CHOO CHOO's!

One of the main reasons for our trip to the mountains was to celebrate D's second birthday.  Our LittleD is IN LOVE with trains right now...it's his most favorite thing to play with so of course there could be no better place to go than Tweetsie! 

 We had super fun morning at Tweetsie, it was a weekday and a little wet, so there was hardly anyone else there.  Davis had a bit of an emotional day due to a mix of being somewhere new, being off his sleep schedule adn maybe not feeling 100%, but when we were on a train he was a happy boy! 

 

 

a 'little' drama about not wanting to sit on the horse...

 

 a monster spider!

 the kids love riding the rides and daddy and i loved not having any lines to wait in!

 

picture with Hopper and Porter

 Davis LOVES all mascots/big animal costumes.  He's never scared and always wants to hug them. 

 He also loves real animals so we thought he'd really enjoy the petting/feeding zoo.  

 but this kept happening....the roaming goats would take his cone...the poor kid would "lose it" every time his cone got stolen.  He didn't understand that he had to hold onto the cone and just let them eat the food and of course in normal 2 year old fashion he wanted no help from any of us.  So needless to say, we were "THAT" family in the petting zoo and quite honestly we've thankfully not had a lot of experience with public breakdowns...so after about 5 minutes Mike and i just picked up the crying toddler and left to go ride trains, since that's what seemed to be working.  Best Decision of the Day! 

the ski lift was also a fun experience for the kids. 

 There was a sudden downpour during our time at Tweetsie, so we stopped in the saloon to get some snacks and watch the dancers.  The show was pretty "hokey" but Nora thought it was great :)

 talking with the conductor's and learning about how trains "go go"

 

and of course i couldn't leave without taking a few Old Time photographs..

If there wasn't enough evidence of all the fun we had in the above pictures...these below should be telling! 

Fast asleep still clutching his new train

 even the big kids were worn out!

It's Fall Ya'll!

Literally since we found out we were moving back to NC we have dreamed of taking a trip to the mountains in the fall.  Then we got here, had Davis, life got a bit hectic and we didn't make it that year.  The following year Mike was in Afghan and i didn't have the heart or energy to take my 3 without him.  So this year (and most likely our last year here for a little while) we HAD to go. 

Fall always seems to be such a busy time of the year, even though it's super fun and we weren't sure we'd be able to get away twice, so we combined our family mountain getaway with Davis' birthday trip.  That did cause us to just miss the changing leaves, but the weather was perfect, the mountains were gorgeous and we couldn't have asked for anything better. 

We were all excited about this trip--for slightly different reasons.  Mike and I were excited to relive a bit of our childhood with our kids.  This is really our first family trip, just the five and a half of us ;) and we were ready to spend some slow-paced, quality time together.  The kids on the other hand were very excited about the idea of the "mountains".  Granted, they look quite different, in Hawaii there were huge mountains basically everywhere, they just don't remember.  So the sight of these NC mountains was like seeing them for the first time.  I quickly snapped this priceless picture of their first sighting. Total Amazement there folks. 

As soon as we arrived in Boone it was dinner time, so we stopped at Dan'l Booke Inn to get some yummy food.  The kids really enjoyed the experience there.  Holden was taken with the "mountain chicken" (i don't think we've served him chicken legs in over a year--back we he told me there were "rocks in his chicken").  This time he was more open to eating around the bone and asked for seconds! 

We opted to stay in a cabin a little outside of Boone. We arrived Thursday night in the dark.  I didn't realize how tucked away this cabin was, but we had A LOT of trouble finding it.  We were so tucked into a mountain and surrounded by trees that none of our GPS systems would work.  It was so dark that we'd drive by houses/driveways and streams and not even know it.  The directions written out of us by the management company were all but useless because we couldn't see any of the landmarks.  I looked back at one point at our unusually quiet kiddos to find Holden scared to death.  I asked him what was wrong and he told us he didn't want to "sleep in the forest".  We promised him there was a nice house waiting for us and that everything would be fine, but my skeptical little boy did not find any peace until we finally found our cabin and Daddy went in and turned on all the lights and check for wild animals to ensure our safety.  

The next morning when we awoke, we realized we weren't quite so secluded.  There were 2 houses in sight of our own, and plenty of others as we were driving back into town.  Holden announced on that ride that he wasn't scared anymore.  :) 

Did i mention it was GORGEOUS?  

We definitely had plans for the weekend and did some fun things, but we also just putzed around and enjoyed the scenery as well.  One day we stopped in Valle Crucis for sandwiches from the amazing Ham Shoppe--now called something completely different, i just can't remember--and then intended on having a picnic closeby.  Of course our littlest family member had other plans and fell hard asleep in the car, so we just pulled over near the Mass General Store, and sat on the tailgate eating yummy food and talking.  Daddy even walked across the road to buy us some fresh apples from a produce stand. It really doesn't get much better than that. 

