the cabin of love

Happy Way Back When-sday!!

As I was browsing through old pictures today, searching for fall-ish inspiration, I came up my veritable treasure trove of pictures from Fall Break 2006: The Cabin of Love. It would be a crime not to humiliate myself and my friends share.

Way back in October of 2006, Matt and I were not even engaged (that would happen in December, FYI). My bestie Kristina and her then-fiance James had been engaged for a few months. We decided a fun and festive Fall Vacation was in order when we had a long weekend from our grueling jobs at Wesley. Since we had no money to speak of, it was decided that we would travel to Gatlinburg, TN and spend the weekend at my family's cabin. It was without a doubt one of my most fun vacations ever. The only thing that coulda made it better was...well, ya know, being married. Nudge nudge, wink wink, ya know what I mean?? ;)

Anyway. We had a lot of fun, and lucky for you us, managed to document much of it!! Here's what it was like being on vacation with 23-year-old us:

 First of all, we waste no opportunity for festive pictures. And Gatlinburg is nothing if not full of festivity. And since Kristina and I are arguably two of the more photogenic people on the face of the earth, it makes sense that we spent most of our time posing for pictures like this:

 

  
It's good we got it out of our systems then, since we'd spend most of the next year looking fabulous in each other's wedding pictures. 

Never one to be out-shown in the weird department, James gets in on the photo-action:

 We also spent a lot of time shopping browsing downtown. And Kristina had strong feelings about some candy displays, apparently.

And I know it's hard to believe, but we even found a WEDDING CHAPEL, appropriately named Cupid's Chapel of Love!! We exercised great self-restraint by not just pulling a double-elopement right then and there. Instead, we embraced the opportunity for more pictures.

Above, Mattie and I are practicing for our future engagement. Apparently he didn't like my reaction/feigned excitement, which is why he waited until it was like MIDNIGHT and I was laying on my DEATHBED (a few months later) to ask me.

Finally, and arguably most importantly, we ate corndogs. Not just any corndogs. The best corndogs ever. Seriously, they're worth the drive to Gatlinburg (assuming you live within a day's drive). These we ate with great exitement and much gusto. They are worth it.

Thanks for journeying back in time with us. Let me know if you want to join Matt and I for our next trip to the Cabin of Love!