for spring break this year, we packed up and headed to an airbnb, in the wilderness of the nantahala national forest, on the tippy western end of north carolina. as the children grow, so does the volume of our “luggage” (reusable shopping bags, mostly), making packing the back of the subaru feel like the most […]
north carolina
stone mountain with the best girl.
on one particularly lovely day, it was determined by ruby and i, that we would go up to stone mountain for a hike. we had a fantastic time. the only thing that went wrong was we took a wrong turn at the beginning of the big loop, which meant we ascended mostly via stairs and […]
grandfather mountain hiking adventure.
derek’s parents generously gifted us a weekend at a resort in blowing rock for the last weekend of october. my only request (demand) was that we plan one outdoor activity, and not just end up eating out and shopping the entire time. derek did the research and settled on a hike at grandfather mountain. before […]
camping in the great smokies, sans family.
a long long time ago, derek booked us a long weekend at a campground in the smokies. during prime autumn leaf color season. it was to be our very first family tent camping trip since selling the rv. but then. isaac wanted to go to a homecoming football game. and anna had some sort of […]
atlantic beach week. cape lookout shenanigans.
as previously mentioned, the weather for most of our atlantic beach week was pretty windy. for this reason, the big epic adventure we had planned kept getting postponed. but, finally, on our second to last day, we received word that our adventure was ON! what adventure, you ask? well, two-ish years ago, during a trip […]
atlantic beach week. the beachy times.
now that we no longer have an rv, we are forced to vacation like regular people again, staying in hotels and resorts and the like. for christmas last year, the grandlidboms gifted us with a week’s stay at own of their timeshare properties, so for our first such regular people vacation, we headed out to […]
my solo camping trip to hanging rock
One day, not so long ago, I determined that I needed a little me time, so I booked a couple of nights at Hanging Rock State Park. I packed up the tent, my new camping love seat, and a hammock that Derek surprised me with for early mother’s day. Also some food and camping supplies, […]
stone mountain, attempt three.
Thanks to my new status as unemployed, on the first beautiful day after I turned in my equipment, the Lidkids and I headed for the mountains. We opted for Stone Mountain, which we have done a few times before, and is about 4.5ish miles and 1000 feet of elevation gain. Hazel had never gone with […]
pilot mountain with new gramz.mental health day #3 (fail).
In late February, my mom came down to visit. It worked out nicely, because I had a faux-long weekend from teaching. For some reason, there were two “remote” days built into the calendar on Friday and Monday, which technically meant that the kids who were doing in-person school would be remote that day, but because […]
mental health hike #1.
In the first few weeks of my short-lived virtual teaching career, I was working both days of the weekends, just trying to keep afloat. That was obviously not a sustainable situation, so I began to carve out one entire day devoted to NOT anything to do with teaching whatsoever. And, if the weather was agreeable, […]