Spring Break 2016
All last week (well crap, I'm writing this on a Saturday... So the week before) was Luke's Spring Break. And this year no one was pregnant, so TerraNova went on vacation!
We headed up to NC on Saturday and made rather remarkable time, given that we had 8 and 4 year olds and a 7 month old and took 3 cars (chosen by gas mileage [aka: Chad and Amy's trucks stayed safely home]) this time. TerraNova needs to stop expanding. We lost Molly and her brood after a disastrous turn on I-75 that my GPS app steered Chad, Luke and I around while everyone else got stuck for a time. Glad we made good time, though, because the mountain road we were on was less "mountain roady" and more Dueling Banjos. And there was one hairpin curve with gravel that made me grateful for A) daylight and B) Chad driving instead of me.
The cabin itself was very nice. It had a pool table, which is always a plus, but was missing a hot tub or a fire pit. As a bonus, all adults had beds! Actually, everyone had beds except D, who slept in with Amy, and Sadie of course stayed in Molly and AJ's room in her pack and play.
We did better on cooking for ourselves this time, but still found some really good local places. I was amazed at how many little hole-in-the-wall places had clam strips on the menu. And the catfish was a-maze-ing at the BBQ place we went. We also went bowling one night and I recall it being remarkably better priced than the chain lanes we have here.
It took two tries, but we got to go zip-lining and caving in Tennessee as well. We were originally scheduled to go Monday and set out right on time... Then the road we needed was closed with 7 inches of snow and ice. The detour would take an extra hour and a half, so we just went back "home" when zip-lining couldn't reschedule our tour for same-day. The next day worked much better. The cave was a tour and was kinda awesome. Apparently I have no issues with claustrophobia, but heights remain a problem according to looking over one edge into an underground canyon... I did much better zip lining this time, though I tried to have a panic attack at the start. Again, heights. And throwing myself off of them is counter-intuitive. But at the end of this tour, I actually jumped when he said go, as opposed to last time we went. We all learned to go upside down. I mostly accomplished it... Well, my feet went up and my shoe grazed the cable... And I let go with one hand. Considering I had no intention of trying, I count it as a victory. Luke went upside down on two different cables. The first time he didn't let go, the second time, which was much longer and a side-by-side "race", he and Amy stayed upside down the majority of the time and he let go with both hands!
Sunday it snowed. Up at the cabin, it was little flurries that the boys (and me) tried to catch on tongues. We got a little accumulation overnight, maybe 1/3 of an inch. More than Luke's ever seen! I made a snowman with what was on the seat outside by the fire ring that stood maybe 4 inches high. Obviously there was accumulation elsewhere, and we drove through it on the sides of the road on the way back from Zip lining. Glad it wasn't on the way to it because for that we did our one 5 minute break at a dam Chad wanted to stop at, and we had NO other wiggle room in the schedule. Apparently the other car drove through it on the way up, because they remarked that they thought we were a little late because I was going to have a seizure if we didn't stop. On the way back, we did pull over and had a mini snowball fight (I was wearing jeans and a tee-shirt, for the record, having left my hoodie in the other car) and the adults made snowmen. Without gloves, Luke was content to watch me torture myself, but Chad eventually provided his for me to continue acting like a legitimate 5 year old. All day, we'd been seeing people driving around with snowmen on their hoods, so Chad made one to put on there, then mine joined it. Amy used hers as ammunition and pelted us with him. Neither made it back to the cabin, but it was fun watching them.
The trip home was longer, but we also stopped at Goats on the Roof, a little roadside place where they literally have goats. On the roof. You can run goat food p to them on a variety on contraptions, like a bike that runs a cup up an incline, or a hand crank one. They also had some goats on the ground to feed as well. We bought the obligatory over priced branded candy, shared a bag of overpriced dirt for the boys to pan for gems, and tried on fake coon skin caps. Eventually we made it home.
Now we're jsut waiting for the school schedule for next year to come out to start planning the next one!
We headed up to NC on Saturday and made rather remarkable time, given that we had 8 and 4 year olds and a 7 month old and took 3 cars (chosen by gas mileage [aka: Chad and Amy's trucks stayed safely home]) this time. TerraNova needs to stop expanding. We lost Molly and her brood after a disastrous turn on I-75 that my GPS app steered Chad, Luke and I around while everyone else got stuck for a time. Glad we made good time, though, because the mountain road we were on was less "mountain roady" and more Dueling Banjos. And there was one hairpin curve with gravel that made me grateful for A) daylight and B) Chad driving instead of me.
The cabin itself was very nice. It had a pool table, which is always a plus, but was missing a hot tub or a fire pit. As a bonus, all adults had beds! Actually, everyone had beds except D, who slept in with Amy, and Sadie of course stayed in Molly and AJ's room in her pack and play.
We did better on cooking for ourselves this time, but still found some really good local places. I was amazed at how many little hole-in-the-wall places had clam strips on the menu. And the catfish was a-maze-ing at the BBQ place we went. We also went bowling one night and I recall it being remarkably better priced than the chain lanes we have here.
It took two tries, but we got to go zip-lining and caving in Tennessee as well. We were originally scheduled to go Monday and set out right on time... Then the road we needed was closed with 7 inches of snow and ice. The detour would take an extra hour and a half, so we just went back "home" when zip-lining couldn't reschedule our tour for same-day. The next day worked much better. The cave was a tour and was kinda awesome. Apparently I have no issues with claustrophobia, but heights remain a problem according to looking over one edge into an underground canyon... I did much better zip lining this time, though I tried to have a panic attack at the start. Again, heights. And throwing myself off of them is counter-intuitive. But at the end of this tour, I actually jumped when he said go, as opposed to last time we went. We all learned to go upside down. I mostly accomplished it... Well, my feet went up and my shoe grazed the cable... And I let go with one hand. Considering I had no intention of trying, I count it as a victory. Luke went upside down on two different cables. The first time he didn't let go, the second time, which was much longer and a side-by-side "race", he and Amy stayed upside down the majority of the time and he let go with both hands!
Sunday it snowed. Up at the cabin, it was little flurries that the boys (and me) tried to catch on tongues. We got a little accumulation overnight, maybe 1/3 of an inch. More than Luke's ever seen! I made a snowman with what was on the seat outside by the fire ring that stood maybe 4 inches high. Obviously there was accumulation elsewhere, and we drove through it on the sides of the road on the way back from Zip lining. Glad it wasn't on the way to it because for that we did our one 5 minute break at a dam Chad wanted to stop at, and we had NO other wiggle room in the schedule. Apparently the other car drove through it on the way up, because they remarked that they thought we were a little late because I was going to have a seizure if we didn't stop. On the way back, we did pull over and had a mini snowball fight (I was wearing jeans and a tee-shirt, for the record, having left my hoodie in the other car) and the adults made snowmen. Without gloves, Luke was content to watch me torture myself, but Chad eventually provided his for me to continue acting like a legitimate 5 year old. All day, we'd been seeing people driving around with snowmen on their hoods, so Chad made one to put on there, then mine joined it. Amy used hers as ammunition and pelted us with him. Neither made it back to the cabin, but it was fun watching them.
The trip home was longer, but we also stopped at Goats on the Roof, a little roadside place where they literally have goats. On the roof. You can run goat food p to them on a variety on contraptions, like a bike that runs a cup up an incline, or a hand crank one. They also had some goats on the ground to feed as well. We bought the obligatory over priced branded candy, shared a bag of overpriced dirt for the boys to pan for gems, and tried on fake coon skin caps. Eventually we made it home.
Now we're jsut waiting for the school schedule for next year to come out to start planning the next one!