We arrived late on a Saturday night, after a four hour flight. Courtney had prepared our bedrooms and even saw to it that we had a package of our favorite candy on our pillows. She is a wonderful and thoughtful hostess. Sunday we attended church and afterwards we went on a walk to enjoy a beautiful day, ending with a lovely dinner on their patio. It was so good to be together!
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| Dave's pumpkin, mine and Carol's and Courtney's. I saw a picture in Good Housekeeping of the idea to use a power drill on a pumpkin to make holes, so that is what we tried to get the flower effect. |
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| Charlie was a great helper. Margaret...not so much. |
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| Cutest boy ever. He was so interested in carving scary pumpkins and putting the lights in. Oooooohhh! |
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| I found these darling PJs at Gymboree and couldn't resist getting some for C and M. |
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| Carol and I loving these darling kiddos. |
Tuesday, Dave took the day off of work and we headed to the stunning Biltmore estate located in Asheville, NC. The drive there was gorgeous as we passed through some beautiful countryside. We toured through the inside of the building for about two hours and then got ready to face the rain and see what we could of the outside grounds. Our only disappointment was not being able to see more of the outside estate, but we had a great time nevertheless. The Biltmore was built in 1895 by George Vanderbilt (then a bachelor!) during the Christmas season of that year. Check out this interesting history of the estate. They were decorating for Christmas so we got a glimpse of the magic that they create at the Biltmore during the Christmas season. Check out this video:
These pictures are from the Biltmore web site:
And this one is mine, taken the day we visited:
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| The chrysanthemums were amazing! |
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| Our little crew with sleeping babies in the stroller. We pretty much had the place to ourselves! |
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| Inside the conservatory. The plants and flowers were AMAZING! |
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| Charlie was such a trooper. He listened to his kid tour recording of as we went from room to room. He was truly captivated! |
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| Darling couple in front of the Christmas poinsettia tree. |
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| Deep in thought in the Vanderbilt library that was filled with books. When he saw all those books, he told his Mom, "What the WHAT??" |
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| Loved being with my good son and his wonderful family! |
After touring the Biltmore, we had dinner at Tupelo Honey restaurant where they serve up some GOOOOODDD southern cookin.
The rest of the days consisted of daily walks, taking Charlie to pre-school, getting a haircut, shopping, celebrating Dave's birthday and later eating dinner at a Mexican restaurant, discovering "The Time in Between" on Netflix (in Spanish with English subtitles no less), visiting Uptown Charlotte and seeing where Dave works, reading, relaxing, playing with the children, reading to them and lots and lots of visiting. Dave and Rick had to get their football fix for the weekend and drove to Winston Salem to see some game on the Friday afternoon.
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| While we tended the children, Dave and Courtney got to go to TWO movies on his birthday - a matinee with Carol and then a date night later that evening. |
October 31 was Halloween (surprise!) and it was so fun to be there with their little kids. Courtney and I took the littles to the ward trunk-or-treat Friday evening and then the next day was Halloween. Courtney had made them some darling Halloween costumes and they were so cute dressed up as Peter Pan and Tinkerbell. We walked around their beautiful neighborhood as the kids went from door to door. It was fun to experience some southern hospitality. The neighbors were so friendly.
We also visited the Latta Plantation and enjoy the beauty of the lake and the surrounding trees.
And then...just like that...it was over. Time to go home. We loved every minute of our visit and the chance we had to be there with Carol. She is such a easy person to be with and she is always up for anything. I love her dearly and I'm so glad she could go with us.
Until next time dear ones...
