Goin' to the Lodge.... The Great Wolf Lodge!

Over Mother's Day weekend, our family was able to take a little mini vacation! Uncle Todd was home for his "R&R" from Afghanistan, so we headed up to Virginia for one night to join Rebecca, Todd, & the girls at the Great Wolf Lodge. They went up the night before & had an extra day to themselves & we joined in for the remainder of their time. 

 It was fabulous to basically only pack 1 outfit & a bathing suit for the trip. No blowdryer, no makeup, no real shoes. Flip Flops, deodorant, & toothpaste is about all ya need when you go here. Oh, and a credit card! Ha!

The boys played SO hard & I know we will go back again. Those slides aren't just for kids, if you know what I mean! :)  Here are some photos from our time there... all captured with my phone & uploaded to the lovely Instagram app which i LOVE so much! No way was I taking my Canon in that place to get soaked!!

All ready to get wet for the first time!

Jackson spent most of his time enjoying the wave pool...

Eli loved the slides...

It was so nice just hanging out, soaking wet, watching all the kids enjoy themselves.

We may have rode some rides ourselves too! :)

We had to snap family photos before we headed home... Rebecca's clan...

And some of us found it harder to say goodbye to the Lodge than others. I think one in particular wanted to live there...

We had so much fun & thanks to everyone who made it possible for us. You know who you are ;) We appreciate it more than you know!

Hanging around the Cabin

Sometimes, just hanging around & having no real plans pays off! As I mentioned in older posts about our trip to Blowing Rock, we hung around the cabin all of Saturday. We took a hike out back but even then, we never got in our cars to go anywhere. We just hung around exploring where we were.

Jackie, my mother in law, is a perpetual teacher. That is one of the wonderful things about her. And she brought along several nature books for the kids to use to learn & explore with. Jackson put these right to use!! His nose was in one of these books for a greater part of the day! He took them outside with him & would pick up leaves & compare it to the pictures in the books to identify them. It was so cute to watch.

It also helped the cute factor that Nanny & Peto brought all the kids a surprise... and my boys got a super hero cape!

They literally wore them all day, exploring in style!

Peto went outside with them for a bit to explore too & showed them a few fun things to try!

I just enjoyed getting outside & taking lots of pictures!!








I know you are wondering what Randy was doing during all this fun, right? Well, this was it...

He never passes up an opportunity for a good nap! Vacation or not! I think he needs one of these shirts!

As luck would have it on another walk up the (very steep) driveway, my mom found a treasure that she carried all the way back to the house for the kids....

There was a lot of excitement! And they got out the book that Mema had brought to identify it of course, before setting it free.

Yeah, that Nanny is pretty awesome. She also brought along craft supplies for the kids. Together they made these awesome lanterns! Aren't they beautifully lit!?

We fit a lot of fun into a day!

Blowing Rock: Our Backyard Hike

This past weekend, Randy & I went to Blowing Rock! It was so much fun! Rebecca & the girls, my mom, aunt (Peto), and my in-laws all came along too! It was a bustling house for sure, but I really enjoyed all the company.

The weather was beautiful - chilly in the mornings but perfect in the afternoons to go exploring in just a jacket & maybe a layer or two! :)
The original plan was for to go to Grandfather Mountain for the day on Saturday, but my in-laws ventured out first & called in to say that the traffic was so awful. Apparently we chose to hit the area on the busiest weekend of the year - ASU homecoming weekend! YAY! The traffic was impossible to get through & my inlaws ended up heading back to the cabin because they were so over it.
While we hung back at the house for the day, we decided to go on a little backyard hike! There were plenty of sites to see right on the border of the Pisgah National Forest, so that is what we did.

The kids collected leaves & rocks & we went looking for "gold" in the creeks. (Now, we knew there was no gold, but it made for some excited kids to think they might find something amazing!)

The hike was a lot of fun! I was a little worried at first because there were several big hills to go down initially & I was carrying Sara Beth on me because Rebecca's neck was in (really) bad shape! But she was a trooper & fell asleep almost immediately! And thankfully, I only slipped on wet leaves or a tree branch a couple of times & never actually fell! Whew! It's hard hiking when you can't see your feet!All the kids turned into little explorers & were each pretty independent in looking/searching for treasures on the walk.

I think we missed peak weekend in Blowing Rock by a weekend or so, because a lot of the leaves were already fallen. BUT, there was plenty of color left to capture! It was beautiful. It's truly my favorite season of the year.
Here is a shot of a pretty tree reflecting in the pond. I loved all the floating leaves that were perfectly still on top of the water!
Just across from the pond was a little creek running through the ground. Peto "dared" Emma to put her bare foot in & Emma took the dare! They ended up in there together!

Sisters! I caught a great shot of two of my favorite women in the whole world! You don't know what a true aunt is, until you've had a "peto" in your life! I don't know what my mom or my aunt would do without each other!

Closeups of all the kiddos on the walk....


Who's that across the pond?? Hi there!!
Somebody's up from her little hiking nap...
I also don't know what these two sisters would do without each other!
What can we say? There is just a whole lot of love to go around in this family!
We had a wonderful time in the mountains together! Leaving the hustle & bustle of our normal days behind & basking in God's glorious creation. It's amazing all that we can look at & see His wonderful hand! And some of us really wanted to look long & hard..... (She was proud of her treasures!)