Memorial Day in the Mountains

We got an itch to take a trip somewhere new/different for Memorial Day this year. We batted around a few ideas, and kept coming back to the mountains. So we searched and found this cute little mountain house, Fly Way Dreams, right outside of Valle Crucis. It turned out to be perfect for our mountain adventure!

The house didn't have an impressive mountain view, but it did have a pretty view and a lot of land where the girls could just run. And best of all, it was really quiet and private which made it super relaxing.

First on the agenda for our trip? Gem mining of course. The girls were super excited to do this activity which Brian likened to the "putt putt of the mountains". :)

They loved it and spent an hour and a half digging in the mud for citrines, rubies, emeralds, and crystals. They got VERY dirty.

They were thrilled with their discoveries; it was a fun way to spend the afternoon.

After a brat dinner on the porch...

we had smores of course! The house had an awesome fire pit.

There was an awesome thunderstorm that night that we watched roll in from the front porch. We woke up to clouds and lots of wetness the next morning, but decided to move forward with our plan to hike to the top of Elk Knob mountain.

This was a bit of a daunting (a.k.a. crazy) plan because we have a 6-year-old, a 3-year-old, and a baby. Normally, I don't think you would take them on a two-mile hike straight up a mountain. But we convinced ourselves we could all handle the four-mile round trip, and off we went.

Addie landed on Brian's shoulders about five minutes into the hike, and Luke was strapped securely to me in the Ergo. So the extra people on us made the hike pretty darn hard.

This was the beautiful view half way up (love this pic). We had to make the call if we should keep going (one mile more) or head back down the mountain. We really wanted to see the view from the top so we kept going... 

We made it! I was so impressed with Collins. She hiked up that whole mountain all by herself with minimal complaints (although she did call the hike "terrible" at the end). This was her payoff...look at the view! We reached an elevation of over 5,000 feet and could see into Virginia and Tennessee. This was the type of experience I wanted the girls to have on our trip...accomplishing something challenging and being exposed to a new landscape.

It took us three hours to complete the hike. Little Luke was a champ, even when I had to feed him along the path (never thought I'd ever do that). We were all exhausted when it was over, but I'm glad we did it.

Dirty and hungry, we wound our way into Boone for lunch. I had never seen ASU's main street, and it was cute. We ate at a tasty sandwich shop before heading back to Valle Crucis. The girls had completed the hike which meant that we owed them a toy and a piece of candy from the Mast General Store. Bribery really works with my children. :)

By the way, loved the scenery in the Valle Crucis/Boone area. I was especially taken with the barns, and found out the pretty artwork at the top of the barn is called a "barn quilt".

After our big hike, we needed to relax at the house. Luckily, the basement of the house was a game room. Collins learned how to play checkers, and could not get enough (especially when she kept winning).

On Memorial Day, we decided to go see a waterfall. The Moores had recommended the Otter Falls as a fun and family-friendly trail in Seven Devils so that's where we headed.

It was a pretty and easy hike (which was welcomed after Elk Knob the day before)...

with a beautiful treat waiting at the bottom.

You could actually get behind the waterfall which was super cool. The girls were pretty impressed that they were allowed to wade through the water and touch the water...

Snack at the top of the waterfall...

After we completed the hike, we decided to try to see some of the Blue Ridge Parkway as we wound our way towards the highway home. The plan did not exactly work as I got us twisted in the wrong direction and we found no food to feed our kids, but we made it work. Brian found us a great overlook on the Parkway to stop and have a picnic lunch with the scraps we had left from the mountain house. And look at the view!

This overlook had an easy hiking trail on it- the Cascades Trail- that led to the most impressive waterfall I have ever seen!

But I think we might have pushed our kids a little too far on this last hike...Addie fell and skinned her knee and continued to scream along the entire trail, Collins had blood all over her shirt from a nose bleed, I took a misstep and sank my shoe completely in a pile of muddy goo, and Brian soaked through his with sweat trying to carry Addie back to the car. Then Luke had a blowout. We. Were. A Mess. It was officially time to hit the road and head back to Raleigh.

Despite an ugly ending to the trip, we had a wonderful mountain weekend. We saw so many new things, spent quality time together, and relaxed in one of the prettiest places I have been in a long time. It was the perfect way to spend the holiday weekend!