Our mountain weekends together are the perfect combination of fun and and somehow peaceful — yes, even with six kids in the mix. The moutains have away of resetting me and I always feel a sense of calm during these trips, though kid chaos is a part of it !
Friday
Ryan and I pulled the kids out of school a little early on Friday and made the 2+ hour drive to Banner Elk, arriving in the late afternoon. The drive passed by quickly as Ryan had some work calls to take on the road, the boys listened to their latest library audiobook CD (this portable CD player is our fav because it has a speaker component and all kids can listen at once) and I caught up on work that mostly looked like updating my ShopMy page and responding to emails. A productive car ride with kids was a pipe dream for me not too long ago and I’m continually amazed when I find myself now living moments that felt so far away when the boys were babies and toddlers. We’re officially in what feels like the next phase of parenting, I think!
We arrived at Carrie’s parents’ house to find our friends outside enthusiastically awaiting our arrival.
The boys hit the ground running with their buddies and I don’t think they even stepped foot inside the house for the first few hours we were there.
The kids spent time forraging in the woods on the lookout for the perfect bonfire torches and flying around on EzyRollers as they played the first of what would be endless rounds of driveway hockey. (EzyRollers may find their way under the Christmas tree for our boys this year because they were all about them and I know ride-on toys get years of use in our house.)
As sunlight started to fade, the guys got a bonfire going and Nick and his daughter/the boys’ friend Lilly taught our crew about tree sap torches which blew their minds and thoroghly entertained them. (When you apply melted resin-rich tree sap to a torch, it will burn bright and hot for quite a while!)
We spent a handful of our weekend movie nights over the summer catching up on throwback seasons of Survivor and Rhett cracked me up by singing the Survivor theme song (well, his version of it, anyway) while he marched around with his torch. I also overheard a lot of “the tribe has spokens” exchanged. Ha!
After smashburgers for dinner and s’mores for dessert, the kids were all-in on the tube glow lights I threw into my bag at the last minute. I actually bought the lights for nighttime fun on Halloween but thought they might be cool at night in the moutnains as well. I’m so glad I brought them because they were a huge hit!
Once everyone started to lose steam, we headed inside and got the kids in bed in the bunk room (always a highlight!) and the grownups all hung out a little longer until we could no longer keep our eyes open.
Saturday
To the surprise of no one, the kids were all up before dawn on Saturday. We eased into the day with coffee, pancakes and eggs and then headed outside to sneak in a little exploring before the wind and rain kicked into high gear.
(A lot more rainy-weather EzyRoller driveway hockey happened throughout the day, too!)
We knew it would be a wet weekend before we arrived and made sure to pack rain gear but the whipping wind made it a little tricky to enjoy much time outside which was a bummer. We still managed to make the most of the day and chased a rainbow around in the UTV and it was beyond gorgeous!
The colors were wildly vibrant and we were even able to see the end of the rainbow!
(Spot the kids! They raced down the hill to find the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. Alas, they didn’t have any luck.)
Once we were back at the house, the kids all hopped in the hot tub while Carrie made hot chocolate and I reheated the chicken soup I brought from home for lunch to pair with grilled cheese paninis. It did the trick in warming all of us up!
Next up for our crew was a little crafting! I bought a 6-pack of kids’ trucker hats, a mini heat press iron (that thing was GREAT) and outdoorsy/fishing-themed patches for the kids use to customize their own mountain hats. The boys and their friends selected the pactches they liked most and then laid them out for me to iron on as they ran off to play.
We thought they turned out so cute!!! I watched a YouTube video before the trip for some tips and as I was ironing on the patches, I kept thinking how cute this would be as a memento for a family vacation or a birthday party favor. (If I was going to do them for a birthday party, I’d consider sticker patches just to save time making them for a bunch of kids.)
We spent most of the afternoon playing games (Beat the Parents was a BIG hit and we all loved Blank Slate) and then dug into an early dinner of Mississippi pot roast (I told you we’re loving this one!!) and birthday cake Lilly made to celebrate both of our October birthday dads!
Saturday night included a show for the kids — aka the prize they earned for beating us in Beat the Parents — as well as a little college football.
The kids were all in bed just before 10 p.m. and we stayed up a little while longer chatting with Carrie and Nick before calling it a night.
Sunday
We spent Sunday morning in the mountains but were bummed to leave a earlier than we would’ve liked when we realized Chase’s soccer game wasn’t canceled (we thought it might be due to weather) and his team was playing down a handful of players because of a nearby school district’s fall break. We didn’t want to leave his team hanging, so we headed out a little after 10 a.m. but at least we were able to enjoy a few more hours with our friendsbefore we had to go. The boys had fun writing in the guest book for Carrie’s parents to read and looking back at the memories from their previous guest book entries, including Kid Olympics highlights and skiing!
We arrived home in time for Chase to make his game and spent the rest of the afternoon getting organized for the week ahead. This weekend did a great job immersing me in that festive fall feeling I love so much and now I’m only all the more excited for hot apple cider, corn mazes, pumpkin pie, vibrant leaves and all things fall. We have a few 80-degree days still popping up on the forecast this week but they’re tapering off in favor of 60-70-degree days and I am here for it!! Have a great week, my friends!!
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