Oktoberfest In The Mountains

Friday was a reminder of how grateful I am for the flexibility that comes with being a stay-at-home mom. Ian and I were pulling out of Charlotte at 10:15am and westward bound for the mountains. There is no way that we could have made that type of spontaneous move when I was working (Thursday night: "hey, wanna try to get to Boone early enough tomorrow to have lunch up there?"). Taking a day off had to be requested two weeks in advance, and to be honest, I never wanted to "waste" a PTO day on a random mountain weekend, it was better to save them for holidays and potential sick days with Camille when she needed to be home from daycare.

SO - we did make it to the mountains by lunch and had barbecue at The Pedalin' Pig in Boone. My sister, brother-in-law and nephew joined us soon afterwards at the mountain house, and we all hung out and had a great dinner at The Cardinal (definitely our new fave restaurant in Boone).

They have this cool wall painted like the NC flag and it may be inspiring us for some garage wall art...

Saturday morning, the guys and Camille hopped down the hill to the gas station to pick up breakfasts for everyone. Laura and I both had the French toast, hers with bacon and mine with sausage patties. DELISH.  

As we were heading out of the door later that morning to walk around Boone, the guys told us that they'd made Laura and I appointments for massages at 1:30. This was such a surprise and VERY welcome! 

We had a great time walking around Boone and popping into some stores before having one quick drink at Lost Province Brewery and then heading to the spa. The guys dropped us off, took the babes home for naps, and then came to pick us back up an hour later. 

Later that afternoon was our traditional trip to Oktoberfest at Sugar Mountain. It was drizzly the entire time, but we still had a wonderful time together! They had a German band playing and lots of vendors out selling crafts and baked goods. It's just neat, too, seeing the ski slopes without a coating of snow on them.

Dinner that night was at our favorite Mexican restaurant, and then once the babies were sleeping, we adults went into the basement and played pool together. Definitely a highlight.

The next morning we cleaned up the house and headed into Blowing Rock together for one last lunch at Town Tavern before heading our separate ways.

I told Ian that I feel so fortunate that he and my brother-in-law have such a close relationship/friendship (they are like real brothers) because it allows all of us to hang out all of the time and for us to foster such a great relationship with family members. Laura and I have always gotten along so well and it just feels so wonderful to hang out with them and spend time with their adorable son Thompson.