Six Years and Several Frisbees Later

Click on picture to go see more wedding pictures

When we picked our date to get married (July 5th), part of the reasoning was that we'd get fireworks every year to remind us that something special was coming up.  Ergo, we'd never forget our anniversary.

Due to the willingness of my in-laws to hang with Little Man all weekend, The Hubs and I were able to head back to place where it all began.

{pretty}

Who knew that when we met ten years ago at UGA in Athens, GA that we'd be here now with 4 years of dating and 6 years of marriage behind us?  Well, according to The Hubs, he did.  Athens will always feel like home to us.  And so we left home to head home for the weekend.

After eating some pretty sub-par Chinese food (because we forget EVERY YEAR that most places close on the 4th) we headed out to watch some fireworks.  We sat in our camping love seat (because we are that cute), and just... sat.  It's amazing what a luxury sitting is when you realize you don't have to chase a kid.  So we sat, and listened to a couple of military bands play, and people watched.  

Then we ran into some old friends and hung out with them and their family the rest of the evening and watched some pretty awesome fireworks, and reminisced about our rehearsal dinner that included fireworks off of River Street in Savannah (because, hello, free entertainment for our wedding guests).

 {happy}

Seriously, sitting, such a luxury.

We spent the next day making up for our lack of foodie indulging by eating at some of our favorite places (Big City Bread, Utage, etc).  We also went to play disc golf on the course that we've played many times in college.  I won, for the record; a very rare occurrence, hence the reason that I'm bragging.

On the way back we stopped at The Yarn House because it looked interesting.  Some older ladies had turned a historic house into a yarn and accessories shop.  I have an affinity for yarn items and homemade things... and so does The Hubs.  He had placed his order with me a long time ago, saying that should I ever want to make him something, he would love a pair of socks.  So, an hour, a couple pets of their long-haired bunny, several supplies, and a tour from one of the owners later, we left with (most) of what I need to make The Hubs socks.  After watching several youtube videos on how to make socks...I've determined that he will receive said socks as a 10th anniversary gift because that is how long it will take for me to make them.

{funny}

Does this picture look familiar to you?  Where have we seen this scenario before?  Oh, right. 

See the white frisbee wedged into the tree branch? 

We had just spent what seemed like a good 15 mins or so searching for that particular disc before finding it and moving on to this hole.  Then he threw it, and there wasn't the usual thunk! sound reassuring us that what had gone up had come down, and we just looked at each other, and knew that the search began again.  See picture above.  We did finally get it down after throwing several large sticks at it.  On the plus side: the frisbee was white instead of green (so easier to find), we were shaded, and I was not six months pregnant out in the blazing sun with swollen, sunburned legs from the previous days crazy kayaking adventure.

{real}

We managed to only snap a couple pictures from the weekend because we were just enjoying our time in all of our old places.  We went to mass at the Catholic Center and saw our old priest friend, ate at several great restaurants, went downtown to see a jazz band, and went to the Botanical Gardens where we saw a couple deer while hiking to "our rock".

While I did stay off of my phone pretty much the whole weekend, I glanced at Facebook while waiting somewhere and found The Hubs' following post.  He's often a man of few words when it comes to feelings (he's more a buy flowers than a give a compliment guy), but every now and then he does something like this and doesn't tell me and then I find it and it makes me swoon.

So after six years (of marriage) and several frisbees later... yeah... I'd say there's still... 

Go check out the ladies at Like Mother, Like Daughter for more Pretty, Happy, Funny, Real posts.

Splashing and Hiking at Angel Falls

A week ago, only two days after completing my day hike on the Tallulah Gorge Floor Trail with a bunch of teenagers, we headed out as a family to hike Angel Falls trail near Lake Rabun (maybe because I'm a glutton for punishment or maybe I felt a little guilty that I got to go on the Tallulah Trip and The Hubs didn't.)  I sucked it up and without one complaint (eckhmm) went hiking with the boys.

Group shot in front of Panther Falls

Quick Review of the trail (if you don't care, keep scrolling):  The trail to the two waterfalls is a couple miles or more one way depending on which source you check.  It is a moderate hike with some flatter path mixed in with some short but very steep parts.  Some of the steep parts are very narrow with barely enough room for one person, and only some of it has guide rails (metal rope?).  So it would be very difficult to help a small child on part of the path.  

We hiked to Panther Falls and took a couple pictures before continuing straight on to Angel Falls.  Unfortunately, the trees were so overgrown that we could only see the bottom of Angel Falls.  The falls went up much further than I was able to capture in pictures or video.  We might have to go back in the winter when we could more likely see all the way to the top.

The bottom of Angel Falls

(he was right)

We stopped to play in the water of Panther Falls on the way back down.

Not sure about the cold water

Matthan was a little hesitant but loves playing in the water.  He could have thrown rocks all day.  He was really funny about squatting down himself to pick up the rocks so he "made" us do it, which is why we didn't let him do it all day.

Getting Daddy to pick up rock after rock

Matthan-Daddy Love

Throwing more rocks

Matthan took a branch to the face somewhere along the hike which just barely missed his eye.  Daddy put some cold water on it quickly and you could barely see it after a little while.  He was a trooper.

"More rocks, more rocks!!"

