Vacation Part 4: July in Black Mountain

Yeah, yeah. I know it’s August and I’m JUST getting around to July.  It’s been a busy and tiring few weeks since we’ve been back, but that’s another post.
So, July in Black Mountain started off with a package from Jerry to the kiddos.  The theme of said package?  BUBBLES!!!

And then it was the Fourth of July with Laura Tiny legs et al!  This, of course, meant soccer, puppy, hiking, playing with glow sticks, lightening bug catching, eating, and the smokiest sparklers EVER!

The day after the celebration it was Elijah’s turn in the pool.  I’m so proud of my little guy.  He remembered everything from last year.  And took the challenge of not only a harder class, but also an unfamiliar teacher only in stride.  He can now do the back stroke, float on his back unassisted, and gets his hands out of the water for the crawl.  Seriously, best money spent yet!  AND since the class was in the deeper area of the pool, Gracie got to play in the water while Elijah had his class.

When we weren’t at the pool with swim lessons, we had fun at Oma/Opa’s pool!

We also took a hike down Old Fort Mountain to pick blackberries.  Our trip was delayed by about one hour due to a huge rain storm.  THEN we stopped to pick a ton of berries, to have dinner, and well, to look at all sorts of things.  So our hike ended at almost 9 at night.  Still it was lots of fun!  Dad ended up walking up to meet us.  Elijah wore his new super man cape, and Grace was a trooper.  Neither kid had napped and both walked almost all the way.  Grace got a little ride near the end (causing some massive shin splints for me… alas.)  I’m always in awe of the mountains on this old road… well, always really, but I love the views from here in particular.

my camera has an option to take many pictures in a row.  If you set the self timer whilst in this mode it takes a bunch of pictures in a row.  So now there is a running joke to see how many pics are of someone running to get the camera.  hehehe.  There is another one near the end.

wish I could say that I’m all cool with the computer software… alas, the above pic of Grace was a total fluke.

After Elijah’s last class, we stayed on to play in the pool.  The kids also got to have super special ice cream treat (gotta say they creeped me out a little…you know eating somethngs head… and Dora’s eyes were gum… you chew her eyes??? eewwwwww!)i

Another package from Jerry arrived.  This time, side walk chalk, Gracie’s floating swim suit, arm floats, and an underwater camera.

Some other things that we did to pass the time: gardening, petting the dog named Grace, and creek hiking.

 

Mom had a bunch of scrap wood lying around, and I had recently read an article about letting kids make their own geoboards.  Ours are obviously not as big, nor as accurate, but I wanted them to have complete creative design and construction.

Step 1: Sand the boards.

Step 2: mark the boards with where the nails should go.

Step 3: hammer in the nails (um, Grace watching the nail instead of me, is a good thing!)

Step 4: add rubber bands.

Elijah enjoyed this so much that he decided to take some more wood and design and build a “jetski”:

Below my parents house is a camp.  When the camp isn’t in session we can play in the park and the creek adjacent.  BUT when camp is in session we have to go to other places to play.  On this particular day we had been trying out Elijah’s new boat, but had to move to another area.  The kids had their bug collector bins and so we decided to play at another section of the creek and catch critters and play.

After a while the girl child got bored, so she went with my folks back to the house to help with dinner and Elijah and I made a dam.

We went to Triple Falls with mom.  We ended up meeting an old classmate of mine and her kids there.  They also had a super cute puppy.  (as a side note, I’m really proud of Elijah.  He is really working on overcoming his fear of dogs!)  After some hiking, we decided to play.  There was a TON of water and it was really fast.  My friend’s kids got caught in some white water and it was, um, exciting. After the excitement we had a little picnic and splashed around for a bit.  Grace ended up going down a water shoot with me and rocked it out!  Again, the stupid inability to load a video… sigh.  I will try to get a link in.  I was so proud of her!!

And then there is ALWAYS more pool time!!

We took a trip down the mountain to check out the land down there.  Mom wanted to pick more blackberries as well.  Alas, we got there and there was no way that we could get to the house on the land, much less blackberries.  So we went to the local splash pad for a bit and then met some family for lunch before heading home!

For our last excursion in the mountains we hung out with Laura tiny legs and cooked out and played in the river.

Jerry flew in and got stuck in Charlotte, so we went down and picked him up.  We hung out with the kids on Friday.  On Saturday we met my folks and Karen and Laura for lunch then Jerry and I went to see Harry Potter.  Then drove home on Sunday!

It was a GREAT vacation!  I wish that Jerry could have been with us, but alas.  Next year we’ll totally do it again!  Jerry and I did meet up for a night in Charlotte to shop around IKEA and just see each other.  That was nice too!