Girls gone wilderness

A few weeks ago my friend Jen called with a camping proposition. You see, Jen’s friend had secured an amazing campground for a weekend and had invited a bunch of families to join them in some outdoor fun. But it just so happened that our country club’s men’s season opener was that same weekend, and since Jen’s husband and Chris were on the same team, and because sleeping in the woods isn’t the best pregame, Jen planned to leave her son and Jason home and just bring her daughter, Marin. And being that they have enough camping gear for four people, Jen was generous enough to ask me if Taylor and I would join them. She had everything we needed, and she even scored a babysitter to watch Isaac and Luke the next morning while the guys golfed in the tourney. How could I say No?

It was a perfect opportunity for Taylor’s first camping experience. And a good refresher for me. I mean, other than when I was under the age of two, the only real camping trip I ever took was with my hometown bestie, Steph, and her family to the Black Hills when I was in junior high. So you can call me a bit of a camping novice. But, Hey! who’s up for an adventure?

And after overpacking the back of Chris’s car – We needed to cross two rivers to get into the campsite, so four-wheel drive was a necessity, I dropped Luke off at my hubba’s office and Taylor and I went and picked up Jen, Marin and a TON of gear for our 18-hour escapade, and made our way an hour south to our destination.

We drove through the woods and over the two rivers and got to our sweet site, which was a giant field surrounded by a beautiful stream in the middle of the Pisgah National Forest. It was perfect. And it had a bathroom. And a water pump and picnic tables and a grill. And our car was parked right next to where our tent went up, so it was great for the beginning camper. Because apparently you can’t bring food into your tent because the bears will try to get it. Um... THE BEARS WILL TRY TO GET IT. And why do people like camping so much?

But I digress. Our new home away from home was lovely and smelled like the woods, in a really good Yankee-candle kind of way. And after exploring the river with the girls, we went back to our site and watched Jen assemble the tent with just a smidge of our help.

After we got everything unpacked and settled, we then went on a mini-hike on the trail surrounding our campsite. And this is how my daughter walked through the woods:

Yep. Is she not the cutest diva hiker ever seen? She is my daughter. And even though we both prefer the beach over the wilderness, we’re always up for an exciting new journey.

And then it was time to join the other two families that were staying there that night by the fire for some dinner and s’mores.

Oh, how my daughter LOVES s’mores. As do I. And anyone else who has ever had them. Three simple ingredients that transform into the most delectable treat ever. Hooray for s’mores!

And then night fell and the adults watched as the kids chased each other in the field with headlamps and flashlights until they were all slow and cranky with one another. Which meant it was bedtime. Which meant it was time for lots and lots of glowsticks.

And after tucking in Taylor and Marin, Jen and I left the tent to return to the campfire for a while more, hearing Marin excitingly ask Taylor, Hey... Do you wanna talk about stuff? It was adorable. And I predict many future sleepovers between these two in the years to come. But, as with most little-kid slumber parties, there was very little sleep actually involved. In fact, I’m pretty sure the two girls didn’t close their eyes until around 11, and then we were up bright and early at 6. Which meant we had two tired, manic little misses on our hands.

So we enjoyed our breakfast and campfire coffee, and then packed up our gear and headed to a waterfall a few minutes away. We had originally planned on doing a hike before driving back to Asheville, but the girls were exhausted. So we made the short trek down some stairs at Looking Glass Falls and basked in all its beauty.

And then we made our hour long journey back home. We were all groggy, smelled like campfire and still had bits of marshmallow stuck in our hair. But it was unanimous that it was an awesome time. And after waking from our two hour nap that afternoon, I immediately started researching tents for our next camping trip. Who knew sleeping on the ground could be THAT fun? And a big thanks to Jen and Marin for inviting us to go with them... It was an adventure we will never forget.

Papa and YaYa come to Asheville

Our family guest-a-palooza tour continued this past weekend with my parents visiting us from Iowa. It’s always wonderful to be able to spend time with my Mom and Dad, but this trip was especially special. Not only was I able to watch them soak up their only grandchildren, but it was the first time in a year and a half that they had been in Asheville, and it’s always fun for Chris and I to have the opportunity to show off our home city to our loved ones.

