The Boonedocks

Sorry for the delay in updates, but as you can see from the previous post, Nathan is pretty mobile which means more chasing for me and less time for just about everything else! Also, we've been busy.

This past weekend we went away to the NC Mountains. Greg and Danielle had plans to see friends in Boone so we thought we would go along for the ride. Well, they actually got the ride from us. But we figured we would spend the weekend away and have some time with them too. They flew in RDU Thursday night and we headed into the mountains around noon on Friday. The drive wasthree hours. It was when we hit the Blue Ridge Parkway when things, ironically, went downhill. First, Nathan was pretty much done with being in the car. He played with Aunt Danielle and Uncle Greg for a while, napped and even enjoyed the scenery. But once we hits the real mountains he was not a happy camper. Whether it was the altitude and his little ears not popping, or his boredom of the car, it made for a tough ride for the rest of us as we tried to find our destination. Thankfully, Danielle had good directions for the house they would be staying at. We were staying at a nearby hotel so we left to make our way through the twisty roads. Unfortunately we did not have such good directions. To start we didn't have the right address. We drove up these crazy, inhospitable roads that led to strange places. On our first attempt we ended up on a mountain top near apartments and an abandoned building. Not knowing how or why anyone would live up here and travel on these roads we headed back where we came from to start again. With the correct address we did get to where we were supposed to go, much closer to the house we had just dropped Greg and Danielle at. We finally made it to the top and to the place we would be staying.

I, for one, was scared. This place was far away from . . . anything really. Also, it was empty. There was literally open, empty rooms on the way to our room. The place was being renovated and so quite incomplete. This may be an understatement. The basics were there -bed, bathroom, TV, even a kitchenette - but not much more. It felt lonely and . . . very Hotel California. Or Bates Motel. Or something creepy. I wasn't sure I would be able to stay the night. But I felt better when Leo said he saw more people arriving. Knowing we wouldn't be the only ones that would be checking out but never leaving made me feel a little better. And really the place was clean and rather decent. Just . . . different. Anyway, we spent a little time regrouping then ventured out into the town of Boone.

The little town is cute but not full of too much to observe. Appalachian State was there as well as a handful of restaurants and shops. We got into town late so we didn't see much other than the inside of the place we had dinner. But we didn't feel we missed much and actually felt ok about not going back there the next day but rather exploring a different town. We found our way back to the hotel in the pitch blackness. We even saw a huge group of deer just hanging out in the middle of the road. We saw different animals almost every time we passed through on that road. Too bad Nathan is too young to care about such things yet!

Nathan did well sleeping in his pack 'n play and even slept through the whole night! In the morning we enjoyed cereal, muffins and fruit - thanks the organized mom that I am. We then went to get Greg & Danielle to venture out. When we got there, Greg mentioned a cool building he saw when he went out walking in the morning. So we drove to the place, only a short distance from the house they were staying in to find . . . the SAME abandoned building we stumbled upon the day before looking for our hotel! We had gone in a big windy circle and didn't know. Going to pick up G & D one last time on Sunday we tried one last route from our place to theirs. It turns out we were mere minutes and way less miles apart than we thought. We came upon the same stupid empty building again! Crazy!

Anyway, Saturday afternoon we went into Blowing Rock, a town just a few minutes away and off the parkway. We went Mellow Mushroom for lunch. There are many of these restaurants elsewhere, like Raleigh and Durham, but I had never been. It was delicious! We walked around into the stores on the main drag. Cute shops. Very fallish. Somewhat crowded. A fun way to spend a few hours. It was overcast but the rain seemed to hold out for a while just for us. We then went to The Blowing Rock. The rock, and its surrounding rocks, provided a gorgeous view of the mountains and beyond and the leaves had begun to change enough for us to enjoy autumn at its best.

After enjoying the scenic views we went back to our own mountain and our own places for the night. We decided, since it was such a trek up and down those roads, we would stay in for dinner. The left over pizza and other goodies went well with the beer we had in our cooler and our Netflix movie we had been waiting to catch up on for a week or so. A nice evening in for sure.

Sunday was yet again overcast but it was ok as we had lots to do that involved the car. It seems Nathan just doesn't like it after about 2 1/2 hours (we are really looking forward to our Thanksgiving trip home - yikes!). We rested a little while then went up to Mom and Ed's for dinner. Lasagna and homemade birthday cake. Yummy!

Today we had a little more time to spend and then Greg & Danielle were off once again, going home to the big city. It was so nice we got to spend time together all weekend, especially with Nathan. I worry he won't know the people we don't live near so these trips mean a lot to me. And the little booger grows and learns so much in such a short time. I hate for everyone to miss it.

Like what you ask? Weellllll . . . he continues to progress with his traveling efforts around the house. Tonight I set his down in the space where he plays in the living room, away from the wires and trouble. He gradually made his way over to the kitchen. He stuck his little head past the doorway for me to see and then he was creeping onto the vinyl making little slapping sounds with his busy limbs. He made it over to his toys in the middle of the floor and kept himself busy for quite a while. It's so fun to watch and see what he will do next and very cool to see he can entertain himself for long periods of time. It's not so fun to realize that the kitchen floor - and all floors for that matter - need to be kept a little bit cleaner if Nathan is going to be a world traveler like this from now on.

He's got a lot of other tricks up his sleeve too. Leo said he found Nate sitting up in his crib today. Yeah, sitting up on his own! And he's developing a strong arm for throwing - every now and then he'll launch an object forward like he meant it. Crawling and throwing and screaming as he does, he's quite animated these days!

And now it's time to think about the month's end - specifically Halloween. Stay tuned for his cute little outfit. He may not love it but I know all of you will!