Reminiscing in North Carolina

My great-grandfather ("Pop-Pop") built a house on a mountain in a little town called Etowah, North Carolina.  When he passed away, my grandparents inherited it.  I remember visiting this place probably once a year for almost every year of my childhood.  In 2004, my grandparents were no longer able to maintain the house as they aged so they had to sell it.  I didn't meet Curtis until 2005 so he never had the opportunity to experience it.  Here's some of the pictures that I snagged as I shared my childhood memories with my husband:

This is on Folly Road - right before you get to the mountain.  The colors were gorgeous!

I used my panoramic camera to take some of these pictures.

My grandparents lived on a private road where there were only 1-2 other families living on that stretch of the mountain.  I walked this road so many times picking blueberries!  My brothers and cousins always loved to ride (or drive) the 4-wheeler whenever we'd visit!

My grandfather would take care of this water wheel.  There used to be a fake duck with little ducklings walking towards the stream.  I was happy to see that the neighbors were still keeping the water running!  

Here's a panoramic view of the area around the water wheel.

This is the house that my great-grandfather built.  I was warmly greeted by the new owners of the house, which was very kind since we showed up unexpectedly.  They gave us a tour of the house.  The new owner is an interior designer and she re-did the entire house.  She did a great job and the house looked great, but a lot of the memories that I would have felt inside the house weren't there.

This is the view from the deck of the house!  It is just breath-taking!

So glad for the panoramic ones - I think I'm going to have to try to develop some of these!

This one was pretty cool - it shows me taking a picture and gives you a little bit more of the deck than my pictures do.

Curtis really enjoyed the view!

Some additional angles of the back of the house (which the neighbors now consider their front of the house)

It was so beautiful.

Next up...I took Curtis to the Pisgah Forest and showed him Looking Glass Falls.

We would come here often with my family and I was happy to share this with Curtis.

We also stopped by Sliding Rock, a naturally occurring 60-foot water slide.  I only got the nerve to do it one time with my grandfather when I was younger.  I have this picture with my mouth open as wide as it's ever been as I slid down!  As for this day, it was too cold to slide (or so we thought), but there were a few people that had to slide down because they lost a bet.  Notice that one of them doesn't even have legs!  I was impressed.

Our trip also consisted of visiting Charlotte to spend some time with one of Curtis' roommates.  We had a wonderful time with them.  We spent our evenings in downtown Asheville, which was really fun.  We ate at some amazing restaurants - Asheville Pizza & Brewing Company and Tupelo Honey Cafe.  We went to Greenville, South Caroline to worship at Downtown Presbyterian Church.  It was such a delight!  

We even found gas for as low as $2.97 in Greenville.  That is so low!

We also went to the Skytop Apple Orchard in Flat Rock, NC.  It was really beautiful there, but it wasn't really the season for apples so we just enjoyed the view.

It was really nice to get away for about 4 days and explore North Carolina.  This will be one of our last trips before I am unable to travel for a while now that I'm getting farther along in my pregnancy.  It was definitely worth the trip!

C Diddy's Bday

One of my very best friends, Catherine Mack, recently celebrated her birthday on October 18.  I hadn't seen her since last Christmas and I hadn't been able to spend extended time with her since before I was married (over 4 years ago), so it was about time for a visit to Boca.  I'd heard so much about her family, her church and her town that I just had to see it for myself! :)

On her actual birthday, we went shopping and to the beach.  It was a really relaxing day and there really aren't many places that you can go to the beach in October.  It was a little sunny so Catherine was having a hard time keeping her eyes open in this photo.

We went to P. F. Chang's for dinner with her family and a few of her friends.  It was really tasty and fun!  I had a great time talking and sharing stories with her mom each day.  She has such a servant's heart and I was easily able to see where Catherine gets hers. :)  

I really also enjoyed getting to know her sister, Paige, because we have very similar taste buds.  We had the most amazing dessert there called Flourless Chocolate Cake.  It was heavenly!

Catherine's mom even made her a cake!  We were so stuffed from P. F. Chang's that we had to wait until the next day to actually eat some of it.  Catherine was able to blow out all of her candles in one breath.  I was seriously impressed.

I spent about 5 days with her - we had amazing food, lots of shopping, great conversations, and I was able to worship at her church.  I had a wonderful time and it was definitely well worth it to get away.  I left at a good time because it was right before the presidential debate took place in Boca!

Ryan's Wedding

In mid-October, Curtis and I headed to Chicago, Illinois to witness Ryan Fields' wedding.  Ryan is Curtis' best friend - they were roommates in college and have been best friends ever since.  I also knew Ryan in college through RUF, a campus ministry.

Ryan is about to be a College Pastor at Creekside Community Church, this was the church that Ryan and I both attended when we were in college.  

Here we have Curtis assisting the groom as he gets ready for his wedding!  They are a lot alike.  Both Ryan & Curtis are pastors, they have a similar sense of humor, and they are both INFJ's (if you know anything about the Meyers-Briggs personality test).  

In fact, they both married women that have the same birthday (not year): November 30th.

The other two gentlemen in this photo are Ryan and Curtis' other two roommates in college - Josh and Jeffrey.  Josh was married just five months earlier in May.

I'm not usually one to take pictures during a prayer, but this was just such a cool moment.  I thought it was beautiful to see all these godly men praying over Ryan before the ceremony, asking God to be glorified.  (I thought their wedding ceremony was beautiful and I couldn't help but worship the Lord for His goodness to Ryan and Emily.) 

 Off to the ceremony we go!  We somehow stuffed 8 people into Ryan's little Taurus.  (Side note: I hear this was one of the last memories that Ryan had in his Taurus before it died.)

 Here's 4 of the 5 of us stuffed in his back seat.

 Emily and Ryan make such a beautiful couple!  Here they are making their vows to each other, before God and all the witnesses.

Announcing for the first time:

Mr & Mrs. Christopher Ryan Fields!

 

The 4 roommates: Jeffrey, Curtis, Ryan, and Josh.

And here are all the wives with their husbands!  I had a great time getting to know Josh's wife, Alicia, while our husbands were performing wedding duties.  Alicia and I will look forward to getting to know Emily more in the future! :)

 Curtis and I were so happy that we could make it to his wedding!  Curtis was a groomsman and he was so glad that he could see God answer his prayers for Ryan to find a wife.  He had been praying this prayer over the past 4 years.  Praise the Lord for answering prayers, even if it isn't in the timing that we expect.