Goodrich Girls Gatlinburg Getaway

I'm still playing catch up!  So much so that my mom the other day commented on how no one posted about the Goodrich Girl's Trip on their blog.  Well,  mom...this one's for you!

The annual Goodrich Girls Trip took us to the Smokey Mountains of Gatlinburg, TN the last weekend of September.  We all flew into Knoxville and after some very delayed flights--we all finally were united despite it being 3am!  This year was so fabulous because not only were my Grandma Goodrich's immediate girls (my mom-Terry, my Aunt-Carol, myself, and my sister-Katherine) in attendance, but so were my two sister-in-laws and even my cousin's wife!  Literally, we had all the girls!!  It was so great!  My mom rented an awesome cabin with views from every angle, a hot tub, pool table, tv's we couldn't figure out how to work, and a full wrap around porch that we spent most of our time on.

Day 1: was spent at the Smoky Mtn Aquarium and at the Outlet Mall.  I've been to a few aquariums, but I must say this was the best done of all of them--so if you ever get the chance to go, it's a must.  Pigeon Forge was full of several huge outlet malls.  Needless to say when a group of women are together, no arm twisting is required to shop.

All of us, minus Christa at the aquarium

Mom and I enjoying the exhibits

My cousin's wife, Christa, is quite the photographer.  Love this picture she captured of Katherine.

It was so great having the two babies of the family with us.  They were so happy the entire weekend, except in the car :)

Tess and Henrik

Day 2: was by far the highlight of the trip, one word-Dollywood!  My sister in law, Becky, has always wanted to go to Dollywood.  So when we decided on the location for the trip this year, she couldn't have been more thrilled to go to Dollywood.  At first it took convincing the get everyone to go, but Dolly did not disappoint.  There is so much to do and stuff for all ages.  We saw a bird show, steam engine train rides, outdoor stages all over the park full of live country music, roller coasters, food, shops, museums, movies about the Smoky Moutains and Dolly Parton's life, and somehow all that was a little over $50!  Talk about getting your money's worth.  The day was terrific, minus a little downpour of rain that may or may not have left Grandma soaked.  The babies were so great and we all left talking about how much fun we had.  We ended the night back at the cabin eating fudge and watching old family videos with 8 of us packed into two beds.

Dolly Parton is quite the icon!

Loved this train and all the fall decorations

Tess and Henrik were so excited!

My mom's girls

The "young girls" outside the Dolly Museum

The entire group--loving Dollywood

Seriously, the best gift shop ever!  Katherine passed on this shirt, but Carol didn't :)

Gotta love the blue Christmas tree up all year round and the oversize Dolly night shirt.

Henrik loving some country and still smiling even as the park is closing.

Day 3: was spent still talking about how great Dollywood was!  We decided to go into downtown Gatlinburg and take the aerial tram ride up the mountains for a scenic view.  Had to be sure to hold on to mom, as she has been known to even get sick on a ferris wheel!  We went to lunch at a great place called the Apple Barn (another must stop) and had an impromptu photo shoot of Grandma and her great-grand babies.  It was hard to believe that the three days flew by so quickly.  It was back home for everyone the next day, but not before one last stop at the outlets!

Mom and Me

Grandma Goodrich with Tess and Henrik

Kat and I enjoying the last night of great views

I absolutely love that the ladies of my family do this trip every year.  It is so great to all get together, reconnect, and laugh hysterically at late night games.  Seriously, not quite sure how I have such a great family--but I do and am so thankful for them all.  Time to get planning next year, and hopefully it won't involve any early morning bears (too scared to even write about that one)!

Summer Wrap Up

It's hard to believe how fast summer went by this year.  It seems like it isn't time for sweaters and hot chocolate, although I'm not complaining. :)  We had a great summer which included a visit from my sister, Katherine.  The only thing on her wish list was to go to the beach, so I was happy to make that happen.  We spent at day at the beach, a day downtown shopping and exploring the river front, and before I could get any sleep the weekend was over and she headed back to DC.

