Mountain Trip

Over MLK weekend we went to North Carolina with Paul's family.  We stayed at a house in Burnsville and went skiing/tubing in Mars Hill at Wolf Ridge. I found the house on VRBO and it was great! There were SO many toys there for the kids to play with so they were well entertained. We also had GORGEOUS mountain views.

Absolutely gorgeous view from the house Saturday morning!

The moon coming up Sunday night.

The kids found American Girl paper dolls and had the best time playing with them!

We arrived Friday late afternoon and after unpacking Fred and Gin-g watched the kids for us so that Paul and I could do night skiing. We had quite the adventure getting there as our maps app took us up a mountain and down a mountain and then told us to turn on a road that didn't exist...and we had no signal. But we eventually found the ski area and we were really glad we learned the correct route while we didn't have a car full of children! The night skiing was great. There were probably only around 50-75 people there so there were never lines for the lift and the slopes weren't crowded. We had great weather...upper 30s, no wind, no rain/snow. They only had beginner slopes open because of all the warm weather and rain they had had during the season but one of the beginners was more of an intermediate and we're not advanced skiers by any means! We had so much fun!

(Paul was always easy to spot with his florescent jacket!)

Saturday morning we got up and Paul, Gin-g, the kids and I headed to the tubing place. (Fred stayed back at the house to wait for Emily and Blake) The tubing place was SO great for small children. We had a 10:00 time and around 11 both of the day we went it started getting pretty crowded but before 11 it was practically empty! The man who runs it, Tim, was super friendly and wonderful with the kids. The workers were great about helping the kids with getting their tubes up the stairs and helping them get started.

I loved the only rule at the tubing place! (The angle is bad but it says "you are not allowed to do anything that begins with the words Hey Y'all Watch This)

Watch Ellie when she's getting started...cracks me up!

Unlike the place we had gone in the past, this place lets  you link up tubes. We had lots of fun all going down together. (Ruthie is in my lap so you don't really get to see her but she's there!)

Roo got really brave after awhile and wanted to tube by herself instead of in one of our laps. She was SO proud of herself! JP also eventually wanted to tube alone as well so we would just link up with his tube so he could ride by himself.


We tubed for an hour and then headed back to the house. Emily and Blake arrived in the afternoon and we all just hung around the house for the afternoon. Blake and Paul and I had talked about going night skiing but it was raining pretty good by late afternoon so we scratched that idea! Paul and I were pretty engrossed in a 1000 piece puzzle by then so we were well entertained.

Sunday morning we ALL headed out to tube. It was SOOOO cold. As in 25 degrees cold. And it was snowing so the kids LOVED that! We had decided to tube for 2 hours, from 10-12 and by 1130 it was about too crowded for it to be fun so we headed out a little early but we had started a little before 10 so we felt like we got a good amount of time in. Plus we were all cold! (On a side note about Tim, the man at the tubing place...Emmie had gotten really cold and so I took her into the little hut to warm up. Emmie was upset and Tim asked if everything was ok...mind you he had a good crowd of people in there waiting to get tickets. I told him she was just cold and he stopped what he was doing and pulled her up a seat next to the space heater and took her boots and gloves off and hung them up to dry while she warmed up...he was so nice!)

Hands down the best "linked up" tubing run we had was this one...I'm so glad I got it on camera! I was on one end and Fred was on the other and there were a lot in between (see pic). Once we start going you're going to see someone coming behind me around the back and then go past me. That is FRED! He was slingshotted around and made it to the bottom before us! We were like...wait how did he end up over there!!

These two "best buddies" wanted to ride down together...they loved it!

We headed back to the house and had soup and grilled cheese sandwiches for lunch and then made all the kids (except Ellie...she can hang longer than the other ones) take a nap. They all really needed it after tubing all morning! We hung around the house the rest of the day and tried to keep warm.

Monday morning when we got up it was SIX DEGREES outside...brrrrr! We (and by we I mean Paul) packed up the car and headed to pick up Franklin from Gran and Grandaddy in Greenville (where he was spoiled rotten all weekend) and then we headed back home.

We had a really fun trip and I hope we will be able to do it again next year...and the big kids want to go skiing next year so that should be an adventure!