Mountain Getaway!

As a special treat to ourselves we decided to go a little last minute mountain vacay! With the help of my sister (the travel planing guru) we found a great hotel up in Asheville, NC to stay at for a few days.

We took a leisurely drive to get to Asheville stopping in Lake Lure on the way.

Here is hubby and the little one on the walking trail at a park on the lake. There were tons of ducks wandering around which the little one enjoyed.

We also stopped in downtown Chimney Rock to walk on their river walk, we found this cute bear cub along the way.

 The next day we went to Dupont State Forest to do a little hiking and see some waterfalls. The little one was a little unsure about the rushing water behind us.

It's beautiful places like this that remind me why I love to visit the mountains.

The little one was a little unimpressed with the activity of hiking! However, daddy and mommy got a great work out, nothing like lugging 25 lbs up and down the side of a mountain!

We were able to bribe her to walk a good part of the way, chocolate candy and trail mix can do wonders for a little one's energy level!

Doling out another bribe!

Yea! We made it to the top!

After working up an appetite hiking we had a picnic lunch at a nice little pond

Our last night in Asheville we decided that it would be fun to go eat at a fancy place so we checked out the Red Stag Grill that is in the nearby Bohemian Hotel. I'm sure the waitstaff cringed when they saw us arrive with a small child but she did her best and managed to make it through (with the help of 2 lollipops) with no meltdowns! Mommy and daddy were able to enjoy a very yummy dinner, who doesn't love a steak aged 30 days?

   

 Here she is pointing out some of the beautiful flowers they had outside with lollipop still in hand!

It was so nice to get a way for a few days for a little R & R. Next time we won't wait as long to take a vacation.  :)

Mother's Day Surprise!

I am so behind on my blog posting it is not even funny,  I have several posts to be edited, so while we are on our mini vacation I am going to attempt to get caught up. Last weekend, for mother's day, one of my sister's and I shocked my mother by showing up on her doorstep for a surprise visit!  Dad did a great job keeping the secret, which I know was tough because mom has a social calender you would not believe, scheduling something without lots of notice can be tough!

We had dad play photographer for us! He did pretty good!

Saturday night, dad treated us to supper at a very yummy Italian restaurant where we stuffed ourselves until we cold eat no more! My sister and I took the opportunity to clown around with the camera!

An important part of taking a good picture is making sure that you hold the camera at a flattering angle! Don't want to show any double chin, if you know what I mean!

Cheers!

 This was my delicious supper, it was so good! This was only half of it, the rest was in my belly by the time I thought to take the photo! Fresh pepperoni, mozzarella and tomato!

The next morning for mother's day my sister cooked up a fantastic brunch, that included mimosas!

Cheers!

(starting to notice a pattern here? mom + drink )

While waiting for brunch to be ready I got so hungry I almost had to sample the miniature pineapples we had given to mom! 

Good thing sister had waffles at the ready!

She also had delicious real whipped cream! (No cool whip at this meal!)

And to top it all off fresh strawberries!!! Oh yea!

After all the hard work of cooking ...

She needed a big drink and...

a smoke!

(Just kidding, she didn't really smoke that cig, she did perhaps make a dent in that champagne!

Thanks so much to my sister for planning everything, and also to my dad for taking the risk of getting berated for 3 weeks by mom to keep a secret as to what "special" was on her social calender!