Happy Birthday Bailey!

This weekend we celebrated Bailey's first birthday! I can't believe that we've had her in our family for almost an entire year. Even though Eric always tells me that he's glad he talked me into getting Bailey, it was actually me who talked him into getting her. I'll just say that we're both glad that we decided to bring her home.

We've gone swimming in the pool, moved to a new house, walked through the woods, chased bunny rabbits, played in the snow, dug holes in the yard, bit at ashes from the fire, learned the boundaries of the in-ground fence, and enjoyed lots and lots and lots of cuddles.

Nothing beats being greeted by a running puppy dog (who then gets as low as possible in the grass until you come over and then immediately turns onto her side so you can rub her belly) as soon as you get home. And despite being at least four times her original size, she still believes that she is a lap dog- and I don't see that changing anytime soon. Thank goodness Beagles don't get very big! 

I had the best intentions to get Bailey in a picture with her hat on and the birthday bone in front of her. Then I realized that this dog hardly ever sits still. So I settled on a picture of the hat and bone by themselves, and...

having Eric try to hold the hat on Bailey while she sat and pouted. And after she sat and pouted, she ran off the porch and attempted to take the hat off of her head. Not her favorite thing we've ever given her. 

I do have to say that she loved her bone! I found the birthday bone at Perfect Paws and Claws from here in Newton. The first thing she did was lick allllll of the icing off the cookie-she is her mother's daughter!

Our happy little family!

And the last picture of our big puppy! I never knew how much a dog could become part of your family until Bailey came along. I can't imagine our life without her. We love you Bailey, happy birthday!

Smoky Mountain Vacation

Since we lost Ian, I've been begging Eric to take me on a vacation somewhere. Well, for our 2nd wedding anniversary (I know, I know, it was back in May and I haven't blogged about it yet, but I was waiting for this trip so I would have pictures of my present!) Eric surprised me with a trip to the Smokies!

I couldn't have asked for a better vacation. We took a little four day weekend and headed down to our cabin in paradise. I mean, check out this view!

But let me backtrack a little bit. We drove a little over 5 hours on Thursday night and stayed in a hotel. Friday morning we were off to finish the last 2 hours of our drive. While researching things to do, I came across a wine trail that began at the exit off the interstate and went all the way to Gatlinburg. I knew this would be the perfect way to start off our vacation! We hit 5 wineries in all and came back with 7 bottles of wine. We even got free wine glasses and a five piece wine set for stopping at all five wineries.

We were thinking that hitting all the wineries would take us all day. We are used to having to drive at least 20 minutes between each winery, and then spending at least 45 minutes to an hour trying the wines and drinking a glass before we moved on to the next winery. To our surprise, each winery was within a 12 mile strip. And because of some crazy Tennessee law- get with the program Tennessee!- they were not allowed to sell wine by the glass. So our hour stop at each winery turned into about 15-20 minutes.

For lunch we stopped by Smoky Mountain Brewery. Eric was in heaven and tried every beer he could.

Then we headed to our cabin to drop off our luggage. Our phones told us that our cabin was 10 miles from Gatlinburg. Translate that into mountain driving and you have 30 minutes. That was definitely something we had to get used to! Once we trekked up the mountain, we were pleasantly surprised by our little cabin. It was the perfect size for us, complete with a hot tub on the back porch overlooking a breathtaking view of the Smokies. We spent many hours sitting out on that porch soaking up the view.

Since we had so much time left in our day, we decided to head back to Gatlinburg and check out the aquarium. I loved seeing all the sea life. They even had a tunnel beneath the shark pool. Here's a few of my favorite pictures.

On Saturday, Eric had planned for us to go to Gatlinburg Sportsman's Club to shoot sporting clays! We were quite surprised when we arrived that instead of a "walking" sporting clays course like we were used to, we found a sporting clays course set up on a trap/skeet range. It made perfect sense- where in the world were they going to get all the open space they needed up in the mountains?? There were 15 different "stations" with different throws at each station. Stations were marked by hula hoops. We were kinda relieved we didn't have to walk all over, it made for a relaxing shooting experience. And the owner, Mike, was as nice as can be. We definitely recommend hitting this place up if you want to shoot while you are down by Gatlinburg.

That night, we went to the Lumberjack Fued dinner show. We were randomly assigned to the Dawson camp- which happened to be the winning the camp at the end of the night! All lumberjacks (and lumberjills) were real ESPN lumberjacks. The different competitions they did during the show were ones that they do during an ESPN competition. It was a fun show to watch and cheer on our side!

Sunday was dedicated to exploring the mountains. We had to get the tourist picture in front of the welcome sign!

We had looked up different waterfalls that we could hike to and decided upon Grotto falls, since it was only about a 3 mile round trip hike. Well nothing here has a real address; everything says to turn at stoplight #8, or to stop at parking lot 5. We stopped at the 5th parking lot we found and saw a trail sign with Grotto Falls on it. About halfway into our hike, we knew that we had parked in the wrong place- this supposed 1.5 mile hike to the waterfall was taking waaaaaaay longer than it should. After we got back, we saw that we actually did a 7 mile round trip hike to the fall- talk about a workout!

Despite being over twice as long as we thought it would be, we actually really enjoyed the hike. We were shaded by trees almost the entire way, so it was relatively cool. But don't let that fool you- we still worked up a sweat!

The falls were beautiful! This is the only waterfall in the mountains that you can walk behind, so of course we got our picture taken back behind the falls.

We also enjoyed sitting and relaxing on the large rocks just under the big falls. The ice cold water made for a cool place to take a break.