And while Papa and YaYa weren’t busy spoiling Taylor and Luke, the rest of our time was spent feasting. If you know my mother, all vacations and trips are planned around meals, so it was required for us to partake in our own personal Best-of-Asheville-Cuisine tour. Total calorie overload, but absolutely fabulous. We’ve got some good eats here.

And when we hugged my parents goodbye at the airport this morning, we also said Adios to the final round of visitors we are going to have for a while. Meaning we’re gonna have to finally start doing this raising-two-kids thing without any help or free babysitters. And while I’m so grateful for all the support we have gotten from our loved ones this past month, I am looking forward to trying to establish a routine and tackling the challenges that come with staying home with a three year old and a newborn. Especially now that I can enjoy a glass of wine. Cheers!

Nemo the sequel

So last week I was finishing up some laundry in the basement while Taylor was eating her lunch at the table. And as I was walking up the stairs to check on her, I hear her say, Hey, Nemo. Wanna chippy? And as I turned the corner I found her dipping a Nacho Cheese Dorito into the fish bowl, which she had moved from the center of the table to right in front of her. And when she saw me and the horrified expression on my face, she stopped cold, put the chip in her mouth and then asked me with a straight face, Should I give him grape too?

And you may remember how a few weeks ago I found out that she was pouring milk from her sippy cup into Nemo's bowl, and that explained why it was nearly impossible to keep the water clear. And after lecturing her as to why fishes aren't lactose-tolerant, and then thoroughly cleaning the fishbowl, I thought we were over putting random morsels in Nemo's living space. But I guess I was wrong.

And it's not like I can really blame her for thinking that her pet would eat all of the same yummy food that she does, especially when we live with Ruby Blue, also known as The Sweeper. Any smidgen of food that hits the ground, and our beloved lab is right there to clean up the dirty work. We've even busted our pooch licking out half-empty snack bowls that T has left unattended on the coffee table. And if you think that's gross… Well, then you don't have a dog and a toddler living under the same roof.

So after de-chipping Nemo's bowl after the whole lunch incident, and then giving Taylor another lesson on fish dietary etiquette, I thought we were in the clear. Well, all fuzzy fish-feelings flew right out the window when I discovered dear old Nemo floating belly-up yesterday morning before breakfast. Ah. Rest in peace, buddy.

And instead of alerting Taylor to the whole dead pet situation we had going on, I just quietly moved the fish-casket onto the kitchen counter and Chris made an emergency trip to PetSmart to purchase another dark red Betta fish. And when Miss T caught me cleaning out the bowl and rinsing fish carcass off the rocks and shells, she asked, Hey Mama, where's Nemo? And I just looked at her and said, He wanted to take a car ride with Dad and Ruby. He'll be right back. And she bought it.

And after Chris, Ruby and Nemo the second, got home, we put our next potential victim in his new home, where he fluttered and kicked with a level of ferocity that made us hopeful of survival. And Chris looked at me wishfully and said, I picked the most active one of the bunch… I told the guy we needed a real fighter. And one that might also have a digestive tract that can handle milk and Doritos.

Making Christmas cookies and spreading germs

Every year I like to make a few bundles of tasty homemade treats to gift to our neighbors, the ladies that work in Chris’s front office and also the girls that take care of Taylor at the Y Childwatch. Oh, and for us to eat too. Because cookies and candies are as much a part of the holiday season as carols and Christmas cards. And since it had been about a year since I had last made sugar cookie cut-outs, I decided to make a practice batch yesterday afternoon to test that my recipe is still eatable.

And, lucky for me, I have a great little helper to assist in the whole process. And one who like cookies as much as Disney Princesses. The first job I gave my little elf was to stir the flour, salt and baking powder mixture, to which I totally caught her taking tastes of and then scowling at, being all, THIS doesn’t taste like cookies at all! But when I incorporated it into the sugar, butter and eggs, and then gave her a taste, I thought her head was going to pop off from pure excitement. And after two little spoonfuls of the delicious dough, she looked up at me and very sweetly asked, Um. Mom, could you please put some of that in a bowl for me? But since we still had cookies to make, I just gave her the beaters instead.

And after chilling the dough, rolling it out, cutting it into shapes and then baking the cut-outs into cookies, my little helper was put in charge of sprinkles while I frosted. And I’m pretty sure she put more sprinkles in her mouth then she did on the cookies.

