Rich, Heather and Alana’s Blog

Happy 30th Birthday to my wonderful husband!!! His actual birthday was last Saturday, August 19th, but we were in Highlands, North Carolina for the weekend to celebrate our 2nd Anniversary as well as Rich’s birthday. And if you’ve ever been to Highlands, you are well aware that it is gorgeous and quaint, but that contact with the outside world is severely limited. For example, I had zero cell phone service for the entire trip! There is a cute little place called SweetTreats (with delicious food and ridiculously good ice cream) that serves as the town’s wireless internet access, but we’d decided to leave our laptop at home. Needless to say, Rich and I had so much fun while there we really didn’t miss it all that much. We enjoyed nature. We ate lots of great food. How about if I just share some pictures from our weekend?

Oops! I must back up for a moment. The day before we left town, we had a family birthday get together for Rich at Logan’s Steakhouse, one of his favorites. We had a great dinner and I got out the cake that I had brought to the restaurant. Here is Rich with the cookies ‘n’ cream cake that I made for him and discreetly placed his age (30) on the top!

Here is Rich with his nephew Ben, who turned 3 just a day before Rich turned 30! They blew out the candles together…

We set the camera up at the end of the table and tried to get a group shot…all of Rich’s immediate family was there: his parents (my wonderful in-laws), Jeff and Jackie, Randy and Susan and their 4 kids. We had a great time!

A sweetie shot…

And now we come to the Highlands pictures. This first picture is of the cabin where we stayed. It was gorgeous…many bedrooms and furnished beautifully. Friends of ours own it, and were so gracious to let us stay for the weekend. Thank you so much, Davis family! What a blessing!!!

This was just one of the many wonderful buildings on Main Street…Rich and I love stonework, and spent time admiring the Highlands architecture.

On Saturday morning, we went to Bucks coffee shop on Main Street and looked over some local maps to decide where we wanted to go hiking. We chose a moderate hike (about 2 miles) called Whiteside Mountain. Here we are are the trailhead…

Here we are at the summit, but unfortunately, the day was very hazy and the view wasn’t as spectacular as it would have otherwise been. We still enjoyed the hike, the scenery, and spending time together.

Then Rich got this amazing shot. I think it is very reminiscent of Ansel Adams…

Done with our hike and ready to head back downtown…

We found these wrought iron porthole looking things and liked the way they look…

We went back to the cabin and made a cake for Rich’s birthday evening, and went to dinner Saturday evening at Woflgangs, a restaurant on Main Street with excellent cuisine.

It was Rich’s birthday dinner, and it was delicious!!! Since we had a cake waiting back at the cabin, we passed on dessert and headed back.

A self-portrait by Heather…who said Rich was the only one with this talent?

This is Rich about to enjoy one of his mini-bundt cakes, and somehow I managed to capture some really cool light while it was playing with the shadows…

And I can’t even begin to explain how Rich did this one. We were sitting at the dining room table eating cake when he told me to look into the mirror while he took a picture. I had no idea it would actually turn out!

I decided to bring Rich’s presents with us to Highlands so he could open everything on his actual birthday. Amber and Jonathan had sent Madagascar, one of our favorites. The characters are genious, and King Julian absolutely cracks us up…we talk in his voice to each other on a regular basis.

And I don’t have a picture, but my mom had gotten Rich a pair of really cool plaid Quicksilver shorts that he liked back when we were at Disneyworld in July. She had snuck back into the store and bought them for his birthday! Totally surprised him! Go mom!

Amber and Jonathan even sent a present for me! It is a supersoft blanket, my favorite kind, and my goal was to have one in every room of our house to match the decor. This one is in the guest bedroom! Thank you guys!!!

Rich wanted a new pair of perscription glasses for his birthday, so we went shopping in Chattanooga. We found this Oakley pair that we love, and they were a gift from his parents! He wore them for the first time during our weekend in Highlands and really likes them! He’s a hottie…

We found a local community bible church and went to church Sunday morning. It was a great service! After church, we went to a local barbeque place and used the paper bag placemats to write love notes to each other…

Before we left on Sunday afternoon, we played a tie breaker game of pool. Rich had won the first game on Saturday, then I won a game, and Rich was NOT going to leave Highlands until he sealed his victory. So, we played a third game and it was down to the 8 ball. We both took several turns trying to sink the 8 ball and then Rich was successful. Good game, honey. Just wait until next time…

Then we went out back for just a few minutes before heading out. There was a really fun tree swing and we each took a turn and had a blast.

On our way out of town, we stopped at Dry Falls and took in the beautiful waterfall. It’s huge, but you can actually walk behind it and stay fairly dry. We enjoyed the view and then hopped back into our car for the 3 hour trip home. It was a great weekend, and again, thank you Davis family for your generosity! We miss you!

This is Rich. I thought I would tack some stuff to the end of this blog.

