Us love birds had a great time on our weekend getaway together to the Smokey's, lol! It was a much needed trip and a wonderful way to celebrate our first anniversary! As I mentioned in my last post, Cody and I took Friday off of work and we drove up Thursday night to stay at our Nana's house in Knoxville so we could hit the road early Friday morning. So after work Thursday we headed up and immediately went to Cheesecake Factory and had the delicious mac n' cheese burger and a slice of oreo cheesecake (I mean we had to!). We then continued on to our Nana's house and had a great time catching up all together. The next morning we woke up bright and early at 7:00am and got ice to surround our wedding cake topper in our cooler and headed to Gatlinburg to eat breakfast at the Applebarn. We LOVE Applebarn and enjoy the apple julep, apple fritters, and apple muffins.
I of course had to wear my Raborn wedding shirt on our drive and first day in Gatlinburg! And hey check out my new cool sunglasses that I can wear now! I am so proud. Thanks lasik! (lasik post coming soon)
At the Applebarn we were lucky enough to get a bench swing which is really rare. Spending the work day in Gatlinburg was a great idea, no people around!
We walked around the apple orchard and enjoyed the shops. We had 5 hours to kill until our cabin was ready so we decided to make Friday our Gatlinburg day and Saturday our cabin day.
We then went to walk around Tanger outlit. We found the Oakley shop (since I can wear actual sunglasses now) and found these crazy inspector gadget sunglasses.
After searching around Tanger outlit we headed to the Gatlinburg strip for a few hours. We walked up and down the strip looking at all the cute shops and were so surprised to see all of the fire damage. We rode the new skylift to see all of the damage from 6 months ago. It was very sad.
Look at the trees! They were black and little toothpicks! They had to replace the whole skylift from the damage too.
This was the top of the skylift where there used to be a big building to collect your pictures and you could walk around. As you can see there is nothing at all. It burned down and you could no longer stop at the top. The view was gorgeous though!
I mean just look! It is absolutely breathtaking!
So at 4 our cabin was ready and we got to drop our stuff off and get settled in just in time for the big dinner surprise Cody had for us at 6:00. So we drove back to the Gatlinburg strip all dressed up and Cody lead me up to the Melting Pot! I was SO shocked! I didn't even know there was a Melting Pot in Gatlinburg. Cody had made special reservations for us and they lead us to a small romantic area in the back that had a little oven and table just for us. It was decorated with rose petals and had our sparkling cider all there for us. To say I was shocked out of my mind was an understatement. Cody goes so far above and beyond to make me feel so special. That is just him and his heart, he always goes out of his way to make me happy. I just couldn't stop hugging him. We got a special meal of steak, fish, and shrimp. The cheese fondue was to die for, and the dessert chocolate fondue was heavenly! It was so special and romantic as we were able to talk together and exchange gifts as we feasted on the delicious fondue. Traditionally for the first wedding anniversary the husband gets the wife some kind of paper and Cody took that seriously and had his mom make this delicate INCREDIBLE peony 1st anniversary card that was just so special. It was our wedding colors and just beautiful. Cody also bought this beautiful stationary 'R' pack that I will cherish for a long time. Cody also knows how much I cherish writing and journaling so he got me a gorgeous diary for me to write our adventures in! He is a sweetheart and so thoughtful. To end the dinner we got to take home the roses and were given some chocolate covered strawberries to go and a framed picture of us. It was beyond an incredible once-in-a-lifetime experience that I was so glad we were able to have together.
Our waitress also wrote in chocolate, Happy Anniversary for us! That was a sweet personal touch that was very important to me. You have no idea how much and how hard I looked for a place to do that for our honeymoon with no prevail.
So after dinner we waddled back to our apartment absolutely stuffed and enjoyed the hot tub watching the sunset for the rest of the night.
The next morning we woke up bright and early to watch the gorgeous sunset. I may or may not had us walk around and take pictures before we could have breakfast, sorry Cody, I love pictures which are practically memories for me.
Our little lovers lookout cabin was so small quiet and quaint and we LOVED it. Money well spent! It was the most amazing gift to be able to stay a day in a half in this luxury together.
The view from our porch was just breathtaking. We woke up every morning and had a little bible study together listening and watching the nature around us. Unfortunately we didn't get to see a black bear. Apparently each guest sees one around the cabin but we never ran into one. At night the Christmas lights would light up and we would swing or hot tub and watch the gorgeous sunset.
This was the main area of the cabin, the owners put such a sweet personal touch to it. There were such cute details. On Saturday we watched 50 First Dates twice because #1 we love that movie, #2 it was a relaxing lazy day!
This was the cute little kitchen area.
This was my favorite spot in the whole cabin, the little porch swing.
I loved how you could control the hot tub temperature so we were able to keep it at a bath temperature so we could stay in it longer.
Our little bedroom had a giant four poster king sized bed overlooking the mountains from the window.
There was even a fireplace in the bedroom.
There was a jacuzzi tub in the corner of the bedroom and we put bubble mix into the water and turned the jets on. Lets just say that wasn't the best idea. They bubbles were over our heads and spilled out EVERYWHERE. We spent about an hour cleaning up haha!
And this my friends, is the downstairs. This was our favorite place; this also overlooked the mountains, and yes that was a pool table behind us. We probably played 15 games in one day and could have played more. We LOVED it. Also there was mini foosball and air hockey under the pool table that I smoked Cody in ;).
So roll around to dinner time on Saturday and Cody and I were obviously hungry. So we ordered a pizza and for dessert had almost the entire top tier of our wedding cake. Best. Cake. Ever. It was even better than it was on our wedding day. We had a rich white champagne cake with buttercream layers inside and a white chocolate ganache around the outside of the cake. It was to die for. We enjoyed celebrating together and couldn't believe that it had already been a year. I can't believe it. It was such a sweet magical romantic trip that I wouldn't trade for the world.
Later that night, Cody and I popped in our entire ceremony footage seeing it for the first time. It brought tears to our eyes seeing our wedding again. We plan to do this new tradition for all of the years to come.
We even brought a cake cutting set (and the R from our original cake)! Props to me for remembering! LOL!
Absolutely delicious!
The next day with a heavy heart we had to pack up and leave by 11:00am. But you better believe we squeezed every minute our of our morning leaving at 10:59am meeting the cleaning crew on the way out. We just couldn't pull ourselves away from the view and the porch and our mini paradise. We luckily had the chance to wake up early and have our bible study together outside before we left.
On the way out we had planned to stop in at the Christmas Shoppe to get something we tried to find this past Christmas, our first Christmas ornament. It was so crowded last December that we just promised ourselves that we would come back for our anniversary and get it and we did just that! I am so glad we were able to choose and find our perfect ornament and get it customized for us. I loved it so much! We will have it on our Christmas tree forever! We got back home at around 3:00pm and enjoyed the rest of our actual anniversary day, the 4th, watching Criminal Minds and eating ice cream on our porch and enjoying the fact that we now have room in our freezer (from the eaten wedding cake). :):)
It was an absolute amazing trip that I am so grateful we were able to plan and take a day off of work. I love anniversaries and can't wait for the years to come! Next year we are going back to PCB!! Wahooo!!!! We have something "big" planned up our sleeves for our 5th! ;)
It was an absolute amazing trip that I am so grateful we were able to plan and take a day off of work. I love anniversaries and can't wait for the years to come! Next year we are going back to PCB!! Wahooo!!!! We have something "big" planned up our sleeves for our 5th! ;)
With so much love,
Kayla Raborn
6-18-17
