leaf lookin'

my parents just recently celebrated their fortieth wedding anniversary!  isn't that amazing?  that's a whole lotta years :)  they celebrated by returning to the very same place they spent their honeymoon... the beautiful smokey mountains!  they rented a cabin for a week in the cozy little town of waynesville, north carolina.  our family used to vacation in waynesville almost every summer when i was growing up, and we have some really great memories from our time there.  it was especially nice to have cory with me this time, while we joined my parents in their cabin for the weekend!  we made it just in time to catch the trees in all of their fall glory!  it's really hard to believe that all of those colors really exist in nature.  we learned while we were there that the locals call tourists like us, "leaf lookers".  haha, i thought that was cute.  we had a great time driving along the blue ridge parkway, shopping in the legendary mast general store in downtown waynesville, and spent a good amount of time lounging around the cabin in our jammies.  

the older i get the more grateful i feel for every second i get to spend with my family.  i really wish time would just stand still and stop moving so fast!  it really seems like just yesterday that my brother and i were drawing imaginary "do-not-cross" lines across the back seat of the car on those family vacations to the mountains, while i had jewel's "pieces of you" blasting on my walkman CD player (ya know, when it wasn't busy skipping... 90's problems). anyways, i'm so fortunate to have this time with the people i love most, and i'm so happy to be celebrating an amazing milestone with my parents.  happy anniversary mom and dad!!

the first half of the photos are from our drive along the blue ridge parkway, and the second half were taken near our cabin.  of course, i also included a little video too!  enjoy!

  

the whole crew on the blue ridge parkway! (thank goodness for camera self-timers!)

 clouds and colorful trees make my heart skip a beat.

 aren't they the cutest?

double rainbow... all the way across the sky! :)

my beautiful mama.

the road to the cabin.

the view from the cabin wasn't half bad ;)

bentley for president 2016!!

i've been semi obsessed with these red suede booties so far this season... man are they comfy!

my people!  i sure do love them.

kerr lake campin'

this labor day weekend, cory and i were on a bit of a budget but still wanted to get out of the house and do something fun, so we grabbed two of our favorite friends and went camping for a night at kerr lake, north carolina.  the lake is huge and extends into virginia.  it was very beautiful and peaceful.  we had a good time lounging by the fire, relaxing with friends, and eating (a lot of) delicious camp foods, like s'mores and mountain pies. 

here's a little video i put together... you gotta love everyone's wood-splitting skills (especially mine), and katie's scary flashlight faces.  hah!

not a bad view :)

it's times like this i could really use a "tan filter".  why has apple not invented this yet?

this photo is horribly blurry, but if you've never made a s'more with a reese's peanut butter cup... please go build a fire somewhere and do it immediately.  you won't be sorry!

one year of marraige & our first out-of-town house guests!!

i'm a little late in posting this (june was a busy month, but a good one!  whew!), but several weeks ago, cory and i had our first out-of-town visitors!  my parents and mr. bentley!!!  we hadn't seen them since january, so it felt like it had been ages since then (six months really is ages when you are as close as we are)!  i had such a great time prepping our new house for them to see and coming up with an itinerary of some of our favorite places in the area for them to visit.  

the weekend was made extra special, because cory and i celebrated one year of marriage!  i can't believe it's already been a year... time sure does fly.  like most things in life, marriage isn't always easy, but it surely is a rewarding experience where you are constantly learning (not just about your significant other, but about yourself as well).  marriage has definitely introduced me to an entirely new level of patience, teamwork, compassion and forgiveness.  i love you cory.  thank you for being my "other half" and for making me a better person each day.

here's a few pics from the week:

 yay!  they've arrived!

bentley had no trouble finding his food bowl :)

my dad, lounging on our front stoop.

bentley, just doing what he does best... being adorable.

we visited the beautiful grounds of the fearrington village in chapel hill.

a pretty, vibrant flower!

i think i need to hire their landscaper to come take a look at our yard :)

more pretty flowers.

after working up an appetite walking around the gardens at fearrington village, we went to mama dip's in chapel hill!  southern soul food at it finest.  these are the fried green tomatos!

we went on several road trips :)

one of those road trips was to the falls lake dam.

dad at the dam.

i taught mom how to play cornhole!  she was pretty good for a first-timer! (please ignore our neighbors awful looking fence in the background.  at least, that's what i've tried to do for the past two months, grrrr).

bentley, officiating our game of cornhole from the porch.

dad and cory built a super cute birdhouse post for our backyard (bentley officiated that as well).

bentley was so pooped from all of this officiating!

we celebrated our one year wedding anniversary at the iconic angus barn!

delicious complementary pound cake!

i was having a snow white moment.

one year as the trottiers!

 thanks for visiting mom and dad!  we had so much fun and can't wait until next time!  love you soooo much!