Spring Break Get-a-Way: Part 1

The Saturday of Spring Break we loaded up our family and hit the road at 3:45am and headed to the beautiful Smokey Mountains! 

These boys were excited! And if you are wondering - no, they did not go back to sleep. They stayed awake all day....until (a late) bedtime. They were angels Saturday during our road trip. However, Sunday was a different story - ha!

We were driving along fine, making good time when all of a sudden in Nashville, our check engine light came on and our transmission started acting funny. Long story short - our van needed some major work done on it and we could not continue our trip. Thankfully (and there is so much to be thankful for in this bummer of a circumstance) a dealership was able to work on our van and provide a rental for us to continue on our trip. 

The boys were so good while we waited around in our van and in the dealership!

Sunday morning we were up pretty early considering our long day the day before. But we were all excited and ready to explore!




I let the boys have blue hair and they loved it! 

Our first stop was Frizzle Chicken for breakfast. It was yummy! But the best part were the names of these "singing" chickens. (At one point, they started moving and singing. It was pretty funny!). They had Michael JordHEN, Kelly CLUCKson, HENry Rogers, Albert EGGstein, CLUCK Kent...to name a few! We enjoyed seeing the names and even tried making up our own 'Frizzle Chicken' names, like JaxHEN. Haha!

 

After we were all full - we headed up into the mountains to Cades Cove, which is a valley located in the middle of the Smokey Mountains. The cool thing is that it was home to settlers before it became a National Park. We saw some old cabins, churches, barns and other buildings. The boys enjoyed counting all the wildlife we saw along the way. Sadly, no bears.

We stopped a few times to explore and it was so beautiful and nice!

The boys were super brave and put their feet in the water (Mr. Rusty started it) - and from then on, Zane wanted to get in any and all water we came across!

After exploring a bit, we walked a little of downtown Gattlinburg and ate at a Diner. It was so good. Especially the giant Oreo Cake that Jaxen and I split. Nik was supposed to share it with us - but I think he only got a few bites in. Jaxen and I dug in!

The boys ended the night with a bath (to get cleaned up) and then some time in the hot tub!

Stay tuned for more of our get-a-way!

Life Lately

 Here is a little life lately for you according to my phone. Which only tells a tiny % of what is actually happening in our lives these days - but more on that later.

The first day after the major cold front - I made my boys go outside and play. They had a good time being creative (I think they were fishing at this point). All I know is that they were outside, not fighting, and actually having fun together - win!

I joined Jaxen outside for a little Vitamin D and he played a game to see if he could jump off a log before I took a picture. He lost and I have about 15 pictures to prove it.

You never know where you will find Zane and one of his toys! Looking cute, of course :)

 

See how cute he is?! He will be 5 soon. I'm happy and sad at the same time. Such a milestone age.

 

In case you were wondering, I have already picked out my nail color for this spring. It will be the light purple (middle bottle).

This is Nik. To a tee.

Zane had spring pictures this week! Look how adorable!!! I do not typically purchase spring pictures, but I might have to....depends on how they come out.

I took a screen shot of this, thinking it would encourage me to drink more lemon water. It has yet to do so, but maybe it will encourage one of you!

And this sums of this stage of my life right now...

We are headed on a little vacation soon - so stay tuned for lots of fun pictures and I need to blog about another recent remodel that has happened (and continues to happen).

Master Bath Vanity Remodel

Our 'Master Bath Vanity Remodel' is finally completed! It has been for awhile now...but I'm a bad blogger so you are just now getting to see it :)

This is what the area looked like when we purchased our home...

 

 Before moving in, we took out the 1/2 wall (and spindles) and built a full wall...

 

 

 We made this area livable (after all the construction) it has looked like this since....

Not bad, really - but it was time for a little updating and needed more functionality.

First - everything was ripped out, beadboard was added to the walls and we updated the light fixture.

Everything got a fresh coat of paint and trim was added to the floor

 After a (long) wait to receive the new vanity we ordered - it finally arrived!

Nik placed the vanity, hooked up the sink and it was ready to be used!

We added a few final touches - the mirror and shelves - and look how great the area turned out!

 

Of course there were a few bumps in the road (because there always is when doing home projects but we are so happy with the way it all turned out!

We have purchased a sliding door for between the bedroom and vanity. It should be here soon. Once that is installed, I will give you another update...stay tuned!

P.S. Nik and I did not do this alone...we had some awesome helpers!

They are the ones who suggested beadboard on the wall (which I loved), helped us pick out the vanity lights and mirror and even helped with construction!