Road Trip Video

Tennessee

Some may say that Disneyland is the happiest place on Earth, but they’ve never been to Shelbyville, Tennessee. It is truly heaven. We stayed at this little charming bed and breakfast called The Parish Patch with hundred of acres of gorgeous property. We came for the Tennessee Walking Horse Celebration- for those that don’t know, Tennessee walking horses are the best horses around.

Day one we spent going through the antique shops and stores in Bell Buckle and Wartrace. They were the cutest small towns. We also got to see lots of cute little foals (baby horses). They reaffirmed Manda’s life long goal to someday have a mare.

We loved spending time with the Baucoms and Father Gordon loved having his best friend Sid around.

  

We had an awesome dinner at the Cortner Mill with the Baucom family.

We then got to go to the horse shows. It was amazing. You will not believe how these horses can move. It made us resent the fact that our dad never let us show growing up. The only downer of the night: Manda dropped her brand new video camera and it broke…right before Europe. Epic fail.

Day two we spent the morning looking at horses. It was awesome. Meet 2 new members of our family. Interpreter is the chestnut and Nad is the gray roan. Both need to be renamed, but we love them already! :)

The Tennessee Walking Horse Celebration grounds

We then took a little stroll down by the Duck River. We had a run in with snakes, frogs, and LOTS of spiders.

So much twin love

The butterflies loved people

The awesome chapel

Farmer Father Gordon. He was obsessed with how the soy beans were grown

The awesome Parish Patch

A visit to the Normandy Dam and lake

Some more horse shows

The celebration grounds are right on Evans Street! Fate.

Last day at the Parish Patch

Our favorite road in Tennessee

Nobody knows why Manda looks like the hunchback of Notre Dame

 We LOVE you Tennessee. This was just the first of our annual tradition to come back for the Tennessee Walking Horse Celebration! It was a trip we’ll never forget!

Tennessee Video

North Carolina

We made it to Carolina. The Cindy-Kate reunion was quite adorable and we were all quite happy to have the SSSS reunited. We were welcomed by these cute signs Kate made us.

One of the first things we learned was that North Carolina has GIGANTIC spiders…it’s not safe. But they also have magical fireflies. The fire trucks are baby blue. There is vegetation everywhere. There is no parking anywhere. It is boiling lava hot. And there are no mountains.

We got some quality time with the little monster aka “Kate Dahle.” She refers to herself in the third person all the time and it’s adorable. She obviously loves Manda most.

The first day was kind of a disaster as we didn’t get much done, but hanging out with the little rugrats was a great time. That night we went to dinner with one of our first soccer coaches then got some great gelato- we need to prepare for Italy.

We then made the walk to the UNC well so we could drink from its magical waters. Apparently we should now get straight A’s. Fingers are crossed.

The girls love their aunts

The next day we decided a 6 mile walk to and around campus on the first day of school was a good idea. Obviously everyone needs a twin totem pole picture by the bell tower (unfortunately this one doesn’t play LDS hymns). We got lots of weird looks… it happens.

The campus is beautiful. We want to transfer. Sister love.

Some lunch on campus

Our new school

And who could skip out on a picture with the bull. Life changing

It was a successful day and we fell more in love with the beautiful trees and architecture in Chapel Hill. The girls love their Nana (but not as much as Manda)

On Wednesday we took the 2 hour drive to the beach (I guess we just missed driving too much) but it was so fun. Kate LOVED the beach didn’t stop playing the entire time we were there. We sure love that little girl.

Another twin totem picture

A little Pride and Prejudice and MacBeth on the beach.

Me and Mel were matching…on accident. It actually happens all the time. We both only brought 1 sweatshirt and it was the same too #twinproblems

Smell and cute smiley Jane

Cindy Loo and Smell

We discovered that the Evans are definitely mountain people over beach people. We are not a fan on the sand, but we still love a good day at the beach. We have also learned that sunscreen is probably a good idea. We got fried #lobsters.

Papa aka Father Gordon flew in that night and we spent the next day at the Children’s Museum where Kate showed us the lemurs, bears, butterflies, and dinosaurs. She loved playing in the mist with Mel.

That night “Doctor Dahle” had Papa read her some books in her big girl chair.

The last day was spent at the park with some good play time with Kate and then said a tearful goodbye and we headed off to Tennessee. More to come!