Camping Trip to Nanatahala Gorge

I have every other weekend totally to myself when the boys go to their dad's house. Last weekend I decided I needed to get away from Asheville for a minute for a little R&R. I went camping with my partner-in-crime, Jay, to the Nantahala Gorge - it's just about an hour from Asheville. We had a great time - got a good bit of rain at night, but nothing we couldn't handle :)

We visited my friend Richard who was also there from Chattanooga, had a really fun time tubing on Deep Creek in Bryson City, NC, took our dogs on a little hike up Ledbetter Creek and explored around our campsite on a tributory creek to the Nantahala River.

cheezin it up for the camera


gossamer swimming in some muddy water

campsite - notice weird pipeline in background, for some reason, water was being diverted around this section of the river







Trying to get a good shot of Jay and me, but Mountain Laurel couldn't stand the attention not being given to her:


Jay is a serious bug finder - here he found a dobson fly outside a gas station in Bryson City ... eeewwww.

Clay Turns 9!!

Oh my goodness, how time flies! This child is 9 years old already - seems like not so long ago he was that cute little toddler, so quiet and cautious - he could spend hours going through his dad's toolbox or looking at his favorite book (which was Clifford the Big Red Dog, by the way :). Now he's halfway to 18 - yikes! He's totally into Legos, he has a whole room in the house devoted to lego creations. He's also a man about yu-gi-oh and his Nintendo DS. He's such a great kid, it's been a pleasure getting to watch him grow!

For his birthday, he wanted to branch out from our typical lots-of-families kind of party... he wanted an all-boy, no parents party! He said the theme was "boys gone wild"! hahah!! Two other mamas and 1 little sister did stay to hang out (thank you!), the boys' dad came, as well as my mom and her friend Tim being there. There were 19 boys, they had a campfire to roast marshmallows & hot dogs, they had a nerf gun vs. water gun fight, an impromptu game of baseball, some serious yu-gi-oh and bakugan trading, and some general rowdiness!

Random Spring '09

Whew - can't believe it's Summer already! Before I get ahead of myself, I'd better throw in the last of our Spring pics!

Here's yet another thing I love about North Carolina - when it rains, it is WARM! Colorado rain was very cold - here we can go out and play :)



Clay, Reed, Leah, Mountain Laurel and I went on a short hike on the Warren Wilson College campus one day - this was a great one by their farm, through the little bamboo forest, and of course along a creek - even though the water was chilly, the kids couldn't resist going for a dip...




We love our music, and sure get alot of it in these mountains~ here's when I took the kids to a special kids performance by The Lee Boys - my boys mostly sat down with some friends, but the two daycare girls I brought danced like it was going out of style!


And I got to go to Phish!!! The Asheville tickets were HARD to get, and I actually broke down and paid more than face value - but if you know me, you know that I've spent so much time following Phish around the country that I couldn't *not* go when they played in my home town. It was a very small venue (7,000) and they've been on a break for several years now - this show sold out in about 1 minute. When I finally got my ticket, I admittedly drank a bit too much to celebrate and could be heard yelling "I got my ticket!!" on the streets downtown hahah! Didn't get any pics in the show, but it was fantastic!! Also went to see them in Knoxville the next nite - most of these photos are from our phun time in Knoxville :)






Made some delicious blackberry syrup in an effort to use our neighbor Tater's blackberries he froze from last Summer (since they're nearly ripe this season already!), and also have seen quite a few lovely rainbows right over our house this Spring!

LEAF Spring 09

It's that time of year again - time for Lake Eden Arts Festival in Black Mountain, NC! We had so much fun... as always I volunteered doing pre-fest set-up so we could get in for free. The boys are at a nice age now that they can navigate their way around the festival grounds by themselves, know where the lost kids tent is, know who to talk to if they're lost, etc. So for most of the day they can do their own thing - which is typically going to friends' campsites, playing at the beach of the lake, climbing trees, or playing frisbee or soccer. The boys and I would meet up a few thru the day for meals and to go do things together - we saw breakdancing by Hunab Krewe, participated in the crazy giant puppet parade with the African dancers and drummers, do a Kung Fu class, Clay even went down the GIGANTIC waterslide (seriously, it's off-the-side-of-a-mountain-huge)!!!

They also spent time with other families and went to the Elfhaven childcare area so I could go out and have some grown-up fun, too :) Got to dance to the Asheville Horns, the Lee Boys, Travelin' McCoury's and do a bunch of contra dancing...

Us with Shonna & Leah


On Friday morning it rained so hard that we went home for a bit - and on our way back we got a flat tire. ugh! we felt silly spending beautiful sunshine festival time at the tire shop haha!


Pictures from the camp site:
Laz willing away the rain clouds


Zane being cute all snuggled up early morning:


Robert & Chandra making having tarp bonanza time with not only kids from our camp but lots of kids that just ran out of the woods to join in :)


Reed and Leah kickin back for a minute:


See that dark speck up near the top? That's Clay (it's a good thing he's more coordinated than his mama!)


Lake Play & Sand City:





Clay figuring out the Chinese yo-yo (he LOVED this thing!)


A couple views around the grounds taken from the foot bridge to a little island: