Adventures with Family

The past week has been exciting.  Not the we-bought-a-house or we-won-Publisher's-Clearinghouse exciting (although hope does spring eternal...), but I did get to hang out with my sister-in-law while she was visiting AND Ryan and I finally had our wedding reception.

I'll begin with Jennifer.  Jennifer recently married an Army guy (Robert) and moved to Colorado.  And when I say recently, I mean they got married June 4th--just 3 weeks after Ryan and I tied the knot, so we enjoy calling ourselves the Sister Wives.  Except, you know, not polygamous--although I am addicted to that show as well.  Anyway, after only being married two weeks, she came back to Tennessee for 10 days to be with her family one last time for the Fourth of July.  Why she thinks it was "for the last time" I'm not really sure...but hey, I'm happy to have her around.  Sue me.

July 4th at the Lakehouse

Snow Cone Mouths

Sister Wives!!!

We practically spent all waking hours together, joined at the hip.  She and Robert took a one week cruise for their honeymoon, and when she got to their cabin, she found that he had had (awkward wording--ugh) the room decorated with all kinds of wedding themed streamers and whatnot.  Sweet, right?  Also, there was a scrapbook.  Little did he know that by this sweet gesture, he was really unleashing a monster master scrapbooker.  Seriously.  She's become pretty hardcore.  I, consequently, thought about my upcoming wedding reception and decided to dabble in making a scrapbook of my own--purely for others' enjoyment of course.  It all went downhill from there--and quickly.

We became hunters, our minds intent on finding all things we could possibly utilize in our new obsession hobby.  When we entered Hobby Lobby, we should have just offered to buy the whole store, because that's pretty much exactly what we did.  Stickers, rub-ons, paper, patterns, borders, stamps?  We got 'em.  A metric TON of them.  And yet... I've already run out of supplies.  : /   I've got to make another hour and fifteen minute trip to K-town because, as you know well by now, I live in the middle of Nowhere.

On Wednesday, Ryan, Jennifer, Val (my mother-in-law) and myself went to Dollywood.  Fun!!  But before I say any more, let me tell you about my history with Dollywood.  As a young child, born and raised in Houston, my parents always took us on these epic summer vacations...in our Ford Taurus station wagon.  See photo:

Anyway, one summer we trekked up to the Smoky Mountains.  Not Gatlinburg, not Pigeon Forge--just the National Park.  We camped in various areas for about two weeks and really enjoyed ourselves.  But the first night we got there, it wasn't so fun.  It was pouring cats and dogs and the parental units mercifully relented and let us stay in a motel.  If you're not parents or don't remember your childhood, you may not remember what it's like to have two small kids cooped up in one small room for what seems like forever while the second Flood is occurring just outside your window.  Finally, they let us explore the lobby just to stretch our legs.  I immediately began snatching up flyers for the local amusements and asking to go to each and every venue.  Putt-putt?  Yes.  Train rides?  You bet.  Sky diving?  Why not?  And then I saw the one for Dollywood.  Roller coasters?? my small mind wondered.  My eyes as big as saucers, I yelped and thrust the flyer in Mum's face.  Oh no, she insisted.  Dollywood was just a place where there was a lot of country music.  Music? I thought.  She began rambling on and on about old country singers and the mountains and mandolins..... I obviously lost interest and her brilliant scheme worked.  We ordered a ham and pineapple pizza and went to bed.  She was probably quite pleased with herself...

Fast forward about fifteen years.  I'm 22, engaged, close to graduating college, and my fiance's family says they're going to Dollywood.  I don't think much about it.  Then I hear the words "season passes."  Wait--you have season passes to go watch country music?  As soon as the words are out of my mouth I regret them.  They all stare at me for a split second before bursting into laughter.  Turns out, Dollywood is a theme park--but it's not country music themed, it's ROLLER COASTER themed.  YEAH.  

I now have a season pass to Dollywood.

And, as I now realized this post is so long, I'll reward you for reading so long and let you go for now.  But tomorrow--come back for the Wedding Reception edition of LilMissWrite!