The Week Before Our Wedding

So, I'm going to pause from the honeymoon stories (which are almost done), and I'm going to tell you about the wedding itself! :)

I must go back to about the week or so before, when family started arriving from out-of-town. My Grandpa and Grandma drove in a week early so they could be at my parent's surprise 30th Anniversary party (hurray for parents going to CA for my cousin's wedding a week before mine!). We put them to work folding wedding programs and such things.

Then on Tuesday morning, I drove to Chicago to pick up my cousin, Lizzy, from the airport. Then I think it was late that night we all hiked back to the airport to pick up my CA family. Thursday, the rest of the VA cousins arrived. It was great to have everyone there, and nice to spend time with them before the wedding! And it was extremely helpful to have them all there to make food, help me move things, and do other pre-wedding getting ready! We also had some fun too!

One of the funniest, but very helpful things was when my cousin decided which of my Grandmother's handkerchiefs I should use. I'm sure you know how I have such a difficult time deciding things. Well, I had narrowed down my choices for handkerchiefs, and I just could not decide which one to put around my bouquet. In walks my 6-year old cousin, Simon, and I asked him which one I should use. He looked at them, and then picked. And yes, that is the one I went with.

Friday, Lizzy and I got our nails done, and then we went and checked out the almost-completed set-up for the reception. Everything looked so wonderful (thanks to my sister-in-law, Heathre, and all who helped her)! It was also nice to be able to see everything set up before there were a couple hundred people in the room!

Then it was off to the rehearsal...

And then to dinner at Traverso's, a tasty pizza place that we like. Then we all headed to home to get a good night of sleep before our special day...

Our Honeymoon - Wednesday Wanderings

Wednesday, we spent the day in Gaitlinburg, the nice, cute touristy town. (As opposed to Pigeon Forge which was extremely gaudy!) The very first place we went into was a store that sold plaques and pictures with Bible verses, hymns, or good sayings on them. It was very cool! The beams in the store had hymns carved into them. We spent a lot of time there just looking around. We really appreciated the strong emphasis on biblical things in the midst of all the tourist traps, with shirts and whatnot that were not all as wholesome. We decided that we would come back at the end of the day and get one or two things for our new home. :)



What we ended up getting (sorry the picture isn't that great).

We continued wandering about town, and saw lots of fun things...







My husband with his ice cream cone

 

Herbie!!! :)

Then Ryan wanted to go up the mountain on a tram, called the Ober Gatlinburg. It went wayyy up, and then we took a ski lift even higher up the mountain (well, really to the top).



The tram that we took.

 

My opinion of the ski lift.



Me & Ryan on the ski lift (okay, it wasn't too bad, just a little scary).



Pretty view

In between the tram and ski lift, there was this touristy place which we didn't do anything at, but they did have an ice rink. On the way back down the mountain, the Zamboni was out! :) (How come zambonis are so fun?!)


Our wedding rings.

Thursdays adventures will be next...

Our Honeymoon - Smokies Game

"It's a beautiful day for a ballgame, a ballgame today. The fans are out to get a ticket or two, from Walla Walla, Washington to Kalamazoo. It's a beautiful day for a home run, but even a triple's okay! We're gonna cheer and boo, and raise a hullabaloo at the ballgame today!"

We arrived at Smokies Park, and purchased our tickets. We were able to get them buy-one-get-one-free! Woo-hoo! Our seats were nice and close to the field on the first base side behind the Smokies dugout.

We saw several players whose names I recognized thanks to my dear cousin! For my fellow Cubs fans, be listening for some of these names in future.


McNutt

 

Ryan Flaherty

 

Brett Jackson

We also saw a couple other guys (Kyle Smit and Mr. Struck), but those pictures didn't turn out very well. Now this guy was super funny. Well, maybe not the guy himself, but what the fans did was funny. Ever time he came to bat, they would yell, "La-la-la-la-la-lalli!" I wish I had gotten a video, but alas, I did not.


Mr. Lalli

And this guy's name was also just kind of fun, especially since we were sort of in the southern part of the US.


Rebel Ridling



For my Father-in-Law

This was actually a very fun game with lots of runs scored on both sides. There was even a grand slam for the Smokies, which they tried to call back. (That was very silly, because it was obviously a home run.) The final score was 11-10, Smokies. Ryan and I were delighted when they started to play Go Cubs Go after the Smokies won!

All in all, a very fun night, and we even had gorgeous weather for our baseball game!

Our Honeymoon - Tuesday's Happenings

Tuesday, we drove to a place in the Smokey Mountains called Cades Cove. It is a giant driving loop in an area where people used to live at farms, and whatnot. We stopped to see this rushing waterfall/rapids.

We saw a whole bunch of deer (a momma. baby deer, and some daddy deer) and a couple of bears. The valley was beautiful, and there was a lady that was painting a picture of it.

We had supper at a pizza place, and then we headed off to see the Cubs AA affiliate Tennessee Smokies...

Our Honeymoon – Hike to the Falls

Monday, we went on a driving loop in Gatlinburg. We were told at the visitor’s center that we should go on the hike to the water fall on this driving loop. So we decided to do that. We got out of the car, and we saw our first wildlife! ;)

We got to the start of the trail, and the sign said 2.7 miles. We thought it was a little longer than we wanted to hike, but, oh well, why not? Let’s just do it. So off we went. Well, you know how they say a picture is worth a thousand words? Well, this is a picture of what the trail looked like.

The whole path was straight uphill on rocks and roots. Quite the fun adventure! :) It was neat to be able to feel the temperature gradually get cooler as we climbed up the mountain. After hiking for over two hours, we got to the destination! Hurray for the waterfall!

It was worth the hike, even though I got some scrapes on my feet and Ryan got wet and a bit muddy.

Other wildlife of the day... 

Snail



We saw a mama bear with her three cubs that were about 30 feet from the car. Very cool!

And to have a lovely end to the day, we ate a delicious dinner at Texas Roadhouse. :)

Our Honeymoon - The Secret Destination

I really haven't forgotten I have a blog. Life has just been rather busy, and it makes it fun when you only use the internet once or twice a week because you don't have it at your house yet. ;)

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After our wonderful wedding, which I will share about once I get all of our pictures, we drove to and stayed in Lafeyette, IN. Sunday, we headed off to the Smokey Mountains.

We winded our way up one of the moutains to the wonderful cabin where we stayed between Pigeon Forge and Gaitlinburg.

Our adorable little cabin. :)

More to come...

Our House

I know you have been waiting to see what the inside of our house looks like, so here you go!

It is not totally finished, and I will have more pictures as time goes on, and as I decorate. There aren't pictures of all the rooms, and the pictures aren't the greatest. But for now...



Our Bedroom (Color: New Day)




Bathroom (Color: Pale Vista. This looks much better in real life.)




The Attic

Breezeway (Color: Funshine)




French Lilacs - They smell lovely!