Mountain Weekend

And, I'm finally getting around to posting our pictures from our family weekend in the mountains...

Granna and Papa were nice enough to invite us all up for a weekend in Boone - during peak leaf season and the Wooly Worm Festival no less :)  We had a great time and it was beautiful. We did, however, grossly underestimate the popularity of the Wooly Worm Festival.  I, for one, would never have anticipated the ridiculous amount of traffic associated with this particular event. I guess I should have anticipated it - I mean, who can resist chittlins and caterpillar races??

Anywho, other than waiting in a few lines we had a really great time.  The scenery from our condo was beautiful.  And, we had some great entertainment from the kiddos including some amazing bubble blowing and a dance party...

...pants optional.

Check out that view :)

Ella & Henry relaxing on the porch just taking in the view.  For about a nanosecond.

Granna and Papa!

The dance party continues.

Hamming it up :)

This was the one picture I got from the Wooly Worm Festival and I couldn't help posting it :)  Ella was not so impressed.  (Actually, she had a pretty good time but was getting a bit tired of the backpack and it was getting dangerously close to lunch time.)

The next day we headed over to Grandfather mountain for a picnic and to check out the sites.

Ella and Papa.  Ella is obsessed with rocks.  She was really excited to stand on this big one.  And climb the even bigger ones.  And, throw the small ones.  You know, typical girl stuff.

Climbing the big rock with Daddy.

I just love her face in this one :)

John Dickson and Granna got in on the action too.

Meanwhile, Henry, in his bear outfit decided to really become one with nature :)

He even learned to start a fire with sticks.  Very resourceful :)

What you don't see in these photographs are the 80 million yellow jackets that were present.  Or the panic attack I was having because of them.  (Side note: 80 million might be a slight exaggeration.)

So, then we went to check out the bears.  All the munchkins were pretty pleased with this portion of the afternoon.  Ella practiced growling at the bears.  And, every time someone pulled our their camera she would look at them and say "Cheese."  Because, what else would you be taking a picture of?

Enjoying the bear exhibit. (As a side note: Adam and I used to come here a lot growing up and you could feed the bears peanuts.  Turns out they found out that wasn't really the healthiest diet for the bears and have since stopped allowing that and have opted for a more "natural" diet.  I mean, what's more natural than diabetic, morbidly obese bears refusing to even move unless a peanut lands in their mouth??  Anyways, it was a little disappointing.)

And then we made it to the top.  It was very windy but beautiful.  Ella and I opted out of the Mile High Swinging Bridge because I wasn't sure my heart could withstand any more panic attacks that day but we got a great view nonetheless.

Great trip and very thankful to have grandparents who allow us to crash their relaxing mountain weekend :)