Busy Week

Just gonna get down to it...we had a busy past week and my parents came to visit! We have a date on the house, I don't like it but there is nothing I can do. Builder will be finished 11/21 and last I heard modification will be on 11/27...Black Friday which doesn't make any sense. Was hoping they would get all of this mess squared away before Thanksgiving...now we don't even know if we can go home for Thanksgiving. Yesterday was a big mess with our lender...girl has an attitude, terrible customer service skills...and her company is going to be getting a review from me. But we are excited...just disappointed in the date.

Last Friday Addison had an art show at work. She had made a campfire (on paper), acorn, bats, cats, apples, and spiders.

They have started locking our house, and our neighbors told us where they hide the key...but there was no key. But one of the realtors sent me a picture of the counter-tops!

They look great! Our appliances were suppose to be delivered last Monday...got a phone call at 7:00am from the delivery guy saying that the oven had a large dent on the side of it...so large he could fit his entire hand in it. He said we could keep it or they would take 10% off...really? They ordered a new one. Should be in next week and we will set up another time. You'd think they would take a look at it once it made it to their store. Whatevs.

So I picked up EK from school and headed back to the apt. to wait on my parents to get in town and Michael to get in from work. We all visited for a minute and headed down town to Pack's Tavern. We had a great dinner and the girls headed back to the hotel to spend the night with them. Michael and I popped in Burial for a quick beer and headed home.

Saturday was a BUSY day for my parents and the girls...they went to Bryson City to catch a train for The Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown! We didn't see them at all that day! They all had a blast and the girls came home with a mug, a pumpkin, and another pumpkin with a cat inside of it. They also went tricker treating as well!

We are taking the girls on the Polar Express December 5th...got a bit of another hiccup again because Ella Kate's orange belt test is the SAME DAY!! Had I known I would have picked a different date...belt test is from 10-11...train departs at 1...we have an hour and 20 minute drive...so we will be hauling it. Yay!

So while they did the Pumpkin train...Michael and I set off on a difficult hike. Only 6.5 miles, but man what a view! We hiked Looking Glass Rock Hike. We have seen it on several other hikes, including John Rock...where you look out at Looking Glass (John Rock is where Addison lost her blue bottle).

This is us on John Rock with Looking Glass behind us.

On Looking Glass, look at that color!

Looking towards John Rock, just can't get far enough to the side.

Fall is amazing here. I have no words to describe it.

It was a fun hike, we made it in record timing. The guide said it takes almost 2 hours to make it to the top, we made it in 1:20...and 45 minutes on the way down. I ran down the entire way. Apparently we are power hikers...and I like running down hills. Michael suggested I take on a race. I don't know about that. I climb slower...and just depends on my knee on the way down. I might just run on my own. Who knows.

After hiking we went to Catawba Brewing to stink up the place and meet up with the Dodds. I had to get some "presents" that they were keeping for us to give to my parents. We headed over to their house and hung out for a while and headed to Asheville Pizza and home.

Sunday we met my parents and kids at church...then we drove along the BRP, north side. Beautiful. I was going to take them to Mt. Mitchell, but the color in the higher elevations is done. We turned around at Craggy Gardens, which was also done and headed to the Folk Art Center. After that my parents took the girls to get yogurt and Michael and I had a block party to attend.

Our neighbors threw a party and invited everyone on the street. It was a great turn out and all the neighbors are wonderful! There are two other young couples, neither with children...not sure how young they are...appear to be our age, but like I have mentioned before, we are YOUNG parents here...it is wild. Seems like most people have kids in their late 30s, early 40s. They were shocked we had a 7 year old, let alone a 4 year old. But we are looking forward to moving in and more neighborhood gatherings!

After dinner we headed to the Moose Cafe and ate with my parents and headed on home.

Monday we headed to Cashiers, but it was raining...went to a few stores and ate at the Cornucopia and headed back to the hotel. We met up with Michael and ate at Papas and Beer, our mexican joint we like.

Tuesday we headed to Black Mountain, my parents loved it! I knew they would! They have a good bit of unique stores. We ate lunch at the Trailhead...hit a few more stores including a 30,000 sq. ft. maze of a furniture store where I found some good looking couches. Just need some measurements and a paint sample before I figure all that out! We headed back into town and we left my dad at the hotel and headed to the movies to see Pan. Pan was fairly interesting, its the beginning of the whole story...Hook and Pan were friends...who knew! Hopefully there will be another that lets us know how they became enemies! We ate dinner at Sierra Nevada, said our Goodbyes and headed in for bed!

It was a great visit! It will be a whole lot better when we are in the house so we can visit more, and not eat out as much! We were definitely spoiled!