Up in the Mountains!

Our family went on vacation a couple weekends ago to the Smoky Mountains with our dear friends, the Merritts. We rented a cabin outside Bryson City and enjoyed the cooler temperatures, low humidity, and the awesome scenery. We got to go tubing down the river including going over a few little rapids! Everett and Ella met for the first time and they were just so cute together. It was refreshing to spend time with friends who know us so well. The mountain cities were charming and cute. We got to explore Bryson City, Dillsboro, and Cherokee. Here are pictures from our trip:

Our cabin in the Smoky Mountains

Inside the cabin

The two level deck

The breath-taking view from our deck

The mountains are gorgeous!

Enjoying the hot tub, the view, and awesome friends

Getting our inner tubes all ready

Daddy and Everett checking out the water

Me with the cutest boy in the world

Adam enjoying the tubing

Everett wants to go tubing too!

The Merritt Family - David, Beth, and Ella

Picnic at the park

Water Fun Park!

Everett and Ella cooling off in the water

Two sweet kiddos

We loved our vacation with the Merritts!

A previous mayor had the last name of Everett,
so his name was everywhere

Ella giving Everett his goodbye kiss....SO ADORABLE!

Birthday Fun

On Friday night, we hosted an Iron Chef Competition with our small group and it was a blast. The secret ingredient was cinnamon and everything tasted so delicious! Adam competed in the side dish category making a salad with strawberries and a cinnamon vinaigrette. I got to compete in 2 categories (main dish and dessert) since we were one chef short at the last minute. For the entree, I made cinnamon honey BBQ beef trio. For dessert, I had cinnamon waffles with homemade cinnamon ice cream topped with a cinnamon pear compote. Needless to say, I won the dessert category! The Iron Chef winner was Rebecca with her amazing soup and sopapillas and Nathan won the People's Choice award for his awesome stuffed pork chop wrapped in bacon. We all ate very well while enjoying the company and the laughs!

My Beef Trio - topped with cinnamon tomato reduction, caramelized cinnamon onions, and apple cinnamon chutney

Rebecca wins Iron Chef 2010

Yesterday, we celebrated Savannah's 2nd birthday and I made 70 ladybug cupcakes for the event! They turned out super cute and it really wasn't that hard! The kids got to play in the water (or stay inside) since it was so HOT, but we all had a fun time!

All the cupcakes!

The cupcakes turned out so cute!

The birthday girl licking off the icing!

Adam shared some of his chocolate cupcake with Everett and he definitely liked it!

Last weekend, we spent the day in Winston-Salem to celebrate Evan's first birthday! It was a great time catching up with Matthew and Emily. We also got to see Matthew's pictures from his trip to the base camp of Mt. Everest. So cool! Unfortunately, I forgot my camera, but Matthew got a few great pics of our family for us!

Everett loved crawling around and chasing the ball

He tried to use the bubble wand, but he wasn't having too much success

Everett not sure about this picture taking business

He still looks a little confused

There we go! Our family!