Sometimes, in the course of a young couple's marriage, it is time to cease working on the house for a period of respite.
I'm specifically referring to the couple in the picture above. Lately, we'd been spending our Saturdays and Sundays doing odds-and-ends around the house and it was stressing us out, so we took two weekends off.
First, Josh left for a boys' camping weekend with his best buds, so I conned Mary Claire into coming over. We did all the girly things I'd been missing, which were mostly watching movies (especially Beauty and the Beast, Laura's sing-aloud version) and baking cookies. We also went up to Gatlinburg, did the motor nature trail, and talked about all of our feelings like good girl friends do.
(This must be the "bathroom" of the motor nature trail. YUM.)
Saturday night fajitas, cookies, My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2, and Love & Friendship. The estrogen overflows.
The next Friday night, Josh and I packed up and drove to my grandaddy's house in Winchester.
The next morning, we woke up for a day of adventure.
Josh's first breakfast was very...Josh.
After wandering through the magical backyard (always a favorite part of visiting there), grandaddy came back from the store and asked us to breakfast at his new favorite spot. We had a great time, and I was thankful for being able to visit with him.
Our next destination was Chattanooga, but we stopped by Sewanee on the way there because Josh needed to experience the wonder of their magical, Hogwarts-like campus.
Seriously. If you need an old-Europe fix and don't have money to fly over the Atlantic, just go to Sewanee for an afternoon.
When we finally arrived in Chattanooga, we headed straight for downtown because EMMA was there, having flown there all the way from Washington state to see her sister on THAT PARTICULAR WEEKEND and there was NO WAY I was going to pass up the chance to see her.
We spent a couple of golden hours together. It was divine.
After a late dinner at the Terminal, Josh and I went just over the border into Alabama and crashed at our bnb, The Alpine House.
Which looks like this during the daytime:
After a hearty Southern breakfast the next morning, we headed to church...and waited an hour in roadwork traffic.
That meant a lot of quality time with the music library on Josh's phone, which includes some Linkin Park and old gospel hymns.
We did manage to catch the last fifteen minutes of sermon time at New City (my college church), and our dressing up was not wasted.
After lunch at The Yellow Deli...
(with Autumn, Brian, Evangeline, and Mark, none of whom landed in a picture--OOPS)
...we went up to Cloudland Canyon...
...and then headed back to our bnb to catch the sunset.
An experience that would've been incomplete without Nutella and Josh reading aloud from Sleepy Hollow.
Monday morning, after another wholesome breakfast (during which our hostess INSISTED we try her grits), we went back to Lookout Mountain. On the way, we passed my old student teaching school and I was flooded with memories and gratitude for the most influential teaching experience of my life.
(So influential, in fact, that I changed my name to match the school!)
Once on Lookout, we stopped by Covenant to say hello to two of my favorite professors, Dr. Beckman and Dr. Pennington.
And Josh got to experience lunch in the great hall.
"What kind of food do they have?"
"It's a buffet."
"YESSSS."
Our last stop was the iconic Rock City. Even with crowds of people, it was still...wait for it...MAGICAL.
Rock City is beautiful, weird, and full of creepy little gnomes. I love it every time.
Were we ready to go back to working on the house when the two weekends were over?
Pfft.
But we've finished installing the blinds and worked on the toilet since then, so I suppose we're getting back on track.
