Sunday evening we put on our nice clothes and took some potential Christmas card photos. I appreciate my family indulging me!

Not going to be the Christmas card…

What I wish could be the Christmas card – but they’ll never let me!

It does not get cuter than this!

After photos Robert went to get a massage at the spa while the rest of us enjoyed the game room…

We then had a wonderful final dinner at the Dogwood. Robert and the kids headed out early Monday morning to get back for football practice but GJ and I stayed for the cooking demonstration with Chef Joe.

It was informative and entertaining! and despite the fact that I had eaten a full stack of pancakes at breakfast, I still ate every bit of the delicious lunch he prepared! A fantastic way to end the trip.

It was such a special weekend at a very special place. I feel so fortunate I got to experience it and cannot wait to go back!

On Sunday we had a full breakfast…at different times! Everyone got to sleep in and be on their own schedule. But we did take advantage of the farm!

The kids loved having their own golf cart to drive around in!

After lunch we headed over to the fly fishing area to get suited up!

We had a short lesson…

https://flic.kr/p/2sHz3bQ

We then divided into groups and headed out to fish!

Everyone except me caught a fish! One guess who caught the most fish and the biggest fish?!

Samantha! She wouldn’t touch it though. Love her. Lots of impressive catches…

After fishing we enjoyed the scenery…

and thoroughly enjoyed the afternoon! More Blackberry tomorrow!

Robert and Maxwell made it up to Blackberry in time for a delicious lunch and then we headed off site to go clay shooting!

Our instructors could not have been nicer and everyone got as many turns as they wanted to shoot on the course!

Target practice…

Now on to the clays!

The whole course was great with plenty for these boys – and girl! – to shoot at!

Shoot out!

We then headed back to the farm to enjoy the pretty scenery…

That night we had an epic 5 course dinner at The Barn…fully enjoyed while the boys watched the Bama game on their phones in their lap. ha!

A pretty perfect day! More tomorrow!

Over fall break we took a very special trip to Blackberry Farm to celebrate GJ’s 75th birthday! She had wanted to go there for a long time and while we didn’t have full leaf color change, it was still a fantastic fall weekend in the mountains of Tennessee!

Maxwell had to stay in Birmingham for the football game Friday night and Robert agreed to stay with him after a tropical storm warning was issued thanks to Hurricane Isaias. GJ, Spencer, Samantha, and I drove up Friday afternoon. Our drive was uneventful until about 30 minutes out from Blackberry when we got Tboned by a bear! We were driving down highway 321 and an enormous black bear comes running across the median and runs directly into the driver’s side of our car. Thankfully GJ kept her cool and kept driving and we didn’t run off the road. We didn’t realize the full extent of the damage until we got to Blackberry and took a look.

Her car was damaged from front wheel base to back! We have no idea how the bear banged up the entire side of the car and still ran off. We were just thankful to be uninjured! We got check into our beautiful rooms and had an amazing dinner at the Dogwood that night!

The next morning the girls got up and took full advantage of the spa! Perfect for a rainy morning…

Then we checked out the car damage in the daylight…oof.

On our walk back to our cottage we meet Mr. Tom and friends! Let’s just say Samantha was NOT a fan!

While we were checking it all out Spencer was thoroughly enjoying his lazy morning too!

Robert and Maxwell made it up in time for lunch and lots more adventures! See you tomorrow!