Anniversary Trip to Boone

Nathan and I have been married for 10 long and happy years. Together we've experienced the joy of raising 5 children and the pain of 2 miscarriages and 1 stillborn baby daughter. We've rejoiced in the successes during the 8 years of Nathan's schooling, and cried about the failures and setbacks. Through the good and the bad we have been richly blessed and felt the Lord leading our lives. It's neat to see how much we've learned and grown in the past 10 years.

For our anniversary this year we took a trip just the two of us to the mountains in the Western part of the state. We decided since I'm not expecting or nursing a baby, we needed to do something really fun. To the mountains it was! It was awesome!!! Our relief society president's daughter, who turned 19 while we were gone, baby-sat for us Wednesday through Saturday last week. Here are some pictures from the great time we had:

The Waterfall Tree House where we stayed.

There was a little waterfall flowing off the big rock that we walked under in going up to the house. I loved the floor-to-ceiling windows that when I stood next to them and looked out it felt as if I were really up in a tree. It was a cute, cozy place to stay and we loved it.

We couldn't figure out the timer on our camera, so Nathan tried to take a picture of both of us.

We loved our table for two and enjoyed looking out at the trees. I could have sat there all day.
Sitting in a cool crooked tree on a hiking path to Linville Falls.
Us at Linville Falls
Another view of the falls after another hike.
On our actual anniversary, the 23rd, we ate dinner at Sagebrush Steakhouse. It was delicious!! We talked about all of our favorite memories from the past 10 years. We remembered the good times we had with friends or the kindnesses they showed us, especially our friends in Texas since we lived there 7 of the 10 years. We've been so blessed to have awesome people in our life who have loved and served us. We'll never forget you.
We just had to take a picture in front of the big Texas flag that was there, in remembrance of the Texas pride we used to have. :)
On Friday the 24th we hiked Grandfather Mountain and then went across the highest suspension bridge in the USA--5280' above sea level.
This is the view after we crossed it.
One of the many pictures I took of the gorgeous view.
Being silly and wanting a picture touching the sky.
Don't back up!


The kids waiting for their surprises--the souvenirs we bought them.

We had such a great time. I absolutely love the mountains. The weather was a perfect 75 degrees each day we were there and I couldn't get enough breaths of that fresh mountain air. I've already decided we're going back next summer and taking the kids.
We did a lot of hiking, picnicking, sightseeing, and tubing. The last day we spent at the Raleigh Temple. I've never left the kids overnight for a vacation before so it was a new experience to go and relax and enjoy the beautiful mountains. We didn't have cell service so I didn't even get to check in with them, but they had a lot of fun with the fantastic babysitter and brought her breakfast in bed on her birthday. I'm so grateful they were good for her and we didn't have car trouble and everything worked out well.