A Full House: June 2011

Wednesday, June 29, 2011

15 Years!!

For our anniversary, we were able to get away to the cool mountains for the weekend.

Wow!! 15 years ago today, I married my best friend.

We stayed at The Grand Bohemian. It was wonderful and very relaxing. They took very good care of us, sending us a bottle of champagne to celebrate.

On Saturday, we went up into the mountains and then down into Little Cataloochee.

Driving through the valley, we saw 2 elk + a baby, an owl, numerous butterflies, but no bears.

We stopped to see the little schoolhouse.

It was a great, relaxing weekend. And we definitely ate good up in Asheville: Tupelo Honey, Early Girl, Corner Kitchen.

I am so thankful to be married to such an awesome, hard-working, family man!!

Monday, June 27, 2011

I was able to get a discount ticket (because we homeschool) to go to Biltmore. I've been wanting to take the kiddos but it is so expensive and I was also waiting for them to get a little older. We went up there last Wednesday. We saw most of the estate.

We went through the "castle" in probably a record 45 minutes. (The tour of the house is supposed to take 90 minutes.) I knew the kids weren't interested in every little antique. We just talked about the purpose of each room and went on to the next. The favorite was the library. They also like the pool in the basement.

After going through the house, we met Grammy and Bops for a picnic lunch. Then Bops showed us where to feed the geese.

After lunch we toured the winery. The kiddos got to taste grape juice, fresh-squeezed that morning, in the Tasting Room.

A nice older gentleman offered to take a picture of all of us. The kiddos are sitting on a statue of Cedric, the Vanderbilt's dog.

WNC Nature Center

On Josiah's bday, we were able to go up to the WNC Nature Center with Bops. The Nature Center is a small zoo with native animals. We saw rattlesnakes, frogs, fish. We saw samples of various minerals. Josiah identified talc and commented on how it is the softest mineral and diamonds are the hardest.

We saw wolves. Unfortunately, they were sleeping because they are nocturnal.

We saw River Otters. They were playing and swimming in the water. There was a slide on which the kids could pretend to be otters.

We saw black bears. They weren't very active either.

The kiddos like the little petting zoo.

They enjoyed naming the goats. This one they named Chocolate.

The cougars were very active. They were chasing each other and pouncing on each other.

Most of the animals native to NC seem to be nocturnal. We also saw coyotes, raccoons, foxes, and owls. Most of them were sleeping.

Carissa's New School "Toys"

I got these Melissa & Doug toys a while back when they were on sale at http://www.amazon.com/. I pulled them out for Carissa for the summer. She has loved them. They keep her busy while the boys are finishing up their work.