After we had cooled off for a while, we decided to make the trek back down the mountain. As we were leaving the falls, I noticed a white butterfly flying around us. I have been seeing a white butterfly a lot lately- there has been one in the flowers by our house. I also saw one while we were shooting on Saturday. I've never had a camera handy- until today. I knew I had to stop and take a picture. You may be wondering why, as it's just a simple white butterfly. But as I looked up what it meant to see a white butterfly, I was greeted with the most beautiful meaning- a white butterfly signifies a loved one that has passed away. I couldn't imagine a better way for Eric to spend his first Father's Day than with a physical reminder that Ian is always with us.

I had told Eric that after our hike I wanted to go on a driving trail through the mountains to see if we could see any bears. Well we were about a mile away from the lot we had parked in. We just passed the last parking lot before ours when we found a huge pile of poop on the trail. We instantly knew it was bear poop- it was too big for any other animal and we could see seeds and berries in the still steaming pile. We were slightly nervous, but reassured ourselves that the trail was so close to the road that a bear wouldn't stick around for long. Eric was ahead of me as we rounded one of the many curves in the trail when he suddenly stopped and put his hand back, almost as if he was trying to protect me from something. As I finished coming around the curve, I saw what he was staring at- a black bear only 30 yards ahead of us on the trail!!! I wish I would have had my camera out, but at that moment all we could think about was getting as far away from that bear as possible. We slowly backed up until we were out of its sight and then ran towards the trail to the parking lot. We decided to walk on the road the rest of the way to our car. On our path, we did see the bear continue walking through the woods. I don't think my heart stopped racing until we were in the safety of our locked car. I told Eric that we didn't need to go on a driving trail anymore- I had seen as much bear as I wanted to see for the rest of our vacation.

This morning was our last morning in the mountains and I convinced Eric to get up with me to watch the sunrise. Unfortunately where the sun was coming up was covered with clouds, but it was still a beautiful thing to watch. After the sun was up, we finished packing up and hit the road. While I do love a vacation, nothing beats the feeling of being home- and a big slobbery kiss from your puppy.

My Best Friend's Baby {Part 2}

For some reason, Ashley's pregnancy was always harder for me to see than Kendra's. I take that back, I know exactly why it was harder. Kendra was ahead of me in her pregnancy. When she was having her baby, I should have still been pregnant. Ashley, on the other hand, was behind me in her pregnancy. I should have had my sweet baby boy in my arms when I went to go see her baby boy. Every post, every belly picture, was a bitter reminder that I didn't reach that milestone, that I didn't get to experience that part of my pregnancy. 

When Ashley texted me that she would be going into the hospital to be induced, my stomach dropped. Of course I was happy for her, beyond happy, ecstatic actually. She was about to welcome the best thing that you can into this world- a new life. But a part of me was wishing it was me that was going into the hospital to have my baby. That intense emotion of jealousy began creeping back.   

I knew that I couldn't wallow in my selfishness. I knew that I had to go to that hospital and see Ashley after she had delivered. I knew I had to walk by the room I delivered Ian in with my head held high. And that's exactly what I did.

On Wednesday after work, I headed to the hospital. I have to admit, the drive there was rough. I played every scenario over in my head on how it would go. Walking by the room where Ian was delivered put a lump in my throat, but I held it together. And boy am I glad I did.

August is the definition of perfect. His tiny nose, that blond hair, those big eyes, you couldn't ask for anything more. As I held him in that hospital room, I prayed that Ian was watching over him. I prayed that he would be healthy, that he wouldn't know pain, that he would always feel loved. And as I watched his little face, his big eyes stared back at me. My heart melted when I saw what they did next. I watched his eyes go from looking at mine, to up at the ceiling, then back to mine. I'm sure it's all in my head, but I couldn't help but think he was looking up to Ian watching down on us. I had a huge calming sensation come over my body. I knew then that everything would be alright. 

I held it together through my entire visit with them. As I hugged Ashley goodbye, tears welled up in my eyes. If Doug's brother and his family hadn't arrived, I probably would have let them fall. But I left that room with a huge smile on my face. 

I might not have gotten my fairy-tale, but Ashley and Doug are getting theirs. They were blessed with a beautiful baby boy. Emery is a very proud big sister. They are home from the hospital now, adjusting to life as a family of four. I pray one day that I will have that feeling, but until then I'm overjoyed that I get to witness it in my best friends. And I hope they don't mind me giving their children a few extra hugs and kisses every time I see them.

Tough Mudder Nashville

A few weeks ago, Eric ran Tough Mudder Nashville! Their team was Team Mudstache- hence Eric's horrible mustache. The course was 10.2 miles of H.I.L.L.S. The elevation changed from 700-1000 feet, sometimes multiple times per mile. I eventually want to run one of these with Eric, but I'm glad I didn't choose this one to start with. There's no way I would have made it through all 18 obstacles plus hills.

Here's the group: Julie, Justin, Jaycen, Katie, Clayton, Connor, Eric, Nichole, Branden, Corey, and Erin. 

And they're off! Eric's excited to get started if you can't tell. 

Going through the Mud Mile 2.0.

Nikki and Erin- so proud of these girls!

Arctic Enema- brrrr that would have been cold!

Erin, Connor, and Nikki getting ready for the Arctic Enema. 

Eric hitting that bell on Kind of the Swingers!

There's Nikki nailing it too!

Running up Everest 2.0. 

Funky Monkey 2.0 was a little harder this year with the straight pole going down, but Eric still did great. 

And the last obstacle, Electroshock Therapy! This picture cracks me up!

And here they are at the finish line. SO proud of these guys, especially my guy (and his sisters). Not only did he finish the race, but he tried every.single.obstacle and completed all obstacles but one. I can't wait to watch him run another one in the future!