Family Trip to Blowing Rock, Tweetsie Railroad

Our last stop in Blowing Rock before we rolled away in the afternoon was Tweetsie Railroad.  It was an amusement park like none other, let's just say that:)  Lots of interesting sights & fun!

Family Trip to Blowing Rock, Around Blowing Rock

Chris arrived back at home & we were are all thankful to have Daddy back!

The next day we woke up & decided to stick really close to Grandpa's house.  We started off with a morning hike around Bass Lake.  Can you tell Chris can't live without his Starbucks?  We had to take a pit stop just so he could get some coffee to-go.

 Someone is back in his scuba gear...

 Checking out the lake...

 I really thought he may jump in.

 Brothers

We found a little wading spot & the kids had a blast!

This is such a first child.  Talk his siblings into pushing him in the stroller! 

 We got some pizza and headed home for a bit to rest.  That afternoon we decided to head to another fun hiking spot right near Grandpa.  It was pretty awesome.

 We discovered several apple trees on the walk.

And some more wild berries to eat! 

Hiking with the crew 

 We ended the day with some ice cream in downtown Blowing Rock, one of our traditions!

Family Trip to Blowing Rock, Linville Falls & Caverns

The next day with Chris still gone, we woke up to some sunshine so we decided let's head outside!  We decided to head to one of my dad's favorite spot, Linville Falls.  I want to say that hiking with the three kids looked like this the entire way:

But honestly by day four of traveling, our hike looked more like this:

Yep, they weren't quite the hikers like they were on day one.  I'm pretty sure I carried at least one the entire way.  And a few tears and many laughs from strangers happened along the way :)  We were quite the sight to see!  But we did manage to enjoy a little bit of nature...

 And each other...

 We finally reached the falls & I tried to snap a picture of all three.  As usual, that didn't work.

 As we moved closer to the waterfalls, the rocks had lots of puddles from the rain the day before.  Many people were just hanging on the rocks watching the waterfalls, but my kids decided that puddle jumping was way more fun.  We didn't stay down here too long as the kids were getting soaked and muddy and I knew we still had to get these rugrats hiked back to the car.

 But we had fun, I think :)

After enjoying some lunch out at a little mountain cafe, we decided to head to the Linville Caverns.  True cave exploring for us.  Can you tell that this mom is getting tired from traveling solo with the kids?

 I don't have pictures from the caves as it was dark & scary down there, but it was really interesting.  We got to walk through the caves with a tour guide and learned all sorts of things.  The only downside as I lost my camera lens cap down the endless pool of water as we were walking across it, but thankfully my dad had an extra one.  We somehow survived the hour long tour with the three kids & it definitely was quite an experience!

We headed home to hibernate and relax for the rest of the day after all those adventures!

Family Trip to Blowing Rock, Hickory Science Center

Our third day in Blowing Rock & we had to say good-bye to Daddy.  He headed to a work conference in Dallas for a few days while my dad and I held down the fort with our wild crew.  We woke up to the prediction of rain during the day so we decided to find an indoor activity to keep these kids busy because trust me, no one wants us hanging inside all day without a lot of toys to keep them busy.  We may tear that house apart within a few hours!  So we headed south to the Hickory Science Center & we had a blast.  It was not busy and there were lots to do to keep the kids busy!

 I love this picture because you can totally see his first tooth missing :)

 We got to see the museum guides feed the sharks and we got lots to see lots of sea life, like this coral reef.

 Only a grandpa would pay to do one of these machines.  I enjoyed from the outside watching them blow away!

 The kids had lots of fun on all the different exhibits.  We spent several hours here keeping their little minds busy!

 And Grandpa busy too!

 One of their favorite parts of the science center we didn't discover until the end.  The outdoor learning center, thankfully this was our last stop because we had some wet kids after playing out here!

We decided against taking a trip to the Hickory Furniture Mart (I think that needs to be done without kids although I would have loved to do some furniture shopping while there as I STILL have furniture to get to get this house furnished!) and stopped for an early dinner at Chik-Fil-A.  The kids ran out the last amount of energy they had while we were there eating before the drive and home.  We ended the night in Grandpa's giant bathtub and LOTS of bubbles!

Family Trip to Blowing Rock, Grandfather Mountain

We woke up nice & early and drove on over to Grandfather Mountain.  I have to say that I love living near a big city, but there's a little piece of me that loves to get away and be around less dense areas of the world.  The mountains are just so beautiful & it's such a peaceful way of life!

We immediately headed to see the animals before the crowds started to come. We were lucky enough that the bears were awake and alert and got to see them super up close!

The otters were also super active & swimming right by us.  We were the only people viewing them since we arrived early so we got a super awesome otter show!

We did get super up close & personal with this bear though!

Then it was on to Grandfather Mountain.  It really is kind of a place that everyone should see.  One mile above sea level on a swinging bridge.  A little crazy but super pretty with mountains all around you.  We somehow crossed the bridge & back with all kids in tow and one slight toddler meltdown!

Our little petite Aiden:)