What a great week...

I had really wanted to do something special with the kids this week, since they were out of school for Spring Break. Despite the fact that I had to work part of the week, I had made plans to get them out of the house and entertained. No easy task I assure you. On Monday I took the girls to the hospital with me to help clean and organize a few things. They behaved so well I decided to take them out to lunch and for a bit of shopping. Not especially exciting, but at least it was out of the house. I worked on Tues and Jimmy was off, so he was in charge of entertaining them. I don't think they did anything besides hang out and play outside.

On Wed I took the girls up to Windy Ridge (Mom and Dad's place). We had a nice day of visiting, watched a movie, ate some yummy food, and played with the dogs. It was warm and sunny and very pleasant. The girls had a blast making homemade cookies with their Granddad. I look forward to getting to do that a lot during the summer.

Today the temperature was supposed to be getting up into the 70's and I really was wanting to do some hiking with the kids. I have been unable to hike since I broke my leg last year, and eventhough I am not the fastest hiker and I have to take quite a few rest breaks, I love to go hiking. So after lunch we headed up to Craggy Garden's which makes for a nice easy hike and has the most beautiful view when you get to the top. However, we ran into a bit of a problem, the Parkway was not open up that far yet. We had to either turn off the Parkway or go back down to Asheville. I decided that we might just be able to go to the Vance Birthplace instead of going home. None of the kids have ever been there, it is such a neat place and I thought they might even learn something.


Luckily, it was open and we were able to have our own little tour of the house and the grounds. They all seemed to enjoy it and Patrick even commented that he didn't think he was supposed to learn anything over Spring Break, but he did. It is pretty neat to see the house and it made Sara think of Little House on the Prairie. Carmel was wide open the whole time and had a lot of good questions, which our guide answered very sweetly.

After explaining to our guide that our original plans to go hiking were not going to happen, she gave us another option for a place to hike, somewhere where I had never been. I am a little leary of hiking just any trail off the beaten path, but with guidance I am willing to give anything a try. She told us about Rattlesnake Lodge, which was a good hike and had some history to it as well. We figured we would give it a try. So we got directions and headed out.

The kids had a ball climbing on every rock and old tree they could find. It was a nice hike. Not too steep and not too rocky. At the top there was the old homestead called Rattlesnake Lodge. Or at least what was left of it. There was a huge old tree near the spring and we climbed and took lots of pictures. I even climbed the tree a little. It was loads of fun.

Sara is quite the tree hugger, you know. I mean that literally at this point. I wish I could include all the pics I took but there are just too many. Maybe when I get a chance I will make them into a slideshow or something.

I guess you can tell I am not very good at adding pictures, because no matter how hard I try, I can not get this photo to turn the right direction. At least it is not right as I am typing, maybe it will turn the right direction after I post this. We will see.

Anyway, I have to work tomorrow, as does Jimmy, so I guess they will get a day to just chill and hang out. Saturday we start the day off with a soccer game and end it with a soccer game, so the real world will begin again. Things will get back to normal, for awhile anyway.