Mountain Living

We spent the better part of last week in the NC mountains and boy was it a much needed break! We drove up during the kids' nap time, so they got to sleep and we got some quiet time in the car. Once we hit the mountains, they were awake and excited to get there. I was a bit worried because I've never fared well on those winding mountain roads. Car/motion sickness has plagued me much of my life and I was not looking forward to the end of the drive. Luckily (for me), my stomach handled it fine. But good ole motion sickness decided to claim another of the Clifford clan instead. Sam started crying once we started climbing and we thought it was just his ears popping with the elevation change. Well, a little while later we learned the real culprit when he deposited his lunch in his lap about 2 miles from our destination. Poor guy ... at least he felt better after that! Fortunately (or unfortunately, I guess), we have become experts at cleaning gross things out of car seats and we had everything cleaned up quickly so the fun could begin!

The highlight of the week was getting to spend so much time with family. We get to see everyone a good amount, but it was nice to get us ALL together in one place. The outside deck was everyone's favorite place to hang out.

I think the kids' favorite time of the day was in the morning when they just got to run around in their PJs and have fun. They made daily calls (or screams) over to Bogey's house next door to make sure he was up as early as we were.

We spent most of our time at the house and made a few trips out. The kids went on their first mini "hike" (who am I kidding, it was like 1/10th of a mile) to see a waterfall. They loved it and we would have hung out longer (and taken some pictures) if the skies hadn't opened up on us. We ventured into town one day and had to visit the cute little toy store there. Luke tried out some hats.

We were also told to feed the ducks while we were in town, so we took our lunch leftovers and headed towards this much fabled duck pond. Apparently someone forgot to tell us that this quaint little place was overseen by crazed psycho stalker ducks. I guess they have regular feeders come by every day so they are not scared of people and literally accost you when you walk up. Matt finally resorted fending them off with our folded up umbrella stroller so they wouldn't attack us! Luckily, the kiddos weren't fazed and kept trying to feed them. I just hope they don't have future nightmares of being hunted down by killer ducks.

We also went gem mining, something the kids really enjoyed. I remember doing this as a child and we would get so excited when we found some "gold" in our pans. Well, things have changed now-a-days because you now pan with sand stocked with gems all ready to go. Seriously, you are guaranteed to find things because they plant them in the sand. When I used to do it (I sound so old), you may find something or you may not. Now, they have to make sure everyone finds a gem and everyone gets the same amount. If you can't tell, I am not a fan of this. Pretty soon we're going to have no winners or losers in sports, no keeping score, etc - Don't get me on my soapbox about this. We'll just move on to avoid any more ramblings ...

The kids really did enjoy finding their gems and they still tote them around daily and examine them every chance they get.

All in all, what a great time we had. We loved hanging out with our cousins and getting a week off to do nothing at all! Summer has officially begun, school is out, and we're ready to start swimming, eat popsicles, and make some more visits to family!