Alayna's Project 365: 2014 Week 19

Photos from our hike on Thursday. It was just the three of us this time - me, Becky, and Jessie (the woman that leads the hikes) which was nice. We made it through 4 1/2 miles almost without seeing anyone else - very peaceful. And I'm pretty sure we moved faster than we usually do. I guess we're getting better at it.
I was also noticing the differences in the foliage now. Where we used to be able to see in between the trees a bit, now the leaves and vines and ferns are all filling in and you can't see much past the path. It's pretty though.

Tyler came home with some things for me for Mother's Day - a card, a little potted plant and this booklet about me. The booklet gave me a laugh - and made me wonder how well my children actually know me lol.

We all had an extra-fun weekend, starting with Friday. The kids had field day, Sam had a group motorcycle ride with the group on the base (yep, they let him out of work for that), and I met up with a friend for a morning of shopping and lunch out. Then Sam and I met up at home, packed up, dropped off the dog and the kids' stuff at my friend Julie's house and headed off on a short pre-anniversary get away in Asheville. It was just what Sam and I needed - lots of low key time spent alone together. We didn't even turn on the radio during the whole 4 hour ride, just talked.

Saturday we spent the day at the Biltmore Estate - amazing. I saw something about it when I was in college and it has stuck in my head ever since so I was glad to be able to see it all in person.

The house is enormous and impressive inside and out (they don't let you take photos inside). And since both Sam and I are very interested in houses, construction, decor, etc it was intriguing. Sam spent a lot of time looking at all the woodworking on the moldings and walls and marveling at how much detail and how few tools (at least of the kind we use now) they would have had to work with.

Had to snap a pic, even though I don't watch the show (American Idol). This limo pulled up while we were waiting in line for our tour to begin. Inside was Caleb Johnson (we had to ask someone, then I had to google his name later lol. And yes we did see him), who I guess is in the Top 3 for this season and they were doing a special Home Town filming/event. (http://www.citizen-times.com/story/news/local/2014/05/09/caleb-johnson-hits-asheville-saturday/8920817/) Anyway...

After touring the house we spent quite a bit of time exploring the gardens - so pretty, so well thought out, so well taken care of.

Sam was excited about seeing this bridge - I guess they used it to film some scenes in the movie Last of the Mohicans.

It had been threatening to rain all day and on our way back to the house it did start to rain. Luckily we were by the "boathouse" (it's basically a gazebo type structure on the edge of the lake) so we waited out the worst of the storm there. We were soon joined by a family from Arkansas who wanted to get out of the rain too. We had a nice little chat with them and were entertained by their spunky 2 year old girl who kept running out into the rain to see the "duck" (the goose, who would swim over near the deck probably thinking someone was going to feed it).

We had been carrying around an umbrella that I had stored in the car (thank goodness for random Super-prepared Mom moments) so when the rain slowed down we headed back to the car so we could drive to another part of the estate for lunch and to explore the winery and farm. Obviously Sam really enjoyed his lunch ;)

Posted by Julie while we were gone:

We got home around 7PM and picked the kids and the dog. I was surprised when Sam and Kate wanted to head right back out to the grocery store - until I got a "look" from Sam and realized Kate had probably taken him aside for a "what are going to do for Mother's Day" pow wow and they were off for supplies. She came home with flowers too, of course.

Sunday was Mother's Day. Tyler told me at bedtime the night before that I should "sleep in. Even if you wake up early just tell yourself to go back to sleep." And knowing the kids usually like to make breakfast on special days, I stayed in bed (reading) until they called me down for breakfast.
Sam spent the day working on drying racks in the garage and supervising ribs on the smoker while the kids and I just hung out inside all day. Three full days of fun and no work for me - so nice!