A Farewell and Reunion

It’s been QUITE the busy weekend for us! We got up bright and early on Saturday to drive up to Tennessee and help my brother move in to his dorm. It’s his first year at Sewanee, an awesome little liberal arts college a few hours away from Atlanta!

Once we arrived there and helped get David all settled, Jason and I took Ashley out for an adventure while my parents and David went to orientation sessions. The area around his school is SO beautiful–full of awesome things to see and do in nature. We passed by a sign for Russell Cave National Monument along the highway and decided that it sounded cool.

I’m so glad that we did because it was the perfect afternoon activity. The park is free and the cave, which was once inhabited by migrant native americans, was awesome. You take a little trail into the woods and then suddenly reach this massive rock formation with a fog filled opening and a quiet stream running through it.

I love doing activities like this with Ashley! She’s always up for an adventure and so ready to learn new things.

My dad let her borrow his camera for the day and she is quite the little photographer! My dad taught her how to use the zoom lens and change the settings on the camera so she takes some really good shots.

Runs in the family. 😉

Back on campus we enjoyed a nice afternoon picnic hosted by the school.

Can’t get enough of this sweet face:

After that it was time to say our goodbyes to David! I’m sad to see him leave home and a little nervous for him, but also so happy for him and proud of him. We’re going to miss him at home but I know he’ll have a great time at school.

The fun didn’t stop there! We drove back home last night, slept hard, then woke up this morning to get ready for a little shindig! It just so happens that I live in the same apartment complex with a few of my high school classmates. We hadn’t gotten a chance to really see much of each other, so we thought it would be fun to get some of our old high school gang together to have lunch in our complex. We decided on a potluck, which turned out so well!

We ended up with a great spread of healthy foods! I brought roasted tomato pesto pasta and a simple fruit salad with mango, strawberries, and pineapple. There was also smoothies, curried couscous, a green salad, quiche, and some sweet goodies like brownies and cinnamon rolls.

Everything was so yummy and it was SO great to see these ladies again. The closest four girls in the above picture are all going to be DOCTORS! So amazing! They’re all at different phases of med school and I’m certain that they will all go on to save the world and like a billion people’s lives. All my friends from high school are doing such cool things and it’s great to catch up and see how everyone’s doing.

The only twins I’ve ever known (and can still tell apart! yessss), Ari and Mia:

Group shot with a slightly failed sorority squat (don’t worry Ansley, I blame Jason for not catching it in the viewfinder!):

After lots of playtime with Cynewulf and Chinese for dinner, we are once again ready to crash hard. Hopefully I can wake up at a more reasonable hour tomorrow morning…

Have a great start to your week!

-Lauren