a blonde, a boy, and a blog. . .: leaf lookin'

my parents just recently celebrated their fortieth wedding anniversary! isn't that amazing? that's a whole lotta years :) they celebrated by returning to the very same place they spent their honeymoon... the beautiful smokey mountains! they rented a cabin for a week in the cozy little town of waynesville, north carolina. our family used to vacation in waynesville almost every summer when i was growing up, and we have some really great memories from our time there. it was especially nice to have cory with me this time, while we joined my parents in their cabin for the weekend! we made it just in time to catch the trees in all of their fall glory! it's really hard to believe that all of those colors really exist in nature. we learned while we were there that the locals call tourists like us, "leaf lookers". haha, i thought that was cute. we had a great time driving along the blue ridge parkway, shopping in the legendary mast general store in downtown waynesville, and spent a good amount of time lounging around the cabin in our jammies.

the older i get the more grateful i feel for every second i get to spend with my family. i really wish time would just stand still and stop moving so fast! it really seems like just yesterday that my brother and i were drawing imaginary "do-not-cross" lines across the back seat of the car on those family vacations to the mountains, while i had jewel's "pieces of you" blasting on my walkman CD player (ya know, when it wasn't busy skipping... 90's problems). anyways, i'm so fortunate to have this time with the people i love most, and i'm so happy to be celebrating an amazing milestone with my parents. happy anniversary mom and dad!!

the first half of the photos are from our drive along the blue ridge parkway, and the second half were taken near our cabin. of course, i also included a little video too! enjoy!