Mountain Weekend 2011

We had so much fun for our annual mountain trip to celebrate Pop's 60th birthday and the Transylvania County Halloween Festival. We kept saying all weekend that Henry is at the PERFECT age to really enjoy the mountain house. He hiked to the top of the "big hill", went to the creek in 30 degree weather 5 times, and did not tee tee inside once:)

This is the view from the top of the "big hill" that he and Brad hiked. Beauty!

His little brother on the other hand did not enjoy his time as much this year b/c he had the "throw ups" on and off all weekend. And you've seen (previous post) how much he "loves" his pumpkin costume, so he went to the festival attached to my hip sans costume:)

This was Me and Manning ALL WEEKEND LONG! Nobody else (except Daddy occasionally) could make him happy:)

Captain America and Thor protected Brevard from the bad guys all day!

The weather was beautiful, but freezing cold so we got to enjoy a fire all weekend. The boys loved it!

Happy 6oth birthday Pops! We love you and thank you both for such a fun weekend:)

Family Vaction 2011 - Pisgah Forest, NC

We traveled to the Mountain House last week for our Family Vaca 2001 and had a blast! We did a lot of relaxing, a few side trips, played a lot of basketball, slept, hiked, ate, and just spent some good QT with each other.



Henry learned that he LOVES b-ball. And, as you can imagine, this THRILLS his mama!!!

My boys at the creek

Action shot of Hen jumping in the creek

The two littles spent a lot of "Nekid Time"

At Sliding Rock in Pisgah Forest. The water was FREEZING:)

Lounging in our jammas one lazy morning

More b-ball

At Williamson Creek

Henry doing a rain dance b/c we've been soooo hot and dry in Charleston.

Williamson Creek

Williamson Creek

At Rocky's for Chocolate Milkshakes...for lunch!!! Only on vacation:)

Mothers Day in the Mountains

Rejuvenation!

L to R: Rebecca, Margaret, Eliza, Christina, Shelby, Page, Cecilia

Rejuvenated!

That is the one word that describes how I felt when I left the NC Mountains last Sunday. A weekend full off talking, laughing, eating, shopping, sleeping, drinking, laughing, and more laughing is just what the doctor ordered for me and my favorite girls in the world! These people remind me of what friendship is all about and I love 'em so much for it! I think we all bring out the best in each other and that is so rare to find.

Thanks girls!!!

Mothers Day 2010

This is our 3rd Mothers Day spent in Brevard at the mountain house and I think this was my best one yet. Generally my children have a "holiday" radar and act as bad as they/Henry can on any of our special days. But this year they were on their BEST behavior! Our short trip was packed with tons of fun, family, and food. On the way up Brad, Manning, and I stopped in Spartanburg to visit Cecilia and her two cuties. I could KICK myself for not taking pics, but i'm sure their will be plenty more opportunities for that. Henry came up later with Mimi, Pops, and D-Dogg. Everyone slept great this trip, even little Man Man.

Brad and I enjoyed a little bit of one on one time with Manning and he was such an easy traveler. I hate to put a tag on a child so early in life, but he is so laid back and easy going. I'm not sure if that is b/c he's the second child and really has to be or if it's that his parents are so much more laid back this go round. Whatever the case, he is a content little baby and for that I am grateful!

Henry had so much fun this trip and I don't think he tee teed inside once. He loved being with the big boys in the woods and in the creek. There were several checks for ticks throughout the weekend and thank goodness none were found. It won't be long before Manning will be out there with them, but for now he spent a lot of time with the girls.

On the was home today we decided to take a little heritage tour through our old stomping grounds and the place where this all began...CLINTON, SC/PRESBYTERIAN COLLEGE. Henry enjoyed seeing all of the places where Mama and Daddy used to live and play....oh and study. And we always love reminiscing about this special place!

Both boys took great naps in the car and were so nice to their mother on her special day.
I am one luck mama to have such sweet little boys!

Happy Mothers Day to all you wonderful mothers out there!

Mothers Day in Brevard

So I'm finally getting the motivation to update the blog. So sorry i've been out of touch! Sometimes you just get un-inspired, ya know?

This was the second year we decided to head to the mountain house for Mothers Day Weekend and once again it did not disappoint! The Earnsts II (Brad, Shelby, and Henry) left Friday morning and made our way up with several stops along the way. We stopped in Hendersonville for lunch and did some shopping and walking. We arrived at the house at around 3:30 and just chilled on the porch until the Earnsts I (Mimi and Pops) arrived at 6:00ish. Headed to the Clock and had some mean chili cheese burgers and fried chicken. Yeah, we kicked off our weekend of BAD eating right then and there!

Saturday we went to the J. Crew distribution Clearance Store in Arden, NC and totally LUCKED out! Well, Mimi and I did. I'm sure the boys felt otherwise, but they were sports and dropped us off at my version of heaven on earth. They were having a HUGE clearance sale and the line was wrapped around the building with people waiting to get into the warehouse. They had millions of boxes with EVERYTHING $20 or less. You just had to basically fight your way in and DIG through each box to find your size, etc. No rhyme or reason to any of it. I racked up with 2 pairs of pants, 1 turtle neck, 1 dress all for under $50. Amazing! Mimi hooked my little preppy boy up with some cute little duds (see above pic). Too cute!

That night Brad prepared a delicious Mothers Day dinner and we were all in bed by 10:00. A sign of a good day. And a sign of a baaaaad little 2 year old. Hearing NO 5 million times and putting your child in time-out 2 million times wears a mama out! He was in rare form that weekend, but luckily we're outta that devil phase for now and I've got my sweet little boy back.

