The week before last (yes, my blog is overdue because I've been really busy with work and toddler) we spent a week in Sapphire, NC with my family! We absolutely loved the area and had a blast. It was a wonderful vacation. Caroline adored the mountains and the lakes. Every day, when we'd start our daily adventure, she'd sit in the car seat and we'd go over a hill with a view of the mountains and lake and she'd say, "so beautiful." Every time. Unprompted. "So beautiful." We all agreed, Caroline Quinn.
So, here's my favorite kind of post - a vacation post!!
One of the highlights of the trip was being able to spend Mother's Day with my mom and, of course, my babycakes. We had an amaaaaaaaazing brunch with delicious coffee and fantastic omelets. We then had a photoshoot! Every year since Caroline was born, Josh and I have awkward self-timer family photoshoots, but this year we had an actual human to take our photos! Caroline's attention span was a wee bit short, but we got some fantastic photos!
After brunch and the photoshoot, we made our way to a mountain lake to reunite our mermaid with her beloved sand! It was so much fun. The girl truly loves being near the water and playing in the sand and the "so beautiful" mountains in the background just make it even better! She really enjoyed smearing mud all over everyone; that wasn't my favorite part of the outing...
Near Sapphire was a totally charming town called Highlands. We fell in love with the town when we drove through on our way to meet my family, so we insisted we go back and everyone was glad we did. We had a wonderful morning of shopping and had another wonderful meal (salmon sandwich and a delicious local beer... yes, please)! One day, when I somehow become a millionaire, I am going to buy a mountain home in Highlands, yep.
We also went to see Whitewater Falls, which is the tallest waterfall on the east coast. I told Caroline about our planned adventure when she woke up that morning and later I noticed she was talking non-stop about waffles... I finally figured out that "waffles" is Caroline language for "waterfalls." Ugh, so cute. Poor girl isn't much of a hiker quite yet; she fell in the parking lot before we even made our way to the waterfall. Once we got there she was amazing. The waterfall was, you guessed it, "so beautiful!" Josh and Allison kept hiking down the mountain while we took Caroline to a playground. While I wish I could have gone on the hike, I'm always down for a playground trip!
Later that evening, Caroline had her first putt-putt experience! The girl lasted an entire one hole until she decided putt-putt isn't exactly her thing. So, she wandered around, moved everyone's balls, and terrorized the putt-putt course while we all continued playing. It was fun! Can we also just take a moment to celebrate the fact that I WON at putt-putt? Whoa.
We spent a day in Asheville, the downtown Biltmore area to be specific, which is always nice. We love Asheville. We even ate at the same restaurant we went to last year, sat at the same table, all sat in the same seats, and ordered Caroline the same grilled cheese. Look at the photo below at how much she has changed in just a year... amazing! We then went antiquing, which was everyone antiquing while I chased Caroline around the enormous store making sure she didn't break anything. Le sigh...
Later that day, my family was awesome and watched Caroline so we could have a date night! Living in Florida and not knowing many people means we rarely get anyone to watch Caroline so we rarely get date nights. We went to a delicious wine and tapas restaurant. I got two glasses of wine and Josh got two beers (wow, our date nights are crazy). We also split three tapas: pimiento cheese crostini, crab stuffed mushrooms, and avocado and goat cheese crostini (my favorite, OMG, I could have eaten like three more orders of those). Then, we split a lava cake for a dessert. It was a nice date where we talked mostly about Caroline, of course, but could enjoy ourselves without worrying about her melting down.
The next day, we went back to the lake and Allison and I took a canoe out on the lake for an hour! See, when the two of us are together we revert back to children, so I'm sure the people in the rental office thought we were very... special. Our dad made us wear life jackets so we also looked very... special. And I'm sure our giggles were echoing through the mountains the entire time. We actually did really well making our way around the lake. It was incredible fun!! I'm so glad we did that, even though we got some crazy tan lines.
The next day, my parents and Josh took a day trip to Brevard, a cute town we passed through on our way to Asheville, while Allison and I stayed behind to take Caroline to the pool! I felt bad for talking about the pool all week and not yet taking her, so I had to make sure we got there before the trip was over! She had so much fun swimming. She loved relaxing on my back and floating through the water. She is convinced her auntie is a mermaid because of the way her hair floats through the water.
The best parts of vacation were spending time with my family - spending a week with my mom, dad, sister, husband, and babycakes. Some of the best moments were when we were all having deck beers (er, apple juice in Caroline's case) together and relaxing. That's what family vacations are all about!! Caroline loves her family and I'm so glad we all got to spend quality time together.
