Now that June has rolled around, my family is planning to celebrate our Tennesseeiversary. After searching for a place to lay down roots, we feel incredibly blessed to have landed here in Knoxville. We’ve officially made it two full years thriving in Tennessee! As far as what we might do to celebrate, we have tossed around a few ideas and can’t wait to have a fun-filled day remembering our excitement when we first arrived.
One thing that comes to mind is a visit to Moonshine Mountain Cookie Company. When we first moved in, our sweet neighbor Karen brought us a box of these cookies to welcome us to the neighborhood. We thought they were absolutely delicious and loved that they were a Knoxville original company established in 1988. We don’t have any other particular reason to grab cookies, other than the nostalgic feeling we get remembering our neighbor’s heartfelt welcome when we were adjusting to our new place. 
We would love to plan a trip to Dollywood again but since ticket prices are not quite in the budget for our large family this year, we may put that off until closer to Christmas. We visited Dollywood for the first time around Christmas the first year we were here and it was a great family environment filled with sweet little Smoky Mountain memories. We also visited Anakeesta and hold it as a core memory in our hearts. We were blown away by the mountain skyline and fell in love with our new home’s beauty. A season pass to Anakeesta is a little less steep on price and is on our radar for a couple of repeat visits for sure. We are truly blessed to live in a place with so much natural beauty, most of which remains unexplored by our family.
What are some of y’all’s favorite little East Tennessee spots that you frequent? Bonus points if they are Knoxville native businesses!
The heat this summer is tough to beat, but we do enjoy going for walks on a few of the story book trails around East Tennessee. If you nature walk this is a great option for you at no additional cost. We usually pack a picnic lunch, water bottles, and bug spray, and adventure on the trails. One of our favorites is the storybook trail near the Powell library since it’s so close to our house. We love being able to reserve books through their online portal and then swing by to pick them up on our way out from the trail. Their library book reservation is a great option for busy moms with lots of littles because it cuts down on the chaos that can happen in the library and allows for you to investigate and read up on the book titles before checking them out. 
