Monday Moments of Gratitude #16

Ahhh! So much to be grateful for! (Warning! Long post with lots of pix!) Linking up with Simply Shaunacey for another Monday Moments of Gratitude, a place where we are intentionally grateful for the little things in life.

1. Time off. I was busy living life and didn’t want to take any time away from life to write about it. Life has enough pressures so I’m glad I took some time off to simply live. I kept composing blog posts in my head but never made it over here to get them actually written down.

2. Lunch with my dad at Mrs. Wilke’s Boarding House in Savannah. I had learned about this place from an article in Southern Living magazine about a decade earlier. Dad and I have wanted to go and we finally made it happen. Savannah is about a two hour drive from Jacksonville but despite getting an early start, we still didn’t make the first seating. We waited in line for about two hours.

We finally got to the front of the line!And were shown to our table. It is already loaded with dishes of southern cooking. There was SO.MUCH.FOOD!I loaded my plate up with all matter of goodness. Seriously the best fried chicken I’ve ever had. I ate my fill (and then some!)

I even managed to eat a small dish of peach cobbler. Hey, I’m not a quitter. What can I say? Dad and I had a lovely time together. I’m so glad we did this! Next year we are going on the BBQ trail.

2. My daughter’s Sweet Sixteen. I’ve mentioned before that this is a milestone year. My daughter turned 16 and we celebrated twice: once with family and once with her friends. Two friends came over on the morning of her birthday while she was with her dad watching the sun rise at the beach and filled her room with 150 balloons.
That evening we took her group of girls to the Brick Restaurant in Avondale.

Everyone looked so pretty all dressed up!

I am so blessed to have a daughter! (The greatest gift and honor is having you as a daughter! What movie is that line from?)

3. Two week trip through NC and VA. I had two homeschool conventions on back-to-back weekends and rather than drive up and back, Michael and I turned that trip into a mini-vacation and checked off two more things off of our 25th Anniversary Palooza list! #13 {Camping trip}, #23 {Blue Ridge Parkway NC to VA} and #24 {Vineyard tour in VA}.
On Sunday we toured a winery and a cidery. We had discovered Chateau Morisette a decade earlier so it was fun to return to this beautiful location. The landscaping at this place is spectacular! We sampled lots of wines -some really good, others not quite to our tastes – and bought several bottles to enjoy later. We also bought souvenir tshirts. We stayed for a tour of the winery. It was so fun to see all the barrels!

And learn how they make wine. Fascinating!Take a look at the ceiling. They used reclaimed wood from a sunken ship! Isn’t it stunning?

After the winery we found Foggy Ridge Cidery and were blown away by their cider. It was more wine than beer and it was delicious! We bought several bottles.We later had a bottle back at our little cabin with some local hoop cheese. Did I mention how good? So good!

The next day we drove along the Blue Ridge Parkway to Floyd, VA. We found a cute little bookshop where we bought two children’s poetry books then went upstairs to have one of the best coffees we’ve ever had and went around the corner to the hardware store where we bought a locally made wooden cutting board. We camped at Peaks of Otter and the following day hiked to the top of Sharp Top Mountain. On our last day we camped outside of Charlottesville and visited Monticello. You might have caught some of that if you follow me on Instagram. For pictures of those adventures, go there!

4. Father’s Day. We had lunch at our friends’ house and visited with old friends who were in town. Four of the families have been friends from when we first moved to Jacksonville almost seventeen years ago. We caught up, reminisced and swapped stories. So.Much.Fun. So much laughter! Some of the kids even got to catch up!

That evening we picked up Timothy, our middle son, from the airport. He was returning from Colorado where he had spent a month serving at Young Life’s Frontier Ranch. So good to hug on him again!
5. James and Jessica’s wedding. This past weekend we flew to Chicago to attend Michael’s cousin’s wedding. We had fun at the rehearsal dinner and the following evening at the wedding.  The band playing at the reception was seriously SO GOOD! We had a blast dancing all night long.

Then the next day we walked all over the Art Institute of Chicago where we got to see many favorite Impressionism paintings and sculptures and then  caught an Uber to have lunch at Carmine’s. After that we walked the Magnificent Mile where I found a couple of really good deals. We logged close to 8 miles that day!
Like I said, so much to be grateful for! What are you grateful for this week? Link up with Shaunacey or tell me in the comments so I can celebrate with you!