July 4th Weekend in the Mountains

I don't know about y'all, but it was SO hard to go back to work today.  My firm closed at 1pm on Wednesday, and we were able to head to the mountains later that day for a fun 4th of July weekend with my family.  There is no cell phone service at the cabin (although we do have internet), and even though we were on vacation from Wednesday - Sunday, I still wished we'd taken a few more days off - the trip was so relaxing.  The weather was magnificent and we had so. much. FUN!  I took a ton of photos which I have literally been trying to narrow down for 2 hours now, so I'm going to (try to) let those do (most of) the talking for me.

This was our view on the way up the mountain.  Dan said, and I quote, "The sky looks like it should be on the cover of a Jesus book."  I LOLed.

Josh, Katy and Mason were able to come on Wednesday night before heading to Hickory for the weekend.  We wished they'd been able to stay longer, but we were excited to spend a little time with them!  

Mason and Lills wanted to test out their new water table from Mimi as soon as we arrived.

Sweet cousins.

My babies were so happy to see their Mimi!

C was pretty happy about playing with Mason's toy.  I spy a future Christmas or birthday present...

Syd bought my Dad this swing when she went to Costa Rica, and it is seriously the jam.  Craft and Lilly LOVED it, and C and I took many a nap in there together.  So relaxing, not to mention I love baby snuggles.

C and Aunt KK

Twinsies!

Tracy was able to come up on Thursday as well YAY!, and the parentals were nice enough to stay with our kids after they went to bed so that we could have a night out.  We can't go to Boone without visiting Klondike - we all have so many college memories at that place, and in fact it is where Dan and I met (he was a bartender).  We had a blast!  

Back where it all began! 10 years (5 married) and 2 kids later, we felt REALLY old.

You are all welcome that I agreed to be the designated driver, fools.  I just wanted to go on public record and state that I volunteered to DD and I wasn't even pregnant, so now you all owe me.  :-)

On Friday morning after breakfast, Dan and I packed up the kids and headed into Boone to watch the 4th of July parade.  After the parade, we went on a bike ride through campus before heading home for lunch and naps.

We were in such a rush to get out the door so we'd have time for all of our fun activities before naps that I forgot to change poor Craft out of his jammies.  Luckily, he wasn't unhappy about it.

We camped out in front of Boone Bagelry to watch the parade, and we were wishing that we'd left a little earlier and eaten breakfast there.  Love that place!

I miss this place!  You can't really tell, but Craft was slouched over napping on Lilly for the entire bike ride, ha!

After nap, we decided to hike down into the woods behind my parents house to scope out the "swimming hole" that a neighbor told us about.  It was hard work getting down to it, but we were so glad we did because Lills had the time of her life - and so did Layla!  C was yet again sleepy.

I guess all of that strenuous hiking effort wore him out...

Showing off her new water shoes that Daddy found in the Dollar Tree.  "LOOK MOMMY, MY NEW SHOES ARE SO BEAUTIFUL!"

If you know my child and how particular she is, you will understand how shocked I was when she asked to take off her clothes and swim (especially since she wouldn't even get her water shoes wet - she demanded that they be taken off before she would touch the water with her feet).  The water was FREEZING but she had so much fun!

After our hiking and swimming excursion, I put the kids in their red, white and blue for a mini photo shoot.  The weather was glorious all weekend but it was cool during parts of the day and I didn't really pack appropriately so I had to wait until it was warm enough for them to wear their outfits!

Lilly insisted on both  pigtails and a bow, and it just wasn't worth the argument.

LOVE these two!

We ate a quick dinner and then it was time to christen the fire pit with some s'more action before fireworks.  She liked the s'mores portion of the evening...

PawPaw helping Lills scorch a marshmallow, just how mama likes it!

Lilly did not love the fact that s'mores are messy.  I would say she's my child except the messiness has never stopped me from inhaling a s'more or four.

"Oh no, Mommy!  I'm dirty!"

…but fireworks not so much (which is so funny since she loved them at NYE only 7 short months ago?!).

Not so sure about this, mama.

On Saturday we kept it pretty low-key.  We took Lilly tubing for the first time, which was a LOT of fun, but I didn't take a phone or camera for fear of them getting wet so I unfortunately don't have any photos of that - hopefully Mom does.  Poor Craft did not get to participate in any of that fun - he took a nap and hung out with Mimi.  He did enjoy his bath, though.

We decided to stay a little later than we normally would have on Sunday so that we could take one more trip to the swimming hole.  Sorry in advance that I just couldn't narrow this next set of photos down any further!

I can't let this photo pass without stating, on public record, an apology to my parents for making fun of their water shoes (I borrowed Mom's here).  They are legit when it comes to hiking and walking in the creek and I hate to say that there may be a pair in my near future.

As a result of our later-than-normal departure, the drive home took a little longer.  Lilly decided that she didn't need a nap, and Craft decided about 3/4 of the way home that he hated the car seat.  We stopped for a stretch break and turned what should have been a 3.5-hour-drive into a 4.5-hour-drive, but I would say the late stay was still worth it. 

And that, my friends, was our awesome 4th of July weekend.  I can't post about the 4th without mentioning how grateful I am for our freedom and to the men and women who fight to protect it daily.  

I hope your long weekend was wonderful as well!  We missed Craft's 5-month post over the weekend, so that's up next on the agenda for this week.  For now, though, I'm going to sleep while I can because my darling angel son's sleeping has gone to the toilet rapidly over the past week or so.  More on that later!