A Week At The Mountain House

So after a week at Kiawah with my parents, we loaded up our stuff and headed to my parents home in western North Carolina.  They live between Charlotte and Asheville and 20 minutes from the Blue Ridge Parkway.  Riley calls their two places the Beach house and Mountain house.  The kids love the Mountain house because all of Uncle Matt's toys are there for Riley and all of my old toys are there for Sissy.  Riley loves my brother's Star Wars toys!  Sissy played with my doll house, doll bed and doll high chair.  She had tea parties with my old play picnic basket set as well.

Playing tea party

This doll bed was made for my mom who then handed it down to me and is going to hand it down to Kendall for her 2nd birthday next month!

Dolly fits in the bed WITH Kendall!

This is my old Little People doll house that my mom has shipped to Kendall to play with at our house.  She LOVED it and even convinced my dad to play doll house with her!

While we were there, we took the kids to Tweetsie Railroad, which is a cute little place in Blowing Rock, NC near Boone, NC.  They have a steam engine that pulls open air cars and they put on a rather cheesy show along the way with cowboys and Indians (the acting was AWFUL, but the kids didn't care!).  They also have a number of kiddie rides there as well as magic, dancing and music shows.  They also have Deer Park which is where they house deer, sheep and goats that you can feed.  The kids both enjoyed petting and feeding them.

Tweetsie Railroad Engine

The loud whistle scared Sissy

Riley and his "date"

You can see the village along the side where they performed their cheesy show of a hold up

Checking out the tee pee

Preparing myself for when he really does start driving

Sissy's favorite ride - convinced my dad to go on it 5x in a row!  She'd have gone more, but dad probably would have tossed his cookies if they went one more time.

Ringing the bell on the boat

Riley enjoying a kiddie ride

Check her out riding all by herself...she's growing up too quickly

Future cow pokes?

Clogging show that Kendall really enjoyed

They invited the kids up on stage to dance the YMCA and she marched right up, but didn't dance, just watched everyone else!

Both kids enjoyed petting this baby goat

Sissy had no fear when it came to feeding the animals.  She didn't even flinch if they nibbled on her fingers by mistake!

She loves Pappy's "hockey hat!"  It cracks me up that she recognized the Flyers symbol as hockey!  She's going to be my little athlete.  She sleeps with a football and at times, a bike helmet, recognizes soccer fields and tennis courts as well as when hockey, football or soccer is on the t.v.!  She also likes to drag a lacrosse stick around outside.

We spent another day in Blowing Rock, doing some window shopping, lunch, ice cream at Kilwins and playing at the park.

Hanging out in Blowing Rock, NC

What a ham!

Found some flowers to match her dress

Chasing bubbles in Blowing Rock, NC

The kids loved going to the pool at my parents country club.  They have a diving board there and Riley absolutely fell in love with it!  Kendall had a blast jumping in to my dad and then dunking him under!  She called the two pools the "big water" and the "baby water."  The ocean was called "duckie water."

Riley's new love...a diving board!

My crazy daughter has NO fear!

Riley also spent a good bit of time riding bike at my parents house.  A friend of my dad's handed down his grandson's old bike so Riley could use it while he visits.  The nice thing is that his friend has volunteered to hand down future bikes as well so my kids will always be able to ride bike there!  We also spent time at multiple playgrounds and "fwinging."

One night, my dad and I took the kids to a neighboring town to a drive in for dinner and a car show.  It was so cool.  The place is called Myra's and every Friday night they have a car show!  My dad and the kids loved walking around after dinner and discussing the different cars.  Sissy decided she liked the Camero because it's her Pappy's favorite.  Riley still likes Corvettes and there were a few Shelby's to satisfy Momma!

The kids are really missing my parents.  They have Skyped with them at least 4 times since we got home Tuesday!  Sissy stands on the computer chair and begs for her Nanny and Pappy.  Riley said our house is boring compared to Nanny and Pappy's house!  Sorry kids, vacation is over...back to reality and bedtimes, no popcicles and ice cream every day, no Pappy carrying Sissy EVERYWHERE she wants to go, etc.  I'm so glad they had such a good time.  It was a much needed vacation for all of us!