It's a Birthday Bash

It was Sweetie's birthday this past weekend. We took him away. He needed to get a break from work for a couple of days. We had the best time.

Took the boys and left early Friday. Drove up to Blowing Rock. Dave can't sleep in the car, so he was pretty much miserable and bored.

What you can't hear is the snoring and we had just wiped the drool from his chin, didn't want to embarrass the kid.

The cheapest place I could find was this place. Yeah, we scored. It was in the heart of downtown, so we could just walk everywhere. Too cute and quaint.



Lots of family time, lots of laying around, lots of "wait, get together, I wanna take your picture."







Drive to Valle Cruces, so beautiful and found an old general store, while I was shopping inside, the boys were out back doing stick races in the creek. One of Jay's favorite past times, a sport not given enough recognition, he thinks.





At first I'm taking pictures of the races, then I start to get a little distracted.



I love this man.



I love his strength and that he leads our family so well.



I also think his butt is cute.

We also had a pull-up contest at the local park. Jay was totally killin' it. Dave was no slacker either. Calvin did one. And that's all you really need to know about the contest. Really.









Drove to Grandfather Mountain. Stopped off at the Museum so Calvin could see a bear. Yeah, okay, whatever. I indulged him. There you go, boy, there's your bear. Can we go now?



Then we saw this...



Yeah, that would be the real LIVE bear. They had four of them. Right there. I'm used to the bears at the San Diego Zoo (remember Daddy?), yeah, those were at a nice safe distance. These were 'reach out and touch me' bears. The boys were just mesmerized and I now have 30 pictures of the bears in all sorts of poses.

The museum had a little zoo thing in the back. With a Golden Eagle, Cougars, Otters, Bears and of course Deer. Really, deer? I get those in my yard everyday. I don't need to take pictures of your deer. But the rest of the wildlife was VERY cool.


Mr. Eagle, he was HUGE!


The Cougars that wanted to snack on all the little kids.


Mr. Cutie Patootie Otter


And of course, Mr. Teddy Bear

Next we drove to the hiking trail that leads to the top of the mountain. Our goal for this weekend was to do as much walking and HIKING as we could. The hike was 1/2 a mile. Wow, we really set our sights high, don't we. At the top, there was the swinging bridge. I LOVED it, Dave was fine with it, Jay was VERY quiet, and Calvin was crying like a little girl. (just kidding, he's too old to cry, but there were some very girlie squeals comin' from him)
















On the last day we went out to the Blowing Rock. I was trying to tell the boys the legend about it, and they interrupted me, and told ME the story, as it was taught to them last year in their history book. Don't tell me they aren't learning anything in school!

We missed the peak of the fall colors by about 2 weeks we think, but when we went out to the blowing rock, it was GORGEOUS. The pictures don't even do it justice. It was WAY more vibrant.







Yes, this is my guy. Hanging off the Blowing Rock. He's trying to re-create a pose he did, way back when he was young. But the cliff back then was WAY up high and MUCH scarrier. If I knew how to use our scanner I'd show you. But he wanted me to show you that after 25 years, he's still got it! :o)





It was one of those perfect trips. Where when I was driving down the mountain to come home, I was just in awe. Not just of the amazing beauty that God put on this earth. But for blessing us with such a special weekend together, we are so very thankful.


Back home, Sweetie got his Birthday Cake. Too yummy. Red Velvet Cake with butter cream frosting drizzled over the top.


Lighting the bonfire. 45, it's a good year.