Great Smoky Mountains National Park

It was just back in July when I trekked through the Rocky Mountain, Great Sand Dunes, and the Grand Canyon National Parks with Kalyn and Sam en route to Arizona. It was the perfect road trip, embellished with National Geographic scenery and the ideal company. 

It’s September now, and off we were this morning on our adventure deeper into the heart of the Smoky Mountains. It took us a while to hunt down the national park sign, but since that’s a mandatory part of any NP visit, we finally managed to find it and continued on our way.

We saw three adult black bears, and a pair of cuddly looking cubs skittering across the roadway over the course of our winding tour through Cade’s Cove. It was vast, calm, and beautiful, and being there with my husband – just the two of us – was a breath of rejuvenation nearly as invigorating as mountain air.

With our souls re-fueled with the intricate fashions of God’s creative genius, we made our way back towards Pigeon Forge. With no agenda, we happened upon the Wonderworks upside-down mansion. It’s a true tourist attraction, but that didn’t stop us; we are after all, tourists this week. So yeah. This place proved to be another major supporter of military discounts; long story short, we paid less than half of one regular admission for both of us combined. I’m glad, too, because aside from the high ropes course, it kinda-sorta-really paled in comparison to places like Cosi.

Note: Don’t do the simulated roller-coaster thing more than once. We were nearly sick for the rest of the evening. Thankfully, there wasn’t a whole lot of evening left after we finished the entire place, so that was okay.

Tomorrow is Wednesday, and as of now, we are plan-less. We’ll let you know tomorrow how today goes J … Make sense?

xo | cmd

Ripley's in Gatlinburg

Day one in the SMOKY MOUNTAINS. The scenery here is such a refreshing change from the flatlands of Illinois. I love mountains anywhere, but still each time I visit them, I realize how creative our Lord truly was when he molded them. We’ll go see the heart of the Smokies tomorrow; today was all about Gatlinburg & Pigeon Forge.

We took our sweet time waking up today. The only thing about that is that when you’re on that first day, your body is still on its normal time. Couple that with the anticipation of getting out there to explore, and you find yourself out of bed before 9am anyway. I figured if that was our biggest issue today, we were off on the right foot.

Not having a rigid agenda is what we’re all about on vacation. We took advantage of our tactic and took off driving towards Gatlinburg. We decided to check out the Ripley’s aquarium after hearing positive feedback from nearly everyone we surveyed. It turned out we were in for a much bigger surprise than we’d bargained.

Apparently, military discounts are nothing taken lightly anywhere in Gatlinburg. Ripley’s has a whole chain of attractions in the area, and to visit them all should have realistically cost us right around $90/each [ummm…]. We’ve learned that it never hurts to at least ask about military discounts, and in this case, its pay-off translated into us handing over $55 total, for both of us. You do the math there.

The aquarium had one of the best tunnel tanks I’ve seen. We spent the majority of our time standing under there watching sharks and rays swim over and beside us. I even shook the fin[?] of a giant sea turtle today. I’m such a tourist. We got our share of jellyfish to weird fish, sea horses to a giant octopus, stings and mantas to crabs and lobsters.

After the aquarium, we set off on foot a few blocks down to some other Ripley’s gigs. The mirror house, the Ripley’s Believe it or Not museum, and the Guiness Book of World Records museum were the next three attractions we hit along the main strip in Gatlinburg. Going on a Monday helped with minimal wait times, so we cycled through at a pretty good speed.

The clouds started forming overhead, and we noticed hints of rain, so, like the rational couple that we are, we hit one of the Ripley’s mini golf courses. Yes, this would’ve made more sense during sunny weather, but hey, we’re all about random.

Lastly, we made a run to Kroger [awesome] to do some grocery shopping for the week.

Now we’re here, enjoying the solitude of our little cabin and the re-introduction of cable t.v. into our evening. Ha.

Tomorrow is our Smoky Mountains tour J

G’Nite!

xo | cmd

Honeymoon Bound!