A couple of sources said that you can swim in Panther falls, but unless your definition of swimming is flailing like a beached whale in 3 inch deep water, then just be prepared for a little wading.

Hiking With Teens at Tallulah Gorge

What would you do with a Friday if you could secure a babysitter?  Go hiking with a bunch of teenagers, of course!  Well... maybe not with teenagers.

View from up above before descent down the stairs

I heard that our youth minister was planning on taking a bunch of teens and adult leaders to Tallulah Gorge to hike the gorge floor trail, and I felt that it was my duty, being one of our youth group's adult leaders, to lend my assistance as a chaperone.  Some gracious and awesome friends of ours agreed to take Matthan for the day (free of charge, God bless you, you know who you are) at the last minute and I secured a spot for the day trip.  And because I was not going to take the weight of our camera, you'll have to settle for iPhone pictures.

Stairs.  Lots and lots of stairs.  531 to be exact.

As you may recall, I've been to Tallulah Gorge before.  So I knew what I was in for.  Unfortunately, not everyone knew.  In case you are wondering if hiking the gorge floor trail is for you, let me just say that "hiking" is a euphemism for bouldering, which is what you actually do on the gorge floor trail.  A full body workout my friends.  And that's without the painful climb back up the hill after sliding down Sliding Rock (creative name, no?).

Suspended bridge

Then after you've completed your "hike", past the beautiful scenery that includes a few waterfalls, you have to choose to turn around and get back out the way that you came, or ascend the shorter, yet steeper incline of Sliding Rock Trail.  So basically, you pick your poison.  We chose the latter.

First waterfall at the bottom of the stairs.

The teens did awesome.  The adults struggled a little.  The scenery was beautiful.  The weather was awesome.  The gorge floor is approximately 1,000 feet down and you hike with the sides of the gorge climbing steeply up on either side of you.  Like this picture? 

I took the opportunity to stage this picture, however, it is actually that steep, but I was only four feet off the ground with no intention to go any higher.  

More waterfalls

Pausing for a break

I'm very thankful that we had no major injuries although several minor ones.  I came out with several bruises (not to mention I could barely move the next day from being so sore), and I did cut my hand open sliding down Sliding Rock.  

See the hiking trail?  No?  Exactly.  Just rocks.

We spent the afternoon eating lunch by Sliding Rock while watching others take the slippery plunge into the cold water below and then we jumped in ourselves.  We dragged ourselves back up the hill as many times as we could muster (I capped off at three slides down).  

At the top of Sliding Rock.  Soaked, sore, tired, and really happy to be there.

The videos below (they're the same*) are of me sliding down into the water.  The first time I went down I didn't realize how fast it went, so in the video, I'm going down the slower side.

Pretty flower.

We chose to hike out the very steep Sliding Rock trail because it's supposedly shorter.  Now having done both exit routes, I'm honestly not sure which one I'd pick next time.  I tried to capture just how steep it was in the pictures below.  I'd say maybe, maybe, Sliding Rock Trail is better because if you hike out the way you go in, you then have to climb the 531 stairs to get back out.  Maybe.

My loving husband let me lick my wounds the day after, but the day after that we went hiking as a family (another post to come).... because I'm a glutton for punishment?  Who knows.  

*The video on my phone is really clear, but for some reason gets fuzzy when I try to upload it.  So, I was trying to see which way produced a clearer video.  I haven't had a problem with other videos.  

Shopping...bleh!

Have I ever told you I hate shopping? Well...specifically grocery shopping, but I have to be in the mood (and have money) for other types of shopping. Insert unpleasant household chore here ____ and I would rather do that than grocery shop. It gives me hypertension. I try to avoid it when I can or make someone go with me (have I told you lately my husband is Mr. Wonderful?) I don't know why...but I hate grocery shopping.

The exception to this rule are stores like Trader Joe's (I know there is a category for these types of stores, but it's not coming to me at the moment). There is something about a store like Trader Joe's that makes you want to try to be a chef, be green and crunchy (read hippy), and start using aromatherapy all at the same time. Unfortunately, I have yet to find such stores in or even near Flowery Branch (have you looked this up on a map yet? Do you know where I live? Yeah, most people don't either.) I happened to be back in good 'ole Athens this week (seriously got warm and fuzzies when I drove into town) and so I had made my list of must buys while I was there. I hit my 3 favs...Trader Joe's, Earthfare, and the Fooks Foods (the Asian food market). Little tip from me to you...if you can, buy your Asian food stuff like soy sauce from an Asian food market...ridiculously cheap and tastes way better. I stocked up on soy sauce, oodles of noodles, wanton wrappers, etc. I should have taken a picture of the humongous bottles of soy sauce that I got for around $1.35.

And of course I had to stock up on herbs. Buying them wholesale is ridiculously cheap. Example (I've picked the most expensive one on my receipt): Thyme was $19.99/pound...I picked up enough to refill the bottle in my spice rack (which I actually got too much)...and it cost me...wait for it...$1.00. I bought a bunch of herbs and spices, quinoa, deodorant (Tired of nasty pit stains and your deodorant ruining your clothes? Come talk to me.), nutritional yeast, and got out of there for a whopping $12. Left my car smelling "herb-y"....mmm.