Will write tonight

I titled the blog post, "Will write tonight" but as I sit here on Sunday night and try to think about what I wanted to write about, I have nothing. So here are some fun pics...

Oh! And an Anna-ism, as Anna walks around the house trying to find Greg, "Daddy daddy where you is?"

Anna was being sassy at Grandma & Pop's house this weekend so Greg put her in timeout, when she came out she didn't go applogize, so Greg picked up back up and walked her back to timeout and she says, "Again?" 

The beginnings of standing up...

Taken by Aunt Aimee, last weekend, 1 week before officially crawling

Stinkin' cute

Stinkin' cute.

Tail end

Here are some pics from our last few days int the Mtns...

Jake and Anna cuddling

Reading books during a lazy afternoon

Building forts

On Tuesday afternoon we took a drive on the Blue Ridge Parkway and found a cute little cafe to have lunch in Linville.

with the BEST apple pie.

Forgot to turn the pic before uploading, love this little bugger

During one of our drives we went to the original Mast General Store in Valle Crucis and of course got some candy, sweedish fish or as Anna says, gummy dolphins.

Homemade ice cream in the summer - I think we'll need to come back when it's warm.

Day Two

Today we woke up and enjoyed coffee, baked french toast and then got our snow gear on again. We all trudged up the "hill" and began to go down the other side for our sledding adventure. Greg began to make a path on the side to walk up and also built a blockade at the end to stop us because this path would continue all the way down the mountain if we didn't try to stop. The kids didn't want anything to do with sledding (glad we didn't pack up the car and head to the real sledding hill) so Jamie, Greg and I had a blast. Donna was in charge of keeping the baby safe of course. 

Here's the sleds before...

And after....OOOPS! Too much fun had by adults. We destroyed two sleds. Hit was too many rocks. Flipped over again and again. But had a GREAT time. I was ready to sled for another hour I was having so much fun. Since we couldn't sled, we decided to play some other games. At first the sled had a huge hole right in the middle from my butt hitting and rock, so we all put our faces in the hole and threw snowballs at each person seeing if we could hit them in the face. Once we all failed at that we decided to use the broken sled as a baseball bat. We threw snowballs and whacked them until they exploded. 

Then it was time for a break. Our lovely family, minus Quinn who was napping in the other side of the hill, way at the bottom, in the house all by himself. 

Anna's favorite part is eating the snow. "It takes like strawberry!"

Here's a view of our living area. 

And Anna and Jake relaxing before our afternoon adventure. 

We went into Boone this afternoon to explore. Of course we went to the Mast General Store and bought candy and apple butter. 

When we got home, Greg and Anna had some hot tub time. Look how cute she is! 

We had a delicious dinner of spaghetti and sausage with homemade sauce by Donna. After dinner, Anna and I make cookies for dessert and I said, "Anna, let me take a picture of you with your dessert", "Mom, take that picture out of my face." Guess I've taken too many pictures of her in the past two days. 

Now it's time for us adults to relax on these insanely comfortable leather couches, with the fire place on, beers in our hand, good friends to talk to, all kids asleep, making plans for tomorrow. Happy Sunday! 

Vacation Day One

Well, we finally made it to our vacation mountain house. What a trip it was! We left Wilmington and picked Greg up at school and were on the road by 12. We were into Boone by 5, picked up the keys in Blowing Rock, stopped at Food Lion for some basic groceries and then headed to the house. We thought we'd be all settled in by 6:30, making dinner, all unpacked, so when the Hinrichs arrived we could hang and relax, no such luck! We got stuck going up the mountain. The drive up was much different than our Thanksgiving house so we were certainly not expecting to get stuck. We even had a 4-wheel drive vehicle. It has just snowed the night and morning before so there was a lot of snow and ice. We were almost to the house, maybe .4 miles away and couldn't get up the last hill. We tried three times but kept getting stuck mid-way. Finally a truck came and pulled us up the rest of the way with a tow rope. When they let us go we still had to turn onto our last road and find the house, totally dark. There was a fork in road and we were scared to go one way and have it be the wrong way and then not be able to get back up to turn around so Greg says, "stay here, I'm going to run down and see if I see a house!" He takes the cell phone for some light. Anna, Quinn and I just hang in the car, I feed Quinn dinner, Anna keeps asking where Dad is, then begins to fall asleep, it's almost 8 now, oh man, what a long 15 minutes! Greg finally comes back and shouts, "I FOUND THE HOUSE!" Greg gets back in the car, we venture down this pitch black road full of snow, not plowed, and then TA-DA, a house!!!! Oh. My. Goodness. And to think we'd have a smooth trip. But most importantly we were all safe. The Hinrichs arrived safely about an hour later, we unpacked, got the kids to bed, and then went to bed ourselves.

 Here's Saturday...

The road Greg ran down in the dark looking for the house, 

There's a large "hill" behind the house that worked out perfectly for playing in the snow and sledding. This is the view of our house from the top. 

Our King sized bed, toooootally comfy. I don't like sleeping in it with just Greg because we are too far apart. But it is awesome when all 4 of us cuddle in the mornings. 

Anna's first time in the snow on Saturday morning. She had snow in Wilmington when she was a baby, but I think this will be the first that she can remember.

An awesome snowball thrower. 

Here's our snowman that we build, his name is Frosty. 

Daddy having fun in the snow. 

Jack and Anna, too cute!

I love my little girl!

Saturday and Sunday mornings worked out perfect because after breakfast we'd get our snow gear on and then it was time for Quinn's nap. We'd put him down and then all head out to play. Greg went back to check on him an hour late and brought him up. Look how cute he is! 

Then in the afternoon, Greg and Jamie went for a big food shop to last us the rest of the vacation and Donna and I got the three kids to nap at the same time. Upstairs we have this awesome little room that overlooks the mountains so I plopped myself in one of those super comfy chairs and read my book.

Great Saturday!

And now, for your viewing pleasure....

Singing in the rai- , er, I mean bathtub

Scootering Girl

January

Here's Quinn's bulletin board from school...

We had a great January weekend, thouroughly enjoying the 75 degree weather both days. If only it would stay that warm for the remainder of the winter. We enjoyed a lot of outside time, Greg and I had a date night on Friday, had dinner with friends and began to pack and plan for our first family vacation with friends! We are headed to the mountains on Friday to hopefully enjoy some snow. We have all the gear, so if it doesn't snow then we are most certainly getting in the car and going hunting for some even if it means going to a ski mountain and playing at the base. Anna went to Sunday School (not really Sunday School, but left church after childrens time to play in the playroom for the remainder of church) and was a very good girl. She's getting so big so fast. See the next post and how she rides her scooter. We bought Anna her first pair of sneakers this weekend and she loves them. She ran all over the backyard, helped Greg rake out the beds, scootered, and bike rode all weekend long. She's still all wacky with her pronoun use, but here's her latest saying, "Please wrap out this?" Ha! That's how she asks to unwrap something. Too funny. And of course, Mr. Quinn. He seriously doesn't stop until bed time. It's either flipping over, eating, rocking on all fours, throwing toys, pulling Anna's hair, grabbing and anything within 3 feet of of him, wacking Sydney, you name it! Greg and I were just saying at dinner tonight that we don't remembe Anna being this busy. He will begin crawling soon, I just know it, and it's going to be nuts! I just pray he doesn't begin moving while Greg is in Belize.

Quinn.... 

This is my serious face mom!

OK, Mom, here's my happy face, quick take the picture. 

Look, I can keep my hands to myself instead of pulling Anna's hair.

 

 Hey, this is pretty cool.

Seriously, another picture?

Back to having a good time