Mountain Getaway

 With Christmas over with, and New Years on the way, we wanted to have a fun family day so we decided to do a day trip to the mountains. It's another thing I love about living near Charlotte, how close we are to the mountains. I figured Brynley was still too young to actually get a hotel room, but at Ryder's request, he wanted to see snow so I thought what a great idea! The further we got into the mountains, his request was granted and we saw lots of snow!

 After the two hour drive to the mountains, a pump session in the passenger seat, and battling between two carseats to assist Ryder in the toy he kept dropping to the floor, and trying to feed Brynley a bottle, we arrived at our destination. I actually got lots of smiles from her once I sat in the backseat with her.

 However, the smiles stopped once we got her out of the carseat and realized just how cold it was! We drove to Appalachian ski in hopes to see the snow. I'm not brave enough to take Ryder skiing with a 3 month old in tow just yet. We'll wait for next winter for that! After dressing Ryder in his ski bibs, and fighting him to wear all of his gear so he was bundled up properly, we ventured outside. The wind was fierce and we almost threw in the towel and packed up the car to turn back around and head home. Because we all know a screaming child yelling that his cheeks are cold, followed by the cries of a 3 month old is challenging enough, and adding ski coats and trying to walk in snow boots is enough to make anyone cry ha! Scot and I were like "what were we thinking!?"  But we didn't, and I'm glad we kept trudging because Ryder loved the snow once he was able to see it! He was rather in awe even!

 Best part was seeing him make snowballs to throw at his Daddy! LOVE! I can only imagine once Brynley is old enough to throw snowballs of her own, these two could be trouble. There were a lot of other families at the ski resort, and Ryder loved taking part in the snowball fight that was going on next to us from an older brother and sister. He was so cute in his moose hat!

 Scot was having fun making snowballs too!

 Brynley was so cute and after her initial cries (probably wondering what on Earth she was doing in so many layers and what is this cold stuff?) she ended up falling asleep as I was carrying her around! Such a doll ha.

 After playing in the snow, we wanted to get warm so we went out for lunch in the nearby town of Blowing Rock and ate at Six Pence Pub where we chowed on creamed corn jalepeno poppers with yummy ranch dip, and homeade soups. It was so good and both kids were well behaved for most of the lunch. Brynley awoke after about the first 15 minutes of course, but she just kind of looked around at everything for a little bit before crying to eat which was nice. We don't go out often, as a family of 4, so it was nice to get out together. The food was really good and the company even better!

 As a reward for being good at lunch, I promised Ryder a treat at Kilwin's. I chose a piece (hunk rather) of German chocolate fudge, and Ryder chose a scoop of Superman blue and red ice cream. Who eats ice cream in the winter? My son and I do! ha. Scot and I were just talking about this, and I love soup even in the summer, and ice cream even in the winter. Weird? Maybe to some, but I don't let seasons determine when and what I want to eat. I don't eat nearly the ice cream I used to, but if I get a craving for some cake batter ice cream, you better believe I'm going to eat it even if it's only 30 degrees out!

This was definitely a fun but challenging day. I'm just glad that we don't let having a baby and a toddler change any plans we have and we still get out to have fun. I'm sure the college kids were looking at us and wondering what we must be thinking bringing our babes to a ski resort, but I'm glad we did it. I want our children to experience life, even at a young age! And who knows? Maybe we'll venture out again before the winter season is over!