Weekday getaway

A full nights sleep, massage, facial, delicious dinner and beautiful scenery! Did I mention this took place with out the kids? Josh and I took a quick spur of the moment trip to the Highlands on Monday and Tuesday before he started work on Thursday. We previously visited Old Edwards Inn two anniversaries ago and we've been wanting to go back ever since! I packed for all three kids (usually Isaac does his own but he was at school) and we dropped the littles at my Mom's house on Monday afternoon. Eli is always ready to go anywhere.. anytime. He barely told me bye. Olivia was clingy but she was fine as soon as I walked out the door.

Tuesday we slept in, had a gourmet breakfast and then shopped around town before our spa appointments. We both had a massage and I had a facial afterwards. As we were eating dinner Tuesday night at Madison's (which is the most amazing resteraunt) I told Josh, "Wow, it is sure nice to eat alone but one day we are going to miss the chaos." To which he replied,"Yes, but we aren't going to miss it right now."

The trip was a great ending to Josh's 'vacation'. Back to reality.. Josh goes back to work,  I get to see 3 sweet little faces... and my bed...which really is nice!

Dinner at PF Changs before our trip. Doesn't this guy look like Seth Rogen? I 'discretly' snapped this :)

Welcome! The service here is always spectacular. 

We tried out the heated pool and spa on Monday night and we were the only people crazy enough to be out there.

The showers at the spa.. that would be 13 sources of water hitting you at once. Pretty amazing.

Relaxing

Our starter- lobster claw and pork belly with risotto and greens. It was delicious

We finished the meal with a chocolate peanut butter souffle and coffee

A lovely get-away!

My 3 sweeties

We found her this pink frilly bathing suit while we were away and she loved it. It was a fight to get it off her.

Eli likes to cut paper. He's really good with scissors.. hopefully he doesn't get ahold of Sissy's hair.

Isaac and Dad built a rocket for his school project when we got back. 

Happy Anniversary

Josh and I celebrated our Anniversary on Saturday. Though I would have rather been somewhere warm with my sand in the toes we had a great day anyway. We had originally planned on having a stay-cation at home and having a night alone without the kiddos but of course plans usually don't go as planned. Both Eli and Olivia weren't feeling great and we ended up offering our house for the Junior high boys to stay for our church's Youth Fall retreat. That was 15 Junior high boys, 2 Youth leaders, 4 members of Josh's brother's family and then of course us! So 25 people in my house from Friday to Sunday doesn't make for a quiet anniversary weekend. We were able to head up to the mountains for several hours on Saturday ALONE.. which was nice. We hiked down in Linville Gorge to a camping spot and waterfall that we've not visited in years, took a drive on the Parkway, had dinner in Blowing Rock at the Best Cellar and then shopped a bit on the Shoppes on the Parkway. During our entire 1 1/2 hour hike we saw no one, enjoyed the leaves, the beautiful weather, and each other's company. Most days it seems like every time we start a conversation someone needs our attention and it was especially nice going out to dinner without having to entertain, feed, and keep the littles still. Happy Anniversary Josh, thanks for being a great husband and father! The kiddies and I love you!

An engagement pic from several years ago!

Hiking through the Gorge. We did bring clothes to change into for dinner.

We couldn't have ask for a more beautiful day

Kiss selfie :)

Driving the parkway- the leaves were brilliant!

Such beauty

Driving across the Viaduct

Filet at the Best Cellar

Our field trip

Josh and I had a quick weekend away to Wilmington.. without the kids.

We had no agenda and it was awesome. We slept in, ate good food, went to the beach, had a pedicure, read books (well I did), watched 4 movies, shopped and just enjoyed being together.

Through the week it seems we hardly get to spend time with each other because life gets so hectic. Most evenings Josh isn't home until 7 and that's if it's a day where Isaac doesn't have a baseball game. By the time we eat, baths are done and kids are in bed, it's time for me to go to bed.

So a recharge was much needed. I love taking care of my little people 24-7 but it was so nice to take a few days to ourself. It's so easy to feel Mommy-guilt about leaving the brood but I think it's important to take care of yourself and keep your marriage strong. A healthy marriage is much more important than the fear of letting go of the strings for a couple days.

Nana and Papa kept the kids for us. I was a bit anxious leaving the baby but I knew they were all three in good hands. Eli was so excited to stay with Nana and Papa; he kept asking when we were leaving. He said, "Mommy and Daddy are on a field trip"! I'm very thankful to have family we trust to care for our kids. Thanks Nana and Papa!