 

Katherine and I along the pier of Cape Fear

 

Nice to enjoy the weekends together



 

One weekend we headed with our new friends to Myrtle Beach to do some outlet shopping and to visit Broadway at the Beach  It's only about a 40 minute drive south and they have 4 HUGE outlet malls (think Palm Springs big).  Broadway at the Beach is a  huge pier that has all sorts of entertainment, restaurants, shops, and all the souvenir junk you could imagine.  We had a fun day with Jenny and Jesse and I'd say Nick lucked out the most with some new irons from the golf superstore.  Happy belated birthday present to him. We had such a great day trip, that we plan on going back for a weekend sometime in the near future.

 



Jenny and I at Broadway at the Beach

 

 

I've decided Myrtle Beach is the home of putt putt golf!!  Everywhere you looked there was a different course.  Here is Nick and I at one of the many putt putt places.

 

Just as summer was finishing up Nick entered a 5k race to benefit Historic Downtown Wilmington.  The race started in downtown and went along the cape fear river walk.  He decided it was a lot harder to run in the humidity that summer brings to NC.  He finished with a great time and as always is representing ASU.

 

 

Summer couldn't end with one last beach day (although it was 80 here yesterday and I was tempted to go).  I''m going to miss these summer tans.

 

Wrightsville Beach



Birthdays and Anniversary

Mid -August through mid-September is always so busy crazy, but in a good way.  There is so much to celebrate.  I flew to North Carolina in time for our 4th anniversary.  We decided no gifts this year, but instead we wanted to do something together. On our actual anniversary Nick had to work, but came home with beautiful flowers and I made a nice dinner.  The next night we went to Raleigh to see a Cirque Du Soleil show.  It was so great.  We thought about getting a hotel, but decided to make the two hour drive home and had one of those great life talks.  Sure do love him!

Next up:  Jen's 29th Birthday!  Somehow birthdays always do sneak up.  I wanted a Nook Tablet so I could have a new toy since I'm travelling so much and have loved it.  I got it as an early birthday present at the beginning of summer when all the traveling started.  I was in Arizona for my birthday and Nick was in AZ, but he was sure to make me fill loved with these beautiful flowers.

I had to go to an all day 8 hour continuing education invisalign training for work on my birthday, but my co-workers are my second family and they were sure to take me out that night and spoil me.  I'm one lucky lady.

Happy 29th to me!

Less than two weeks later I flew to North Carolina to help Nick celebrate the big 3-0!  My sister, Katherine came down from DC for the weekend, so it was great to have her help us celebrate.  Nick's birthday was on Saturday, so he had the day off!  We started that morning at the beach, out to lunch, a trip to the driving range, out to dinner, and a trip to eat Britt's donuts (Nick's new favorite thing--see previous post about Wilmington).  Nick got some new golf clubs (only the irons, I guess there is a difference) and some new golf shoes.

Nick loved teaching Katherine everything he knew about how to have a great swing

Check out his form

I can't remember the last time I laughed so hard with this girl

Birthday dessert

We literally are growing old together :)

Summer Side Trips

We decided to make a long weekend trip to Washington DC on one of the weekends I was in North Carolina.  It is less than a 6 hour drive from Wilmington and I wanted to visit my brother and his family along with my sister who also lives there.  We happened to coordinate the trip the weekend after 4th of July and it would be the same time my mom would be visiting, so it was great to get to see so much family.  Since my brother lives right in the heart of DC, we thought we could get the tourist thing down and take the metro everywhere!  We did great going from red line to blue line to orange line, etc--but it was once we got off and had to navigate the streets that we didn't do to well!!  We where there during the crazy heat wave and power outages, so I found it ironic that it was hotter in DC than in was in Phoenix!

Nick in front of the post office (at this rate in a few more years, those probably won't even exist anymore--so had to document this)!

I loved all the flowering trees

One of my favorite things of the DC trip was seeing Henrik!  He is always smiling and happy and is getting so big.  You have no idea, how much convincing had to go in to this picture to get Nick to hold him!  hahah, one day he will grow out of the fear of babies.  Nick's face says it all!

