Our Family Fourth

We set out to the NC mountains early Thursday morning via Columbia. First stop, pick blueberries. For a $1.30 we received over a pound of blueberries. The bad news is that C seems to be the only one of our 3 children willing to eat them.....P had me pay him a dollar to even try one and MK proceeded to pick them all off of her plate when they were offered to her at dinner. The MK thing has us stumped....MK eats EVERYTHING!

Then it was off to a local joint for lunch with our old Massachusetts neighbors (and some new friends too!). After lunch and goodbyes, we piled into the family van and were NC bound. Upon arrival we stepped out into the chilly mountain air....we went from 98 degrees to 69 degrees.....WOW! That did not stop the boys from getting in an ATV ride prior to bedtime that evening. Friday my mom and I took the boys to a local Indian village (replica, of course, and I cannot recall the name) where we learned about archery, beading, hut building and traditional tribal dancing. The boys even decided to try their hand at dancing.

The village was neat but I must note that what made the morning was going with my mom and trusting that she knew exactly how to get there. My mom is notorious for stating that she knows how to get to a specific location....then, while we are in the car, she will always state something to the effect of "well, I thought it was this way but let me think about it....try turning here, I know it is here somewhere....." and so the story goes. It can be quite entertaining to say the least and those trips always end in laughter as did our trip on Friday.

Saturday we wandered into a nearby town for a little festive nature. The town is called Waynesville and is very near my parents mtn. home.....very quaint in style, there were bands of all sorts playing music along the streets, we shopped, we people watched and we met an eleven year old girl from Hefei, China who was kind enough to give MK and the boys each their own little American flag to honor Independence Day. Later that afternoon, Ryan and I took the boys over to a local river to wade in. C spent most of his time building a dam. P met a friend who taught him how to catch "scout" minnows.....aka trout minnows. Then we discovered what appeared to be a river cane forest of sorts. Awesome, yet hard to describe.

We closed out our evening with the viewing of a fireworks show in the valley, a tradition. The boys topped off their weekend on Sunday morning just the way they started it, with an ATV ride. Then, we were on our way back to the reality of HOT weather.....and much needed naps for MK.