P.S. For those wondering... No babies were conceived this weekend! The last time we went to Wilmington, Olivia arrived 9 months later ;)

Bodily fluids-read at your own risk

Well.. I just thought Eli was better. On Wednesday it started at both ends and on Friday night and he was sick again THREE times. I was so proud of Josh's quick-like-ninja skills at dinner on Friday. As we were eating dinner at 'Poles, (the Mexican restaurant-- I know probably not the restaurant of choice when the family has had a stomach bug) Eli started to get sick so Josh grabbed him up and ran out the front door where Eli then puked all over the sidewalk. Yea, not such a good idea to go out to eat...we had them box up our dinner to go.

Poor Olivia also caught the dreaded bug.. right after she finished a huge bowl of spaghetti on Wednesday night. I was up all night with her and then Eli got sick as well. I've never been good with throw up.. I can do poop all day but throw up gets me. I faced my fears though and made it through because there was no other option!

Josh started feeling bad Friday morning as well and stayed home. I bought stock in crackers and pedalyte. Thankfully we are all healthy right now. I somehow evaded the bug with my super power mommy immunity and Isaac didn't catch it either!

When this one lays on the couch or falls asleep you know he's sick!

Little girl feeling better. She can climb all the way to the top!

What we've done this week...

Life has been busy! We've had baseball games, practice, therapy, and kindermusik class. We've exercised a bit, tilled and planted a garden, had a puppy checkup and taken silly bath photos. Josh has been building us a chicken coop when he gets home from work in the evenings. Eli calls it a 'chicken kook". These chickens are vacating my garage as soon as he gets that thing built because for 1. they have out grown their rubbermaid container and 2. they stink!  Tuesday we went to Enka to watch Isaac's Battle of the Books competition. Isaac and his team won the regional competition out of 11 counties! He read 28 novels to be tested on.. there are 7 kids on his team and he was in every round. Thursday, Isaac and Eli had dentist appointments and Livi went with us.. no cavities and Eli was very cooperative. Eli actually went back to get his teeth cleaned without me. This is my last week as a 31 year old because I turn 32 on Saturday. Eeeekkk!

Play yard and picnics here we come

Many thanks to Pawpaw, ( Josh's Dad) who came over to help Josh build a play yard for the littles. Plus Paw built us a picnic table for warm weather fun!

Catawba falls

Isaac was out of school Friday so we used the day to go on a hike. Since we had rain for a solid week the river was up and the falls were huge. We did have to ford the creek 3 times since all the bridges were washed out. No worries...We left the babies with their grandparents because we knew it would be a little dangerous with the high water.  Somehow I was the only one dry at the end of our adventure and I don't know how.. I'm usually the clumsy one!

Trying to cross

Isaac at the dam- the pre-teens loved the pun on words with the word 'dam'

The falls- we have never seen them this full

Lots of water

A quick no make-up kinda day pic

Braedon, Bryce and Isaac

Country ride

Today I was a country gal and we took the middle rascal (he needed some special Mommy/Daddy time) for a long trail blazin' four wheeler ride. We donned the Carhart and camo (well Josh did) .. I was dressed in his old long sleeve shirt, too tight workout pants, pink fuzzy socks, along with my glasses and a scrunchie from the 80's.  There was no way I was taking my picture but I snapped this one of Josh and Eli after our ride. We rode around our land, made new trails, enjoyed the warm day and even saw a red fox.  It started to rain during our ride but we kept on. The smell of gas, wind blowing on my face, and being outside made me happy to be in the country. 

Little E has been a pill this week. We left him with Josh's parents Sunday night to take Olivia to Chapel Hill for her audiologist appointment on Monday and since we've been back he's been out of sorts. I don't know if the poor child thought he was abandoned (even though we explained what was going on) or if he is hitting a new developmental phase, but I'm about out of patience. He has had meltdowns over every little thing, hasn't listened to a word I've said, and been completely unruly.  I have adopted a new calming down song from some PBS show.. it goes like this and works like a charm. "If you feel like you're going to ROAR, let's count to four...1..2...3..4."  Josh looked at me with an open mouth the first time he heard me sing because Eli immediately de-esclated from his tantrum. So yes, it works like a charm, but let me tell you there is only so many times you can handle singing about roaring before you are about to roar. So we decided to give E a little special time and there is nothing he likes more than to go ride something with a motor. Four-wheelers, lawn mowers, and tractors are at the top of the list. He was so happy and kept talking about riding through the woods. Hopefully this new phase he is going through is going to be short lived.