 

We also stopped to have some ice cream at a roadside stand with a creek behind it.  The kiddos enjoyed watching the little fish swimming along . 

Some of my favorite memories of the weekend were from sitting on the cabin porch.  It had a great swing that i could nest right into while watching my children run around and play.  I could have spent forever right there.  We found that it was easier for our family to just pick up food in town and then bring it back to the cabin to reheat and eat later so that we weren't wasting perfect afternoon play weather driving around and waiting in restaurant lines.  It was the best decision we could have made on the entire trip.

just look at those happy faces 

Happy Birthday Daddy

Mike turned 34 a few weeks ago.  We didn't have big plans or anything, it was a busy weekend with lots of homework for Mike and the kids first soccer game.  His only request was to go back to Chef and the Farmer in Kinston to eat dinner.  Mike was originally not supposed to be in town for his birthday, but his school got cancelled last minute.  As soon as I found out I called the restaurant to see if we could get a reservation.  Thankfully there was one left that weekend...at 8:45, which normally wouldn't be too late if you weren't preggo and starving my 6 most days and if the restaurant wasn't 2 hours away.  Still for Chef and the Farmer, the sacrifices were worth it!  

This time our friends Matt and Rachel came along too.  Food is so much more fun with friends, especially ones who love good food too! 

After eating there on my birthday, i had a plan for this visit.  Last time there was so much on the menu to try and not nearly enough room in the belly. So I thought i would skip the large entrees and just focus on the appetizers, small plates and desserts.   I'm not sure this is the best plan either, because this time around there were some fabulous things offered on the large plates menu and out of everything we tried, Matt's pork chop plate was by far the best thing on our table.

Here's some of the great things we ate that night! 

(if you could care less about the food, you can scroll down to see the family pics at the end!) 

Fried Okra with Ranch Ice Cream  

Yep, you read that right.  And it was really good!

Fried Collards

Oh Man, these were delish.  We all loved them.  Similar to the popular Kale Chips floating around all the food blogs, but much better in my opinion. 

Curried Peach Pork Belly Skewers with pickled jalapeño, cilantro 

We had the Pork Belly Skewers over my birthday too, they were just a different flavor.  These things are melt in your mouth amazing.  This time with the curry flavor...i couldn't pass them up.  Curry isn't a fave for my hubby.  But Matt and I definitely enjoyed them!

Salad: Mixed Lettuces, apple, celery, granola, pickled red onion, Maytag Blue 

This was so so good.  I may venture out to say it was the best salad i've ever had.  The pickled red onion really made this plate. 

Benne Fried Green Tomatoes, goat cheese coulis, blueberry chutney 

This was all for Mike...Tomatoes aren't really my thing, but surely a must-try for a tomato/blueberry lover.  He said they were great- i'll take his word for it!

Grits with Balsamic Braised Beef and Fried Onions

This was a last minute add on order by Matt that turned out to be seriously wonderful.  I should have ordered this as my meal and I don't even like grits!

 on to main courses: 

Matt and his Pork Chop

Mike with Shrimp Andouille Grits 

Rachel and Me with our wood fired pizza's...They were good, and we were thinking a good way to get a smaller portion cause it was on the appetizer menu because we were already so full...but they were huge!  Don't worry though, the hubby's helped us out!

A regret last time was not leaving enough room to try all the desserts.  You can order all 4 on the menu for a special price, but saving room for them is the hard part.  This time with 4 people, we had it under control! 

Hot, Salty & Sweet, peanuts, cinnamon/chipotle ice cream 

Tres Leches Cake with vanilla peaches, caramel, and pecan tuille

This was fabulous and the birthday boy's fave.  So he got the most of it.  

Mocha Éclair Parfait, Italian meringue, brûléed bananas

This was also amazing and Rachel and Matt's favorite dessert.  

we also got one more dessert, that i don't have a pic of.  it was a muscadine cobbler with sugar cookie crust.  we wanted to love it, but no one did.  Oh well...one flop in all of that food...i'd say we did great!

The next morning, was Mike's actual birthday.  We had a yummy pancake breakfast and he opened some cards and gifts before getting started on a long day of homework (and unforeseen 2yr old puking episodes later that night :/ )

The kiddos picked out Batman Movies for Daddy.  One for Daddy only and one that everyone could watch together (Lego Batman) 

I also opted to pick up our favorite red velvet/cream cheese icing cake from a local bakery around here instead of baking something.  Totally a good decision for this season of our life!

It was a really nice weekend celebrating the man who does so much for our family.  Can't imagine doing this life with anyone else.  We're so thankful for this man in our lives.