rough ridge

 We hiked Rough Ridge last weekend for Mother's Day. Jill really wanted to go on a hike. It was a rocky trail, but the kids did really well. Olivia especially managed the rocks very well and did every step on her own with me holding her hand all the way up and all the way down. Jill loves the heights and the views. She makes me nervous out on the ledges but I know she truly loves this. She has a whole list of places planned for hiking around in and around Boone. We are so happy to be able to spend this time with our kids. Life is too short to have any regrets so we're trying to soak this all in while we can.

jill's snowy birthday

We received our first significant snow in North Carolina since moving here in August of 2016. I think we have around 8-10 inches. Today is Jill's birthday and she is thrilled that we are snowed in. The kids have been watching movies in-between playing in the snow, and Jill is working on a puzzle and enjoying her calm day at home. I decided to go out with this kids this afternoon to shoot some pictures of the snow and see how clear the road in front of our house is. The first picture above was taken from near the top of our driveway.

This photo was taken about half way down, looking out over the ravine that our driveway runs beside.  

The shots above are taken from near the bottom of our driveway looking up toward our house. The drive way curves sharp left at the top next to the large pine tree. 

These top two images are looking down Baird's mountain at the road that runs beside our house. With the leaves on the trees most houses are difficult to spot on the side of the surrounding mountains, but now that winter is here, most all of the houses are exposed and visible.

This shot was taken looking up toward the top of Baird's mountain. That said, in the farthest top point in this photo you still would only be about half way up the mountain. This is the road we travel to take the kids to school each day. Last night we arrived at our driveway to find a few cars that were not able to advance farther than a few yards past where this photo is taken from. It is at about this point that we hear most cars downshift to start the accent to the top. 

I'm glad we don't have anywhere to be today...

grandfather panos

grandfather mountain

  

  

  

We went to Grandfather Mountain yesterday. Grandfather is about twenty miles from our house. It was unusually warm yesterday (about 56 degrees) so we decided to take the morning and make the trip up to the top of Grandfather (entry was cheap for county residents for dollar days so the weather timing was good). We had such a great time with the kids. Maya was a little freaked out by the swinging bridge, and I was a little freaked out about the Jill and the kids climbing and sitting on Cliffside (where I took their pics together). Maya and I DID climb Sphinx so that Noah wouldn't be up there by himself. Grandfather Mountain is truly amazing when you consider the age of the land mass, the views, and the history of the location. We stopped just down from the curve near our house and I took the last few pics above as this view of Grandfather is on our way to the kids school each morning. Jill loves the view and comments about it every morning. Living among this natural beauty and considering the scale of our surroundings helps keep us in check when we start to think the world revolves around us and our insignificant problems. Time is an interesting idea and when one thinks about how short our lives are in comparison to our surroundings it causes your priorities to shift a bit. We truly love living here!