The Mushy Stuff
In 2005 I was introduced to 13 women who will always hold a
special place in my heart. I am thankful for all of the laughter and love we
have shared over the years as well as the difficult moments when we’ve endured hurt,
pain and even loss. I remember the broke moments in college and how my 13
taught me how to hustle and make things happen. I remember fighting with my
number 12 because we were both so damn ambitious and now I am thankful for her
challenging me and for the special bond we share. As I began planning our 10
year anniversary trip, I was truly overwhelmed by how much all of my line
sisters have supported me throughout my 20’s because as we all know, we learn
so much in that decade. We’ve prayed together, we’ve celebrated together and
although we left our trip feeling sleepy and emotionally drained, this trip changed
us as individuals and as a unit.
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| We left time for a mini photoshoot :-) |
Why Gatlinburg?
I started the planning by sending out a Google Form to get
an idea of what everyone wanted. The result: a cabin/ski trip in May. LOL! Well
since we can’t ski in May, I did some research some to learn about all of the
fun summer things to do in the mountains. After seeing pictures of ziplining
and white water rafting, I was sold. Next it was time to decide where to go.
The consensus, according to the poll, was that they wanted the trip to be
between $400-$700 so I looked up areas near Denver and Tennessee. I realized
that flying into Denver would mean airline ticket prices would be high for
everyone so I settled on Gatlinburg, Tennessee and gave everyone options to fly
into Nashville, Charlotte and Atlanta. Each city had a “captain” and people
could coordinate their flights with that person so that the pick-up and drop
off times from the airport would be convenient. Crazy organized, but I LOVE
doing this stuff. My trip planning services are for hire by the way (Wink!
Wink!).
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| Welcome bags for my loves |
Where to Stay
Gatlinburg is a little mountain town that has a busy strip,
similar to what you would see in a beach town. I thought a cabin would be fun
and I figured it would allow us to maximize our time together. Homeaway was an easy
and convenient way to find a place. I read through the reviews and settled on a
beautiful cabin that housed all of us comfortably. Yes, some of us were
immature and did the whole run into the house and scream and claim beds thing…and
yes I was one of them.
One car of people went grocery shopping when we arrived
and I told everyone to BYOB so that everyone could drink what they really
wanted and we wouldn’t waste alcohol. I was turnt on my Pellegrino as
usual! The pros of the cabin outweighed
the cons since we got to stay up in our pajamas all night and hang out as a
group. The only downside was making sure everything was perfect and somewhat
clean before we left.
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| Sleepover Time! |
What to Do
We did a vote for activities so that everyone could do what they
wanted, but we made sure we did at least one activity together. We all went
ziplining and then half of the group left to go horseback riding while the
other half went whitewater rafting. My personal highlight was rafting although
I wish we could have taken a camera. If I had it to do over again, I would have
taken a waterproof one. On the ziplining part, tell someone in your group to
take one of those armbands to hold their camera so you can get fun action
shots. We booked the ziplining and whitewater rafting through the same company,
Rafting in the Smokies. It was awesome because they took care of everything and
they have a great system for large groups.
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| Ready for Ziplining |
There are TONS of restaurants but my favorite was Cherokee Grill. We actually went there twice and the second time we got a private room
and we thought we were exclusive. Maybe it was because we were so loud the
first time…LOL!
The scenery is GORGEOUS as you drive into Gatlinburg. The
roads wrap around the mountains so the drive is slow, but there are a ton of
lookout points with breathtaking views. We stopped a few times on our way to
town for photoshoots J
I can’t wait until our next trip! We’ve decided to do one every
two years from now on J
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