Fun Days

I've had some fun and busy past few days! I wanted to blog about them before I forget about it all!

On Wednesday morning I had my Senior pictures taken for my school's yearbook. I'm getting them done by another photographer later on, but it was still fun! I'm crossing my fingers that at least one of them turned out good :)

Since the studio was downtown, my mom and I stopped by the Banks to try out their newest restaurant - Crave. It was SO good and unique. Look at how cute it is!

Then we of course had to stop at Orange Leaf too. They even had my favorite flavor that is for some reason always hard to find!

That night I went to Coldstone with one of my friends. Clearly I've been in ice cream moods lately. Ha!

Yesterday I had lunch with my family, and then my mom, aunt, and I went and took pictures at the Motherhouse. If you're not familiar with it, it's a really old building that the Sisters of Charity live in. The grounds are absolutely beautiful.

We went inside too and took some pictures in the chapel. I felt like we were trespassing or something, but none of the nuns cared :)

Last night was SO much fun too! I went with my friend Abby up to Dayton. We went to The Greene, had dinner, and did some shopping.

I love this place!

via

We stopped at this cute little bakery called Cheryl's. I'd heard of it before, but I'd never actually had anything from there. 

I got one of their chocolate chip cookies, which I already ate, and it was delicious!

I also got a Red Velvet whoopie pie, which I can't wait to try!

But the main reason we went up to Dayton was to go to Rita's. I was a little disappointed that they ran out of Strawberry before we got there. I tried Green Apple though, and I really liked it!

I'd say it's been a fun few days. Today has been super relaxing. I love having days like that occasionally. I'm watching my second movie of the day now, and I'm still in my pajamas. Sometimes it's the simple things in life :)

Gatlinburg Part 3

Here's my last post on my trip! Can you tell I had fun? :)

On Sunday we had breakfast at our chalet (egg cassarole for Father's Day!). Then we stopped back at the Outlets real quick to pick something up for my Grandma.

Next it was time to go back into the park! We had lunch at this cute little spot overlooking a creek.

Then we drove around Cade's Cove, which is a scenic drive in part of the park.

We even saw a bear right off the side of the road. Crazy!

It was a momma bear with her 3 cubs....SO cute!

Since the pictures we tried to take on Saturday didn't turn out too good because of the sun, we decided to try again on Sunday night in a different spot. They turned out much better!

We had dinner downtown that night at the Smoky Mountain Brewery. Then we stopped back at Blueberry Explosion, because I am absolutely obsessed with that place! This time I got a blueberry lip balm that I love!

After that, we had dessert at Baskin Robbins. That was my first time ever eating at a Baskin Robbins, and I've always wanted to try it!

On Monday we packed up and left. My dad decided to go a different way home because of traffic, and this new way took us right through Knoxville. And guess what just so happens to be in Knoxville?

Rita's!

It had been SO long since I'd had Rita's! This ended up being our lunch for the day - a perfect lunch in my opinion!

This Rita's was so cute too!

Look at this exposed brick in the back! Love!

I was a little bummed at first that they didn't have Strawberry, but it forced me to try something new - Blue Raspberry, which ended up being delicious!

The Rita's was in a really cute area too. It was in a little shopping and dining place that was just so fun and neat!

I loved this little boutique right next door too!

Definitely a good vacation, and the trip home was even wonderful since we stopped at Rita's! We've figured out now that we've been to 7 different Rita's. I don't think that's obsessive at all :)

Gatlinburg Part 2

I love posting about my trip! If you missed the first part, you can check it out here!

On Saturday I slept in, and after we got ready, we headed into the park!

Then we hiked up to the top of one of the mountains to a place called Clingman's Dome. On a clear day, you can see for miles, but I've never been up there when it's been clear! When we went up on Saturday, it was cloudy and you couldn't see anything. Oh well.....

It was really cold up there too! I didn't have a jacket, so a blanket was the next best thing :)

Then we explored the park a little bit more and had lunch.

Then we headed back to our chalet to get ready for dinner! We decided to get dressed up and try to take some pictures, but the place we went to was so sunny that my eyes were closed in almost all of them! This was the best one, and it still isn't that great!

After our short photo shoot, we went into town for dinner at one of my favorite restaurants.....Bubba Gump's!

I just love that place! I think it's such a fun atmosphere. Our waiter quizzed us on Forest Gump trivia, and the food is so good too! I ended up getting Shrimp Mac & Cheese. SO yummy!

I loved this little scene that they recreated from the movie!

We also got Ben & Jerry's after dinner - also one of my favorites! I tried a new flavor - Chocolate Therapy. I'd definitely recommend it!

We walked around a few shops too and stumbled across this store, Blueberry Explosion.

It was tucked away in the back of a little shopping area, and we almost missed it at first! Normally it's not the kind of shop I'd want to go in, but I decided I wanted to go into it because I figured it would smell really good - ha! I was right - it did smell good, but it was also the cutest store ever! We ended up buying a lot in there: blueberry dog treats, blueberry tea, and chocolate covered blueberries. That store had blueberry everything - it was so different and neat!

I also loved the fact that they gave out little thank you notes with Bible quotes on them when you bought something. It's simple things like that which make me want to keep going back to a store!

Then of course, we headed back to our chalet and chilled in the hot tub, our favorite thing to do at night!

These posts keep getting long, so I'll do another installment soon!