North Carolina

  • Camping with a Toddler and Baby: Our Trip to Balsam, North Carolina

    We just got back from our first camping trip as a family of 4.  I was apprehensive about camping with a baby and a toddler, but boy I am so happy we did!  Drew grew up camping with his family and Boy Scout troop and finds it important that we raise our boys loving the outdoors.  I am more of a “city girl” when it comes to the outdoors, but figure that since camping is so important to my husband I could either “join em” or be left out.For our inaugural camping trip with Walker (we went camping with Reid when he was 15 months old), we went to a…

  • Father’s Day Weekend Recap: Visiting Waynesville, North Carolina

    We had a great long Father’s Day weekend exploring Waynesville with Drew’s family.  We have a tradition of going to the mountains on Father’s Day weekend and again in the fall (usually one trip is tent camping).  Since we have a three month old, we stayed in a nice cabin on the top of a mountain that overlooked the valley.  It was amazing getting to sit in the hot tub with a glass of wine and enjoy the breathtaking view! On Friday morning, we went on a short 2.5 mile hike with both kids!  I wore Walker in the K’tan and Drew had Reid in the Ergo.  It was amazing…

  • Life Lately: Last Summer Vacation to OBX

    The summer is officially coming to an end–public schools in Greenville started this morning!  I can only imagine what a mess I will be in 5 years when I have to take little Reid in for his first day–but I have time before then 🙂 This past week, we took our last summer vacation to the Outer Banks in North Carolina.  The Outer Banks span a looong way and luckily we went to Pine Knoll Shores which is almost the southern most tip of OBX (only about a 6.5 hour drive).  Drew’s aunt and uncle have a vacation home there and were gracious hosts for our little family of 4,…

  • Sierra Nevada Brewery Tour in Mills River, NC

    Happy Monday! We had a great weekend celebrating Drew’s birthday.  I surprised him with a day trip to Mills River, NC to visit the Sierra Nevada brewery.  For over a year, we talked about visiting the brewery, but the tours always seem to be booked when we wanted to visit. Mills River is a short hour and 15 minute drive from Greenville, which made it a perfect day trip.  The facility is out of this world–we kept comparing it to a grown-up Willy Wonka factory. We went on the Brewhouse tour (they have 3 other tours you can do depending on the season).  During the Brewhouse tour, we learned about…

  • Asheville Bachelorette Party Weekend

    Wow this weekend was a fun one!  After months and months of preparation, Paige’s Bachelorette party in Asheville, North Carolina went off without a hitch (or at least not a major one!).  Paige has been my best friend since we were both 2 years old–this fourth of July marks our 25th anniversary–and deserved the best last fling before the ring. We got up to the rental home (VRBO.com rental) around 2 on Friday afternoon.  Laura, Holly and I arrived before the rest of the gang around 2 on Friday afternoon.  As we had 13 girls, we rented a big home from VRBO.com that could accommodate all of us.  It was…

  • Davidson River Campground Trip and Oskar Blues Brewery

    Happy Monday! This weekend, I went on a camping trip with Drew’s family.  They go camping twice a year–once in the spring/summer and once in the fall.  This trip we went to the Davidson River Campground near Brevard, North Carolina.  We ate a lot, drank, napped (amazing!), investigated the farmers market, floated/tubed down the river, went on a couple amazing runs through the woods and enjoyed each other’s company.  It was a great time spent with his family 🙂 If you would have asked me 3 years ago if I would enjoy camping the answer most definitely would have been no!  Growing up my family never went camping–we are not…