wedding weekend and then some

We headed out about lunch on Friday to get to Knoxville for Chris and Leslie's wedding. Chris was a groomsmen in our wedding, so it was time for Nick to return the favor. I knew Leslie from college, we had some mutual friends so hung out some from time to time. She's a cool chic, don't know how Chris landed her.
We got to Knoxville about 3:30 and headed to Whitney and Robert's house. Whit is a girlfriend from college who was nice enough to offer to let us stay with them. We met Jackson, their cute little 20 month old boy. He is so stinkin' cute. Here he is in his Halloween costume.

We changed and headed to downtown to the rehearsal. Man, what a pretty church! And it was great to see some of our friends from college and get to catch up! The rehearsal dinner was at a BEAUTIFUL house on some lake outside of Knoxville. Although a little chilly, it was picture perfect- except the firework that exploded under the tent and caught part of a mum on fire. Long story- let's just say a couple of folks at the table almost met their maker that night.
Saturday morning Whit and I headed out for a little shopping and left the guys home watching football. After lunch Nick headed to the church for pictures and such and Whit and I played with Jackson.
The wedding was so pretty. Leslie was a beautiful bride. The reception was at the Foundry - which is a super fun place. We had the best time dancing all night. But my feet were KILLING me. It's hard to dance in three inch red high heels for 6 hours! Whew!
Sunday morning we got up early (well early enough) and headed to Gatlinburg. We had wanted to do a little hiking, but I was sore from my night of dancing! We opted to drive up to Clingmon's Dome and hike the 1/2 mile on the paved walkway. I was breathing hard- I'm blaming it on the altitude, but it might be the fact I am OUT OF SHAPE! We headed back down through the Park into Gatlinburg. We stopped for lunch at No Way Jose's (which is nasty- NEVER eat there) and then we walked the strip. We headed to Pigeon Forge and checked into our hotel where Nick watched some football and I tried to nap. We got ready and headed to dinner at my ABSOLUTE fav resturant in the WORLD- the Apple Barn. We got there about 30 mins before they closed and had an entire dinning room to ourselves! It was so nice to have a quite dinner just the two of us in my favorite eatery! We had the entire place to ourselves by the time we left.
Monday morning we headed to the outlets for a little shopping. Nick was a really good sport! He even had the ladies in the Gap laughing at him trying on jeans. He needed my opinion on each pair.
We started home after lunch and made a few stops on the way, including this dish store where this mean old man tried to argue with me about Fiesta Ware- excuse me dude- I know MY FIESTA!
Now, we are home again home again....
Here are some pics from our weekend.