But doesn't he look cute in his prep attire and slicked back hair? My my he's handsome! I've said it before and i'll say it again: "He's lucky he's so cute!"

And no trip to the mountains would be complete without the boys trying to teach Henry how to tee tee off the porch. They seriously DO NOT urinate indoors while we're there. Even if it's 20 below. I just don't get it!

All in all, this trip was a success and we realize how lucky we are to have such a special place to go and make memories!

Self Portrait

In an effort to entertain Henry on one of our little side trips in the mountains, I let him play with my camera.

Up Close and Personal!!!

Mountain Weekend '08

Brad, Henry and I left for the mountains of western NC on Tuesday after work. We had such a great time and had lots of fun adventures (see below posts). We loved spending time together, but were very excited to have Mimi and Pops join us on Thursday night. On Friday evening Daniel and Keller arrived and our Mountain Weekend '08 officially began! We ate WAAAY too much, drank just a little (hee hee), and played a nasty game of Cranium. BTW, Brad and I are the champs 2 years running now! I seriously don't think I have ever laughed so hard as watching Frankie attempt to act out a mermaid. HI-Larious!

Saturday we all attended the Transylvania County Halloween Festival. We were really there to try and surpass Henry's 3rd place prize in last years costume contest. We entered him in the infant category again (last year we'll be able to do that) in hopes of taking home the gold. I had people coming up to us all day oooohhing and ahhhing over what a precious little red headed leprechaun I have. Heard MANY comments on how my little sprite would most DEFINITELY win the prize. I was a bit biased, I know, but he seriously was the cutest thing out there. Well, I'll have you know, my little baby didn't even PLACE. DIDN'T EVEN PLACE!!!! HOW in the world did that happen, you might be asking? I DO NOT KNOW! I was seriously heartbroken. Henry was not and didn't have a clue what was going on, but his mama is a bit on the competitive side and was kind of a sore loser. Now, the judges were these trashy little high school gals and voted a store bought bumble bee, a purple and pink octopus (also store bought), and a Dracula as the winners. Can you tell I'm bitter? But in my heart (and all those who love him) he is the winner and always will be.

I mean, look how adorable! He was running after his pot of gold (a slice of cheese pizza).
Pops constructed the buckles on his shoes with tin foil. How creative!

At dusk Keller and Daniel participated in the Flight of the Vampire run to benefit the Rotary Club of Brevard. This picture is of Keller running up the hill and D-dogg struggling up the hill!

We all got back up the mountain by 7:30 and got the worn out little leprechaun to bed. We enjoyed a delicious birthday dinner for Pops and were all in bed by 11:00.

This mountain/birthday weekend was the best one yet and we are all so lucky to have each other!

Big Spider, Looking Glass Falls, and Sliding Rock

On Thursday morning Henry and I woke up around 7:30 and were having a nice, peaceful breakfast. Brad was still sleeping upstairs until I was confronted with THIS HUGE SPIDER!!! I was pulling the trashcan out from under the sink when it came at me! As you can imagine, I screamed LOUDLY for Brad to get up and come take care of our little visitor. He thought I was being dramatic (which I usually am when it comes to arachnids), but quickly found out that I clearly was right this time. Ya'll, I mean this thing was the size of a small hampster! Well, my brave husband took his shoe and smashed it and it's guts squirted across the cabinet. SICK!!! We saved it so Mimi and Pops could see what we had been dealing with...hee hee!

After we recovered from our trauma, we headed up towards the Blue Ridge Parkway and stopped at Sliding Rock. We all got out and let Henry see the water and the big rocks. I used to go to Sliding Rock with youth group growing up and I can't wait for Henry to go when he's old enough. However, even in the dead of summer the water is FRIGID so this mama will not be venturing down that big rock again. That will be left up to the daddy:)



We also stopped along the way at Looking Glass Falls. This waterfall is 60 ft and beautiful! Brad put Henry in the backpack and we walked down the path to get up close. There was at least a 10 degree drop in the temperature with the wind coming off the water. Henry's little face was so red when we left.

The cold weather was nice for a while, but i'm sure glad to be back on the coast where it's 70 degrees today! We got back to the cabin at 2:00pm and all took a 2 hour nap. HEAVEN!

Mimi and Pops met us for dinner at a Ed Boudreaux's BBQ and Henry was soooo excited to see them. It was hard getting him to go to sleep that night!

Sky Top Orchard

On Wednesday morning Brad, Henry and I traveled to the Sky Top Orchard in Flat Rock, NC. It's about an hour away from the mountain house and well worth the trip. There were tons of pumpkins and row after row of apples to be picked. Henry loved running through the orchard and he and Brad thought it was real funny to kick the apples down the hill at me to make me trip. I was definitely more into the actual picking of the apples than my boys!

I attempted to get a height pic of Henry, but he was very quick. I hope we can go back every year to see how much he's grown.


The weather was beautiful...cool and crisp. The leaves were all bright orange and red and the apples were ripe for the pickin.

We paid a whole whoppin' $8 for a basket to collect our "peck" of apples. We also split 2 homemade apple donuts that were a $1 a piece. This is such a cheap and fun family activity! On Friday night we had the most delicious cinnamon stewed apples!

The orchard also had some sheep and billy goats.

I LOVE this picture of Henry!

After we left Flat Rock, we headed to Hendersonville for the afternoon and had lunch at an old fashioned apothocary and walked the streets of this cool little town. They have an awesome Mast General Store and we all loved browsing through there. Henry was one tired little boy and slept most of the way back!