Fall Foliage at its Finest

This past weekend I was blessed by Paula and David Vierling with a pass on American Airlines to visit my AMAZING boyfriend, Joe. We spent the weekend in Boone, NC--where he goes to school--and thoroughly enjoyed the fall foliage that North Carolina has to offer! We went on three different hikes (yes, I know, we are so active!), and I was able to meet all of his friends. Here are a few pictures of us enjoying the fall leaves!

I was also able to fulfill one of my "30 before 30" items. (30 things I want to do before I turn 30.) Enjoy!

a breath of fresh air

[note: I already posted once about this, but thought it was lame, so here's my second attempt.]

This weekend my small group and I were able to get away for about 24 hours and enjoy the great outdoors. We headed up to Turner Falls in the great Arbuckle Mountains of Oklahoma and enjoyed the peace and quiet.

Meet Melissa, Macee, Andrea, Mackenzie, Stephanie, Melanie, Annie, and well, you know me!

We started off our day with a great hike which ended up being mostly on the pavement b/c I got us lost, but we did have a little bit on a trail. It was very nice to be a bit in the wilderness! Here we are walking down the HUGE hill at the end of the hike.


After our hike, we began to scavenge for some firewood. Now, this proved to be a hilarious endeavor. We all started looking for some bigger logs...but to no avail. Melissa busted out an awesome pocket knife that J.J. (her boyfriend) let her borrow that had a saw-type knife on it. She and Annie and Mac had the brilliant idea to start sawing at a bigger tree limb. Praise the Lord that they were persistent, because, after much sawing and many funny grunts, they got us some wood!



Macee had the brilliant idea for me to climb a dead tree to get some of the bigger branches. I, of course, obliged (any excuse to climb I'll take!). Melanie and Steph were a bit nervous, but Macee had faith in me and we got us some good firewood!



We then got our fire started--thanks to Annie and Macee's amazing help and had our fireside fajitas. After dinner we slacklined (thanks Colby) and just sat by the fire and enjoyed some great quality time together.

The next morning, Melanie made us some coffee, we made a stop at the falls for a photo op and then headed home. It was an amazing retreat from the city and I think we all felt the Lord's presence in our time together in the outdoors! Girls, I had a blast. Let's do it again soon!