Nature walk

Instead of braving the alumni crowds, Ryan and I took a Sabbath trip to Lula Lake. The colors are changing and the weather was perfect!

Lula lake down below; can we all say evidence of a flood?

Lula Falls from above

Down below


Fun climbing rocks in the most likely drier than normal river bed










View from the bluff

Here Ryan, my Alabama shirt wearing for all to see...

Crossing the creek

And then there were six!

By the way... Jonathan Carlson and Kelli Barton, some other friends of ours frequently seen on this blog, got engaged on Friday! Looks like this is going to be the summer of weddings. We're so excited for them!

Shop, shoot, sort

Ryan and I headed home Wednesday night to spend a few days with Mom and Dad. This is probably one of the last times I'll get to go home before my parents move so it was nice to be there one last time while things are still semi-all-together. Mom and I spent a lot of time looking for bridesmaid's dress options. We are both convinced that designers are completely taking advantage of people, in style, in colors (who looks good in shiny orange taffeta?), and price! It's a worse racket than Christmas! While we were shopping (at least the first day) Ryan and Dad took a trip to a shooting range. Suffice it to say, you may not want to meet them in a dark alley with a loaded weapon... (After looking at bridal paraphernalia all day, I might have enjoyed doing this too.)

Saturday night during Game 6 (GO REDSOX!), I sorted through a bunch of boxes of old stuff from childhood. I found lots of letters from my friends in gradeschool, some of them written in with decoder markers, some of them on stationary we made for each other. There were lots of letters from my grandma which will be heartwarming to read now and then. I really loved looking through my childhood books. I found several of them that looked like this inside the front cover:

This is from Ryan Heilman (Carrie's Ryan) when we were 9, living in Canada. He gave me the neatest presents; discarded books from the libary! This one is a story called Great Heart about a thoroughbread.

This is from a book I made in kindergarten, see how big my hand has grown?

Engagement fun starts

A few pictures from our Sabbath afternoon photoshoot

Next the four of us went to Kelli's house for games, so I thought. Apparently, they had been planning an engagement party all along. We had food, friends, and fun with a little Thump Thump.

We really have some great friends!

Ready to THUMP! You can see the tenseness... how many should I guess???

And then there were four!

Carrie's here for her fall break and Ryan H is on his break too! There was just too much fun to be had yesterday so I laid off the homework and the 4 of us went to a driving range to hit some golfballs around. Don't we look relaxed and happy???

My golf swing is SOOOOO rusty... Ryan's knee surgery impeded my learning curve, or at least that's my excuse.





While Ryan and Carrie were out canoodling downtown, Ryan and I were getting some culture at the Chattanooga Symphony Orchestra. It had to be the BEST concert I've ever been to with Variations on America, The Grand Canyon Suite, and an African American pianist who played with the orchestra for Duke Ellington's New World A'Comin and Rhapsody in Blue. My heart was very full... especially knowing what Carrie and Ryan were up to. When we got out we went to the Heilmans house. I could tell MJ was taking pictures of them by the mantle, the place for pictures at all big family events so I KNEW! Carrie and Ryan are engaged. I took off running and met Carrie at the door. Sadly, these may be the last pictures ever in the old Crestmont house!

I think one of the most fun things about getting engaged is getting to hear all the fun reactions. In this picture they are on the phone with Ryan's Aunt Ruthie.
(It was SOOO wonderful to hear from each of you last week when we told you we were engaged.)

There's lot of talking to do... we started off last night by talking til 1 AM

On top of Old Smoky

Ryan, Robin, and I headed to Gatlinburg Friday for a Johnson family get together in honor of Papaw's 80th birthday. Here's the cabin we all stayed in:

View from the porch

Hill of a thousand cabins

Luke and Chelsea wait for the others on the way up to the Chimneys on Sabbath

Semi-fresh

At the top, Whitni and I started to climb up the back face but the rocks were too hot and it was too steep so we went around to the front and took the easier route

The views were just INCREDIBLE! Take this and make it 360 degrees around you.

from L to R (with their relationship to Ryan):
Whitni (cousin), Ross (brother), Aunt Vicki, ME, Gramma Johnson, Robin (sister), Ryan, Aaron (Whitni's husband), Uncle Andy (sitting)

Refreshing rest on the way down

Festivities back at the cabin with catering by Zach McDonald (Ryan's cousin)
Family came from far and wide to celebrate, even cousins from Ohio


Ryan and Robin played in All-night Softball Saturday night. Both of their teams got to the final game AGAIN... but lost... The games ended at 8:30 AM this year. So it really was ALL night.



Dr. King (Dean of the School of Religion) on first, Mickey Gammenthaler (first base coach), Ryan pitching (in batman pants)

The team

Engaged!

Ryan took me to Tony's tonight (finally, since I lost a bet with him about the Red Sox vs Braves game in June, except I was supposed to pay if the Sox lost... so maybe we'll have to go again in the future...)

Self-portrait by the Hunter Art museum

Then Ryan wanted to hike out to Sunset Rock and watch the sun go down... he brought a coat "in case it is windy" as it had been very much so once when we were there before. He has been sick after all. I was also told to bring my camera on this trip for some reason. Hmmm...

And then he told me the real reason for our trip... and asked me to marry him.
So there you have it!

Post wedding relaxation

On Monday morning Carrie, Ryan H, and I took a trip to the Biltmore House. What an amazing residence! Even though some of the stuff in this house has the same look as those we saw in England you can tell its much younger (and a little bigger)!

My favorite part of the house were the staircases. This is the view of the main staircase from the outside.