed some much needed down time!
Ray and his granddaddy...


Aunt Linda, Ray's mom and Aunt Pam in the kitchen.


The cabin was equipped with a great game room! Brandon is quite the ping pong player!


Playing doubles in pool...


Greg beat the high score in Ms PacMan by 25K Points!


They had two grills and Ray put them to good use!


A little downtime with his iPhone games and iPad Internet surfing!


The pool was very nice...loved the sound of the waterfall!


On Saturday we climbed Mt LeConte...post to come in our adventure!


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East TN bound...

To spend the 4th with Ray's family! I had high hopes of conquering Mt LeConte (which I did when I was 19, but failed when I was around 25), but by looks of the radar I might have another year to prepare! Good thing I have 2 good books packed!