I was looking at some pictures on our computer when I found a picture that totally made me do a double take. A self-portrait pre Nathan-and-Amber days… in the first year that we met! First thing that I see is that I’ve totally gained some weight since I’ve gotten married. Look how thin my face is! Thought the whole gaining weight thing after one gets married was a myth but it’s not! So I have a few things to take away from that: 1) eating home cooked meals with veggies every day doesn’t give someone better health and 2) eating frozen pizzas and fast food can’t be as bad as “they” say. Before I was married I ate HORRIBLY as a single guy — Taco Bell, Krystal, WHOLE large thin-crust pizza’s… the works — and see how I looked!? Now I’m married and now I have a double chin and I’m eating better than I’ve ever eaten before. Okay… MAYBE it’s not being married that is causing this weight gain but lack of exercise and I’m now 30 years old!

Second thing I notice is a typical Heather-Rich thing. Notice that Heather is wearing a turtleneck and a jacket and I’m wearing a t-shirt! Heather is ALWAYS cold. That hasn’t changed a bit. What a cutie.

Back to the present day:

My best friend Jeff Read took me out to eat at Applebee’s last week. What an amazing friend. We’ve been friends since high school and will no doubt be friends till our dying breath. Just one of those friends that a person only has a few of in a life-time. Love you, bro. I didn’t have the camera with me but he had this really, really cool camera/PDA/camera phone that could literally do everything. Too bad it didn’t have a wide angle lens because I’d love to have gotten the Applebee’s sign. Thanks for the save and the memories, Jeff!

I have a couple of weeks to update, so I will breeze through these…

Rich wanted to see Superman again (okay, I did too!), so we headed back to the theater (where we rarely go in the first place because we hate to pay ridiculous amounts of money to watch movies) to catch the “man in tights” for the second time. This time, with Mikey and Naomi. We grabbed dinner first and then enjoyed the movie and the great company. Very fun…

Then on Saturday night, we went down to Coolidge park for the “Movies in the Park” series in July. I wish we could have gone to more of them, but this is the only Saturday in July that we were able to go. We hooked up with Chris and Jennifer and barely watched any of the movie (Cheaper by the Dozen II) since we were talking. I love the idea of family friendly movies in the park for when we have kids…just so fun! And being under the stars with the man I love is very romantic…

With Chris and Jennifer…who were very impressed with Rich’s ability to take great self-portraits! We just tell everyone we learned it from Nathan and Amber, some unbelievably talented photographer friends of ours!

Then this past weekend (August 4-6), Jeff and Jackie (Rich’s brother and his wife) spent moving into their new home in Cleveland, TN. We are SO excited for them! They bought a home not far at all from their apartment in Cleveland, but now they are homeowners and have SO much more space to enjoy. On Friday night we all went to dinner at Logan’s and failed to take ANY pictures! Humph! We don’t even have a good pictures of the house yet, but we will soon. Here we are in their new kitchen…

Sweeties…

And on Saturday night we had Jason and Kellie over. The Dykast’s moved here from Corvallis, Oregon in March to begin a Calvary Chapel in Cleveland, TN. I have SO enjoyed spending time with Kellie, so Rich and I were excited for the opportunity to have them over for dinner and a game night!

We had Rich’s delicious honey terriyaki grilled chicken and got to hear Jason and Kellie’s story over dinner and how it was that they came to move across the country. It was a great time, and what really impressed me was their willingness to consider when and where God was leading. They never would have considered moving to the East Coast until God placed in on their hearts, and they chose to listen and pray…and here they are! I am convinced that God is glorified when we make a move (often a sacirifical one), on the basis of His leading and prompting. It will be neat to watch what God does with Calvary Cleveland!

Then we busted out “Cranium” — a board game of which I am a big fan!!! We played couples against each other, and it made for a fun dynamic. See, not knowing Jason and Kellie very well, we thought maybe Kellie was over-exaggerating when she told us that Jason was a really good “guesser”…but we soon found out that was not the case. In fact, I think it was an understatement. With most of their turns, Kellie would perform the action, and within about twenty seconds, Jason would be spitting out the right answer…which would leave Rich and I with our mouths hanging open, stupified. Even when she hadn’t had enough time to fully draw or act out, he would guess correctly! So I am thinking next time we will have to split Jason and Kellie up and play girls against guys

Oh, and for anyone wondering…they won. But not by much! Rich and I had made it into the “winner’s circle” or the “cranium” or whatever you call it!

Here’s Kellie acting something out…I can’t remember what exactly, but I am sure Jason guessed it immediately and they got to move forward!

Oh! I can’t forget to mention the AMAZING frozen mud pie dessert that they made for the night! All I know is that it involved Starbucks Java Chip Ice Cream and it was one of the more yummy desserts I’ve ever had. I have definitely polished off what they left for us! Thanks for a great night, guys!