A Mountain Weekend

In the nearly one year that I've been a stay at home mom, there have certainly been challenges (going from to incomes to one, mainly) but the most awesome benefit of our current setup is that it affords us the flexibility to sneak in some long weekends away when Ian's schedule allows. His busiest days are the three middle days of the week. It was awesome to be able to leave town for the mountains early enough this past Friday to make it to Boone in time for lunch.

It was also tremendously helpful when we ended up having to extend our stay through Monday due to the power being out at our home! It was out for about 44 hours over the weekend (!!!) and there was no way we were returning home to a dark, HOT, did I mention hot? home with two little ones.

Friday evening we went down to The Inn at Ragged Gardens where we attended Music On The Lawn. The outdoors area was packed with fold-out chairs and people sipping on cold bevvies, chatting, and moving to the music. This was my first time attending this and we will definitely be back. I wouldn't say that it's THE most family-friendly event but we set up our chairs over in a side area where we weren't too much in the way. It's not that it's anti-kids, but by far the vast majority of the crowd was older. You can read more about it and see the music lineup here. 

Saturday, my mother-in-law and I took the girls to The Children's Playhouse while Ian got some things done around the mountainhouse. We all met up for lunch where Ian told me that he made two appointments for me, and I could take my pick: a 2 o'clock mani/pedi appointment, or a 3 o'clock massage appointment. This was a HUGELY nice surprise, and it took no time for me to choose the massage! I've been pretty stressed recently and this was such a treat. 

That evening we all went out to have some BBQ for dinner at The Pedalin' Pig and Ian and I ended the night by taking the ranger out to a nearby horse farm, solo cups in hand, and we enjoyed a drink together as the sun set. The only sounds we heard were dogs barking in the distance, whipporwills, and the swooshing of the horses' tails. It was fantastic. 

Sunday was our planned departure day, but with the power out back in Charlotte, we were in no rush home. We had a pretty relaxing day and even donned the kilts later that afternoon for a photo opp. I know this seems super random, but our original goal for the weekend was to try to attend the Scottish Highland Games, and we ended up deciding to forego it until the girls are a little older -- but I already had our outfits ready, so we figured may as well snap a photo. I'm wearing my mother-in-law's kilt ... how cool is it?!

Sunday night Ian and I had dinner together at our favorite area restaurant, The Gamekeeper, while my MIL stayed at home with the sleeping girls. It was a perfect ending to a nice family weekend.

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