Tennessee, oh my Tennessee

Yes, there is Mexican Coke in Tennessee!!!

Cait and her "fake dog" Sparkles

Well we are here finally after a 10 hour car drive that went smooth but seemed to take forever as usual. We are so predictable, we hit town go to ChickFil A (eat an amazing amount of nuggets), go to WalMart to get supplies and then drive through town to see what has changed. I was excited to see that Tennessee has Five Guys Burgers and Fries...which we sampled on Sunday and was amazing! The kids get so excited to see their Tennessee friends, the pool and Putt Putt golf. We spent Monday shopping and going to the Apple Barn. This place has my FAVORITE dessert in the whole wide world...Pecan Pie. The minute I walk into this place I even start saying Pe-Can Pie like they do in the South. Pair this beauty up with some homemade vanilla bean ice cream...seriously I stop talking for the whole 5 minutes it takes to eat this!

Cam is ME to a tee! He walks into the ice cream part of the store and he says "Mom, what is that smell?" After talking with the nice baker she tells me that "Dear, that is our homemade Apple Banana Bread...melt in your mouth good!" Cam begged me to get some, and said that if he didn't like it Grandpa would eat it :-) We got some...

Cait has started to do something amazing since we have been here. She has this dog that she got in Tennessee last year, that she decided to bring with her. She wants a puppy of her own so badly that she has been showing me each day in her own way how she could take care of a dog her"fake dog" as she lovingly calls it. She takes him for walks everyday, covers him up when it is nap time and takes him out at least twice a day to do his business...funny thing is the dog hasn't ate in four days :-) I am so proud of her for basically thinking this whole scheme up on her own to convince the Mom and Dad.

Flavor Fruit Farm...Is it bad that I want to eat a donut everyday

The Pepperoni Rolls that are our lunch mainstay

This is the best pie ever...the Woodland

These Donuts are Cinnamon Sugar Goodness

A few of my favorite things include Flavor Fruit Farm and Cherry Creek Winery. I got to experience them with my very good friend Heidi. She is an amazing photographer, so we spent a Saturday morning going to these places , snapping pictures of old fashioned candy counters, donuts I die for and the Pepperoni Roll that rules my world. My alarm on my phone is permanently set at 8:30 everyday as they open at 9:00am...don't want to miss them when they are warm. You have never had a donut until you have eaten a Flavor Fruit one. Their Cinnamon Twist would be the #1 thing I would take to a deserted island, sorry Mr. Big Mac you have moved to #2.

On to the winery where we sampled some new favorites including their just uncorked Pinot Grigio. I think we ran off with 6 bottles of wine, yummy cheese and a handful of cool new corks.

We got in the car and just drove for hours trying to solver the world's problems, but mainly just talking about life in general. Our girls going to kindergarten in the fall is a start of a new chapter for her and the end to my toddler days. The best thing about the morning is that we snapped pictures of everything we could.

My first photo shoot...Zora

My niece Arika asked me if I would take a few pics of their newest addition to their family, Zora. This dog was like the best client I could ever have :-) she was constantly looking at the camera, fogging my lens and we I had a blast taking pics of her and Arika.

The last single digit year...Cam turns 9

This was such an awesome day, I made a deal with Cam instead of having a friend birthday party that I would get him a water trampoline for the family to share...he was so excited! We gave it to him a day early so that he could experience it all weekend. And WOW did he experience it. The picture just above was 10 minutes after I woke him up. Cam passed out at 6:00pm on his birthday :-) main reason he jumped on that trampoline for about 6 hours with all of our family. We let him sleep from 6 to 8 but then we had to wake him up to have cake, Aleesha was getting tired of waiting as they have a joint birthday party every year. He was so tired in some of these pics but he got his second wind in enough time to see the fireworks on the lake.

Happy Birthday to Cam, his last single digit year! 9 years ago today a nurse stood next to me during labor and told me to hold on for about 45 minutes longer and Cam would be born on the 4th of July. I think I looked at her like she was Satan and Cam came out 2 minutes later...sorry buddy that I couldn't wait but the absence of pain meds clouded my judgement. The greatest thing about July 3rd is that there is always someone shooting off fireworks somewhere :-)

As the teeth fall out...

What a way to lose a tooth, on a boat on the 4th of July.  The tooth decided to come out after weeks of being wiggly and it only took some Doritos.  As you can tell from the orange mustache above.  She also learned that her Italian grandmother will promptly pay you $5 on the spot.

Red sky at night...Sailor's Delight

At night on Lake LeAnn when the sun is setting, I always try to grab my camera but something always grabs my attention away and I end up putting the camera in the bag and waiting for next time. I finally was able to grab a piece of the sunset on a Friday evening. As I sat there in a beautiful July summer night, the lake so quiet and calm, the dew starting to accumulate on the grass...it was just me and my Canon stretched out on a blanket hoping that my camera was catching all of the colors I saw.

Stones and Pebbles...Pieces of You

"But what minutes! Count them by sensation, and not by calendars, and each moment is a day." -Benjamin Disraeli

So maybe I am thinking way too much lately, but I am trying lately not to overthink every aspect of my life. If you know me I twist and manipulate, pull apart and dissect. I always feel that things have a shiny layer to them but underneath there is an unpolished pebble that needs to be turned over. Under that pebble lurks the true identity of something, and I love things that are raw and rough.

I have a vase full of stones that I was able to collect with my Aunt and Uncle during a trip to Grand Marais, MI and if you know me you know that I hang onto very few things. I remember it like it was yesterday, a little chilly, rain misting in the air we spent so much time walking on the beach looking for these stones. My aunt would tell me to look at the stones in the water as you could tell how beautiful they were and she was totally right because the stones that were dry all looked the same.

Every year I take them out of the jar, rinse them off so that they are shiny again and hold those memories in my hand. Rocks look so beautiful when they are in water, you see the colors, the details and the shape. They are beautiful and unique. I lost my Aunt and Uncle in my early 20's way before I should have but what I do have is one of the most unique memories I own...

I spend every weekend pulling rocks out of the water at the lake, making a bonfire pit with the odd shaped ones, placing the beautiful ones in the landscaping, making rock walls in the water with the ones that show their true self when water glistens over them.

I am going to try and leave things shiny, covered in water, all of the imperfections hid.