Good-bye Humidity….

I got back from my girls’ trip on Sunday, only to leave my suitcases waiting to be re-packed for Wednesday…

We took a quick trip with Pappy, Nie-Nie, Kels, Uncle Adam & Aunt Lauren to the mountains.

We left mid-afternoon on Wednesday and pulled into the drive of my in-laws’ friends’ vacation house around 11:00 p.m.

AB did so good on the trip, even though she only slept for about an hour!

She had plenty to keep her busy in the car…crayons, coloring books, stickers, snacks, DVDs and even some new jewels…she insisted on wearing her rings on her toes…

We woke up to this beautiful view on Thursday morning…

Our first stop was for pictures on a scenic WAY-TOO-CURVY-for-this-Florida girl road. The crew’s been taking pictures here all their lives, and over the past (nearly) 10 years, I’ve managed to be in quite a few here, too…

We made it off of the road-from-heck and our next stop was Cherokee. On our list was to see the Indian for a picture and get some fudge. Both were checked off, and we even made a stop at the new part of Harrah’s to see about Paula’s new restaurant. AB managed to get a pink feather head-dress and drum (which she kept us entertained with the rest of the trip)and even got to ride a couple quarter rides. Because who doesn’t drive 11 hours to do something they could have done at their local Wal-Mart?

It was back in the car for another scenic drive up the Smokey Mountain Parkway. Of course there were stops for photo-ops…

 

We made our way through Gatlinburg and then up to Pigeon Forge. We did a little shopping at the outlets… Kelsey and Lauren got some “back to school/back to teaching clothes”…and I got a few “I’m too big to fit in any of my other clothes”, too. :) 

We stopped in at a family favorite, The Apple Barn for dinner…the apple fritters are a fave.

The next day was DW’s birthday! We got subs and had a picnic by the Nantahala. The crew had reservations for River Rafting that afternoon. AB and I sent them off and stayed back at the outdoor center, where we played in the river, picked up rocks, ate some snacks and did lots of walking around and picture taking…a wardrobe change was necessary after a slight rock-gathering malfunction left AB soaking wet…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We’d planned to take some pictures of the crew and even tried to walk down to the falls to take an action shot of them coming down, but they made it back so fast, we missed them!

It was back to the house that night for DW’s birthday dinner… steaks on the grill. We’d packed some Transformers party stuff to add some birthday fun… AB wanted to get Tangled, but I was able to talk her into Transformers.

AB, her head-dress & party horn…

blowing out candles with Daddy…

Saturday was our last day in the mountains, and we decided to try a place in town that DW and Lauren had read about online. The kicker… it was in a gas station.

I was a little nervous at first, but the reviews were right and we were glad we’d tried somewhere new. The inside looked nothing like a gas station…

and the food was amazing…We drove up to Highlands and stopped at Dry Falls on the way. Just as we were making it down to the falls, it started pouring…

We made it to Highlands…

Highlands is fun for window shopping, and it got me itching to come home and pull out my fall décor.

We walked around town and into a few shops…

 

We stopped by the Dillard House on the way home to let AB see the animals. AB was going on her third day in a row of about a 30 minute nap, so that left her feeling a bit like this… But once she saw the baby goats, she was back to Miss Sunshine…

She was feeding the goats and I felt bad for the donkey who was feeling left out… I was scared to death he was going to bite me, but I swallowed my fear and stuck my hand out…

That night we went to dinner and had game night back at the house. After a hilarious game of “Things,” we called it a night…

We headed back for the Sunshine State Sunday morning and pulled in our drive around 5:00 p.m.  It may be humid, but it’s home. And there’s NO PLACE like it.

~amw~

Fun Friday–Butterfly Farm

A few Fridays ago, Mom and I took AB down to Homosassa Butterfly farm.

After you pay, you’re lead to the film room, where you watch about a 20 minute video on the life cycle of a butterfly. We weren’t sure how long AB would last and my Mom even told the guy, we’d probably come out early. To our surprise, she sat for the whole movie.

They had such a nice little theater and we were the only ones in it for that viewing.

After the movie, you take a personal guided tour through the three rooms as you follow the life cycle of the butterfly up close. For each stage, they have a glass case that has actual eggs, caterpillars, cocoons and then butterflies in them. The cases all open and the guide was happy to give us an up close look at all of the stages.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The walls were all painted so cute with big flowers and butterflies and they even had 3-D caterpillars and flowers coming out from the ceiling.

After the tour, we were given our own butterfly to release in the butterfly garden.

Then we got to walk around and see all the different butterflies, plants, and even enjoy the fish pond.

It was such a neat little trip and AB has been obsessed with butterflies since we left!

~amw~