Howdy from Texas!

I am off on a little mini trip to visit my sister in Texas! I'll be visiting my sister's 2nd graders today at school. We will be doing what sisters do and hanging out in the beautiful 80 degree weather.

Hope everyone has a great weekend!

Cabin Getaway Part 3

I have a few more photos from our cabin weekend trip I wanted to share.

 It was nice being able to bring the dogs to hang out and come on vacation with us. We usually watch each others dogs when we go out of town so this worked out great.

 We did enjoy mimosas on Saturday morning with the great view in the background.

 The hot tub was a nice treat after snowboarding all day.

David and I got up early on Sunday to make Stuffed French Toast.

 They were so yummy.

Molly is such a good car rider. She sits in her dog bed in the back and tries to rest on the center console in the middle seat.

 David and I also stopped at App State, where Leah and Kyle went to school (and our rival school). It was cool to see the campus and walk around a bit.

  We also stopped at one of their favorite restaurants, the black cat for some yummy burritos.

They gave us this big sand castle scooper as our table holder to bring our food out.

 I love tomatillo salsa so I had it put all over my burrito!

This is how we felt by the end of the trip. We were tired, but it was fun! Look at my sweet girl, love her.

It's Time to Learn How to Snowboard!

On Friday it was just David and I hitting the slopes (well the bunny slope that is). I suited up, helmet and all. Thanks to Leah for all her fun ski gear. She told me that if she wasn't wearing a helmet her first time that she would have a concussion so I wasn't taking any chances. Our group kept trying to take pictures of me so I knew that I looked silly. I owned it though and liked to wear it, it kept my ears warm.

Here I am learning how to stop and stand up on the board. I'm not going to lie, it is extremely hard to learn and catch on. David was so patient with me and was a great teacher. I started getting it towards the end of the first day. We only did 3-4 hours a day so it wasn't like I was there from sun up to sun down.

On day 2 we started noticing it getting more crowded when we had to park in the way far lot and be bused up to the ski area. Here are David and Dana riding in the back of the bus. Dana ended up not feeling well and didn't get a chance to ski. She enjoyed the cabin with the dogs and her book though.

David and I getting pumped for day 2!

When I took breaks David went to the top of the mountain to meet David (the names get confusing, I know). They had fun snowboarding together on the black diamonds.

 

They said it was a lot less crowded up there, but the weather conditions were far from ideal. You can see the sun is in full swing so it got slushy and then froze to solid ice up there. I was almost ready to get on the ski lift and try it out, but I was so nervous that I wasn't prepared and with all the crowds I decided to stick to the bunny slopes this time.

Here are the boys in action.

 I have a few videos of me, but I won't bore you with them. You get the idea.

We had such a fun time together. I was glad I was able to learn something that David really enjoys doing. Next time we'll have to go with better snow conditions and at a non-busy time. Go ahead and make fun of me wearing the helmet now.

North Carolina Cabin Getaway Part 1

We left for the cabin early Friday morning. It only took 4.5 hours so not too bad of a drive.

 Once we got to the mountain area all the roads were very curvy. You really had to go slow or you'd topple over the edge! At one point our GPS took us on a road that was mostly mud and gravel. We got to a gate that was locked and we tried to open it, but good thing we didn't, it really wasn't a cut through at all. We backed on out of there and tried to stick to paved roads (which were few and far between).

 We stayed in the Leatherwood Mountain neighborhood. They had a pool, tennis courts and equestrian center. We saw tons of horses on our way to the cabin.

 It took a good 5-8 mins to get from the entrance to find our cabin. I loved how every once in a while you'd see another cabin while driving, but you couldn't see them at all from your cabin.

 Here is the front of the cabin with David opening the door for us.

Let's take a house tour. As you come in there is a little mud room with nice laundry facilities.

 Downstairs is the guest bedroom and bathroom.

 You continue walking and arrive in the living/family room with these beautiful red leather couches and chair. It has a cozy fireplace and perfect views out the windows.

 There is a little dining room area off the kitchen where we had nice meals together.

 The kitchen was nice and updated with granite counter tops and tile back splash. It was the perfect size. I loved the wood bar stool type chairs.

 Off the kitchen and basically any door on the first level is this wrap around deck that went ALL the way around the house with locking gate doors. This was PERFECT for the dogs to keep them contained while we hung out. They had cute chairs to enjoy the view, a grill and a huge hot tub that you can see.

Upstairs is the master bedroom with really cool sky lights and a balcony. It was nice to wake up to natural light since we really don't sleep in that late anyway. You can see little Molly exploring outside (David was there too, we didn't leave her unsupervised).

 Here is another view from the upstairs balcony. Would have been a little prettier with some snow, but we did enjoy the mild temperatures.

 There was a spacious bathroom upstairs off the bedroom as well.

 David and I went snowboarding on Friday, but I'll post those with all the snow pics. That night we got back and started all the cooking. The boys were starving so they were eager to help out. We made the pizza stuffed pretzels for appetizers.

 These were my 2nd favorite thing we made all weekend. I'll post a detailed recipe soon.

 We enjoyed a nice Italian meal at the table.

 Complete with homemade garlic cheesy bread,

 Baked Ziti and Salad.

 For dessert I brought the most amazing Peanut Butter Pie! I altered a few diff. recipes so I'll also post this one soon. I didn't want to cover the whole thing in cool whip so I just covered what we ate each serving.

 I made it with an Oreo cookie crumb crust.

Doesn't that look delicious! It lived up to expectations. This might be my favorite recipe of all time. Stay tuned for snowboarding pics!

Happy Birthday Grandma!

I know she isn't reading the blog because she doesn't use a computer, but I wanted to wish my grandma a Happy 89th Birthday today!!

She went out and celebrated with my parents last night to Olive Garden (on us kids) and had a great time.

Lunch and Spa Outing

On Thursday at work we had department bonding time. We went to lunch at Ippolitos and got our nails done.

 We had fun getting pedicures.

Lacey got a crazy manicure where she was wrapped up with blue stuff all the way up her arms. I told her I'd still be friends with her if her whole arms turned blue permanently.

Finished fingers and toes! So pretty.

It was nice to get out of the office and relax a bit. We also had a great weekend in NC at the cabin and snowboarding. I'm still in 1 piece! I'm going to get the photos organized and post tomorrow. Stay tuned!