we jetted off to beech mountain in banner elk, nc this weekend to spend time with the lambeths and barriers at the (elder) barriers’ sweet mountain home. it was anna’s first big adventure. she did great, as long as i was holding her (naps, at night, during dinners out, etcetera).
we went up a little early to spend some time in boone with just us (me, derek, isaac, anna, jake), before meeting up with our pals at the mellow mushroom. then, we headed up the mountain and just hung out at the house for the evening.
saturday morning, we prepared a feast of omelets, hash brown casserole, pancakes, muffins, and candied bacon. it was ridiculous really. then the rain came, the babies napped and we laid low. in the afternoon, we made our way back down the mountain to banner elk.
near the bottom of the mountain, we stopped to pick fresh blueberries. the place we stopped had just opened for the season on that day, so there were jillions of blueberries on each bush. we paid a whopping $6 a gallon for our bounty. isaac and anna did not really enjoy the experience, leaving jake and derek to do most of the picking.
we finished our descent down the mountain and headed to the always awesome banner elk park. the kids played on the playground for a few minutes, before realizing that other kids were playing in the stream. in a few seconds, they were stripped down and heading for muddy waters. thankfully, i had some swim trunks to put isaac in. unfortunately, i didn’t remember this fact until after he was all wet and muddy. so we just put him in them afterward, and headed off to dinner.
for dinner, we ate at the banner elk cafe. all the kids were pretty good. the food was good. not much of a story about that.
we headed back to the house for the evening. chilled out a bit. went to bed. woke up bright and early and got on the road home.
we had hoped to do a little shopping or some sort of adventure, since the trip was a little boring for jake and he did rather take to the mast general store while we walked around boone on friday. unfortunately, nothing really opens in boone on sunday until 12 and 1. since it was only 10 as we finished breakfast, we decided that 2 hours was a long time to kill with two little lid kids (and a paine boy) and just got back on the road to winston. (note: we’re currently making it up to jake… he and derek and isaac are at toys ‘r us).
anyhow. enough words. here’s pictures:
beech mountain with friends