Don’t ask me how it was that we mustered up the energy to be awake, showered, and downstairs for breakfast at the hotel by 8:30 this morning. Hoooooly tired.

I was able to finally see Arley and the Clinedinst clan briefly in the hotel dining room during breakfast; the thing about weddings, if it’s your own, is that you don’t get nearly enough time to visit with guests as you wish you’d had. The good news is, sometimes they stay at the same hotel, and you get even better face time at breakfast J. [ta-daaaa!]

Once breakfast was wrapped up, we saw my out-of-town family off and loaded up our car. My parents and I stopped by Sandy’s for some parting words and to pack Sydni up in my parents’ car for her mini-vaca with Nana & Pappy.

It was honeymoon time! Oh, by the way, kudos to my husband, who rarely ever manages to keep even small surprises hidden for longer than a few days, yet planned an entire week’s vacation without so much as a hint to me. After just under 6 hours of driving, I found myself riding shotgun through the ever-beautiful Smoky Mountains. Yes, yes, and yes please.



living room | pool room

 

guest bedroom | kitchen

hot tub | main bedroom

And forget hotels. Joe had reserved us this adorable 2-bedroom, 2 full bath cabin, complete with stocked kitchen, pool table, foosball table, and hot tub on a back porch overlooking a fire pit and a petite creek. This is better than any beach resort.

We dropped off our suitcases, changed, and found a Mexican restaurant along the main drag. We rounded out the night with a game of foosball and some reflection time in the still of mountain privacy on the back porch.

Shut eye time. Tomorrow is a Gatlinburg day!   

xo | cmd

Renewed, AT LAST!!

renewed | joe & cori
photography: amy hildebrand

T-Minus… ZERO days.

Whoa.

TODAY!!! [& in case you’re wondering, yes, this entry is backdated. Hush.]
p.s. - more wedding photos coming soon. Stay tuned!

The day started [for the gents] with 9 holes of golf. It was colder this morning than yesterday. So yeah. Take that for making fun of us floating around icebergs yesterday. J



preparation is hard work.. :)

The ladies all made their way to the ‘Big House’ [factual term] for a bridesmaid breakfast. Thanks to Maricor for jumping right in on the omelette pan – you’ve got skill, cousin, SKILL. It was so nice seeing all of my bridal party together, informally, just eating and getting to know each other. I am so grateful to have these women in my life, and even more blessed that they were all here because I asked them. Each one of them means the world to me; I am definitely one blessed girl.

Once the ladies headed back to their hotels to spend some time with the dates they’d brought or just to tie up any last minute details, Kalyn and I embarked on our own mission to get all the final finites in order. We all rendezvoused back at the big house to do the hair & make-up prep before tailing over to the manor. We met up with the photographers there for final touches, zip-ups, double checks, bobby pins, and hairspray before lining up in our aisle-marching order. The music trickled in, and we were off.

Show time.

I had a revelation:

During the moments I stood still holding my father’s arm, staring at the husband God created for me, it hit me. As Cynthia finished out singing Look at Me, I had just a moment to breathe deep and realize that everything – all the planning, re-planning, budgeting, phone calls, emails, stressing, and crafting – had not only paid off, but was completely minute compared to the serenity of that moment. I don’t think I’ll ever forget that.



top photo | jess. cori. kalyn. brittany. donna
bottom photo | our handsome gentlemen!



To say that we are blessed is a gross understatement. My beautiful niece/bridesmaid Cynthia blessed us by singing, Eric did a reading, my husband and I sang our first public duet, our friends and family were there to see us, and we couldn’t have asked for better weather. I wouldn’t have changed a thing. We had officially had our first real wedding, and it was perfect.

As the night wound down to a close, and our guests started trickling home, we loaded all our gifts into Adam’s car, and we all headed back to the hotel. That brings us to now [still back-dated], which means curing our exhaustion with some sleep.

