25!

I celebrated my 25th birthday on Saturday! My celebration began with the alarm going off at 5:00 am. What crazy person would wake up at that ridiculous hour- me! But I had good reason! For my 25th birthday, my husband wanted to give me an experience that I'm sure I will never forget- he took me on a hot air balloon ride!! I was honestly a little scared to go up- but I knew that it would be worth it, and it was! It was so peaceful and calm. You did not even feel the wind blowing, it was almost like we were floating above the mountains. Since our flight was around 7:30 in the morning, we had a breathtaking view of the Blue Ridge Mountains and the sun rising. In the mornings here, there is a lot of fog, so it was really beautiful to see the mountains with the patches of fog in between them. Our pilot actually took us one whole mile up! It was definitely a birthday to remember and I am thankful that I will have that memory with my sweet husband. Enough with the talking and onto some pictures:

 Sunrise in the field that we took off from.

 Inflating the balloons. 

 There is ours!

 Happy Birthday to me!

 Going up!

 Great view with all the balloons. 

 Spectacular. 

 The ground crew.

 We made it!!

Since we were finished with our hot air ballooning adventure at 9:00, we still had the whole day to celebrate. We got breakfast at a little coffee shop and headed to the Farmer's Market. After the Farmer's Market, I thought that we were going to head home, but Justin surprised me once again. For my birthday I was wanting some patio furniture for our little patio off of our apartment- so we went patio furniture shopping. We went to about 6 different places and I found some things that I liked. I have expensive taste and all the items that I loved were way out of our price range, so we went home to think about it ;) 

After resting at home for a bit, we went to have a picnic for lunch (which turned out to be the worst picnic ever- ooopps- completely my fault!) Justin had suggested all these amazing picnic locations, but I told him that I didn't want to hike and I didn't want to drive over an hour away just to eat a picnic. It has been super hot here, and the temperatures on Saturday were making me feel very sluggish and almost sick. I had the brilliant idea to drive on the Blue Ridge Parkway and eat at one of the overlooks. Yes, genius idea. I had forgot that all of the overlooks were basically just a parking lot with no cute picnic areas. After driving for a while, and getting super hungry, I decided to just stop off at an overlook at eat. Well it was probably the worst location for a picnic- we were eating on a sidewalk with a not so great view, all the while cars were pulling up behind us. I could just imagine the people getting out of the cars were thinking, "Why on earth are these people eating here?" So it was not the best picnic in the world, but it was all my fault and I take the blame. It is actually kind of funny looking back on it, and Justin has told me we can have a make-up picnic later this week at a better location. 

The hot sun made me want ice cream so we stopped by Rita's and got some Italian Ice and frozen custard and sat around, cooled off and enjoyed each other's company.

The last part of my birthday was dinner at the Grove Park Inn! We got all dressed up and headed out to eat.

 Grove Park Inn

 Thank you Grove Park Inn :)

 LOVE him :)

Last year we had dinner at the Grove Park Inn on the Sunset Terrace and it was such a great memory for me. This year did not quite reach the bar that was set last year. They first lost our dinner reservations and then the service was pretty terrible. But, I enjoyed spending time with my amazing husband and enjoyed one of my favorite views in this area. As we were walking back to the car, they were actually shooting off fireworks- FOR MY BIRTHDAY! Just kidding- it was to celebrate their 99 years. But I like to think it was for me ;) 

On Sunday we went out and picked up my patio furniture that I decided on and we even ate dinner on our patio for the first time that night!

My 25th birthday was a very memorable day(s). Even though there were some unexpected moments (like a bad picnic or terrible service) I love that my husband and family go out of their way to make me feel special and it truly was a wonderful day(s). Thank you for all the love that was shown to me on my birthday!