Vacation pt. 3 (The Day We Lost Our Minds)

It started out with a simple gem mining expedition and turned into a 260 mile day trip! 

As according to our plan for the day we went to our favorite gem mine.  We chose to do the new fossil buckets and if I'm honest, it was slightly disappointing.  There were some shells, sharks teeth and "mineral deposits", next year we'll got back to the traditional gem buckets!  The boys still had a blast playing with dirt, water and rocks!  

Afterwards Jed and I were talking and thought that since were already close to Waynesville and the Blue Ridge Parkway, lets just go there!  We got subs in town and headed to one of our favorite stops on the parkway to eat.  Of course this was the day that the Smoky's held true to their name, we were sitting in a cloud with no view.  

The Smoky Mountains, name sake. 

We finished lunch and drove on, hoping to wait out the fog.  As we drove we kept saying to ourselves, "We're already here, let just keep going!"  This went on and on and we ended up in Tennessee and then Cades Cove, which I had been wanting to visit since our first trip to the mountains!   

It cleared up a bit, perfect time for a group shot! 

Isla's a fan of the Blue Ridge! 

Cades Cove! 

The drive through Cades Cove is a one way single lane road with pull offs along the way. This bear didn't take into consideration the pull off areas when he chose the a tree to nap in so we were trapped in a traffic jam for 45 minutes while everyone got out to take their pictures.  

We waited so long, that Evan and I got out and walked half a mile to the bear and waited for Jed to meet us.  While we were waiting a larger bear appeared out in the field behind us.  It was very exciting... at first.  We were surrounded by a group of people, there were cars around us and a rope between us and the field.  As Evan and I watched the bear, it began to dawn on me that there was nothing stopping either of the two bears from attacking us, if the impulse struck, not that I thought it would but I still realized how foolish it was to be out, with no way to protect myself.  Fortunately both bears were more interested in napping, than finding dinner.  

Jed finally made it through the long line of cars, we let the kids look at the bear, before heading out.  

We considered getting dinner in Gatlinburgh but changed our mind when everything was swamped with tourists and parking was $15!  

We drove home, enjoying the beautiful sunsets on our way. We grabbed McDonald's in a small town along the way and got home around 10.

It was a crazy, fun, beautiful, day! 

Vacation pt. 2

Morning coffee! 

Then a hike at Whiteside Mountain. 

The trails were mostly rock on the way up! 

Which the boys loved.  They found countless, "golden rocks" (shiny) to pick up and add to their collections.  

The first viewing area at the top. 

This was my favorite lookout, it seemed the safest. 

I even let the girl wander around. 

 Her first mountain hike! 

Some how the steel ropes here, were not as reassuring!  

They didn't seem to worry Ford though. 

The cliff's edge. 

A quick water break, it still melts my heart when I see my boys willingly taking care of their little sister. 

Half way point! 

 

My hiking view. 

Who's more exhausted here?! 

Back down the mountain we go! 

This was definitely one of my favorite hikes.  I hope to do it again when the kids are older!  

Vacation pt.1

At the last minute our summer plans to go to Michigan fell through.  We were left scrambling to come up with something else.  It wasn't hard to pick a place, we are in love with the mountains of NC!  It was hard to find cabin in our budget, last minute, though.

We would find a great place, fall in love, then find out that it was booked or didn't allow kids.  

We were debating about whether we should go out of our price range or give up a lot of the amenities we were hoping for.  

We went with the latter first, giving up a view of the mountains and found this, 

The waterfall house! 

I never would have known a place like this existed if we hadn't been forced to hunt for it!  

So skip ahead to the week before our big family vay-cay and Jed starts to feel under the weather.  He fought it for a couple days but two days before we were supposed to leave he was laying in bed with a fever.  I assumed he had the flu and would get over it soon.  We got a call from the owners of the rental who told us that they were at the house working on a little renovation project and it didn't look like it would be done before we got there, would we mind coming a day later.  Everything seemed like it was falling apart but we agreed and hoped it would give Jed an extra day to get better. 

The day we were supposed to leave, Jed was still sick.  I finally made him (he doesn't like it when I start playing nurse) let me check his throat.  I was positive he had Strep and insisted he head to Centra Care, I think he was too delirious from the fever to put up a fight.  They confirmed he had Strep and got him on antibiotics right away.  

The meds did their job and he was feeling a bit better that night. By the next morning he felt good enough to drive.  We left before the sun came up and made it to NC in great time!  

When we arrived at the house we found the owners still there and still mid project.  They said they'd start wrapping it up so we gave them some space and went into town to grocery shop and explore.  Several hours later we headed back, and they still weren't finished and hadn't started cleaning up.  Awkward.  

We couldn't stand to be in the car any longer so we made our way into the house.  We chatted with the owners while they worked/packed.  Their oldest son gave us a tour of the property.  5pm rolled by, 6, 7, and 8, finally at 8:36pm their car finally pulled out of the driveway. 

It was a rocky start to our vacation but we were pretty sure it was going to get better! I mean how could it not, 

We had a creek to play in! 

A waterfall/rock slide to play on! 

And although we didn't have the typical mountain view, this was still pretty awesome! 

Thanksgiving

We made our way to North Carolina, again this year, for Thanksgiving.  

Despite still not feeling my best we had a great time! 

The campground we stayed at was covered in fallen leaves and large pine cones, quite the novelty for our floridian offspring.

My SIL put together an amazing Thanksgiving dinner!  She is quite possibly one of the worlds greatest gravy chefs which is important to me and my obsession with mashed potatoes. 

The kids had a great time playing together and especially enjoyed celebrating both Uncle Nate's and Blake's birthdays.  

Sadly my exhaustion and nausea kept me from getting out my camera much.  Thanksgiving was probably the worst and I didn't touch my camera once that day.  The following day I was feeling a bit better and was able to capture the fun we had at the Pik n' Pig, a North Carolina BBQ restaurant.

We sat outside which overlooked a driving range and a private airstrip!  

The boys were in heaven!

"Fore!" 

The Pig

Kane watching a plane land!

Best Buds!

Everyone shout "Pik n' Pig!"

Saturday morning we had Jess, Nate and the kids over to the campground for breakfast. 

Aunt Jessie helped the kids make their first ever leaf pile!

Jon is under there somewhere...

Not pleased to have to stop playing for a photo op!

Twinsies

Ok, so not really but they have similar features with their fair skin and ginger hair, although Kane is a strawberry blonde while Mags a more obvious redhead.  Not to mention the adorable poutie lips which of course you can't make out in these pictures because Kane is being crazy.  As far as personalities go they couldn't be more different with Maggie being every bit the little girly princess and to counter her, Kane is all boy with a side of goofball.  I love that even though Kane is our little genetic anomaly (which we absolutely love about him) , he has a cousin that can relate!