Mountain Trip

This past weekend we went to Maggie Valley, NC with Paul's family for a weekend in the mountains. We had a very nice weekend and had lots of fun (although we were really hoping for a light snow while we were up there...perhaps next year!). Saturday we hung around the house all day and just relaxed. Paul, Emily, and Blake went tubing and apparently the hill was really fast this year (it was 60 degrees when we went last year and was pretty much a big mud bath) and they had a great time. I didn't go this year because none of the times worked out with Ruthie's feeds and I was trying not to give her too many bottles.
Sunday morning Emily and Blake slept in and the rest of us went to the hill we discovered last year to go sledding. Snow stays on this hill on the side of the road so much longer than it does anywhere else and even though there wasn't much snow on it this year we got a fair amount of speed going down the hill and the girls had a blast. Last year we had to force Emmie to go down the hill and this year she hopped right on the sled with me and had a big smile on her face the whole way down. She really shocked all of us this year when she told us that she wanted to go down by herself! I was so proud of her for being brave and she was definitely proud of herself and I think it made her feel grownup! Ellie knows no fear and squealed the whole way down the hill each time and then immediately would hop up and say she wanted to go again. After Emmie went by herself, Ellie of course wanted to go by herself...and had a blast doing it!

getting ready to go sledding

Ruthie was wearing the dreaded bear suit that was handed down from Emmie. You literally have to stuff her in the suit and then she looks like the kid on A Christmas Story...hilarious.

snowballs!

making a snow angel

I love the expression on Gin-g's face!

So proud of my brave girl!

Sunday evening we went skiing. I was very excited about going because I wasn't sure when the trip was planned if I'd be able to and I love to ski. Paul, Blake and I went and it was pretty much pure ice on the slopes. I like to go fast but I also like to know I can stop if I need to and there was no stopping on the ice. We'd been there about 5 min and saw someone with a broken wrist and as the night wore on we kept hearing more stories of broken bones and such (we even got stuck on the lift for about 15min because someone broke their leg getting ON the lift...it's probably good they didn't make it to the top). After we saw someone being put in an ambulance on a back board we decided perhaps it was time to head home! Emmie said that she wants to go skiing so I think we're going to take her next year...should be interesting...and hopefully not so icy!
While we were skiing the girls stayed at the house and watched a movie and drank hot chocolate with marshmallows...needless to say they had a great time. My girls LOVE marshmallows!
We headed home on Monday morning with a stop in Greenville to pick up little puppy from my parents house. He had a great time going on lots of walks with Gran and chasing Grandaddy around the house.