We try to make sure we spend time with each of the kids individually. Isaac had all the attention for 9 lovely years and has done superb adapting to the big brother role. He helps out a lot and I believe in the long run it's going to make him more patient, more loving, and a better father one day. We try to do special things with him such as movie nights, and daddy/son video game evenings. I really want to start 'date' nights where we can take each kiddo out one-on-one, especially as little ones get older. 

Olivia's MRI

We journeyed back down to Chapel Hill on November 12th for more appointments with Olivia including a sedated MRI to check her inner ear structure and anatomy. 

I was pretty anxious about the sedation because she is so little and of course you never know how someone is going to react to sedation. I was also nervous because she wasn't supposed to eat after 7:30 am with her appointment being at 1:00.  We had lots of people praying- even a stranger came up to us the night before her MRI and prayed for her while we were eating at Cracker Barrel. 

Our prayers were answered. She did great with the sedation and her MRI looked completely normal. Her inner ear anatomy was there along with the nerves. So we still have no clue what caused her hearing loss and we may never know. Her blood testing (where they analze her blood spot from her PKU testing as a newborn) wasn't back so I was a bit bummed about that. Evidently the State is in charge of that so who knows how long it will take to come back. 

We also saw her Audiologist while we were there and I had one of her ear molds grind down a bit where it was bothering her. We won't have any new testing until she is 7 months old and she starts behavioral testing in the sound booth.  

Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.- Philippians 4:6

Daddy and Olivia at breakfast before the appointment

Thankfully she didn't have to have an IV and they were able to give her the medicine (Versed and Presidex) up her nose. She fought it for about 15 minutes and then finally fell asleep. This was her after I laid her down on the table, kissed her goodbye and we walked to the waiting room. 

We were able to go right back to her as soon as the MRI was finished (45 minutes). She cried briefly until I picked her up and then fell back asleep for around 2 hours. 

I was very impressed with the Pediatric Sedation team at UNC. They had two nurses with her and watched her vitals continuously until the medicine wore off completely. 

E,I,O

I went to a conference which I will blog about later and on the way home I called Josh. He said, " I've got little E and I'm getting ready to pick up little I. I will see U and little O soon. Now we need a little A." I replied, "Lets get a dog and name it Ash!" Then we will have the vowels covered!

Anniversary weekend

Josh and I celebrated our anniversary by heading to the Old Edwards Inn and Spa for a short weekend away.  I didn't want to be too far from Olivia since this is the first time she has been away from me overnight. The Inn was historic, lovely and the service was remarkable. When we arrived the front desk welcomed us by name and handed us a glass of champagne. After a tour of the Inn we found our room decked with rose petals, strawberries, fresh cookies, personalized envelopes, and even slippers for our feet! The first night we had dinner at the Madison and I cannot rave enough about the food. I was able to cut my filet with a butter knife! We were so incredibly full after dinner our waiter brought up our dessert to our room.

Saturday we slept in (sleep-that wonderful thing I haven't had in over 5 months) and then shopped around downtown until time for our spa appointment. That evening we drove to Franklin to watch Taken 2 and then came back and hit the outdoor hot tub and pool. We were the only ones crazy enough to go swimming at 10:30 at night but that was okay. The pool was 85 degrees which was still a bit cold for me (it was 45 degrees outside) so I spent the most time in the hot tub.

It was such a relaxing, wonderful weekend and we both enjoyed spending quality time together. The boys were fine (other than Eli getting sick the last night) and Livi did great with Nana. She did boycott the bottle for 6 hours after I dropped her off; however about 10 pm she gave in and ate like a champ the rest of the time. Of course I brought my pump and a cooler and stockpiled some milk.

Front of building from Main Street

Service- Robes and slippers in our room :)

This was given to us as we left the hotel- water and fruit for our travel!

Champagne, strawberries, fresh homemade cookies, personalized letters... the works!

Side entrance.. I love the hanging baskets 

Josh and I - this was a self shot snapped off our porch

The roof top terrance above, and spa building to the left

Rose petals on our bed





There were so many beautiful waterfalls on the way to Highlands. The weather was gorgeous; sunny with a crisp cool breeze and the trees were in peak color. Josh and I stopped at Bridal veil falls and Dry falls on Sunday where the pictures below were taken. 

This was at Dry falls where you could actually walk behind the falls

Pretty rainbow reflecting off the water

Dry falls

View from the drive

Dry falls

Very curvy road

Love you hubs!