[The renewed] Mr. & Mrs. Dills are gonna get some Z’s, starting now.

xo | cmd

Canoeing | Rehearsal Dinner

jess | meagan | becky | kalyn | brittany | cori
loveland canoe & livery

Thanks to my best friend and maid of honor Kalyn, our original plan this morning was to head up to Loveland Canoe & Livery for an early morning float down the river. However, what we hadn’t considered was that when we were ready to head out, we found ourselves confronted with a temperature well below what we felt like enduring for two hours. It started with Kalyn and I at her house with Joe and Sam, brainstorming different options: sand volleyball? Rock climbing? Horseback Riding? Bowling? – Gettin’ desperate on that last one; remember it was just before 10am at this point. We finally agreed to bundle up and take it like real men: canoeing it was. Kalyn, Brittany, Meagan, Becky, Jess, and I loaded up and carpooled over to Loveland....

Fast forward to us arriving at the livery and Becky knowing the guy working the desk from one of the summer camps on whose staff she’d served with him. All I need to say is that if Becky knows someone, that’s always a good sign. For us, that translated into some certain ‘liberties’ which aren’t usually afforded to canoers, and that made for a fantastic time. The weather even surprised us by warming to a final product of us all stripped down to short sleeves or tank tops. Perfect.

The only downfall of the morning was that we had spent valuable time in deliberation, which meant that we had about 45 minutes to get back to Sandy’s, pick up my things, get back to Kalyn’s, get showered, and get over to the Norlyn Manor for rehearsal. I have no idea how in the world I was only 10 minutes late. [Thanks, Sam, for your superior chauffeur skills!] We managed to wrap up a walk-thru with minimal drama [save for the disgruntled and socially inept woman that booted us out, unwarranted at the end], and off we were to the rehearsal dinner at The Great Scott. [If that made you think of The Office, you’re not the only one!]

Great Scott Oktoberfest menu = interesting, but delicious. Oh, and after that experience, I think I should probably learn some German. Just sayin’.

I’m shacking up with Kalyn tonight, and Joe with the boys. Sydni’s with Sandy, so that means we’re all accounted for. There’s something big happening tomorrow, so I suppose I should get some shut eye.

‘Til then!....

xo | cmd

Ah, HOME!

I woke up this morning and did that whole disoriented haze thing that seems to happen to me every once in a while when I forget that I’m visiting, and not in my own room. It didn’t help that Sydni had realized her ability to shimmy out of the pack-n-play that serves as her bed when we visit Mamaw’s. She was cozied up between Joe and I in the bed, which wouldn’t be a big deal if Sydni didn’t fully sprawl out every time she falls asleep. J

larosa's. ♥



So there we were, HOME. It felt good. I started the day off by running some last minute errands in preparation for the big wedding: getting satin fabric from which the bridesmaid sashes would be fashioned, bobby pins, and of course stopping by with some Halloween Buskins for my [original] beloved Express family. It was amazing to see them all, though I did miss out on catching up with Brandi. Something about her just having a baby, or some jazz… Just kidding. I’m thrilled that her little boy was delivered safely and they’re both healthy and happy. I miss them, and I’m so glad we are still in touch!

Meanwhile, Joe had linked up with JB, and the two of them were tackling a workout at the gym. The three of us and Sydni did dinner at La Rosa’s and thought we’d call it a night. We headed back home; Joe just left to go back to JB’s for a while before he picks his good friend and former Red Rope Aaron up from CVG just before midnight tonight.

Tomorrow morning, it’s canoeing with the girls. We’ll see how this goes!

xo | cmd

Juke?

Call me a total noob, but I’ve never seen this car before. Seeing as how we also are a Nissan family, I couldn’t help but taking a picture as I sat behind it at a traffic light driving home.

Speaking of driving home, that’s definitely what we did today. After hitting send on an all-day draft email outlining all the stuff that would happen in my name while I was out of the office, I stopped off at home just long enough for Joe and I to load up the car [to its brim, no less] with everything we would need for the next ten days, plus Sydni and her suitcase of fun for a mini vaca with Nana & Pappy. We hit the road and were off, back to Cincinnati….

… and here we are. We made it, on three whole pieces, and are going to friggin’ bed.
Mahalo.

xo | cmd