Not so strong after all??!!

Random sparkly balls at a metro stop

When Nick was a small kid he and his family lives in Silver Springs, Maryland.  Nick always remembers his favorite pizza being Jerry's.  We looked it up, and saw that it was about 15 minutes from my brothers house so we went!!  Nick was sooo excited he could hardly contain himself.  He ate and ate and ate-not that anyone would be surprised.  None of us thought the pizza was that great, so we all laughed about how we viewed things so differently as kids.  So glad Nick could relive this memory though.

Here is that baby Henrik, the king charmer of the District of Columbia :)

One morning my mom and I went and did sealings at the Washington, DC LDS temple.  It was beautiful, and a great day with my mom.

Now on to the next side trip:  Denver!  Nick had to go to Denver for some work training at the beginning of August.  His company's headquarters are in Colorado, so when he found out he was going to be there for a week I knew I wanted to go up and play too.  Our best friends TJ and Michelle live right outside Denver, so we went the weekend before Nick's training started to stay with them and to catch up.

We were in town a few days before Michelle's 30th birthday, so it was great to celebrate with them!

Lastly, a summer side trip wouldn't be complete without a visit to see these crazies!!  Can you recognize them, because I barely could.  I don't think I saw the wear anything else for 4 days!  I flew to KY for a long weekend, and to try to break up the month long stretch of not seeing Nick.  As always so great to be around family.  My parents just finished redoing their house and backyard, so it was fun to enjoy it. My mom and I went shopping, out to lunch, stayed up late watching food network, and of course had to teach her more about her mac computer!  I even squeezed in seeing a few friends and got to babysit these three cute kids.  Liam and Bennett are obsessed with all things superhero currently, and Tess is just busy being so stinkin' cute!!  Love being an auntie to these kiddos.

In between all of the trips if you can believe it, I still found time to work an insane crazy schedule and somehow keep my house clean!  I did finally hire someone to do my yard for me, as I just couldn't find  time to push a lawn mower around.

North Carolina Summer

What is a summer like in a beach city if you aren't at the beach just about every day??!!  We have had a great summer in Wilmington and have spent a lot of time at Wrightsville Beach, Carolina Beach, and Kure Beach.  I'm trying to think which beach I like the best, and I just can't choose!  Wrightsville Beach is the closest, so we probably spend most of our time enjoying it.

Our first time checking out the neigborhood!

Watching the rain out in the ocean

A typical Saturday

Enjoying the beach to ourselves---and the 85 degree weather!

The "locals" told us about this donut shop on the boardwalk of Carolina Beach that was voted the 2nd best small town donut shop in America.  It's teeny tiny, but oh so worth the 20-30 minute wait for a hot glazed donut!  Seriously, sooo good.  They are only open 5 months out of the year in the summer time and are 80 cents a piece.  Nothing like buying your dozen donuts and finding a bench on the beach to sit down and enjoy!  Can't wait for them to reopen next summer.

Trying to walk off our donut's!  Love this picture.

When Nick is at work I've learned to roam the town on my own.  I went and toured the USS North Carolina battleship that is docked here in Wilmington and has been turned in to a museum.  I spent a few hours seeing this massive vessel and couldn't believe that a missile was as big as me!!!

Yelp! has been our best friend while living here.  We have tried to not go to any 'chain' restaurants and have not been disappointed in what the locals cook up around here.  One night we went to a restaurant called Dockside, and with a view like this while eating dinner--I don't even remember what the food tasted like!  So gorgeous!

Not to mention I had this guy to enjoy dinner and the view with.

For the 4th of July we went downtown with a few new friends to the 'Boom over the Battleship'.  It was a great show and I always love seeing fireworks reflect over the water.

Happy 4th of July---and man was it hot and humid on this evening!

I can't believe how fast summer flew by.  It has been nice to escape AZ during the 115+ temps to come to ocean breeze every month. Definitely, Wilmington did not disappoint this summer.