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!

Two Years Old!!!!

It's official, the little one is now two! She will happily tell you that too, since two has now become one of her favorite numbers!

To celebrate the big event we had a park party. One of the little one's favorite things is the park.  If we would let her, she would stay on the swings day and night! 

7 of her playmates attended and I think everyone had a good time. The park was the easiest thing that I could think of. I just am not one of those parents who will spend a small  fortune on a toddler's birthday.  We did a picnic lunch and had balloons for party favors.

The little one has a huge passion for balloons! What 2 year old doesn't?

The park has a lot of old school play equipment, which she is finally big enough to get on and off of by herself!

Here is Auntie Karen testing out the motorcycle! I don't ride on them that much since the day I had a little boy tell me he thought I was way to big to ride, and I didn't want to break it, did I?

Two of the little ones on the merry- go - round, wheee!

This is the little one's birthday twin.(He was doing some very serious driving)  It is so fun to see him with my little one since they are literally the exact same age.

Happy Baby!

The twins having fun on the slide!

Climbing high!

It was nice to have all of the grandparents attend, 

that way every little one had a hand to help push the swings!

As part of the picnic lunch I made personalized cut out cookies for all the kids. I didn't feel like fighting the mess of small children with cupcakes. So these were a nice alternative. I don't think the kids minded at all because to a kid sugar is sugar!

There were ducks and dinosaur cookies for the kids goodie bags and then flowers and butterflies for the adults to munch on! Many thanks to my sister for staying up late helping to decorate them!

And because no birthday would be complete without cake I did make a devils food pound cake for the little one's birthday dinner!

She was so pleased that we were all singing to her!

She was fascinated by the lit candle, she did attempt to blow it out...

But then seemed truly bothered and bewildered when it did go out!

The lack of flame from the candle did not deter her from shoveling in some cake.

She licked her plate clean!!!

Now that this birthday has come and gone, I guess I better get to planning next year's!

Bee City...

One of the other fun adventures we had while the family was in town was a trip to Bee City. We had never been there before so I thought it would be the perfect opportunity to check it out. I knew nothing about it except what was on their website and the fact that I had passed the signs to it on drives out in the country.

We were all pleasantly surprised at how entertaining it was for all ages. Although I will say a very hot day could make this not nearly as pleasant. There is a lot of animal poop to be had, if you know what I mean!

This guy needs some serious braces!

Do you have any snacks for me?

The lemurs were so cool!

You can purchase food to feed almost all of the animals. For the lemurs and monkeys it's cheerios. Yum!

It was really fun to fed them. They would just reach through the cage and get it out of your hand.

The little one was really impressed by the bunnies. I think she would have stayed all day petting them!

We all loved watching this sweet little momma wallaby and her little teeny baby.

The little one was in awe of all the animals antics!

The monkey's were trained to retrieve a snack using a pulley. Very funny to watch!

Yummy!

A quick family photo!

I think by the end the boys were getting a little overwhelmed by all of the excitement (or maybe the smell from the animals) so I really don't know what to say about this photo other than it made me laugh out loud!

:)