Banner Elk Mountain Weekend + Kid Olympics

I could not think of a better way to wrap up our summer break if I tried. Our weekend in Banner Elk with our friends was wonderful from start to finish. While I love and appreciate the beach, I’m a mountain girl through and through and something about being in the mountains puts me at ease and fills me with a sense of peace I don’t get anywhere else. Clearly, I was in heaven with these mountain views all weekend long!

Banner Elk Mountain Weekend + Kid Olympics

Arrival in Banner Elk

We drove to Banner Elk to join our friends Nick and Carrie and their three kids at Carrie’s parents’ mountain house. I first met Carrie at the one and only Stroller Strides class I attended with Chase when he was a baby and she attended the class with her daughter, Lilly. I joke that I made my friend and left and that single class was well worth it for me because Carrie has been one of my very favorite people for almost 9 years now. We feel like we hit the “family jackpot” with their crew because the kids all love each other and our husbands are good friends and everything just works so seamlessly when we’re all together. Ya know with the typical kid chaos sprinkled in the mix because of course that’s always there when you have six kids under one roof!

We arrived in the mountains as the sun was setting and after digging into burgers and homemade ice cream, we sang “Happy Birthday” to Tommy, their middle son who turned seven years old on Thursday. Carrie and I then got Rhett and their youngest son to bed before joining the dads and the big kids to watch the recap of the Olympics by the fire on the back porch. It was so cozy and a great kickoff to our mountain weekend!

Friday + Saturday

Friday morning was one of those cozy, misty mountain mornings.

Since the weather was a little dreary, we eased into the morning with coffee and pancakes and the kids entertained themselves with craft projects and laser tag before pulling on their rainboots and exploring outside.

The mountain house where we stayed backs up onto a creek which is heaven for the boys, as they happily spent hours exploring and looking for salamanders during our time in Banner Elk.

Most of Friday was a little dreary but that didn’t stop our crew and we had fun taking the kids to a little playground for more playtime and exploring.

The highlight of Chase’s day on Friday took place right before dinner when he got to join Lilly and Tommy for his first ziplining experience at Hawksnest just outside of Boone. (Ryder opted out when we showed him a ziplining video and said, “Maybe I’ll do it when I’m seven.”)

Chase said it was absolutely awesome and now I’m itching to go with him, too! (Carrie and I stayed back with the younger boys.)

Our Friday night wrapped up with s’mores by the fire and a little more of the Olympics!

Kid Olympics

The Olympics were actually a big theme of our weekend, as we put together “Kid Olympics” as a way to celebrate Tommy’s birthday on Saturday. We brainstormed 8 events for the kids to participate in throughout the day and our Kid Olympics included the following games:

Tennis ball obstacle course:

Balance a tennis ball on a spoon and make it around an obstacle course without the ball falling off.

BB gun target shooting

Distance rocket launch:

Jump on a Stomp Rocket and try to get it to launch farther than a designated point

Distance toy truck roll:

Roll a toy down the driveway as far as possible and past a designated point

Candle blow lung capacity challenge:

Blow out as many tea lights as possible in a single breath

Rock climbing 

Marshmallow challenge:

Stuff as many large marshmallows in your mouth as possible (Ryder shocked us with 7!!)

Oreo Cup of Doom:

Roll an Oreo down a board and into one of a series of cups filled with different liquids/condiments and eat it no matter which one it lands in. (This one had us laughing so hard!! Chase swore his Oreo that landed in the ketchup cup was actually really delicious but I gag just thinking about it!)

The kids dubbed themselves Team Mountain USA and all worked together to earn points, striving to get to a cumulative 150 points. (We designed the Kid Olympics this way to avoid tears from some of the younger kids.) It worked well because they were all rooting for each other and less distressed when they didn’t “win” certain events. They had a blast and we had so much fun watching them!

After our final Kid Olympics event was complete, we had a little downtime at the house to relax for a bit before making our way to an outdoor concert where we listened to live music, played tetherball and mini golf with the kids and dug into pizza.

Eventually we made it back to the house, got the kids in bed and hung out for a bit before calling it a night ourselves.

Wrapping Up Summer Break

Sunday passed by in a blur of clean up at the house while the kids played and explored and then we arrived back home in the early afternoon which left us enough time to make it to the pool and do a little grocery shopping before bed time.

As for the week ahead it’s back to school week in our house… kind of. Chase begins school on Wednesday and Ryder has a staggered start situation going on where I’ll join him for an hour on Wednesday and then he’ll officially begin kindergarten the following Monday. (Rhett doesn’t go back until after Labor Day.) Today should be a fun day though as we have the school-wide back to school ice cream social tonight at the big kids’ school. I’m excited for Ryder to see his classroom and meet his teacher for the first time tonight and I can tell Chase is thrilled to be able to help show Ryder the ropes as they’ll be in the same school again for the first time in three years!

I hope you all have a wonderful week and I hope to see ya back here on Wednesday!