Appalachian Trail, Ramsey Cascade Falls & A Smelly Ride Home!

Today was our last day of our mini getaway into the Smoky Mountains. That meant packing up and gearing Ernie for one more day of adventure and the drive home.

packed up... again

Off we set, in search of our day's adventure. We identified Ramsey Cascade Falls as our end goal, and after an hour jaunt in the car, we were winding down the gravel path towards the foot trail. We strapped on our day packs and were off on the 4ish mile ascent up the mountain to the falls.

more rivers! 

bright colors of the woods! 

hey, mare! 

subiendo, subiendo... subiendo y no bajando

orange spotted newt

We made it to the top, after a grueling network of rock steps, slippery tree roots and loose shale rock. 

nothing like this boost of confidence at the top.. :/

ramsey cascade falls - totally worth it. 

 Fortunately, we managed to get all of our photos done without any casualties.

friends :) :) 

just gracefully snacking..... yenno.. 

 

We breathed in our fill of God's gorgeous work at the top of this mountain. We sat with each other and did nothing but just listen and stare at the waterfall. We stayed there in that place together, yet silently still: isolated in our own internalized conversations with God. I wouldn't have traded that for the world.

And then the descent..

It couldn't have been a better day for a hike up to and down from the falls, and there's no two people I would've hand selected to spend that time with today, either.

We left the falls and captured a last reminder of the morning on the way out:

The laughable moments didn't end when we stepped off the trail for the last time this weekend; in fact, it continued from the moment we were back in our seats. Marianne and I traded spots for the trip into the city, and I decided it would be fitting to assume the role of my seat's previous occupant... and to own it.. haha.

i. am. marianne. 

We journied back into the commercial part of Gatlinburg/Pigeon Forge, with a few stops before lunch. I suggested we stop off at NOC, which is the PF equivalent of REI. Always a good choice:

It was a fuel stop after that, during which we thought it fitting to capture Ernie in the aftermath of our excursion:

a successful day! 

Our last notable stop before the drive home was Starbucks - Let the fru fru drinks begin! My love-hate relationship with Starbucks continued; I can't drink their coffee because it's always so burnt, so I indulge in the fancier drinks on the rare occasions that I find myself there. I share a similar sentiment with both Becky & Mare, and today we learned that Mare's pseudo name is still a tricky one, even in its true classic nature:

"fankenstien" 

I'll let you decide what you think that should have been. Haha.

Fast forward through all the other stuff: Lunch at TR, then the 4ish remainder of a drive back to Cincinnati. We made it unscathed, and Becky's continued on to her place. Mare and I are both showered, which was desperately needed.. laundry is running and our bags are already unpacked for the most part. This is the super-accelerated version of an unwind.. hah.

We're spent. I'll be re-living this several times until the next outing, I'm sure.

Until then, good night blogbots - see you in the AM!

xo | cmd

TROF!

It's FRIDAY! Twas a good day for an office selfie... so I figured why not.. 

happy friday!

Now, I am all about acronyms. Today we implemented a new one to go alongside the classic TGIF adage:

TEXAS ROADHOUSE ON FRIDAYS!

 

And that we did. That.. we.. did.

Actually, let me rewind first to today at work, when we ordered in Naked Pizza [traditional Friday lunches, mind you!]

smokehouse chicken + spinach salad? i did not hate this.

And the ensuing digestion-slash-self-shaming time...

yeah, only 3 people ate here. i know, it looks like we just fed a family of 12.

^ Sorry not sorry.
Now back to TR night! Rob mentioned earlier this week that he wanted to get over there, so he and I, along with Sydni, made a big date night out of it. I had the best dinner company in the whole place; I'm certain of it!

date night out with these two! ♥♥

she's always busy. so busy. she can't even stop to tell me how busy she is.
... she's that busy.

we'll just call this one, "awkward meat[s]"

And of course, a post-dinner selfie session with the mini. She took a couple of her own selfies and I have to admit, she's not half bad. Uh oh.. haha. 

she is.. everything. ♥
p.s. - check out syd's 'selfie arm'!!!

^ And in posting this now, I just realized Sydni's got the selfie arm on point! Haha. In case there was any question before that she might be my mini... add that to the list of reasons. How's it possible to love such a tiny thing so.. stinkin' much!? ♥

Our bellies are full and Sydni passed out on the way home. That's a good sign it's time for bed.

xo | cmd



Dinner & A Movie

It's a good thing our fall volleyball league ended last week.. frankly I was in no mood to play tonight and apparently neither was the weather:

rainy day... mehhh..

My schedule today didn't allow me time to get away for lunch, but we had a nice surprise at work anyway, when the folks from the newly-opened Naked Pizza in Rookwood showed up bringing free food. It was delicious, and for an office of foodies, they struck the perfect chord because I'm pretty sure we'll all be going back. 

naked pizza!

Since Rob had been holed up with Sydni and the dogs for the day, I decided to stick with the routine schedule of our Wednesdays lately, which meant dropping Sydni off with her dad for the evening. Rob and I made our way over to Texas Roadhouse [yummmmmmmmm] for dinner before hitting the movie theater. We saw Bad Grandpa, which really wasn't as hilarious as we'd heard, but hey, ya never know until you check it out for yourself.

texas roadhouse .. undeniably grand on a rainy day (:

It was definitely a tame evening, not that I really expected anything different. We're back home now, unwinding and enjoying the company of two oversized snuggle bugs before we all call it a night.

sorry for the grainy quality.. no flash on the original cell phone shot :/

Sydni will be back here tomorrow night and the five of us will just have to see what we can all get into. (: For now? Look at those two sleepy pups.. I think it's a good hint for us to hit they hay.

Oh, and Mike Mike Mike Miiiiiiike....
.... Happy hump day ;)

xo | cmd

NO Transformers In The House! ;)

Ya see that?  That, my dear blogbots, is nothing more than a simple chai latte from Bread Co, but it was delivered by one of our clients. He toted in three little lattes and three little bagels for three gals who didn't realize how delicious they both would be this morning. How thoughtful, right? [Thanks, Warren!]

So I can't complain about how the morning started once we got going; M&D are out this week at Summit, so we're left again to our own devices. The day passed by without too much fuss and that was that. I made a pitstop at St. Clair Sq. at yet another attempt to nail down a dress option for Michelle's wedding next weekend. Update on that? SUCCESS. As Nancy would've said, "Cha cha CHAAAA...."

At home, I found Mo already there, with Jimmy following about 15 minutes later, and lastly, Joe. Since he's slated to do some travelling for work that does not warrant flight time, he rented a car for the journey.

Well.. let me re-phrase that.

He rented a Transformer. I'm pretty sure Bumblebee is in my garage. It's pretty wicked cool, the ONLY exception being that this is in fact real life, Cori, and the autobots don't really exist.

Well boo hiss. [It still looks like a Transformer. Hmph!]

Anyway, we thought it would be fun to take it for a spin out to dinner; as funny as it was, the short jaunt to Texas Roadhouse was quite the episode as it was the four of us plus Syd in her carseat.

*Note: This car is not really meant to have backseat passengers. Haha.

Oh well. We're back here now, at home; the boys are downstairs disassembling the tent - pardon me, the castle, and Mo and I are about to zonk out to some CSI. I love our dear friends. That's a good Thursday, yeah?

I think so :)

xo | cmd