Fun on the Mountain...

We spent the weekend up at the Sugar Mountain house with the Brantleys.  We had a blast!  The kids all played well together, we went on mini hikes, visited the Grandfather Winery (my favorite place to take the kids!), Britt and Dan met us up there, cooked great meals, and played games.  Payton slept until we WOKE her up at 10:15am on Sunday, then once we were home, she took a 3.5 hour nap!  I think we are going to the mountains more often!!!  Also, she only had ONE accident the entire weekend, including the trip up and back!  She's doing awesome with the potty training, and actually woke up Tuesday morning dry for the first time.  We're getting there!  She has been an angel for almost the past week, so I hope that continues...after the week(s) we had before that, we needed some good behavior!

Helping Daddy change the smoke detector battery

Off for a hike!

Counting to 10...playing hide and seek

Payton kicked Griffin out of the carrier and hitched a ride with Dad

This will be a good measure to show how tall the kids get from year to year

Who needs snow?

My sweet boys :)

2 of these 4 eggs hatched while we were there!

Momma bird wasn't too happy about us being near her babies...

Geoff and Knox (20 months)

Grandfather Mountain...See?

The Brantley Family

Little Monkeys

Look at this cutie!

                    Then I got these really cute shots of Knox and Payton in the little ski house...

It was all cute until this big scary guy popped in ;)

We ran into these guys on our way to the car...they were going mountain boarding.  NO brakes.  Freaking crazies!

Who needs a Q-tip when you have a Christy?  lol

On Saturday afternoon we headed down the mountain to Grandfather Vineyard.  They were having their one year anniversary party, so it was a PERFECT day to visit.  Many kids, a band, and 10% off their wines :)  We ALL had a very good time and didn't want to leave...

Notice Payton in the background...she was checking her Facebook account ;)

Baby Abby even had a good time!

Payton has been really sweet to Griffin lately...moreso than usual

CHEERS!

This cute little girl, Madison, had her eye on Knox all day!

Our pretty girl running through the vineyard...

What an awesome daddy!  Making use of nature while changing a dirty diaper :)  Hey, when nature calls...

Unca Dan having playtime with P

Mommy's sweet boys :)

Taking it all in...

The dog was going under the fence, so Payton decided to follow

Dan and Britt missing Madi, but getting some baby love :)

I love this shot of Dan!

Mmmm, I smell a bouquet of raspberry, tobacco, and a note of licorice ;)

We don't feed Payton much, so she was fending for herself, lol!  She was actually trying to get Knox's shoe on her WAY too big foot

What a cutie!

So, for those of you who don't know, I HATE motorcycles.  They are dangerous and I've known people who got REALLY hurt on them...so, for me to get on one is rare.  Dan, Britt, Christy, Geoff, and Brian totally peer-pressured me into a ride up Sugar Mountain with Dan.  I did it.  I survived.  I may have even smiled once or twice.  My outfit wasn't exactly motorcycle friendly, but I made the best of it...Britt gave me her riding jacket, and Geoff gave me the sunnies...

Fortunately there wasn't a helmet small enough for Griffin, so he had to be happy with just sitting on the motorcycle!

Check out this weird mountain bug?  Anyone know what this is?  Enlarge it and look at its "face."  It's like an alien!

While we were gone, we had our upstairs painted.  We are still in the midst of getting everything cleaned up and furniture put back, but here are a couple pics.  We are very happy with the way it turned out, especially after having white walls for almost 14 years!  We still have a few house projects to complete, including cleaning out the kid's toy box, switching out fans, etc, but we're getting there...the house will be just the way I want it about the time we move out.  But I'm OKAY with that :)

And the last couple of pics to round out the last week...it's been so pretty in the afternoons.  Most of the time we'll play outside or go to our pool, but this day I put a tiny inflatable pool on our porch.  This way I could get some things done, ie-water plants, while the kids played safely.  They LOVED it, even though they could both barely fit at the same time.  I'm all about anything that entertains them, especially together, so this was a score...thanks, Target, for my $5 pool :)

Happy Memorial Day to everyone!  We'll be working hard getting the boat cleaned up so we can finally get on the lake.  I'm looking forward to seeing many of our friends, relaxing, and wakeboarding...I just hope I can remember how!  Cheers!