the gift of a breathtaking week in the smokies and blue ridge mountains. we flew into nashville, roadtripped to pigeon forge where we stayed in a cabin with the most amazing views of the smoky mountains, had 2 days at dollywood [so fun!!] and an adventure day in gatlinburg, then hit the road for asheville- jon and i spent many a newlywed weekend here in 2009-2010 when we lived in charlotte. following asheville, we drove along the most gorgeous blue ridge parkway to hillsville, virginia and great gramma helen. our cousins, meme, auntie amy, uncle brian, aunt chalon and uncle dave were all there upon our arrival [some were out at the annual hillsville flea market], and we had a lovely afternoon visiting, the kids running wild and gramma piddling around the kitchen, cooking up a huge saturday evening supper. our family spent these nights in the neatest treasure- an 1880s mill turned air b&b outside of mount airy that was literally the most charming, historic place i could have imagined. we spent sunday visiting mount airy [also known as mayberry, the hometown of andy griffith], and celebrating gramma. extended family came into town and surprised her with a party fit for an extra special person. it's truly, deeply cherished that we all came together at gramma's house, celebrating her 89 years thus far on earth. we ended the trip with brunch in charlotte, and a walk down memory lane as we showed the girls our first apartment and our favorite places where we ate and shopped in both north and south carolina during our newlywed year.
this past week easily goes down as one of my favorites ever! the girls were so fun to travel and explore with, and i'm certain we'll dream of these days for a long time to come.
and now, with both a heavy and full heart, it's back to our happy little school year routine-
xoxo,
-ivy