And then she got a taste of the frosting, and kept licking and dipping her pudgy digits into each of the cookies.

And then, after not being able to hold off any longer, she just dove in and ate a whole cookie.

And from the crumbs, and the Mmmmms and Yummmms that spewed from her mouth, I would say our recipe is still good enough to serve to others. Except we’ll keep this set for in-house consumption only, and make a Taylor saliva-free batch for gifting.

The shortest longest roadtrip ever

With Chris switching careers in 2009, it was almost impossible for us to find any big openings of vacation time in the following year to make our annual trip back up north to visit our families. So when we landed a ten-day window of opportunity late last month, we jumped on it and planned an impromptu vacation up to my parent’s farm in Iowa and his parent’s house in Northern Wisconsin. We didn’t have a ton of time to contact the locals and set up big meetings, but we were happy to get to see some familiar faces that we hadn’t been able to look at for the past few years. So here it is, Bloggers, my official post on our ten-day, 2,630-mile roadtrip back to our homes. Get comfortable. This is going to be a long one.

So let’s just start with the drive from Asheville to the farm. Three-and-a-half humans, one chocolate lab and our Envoy packed to the brim, we left town at five in the afternoon to start our journey to Northwest Iowa. Our directions had us in the car for 18-hours, but the last time we drove home through the night, it only took 16, so for some reason I was thinking we could make it in 15. Ah, shame on me. Just those quick thoughts swirling in my head must have tempted the Universe, as we were stopped in standstill traffic three times within the first two hours of our adventure. Torture.

But, THANK GOODNESS, for the portable DVD player. For real. I don’t know how people traveled with toddlers before them. In the 18-hours, on the nose!, it took us to get to the farm, Miss Taylor only got out of her carseat twice. Once for dinner north of Knoxville, and once for breakfast in Waterloo. I couldn’t have asked for a better child in the car. To which we rewarded her with an endless supply of gummies and kids-meal toys, not to mention she got to watch Cinderella on a constant loop the entire time the car was running. She was in heaven. And I’m pretty sure if we would have turned around in Indianapolis and driven straight back home, she still would have thought it was the best trip ever.

So we drove up the lane of my childhood home midmorning on Saturday, and were overly relieved to squeeze my parents and brother, stretch our legs and brush our teeth. Back-to-back fried food meals and sleeping in the car is not the best way to lead up to a good first impression, but there we were getting to meet my brother’s girlfriend, Devon, for the first time. And, happily, she didn’t turn around and run. Even after her dog and Ruby got into a fight within the first ten minutes of our arrival. Nothing like breaking up two manic pooches to shake off an overnight, cross-country haul. If I wasn’t pregnant I would have asked for a Bloody Mary with my lunch. But instead I took a two hour nap and awoke completely recharged and ready to tackle my vacation.

And after watching a frustrating Hawkeye loss, we all headed into Holstein for dinner at Rubles. Chris was introduced to Armadillo Eggs during our trip back to Iowa in 2008, and has been detailing them to everyone he knows ever since. For those of you who haven’t been to Rubles, an Armadillo Egg is a hollowed-out jalapeno that’s stuffed with pulled-pork and cream cheese, then wrapped in bacon and smoked for a day. It’s life changing. And follow a few rounds of those with a barbeque sundae, ribs and other tasty treats, and we were set for the rest of the night. And by set, I mean in total food comas. Dunzo. Off to bed.

On Sunday morning I finally got my camera out of my suitcase, and set out to explore the farm with Chris and Taylor. Last August when I visited, my parents had just put in a new pond, which they dubbed Taylor Lake, and it was still filling in. So to see a new body of water with a dock and beach was amazing. I only wish we could have visited during warmer weather and been able to swim. Well, the dogs still swam. But we just opted to fish and enjoy the views.

The boys shooting their guns. I’m pretty sure Chris views the farm the way Taylor would view Disneyland. Endless entertainment.

Ruby the farm dog.

Oh, and Sunday was not only our first full day of vacation, but it was also our SEVENTH anniversary. Yea for us! It’s hard to believe that Chris and I have been a couple for 11 years now, but it’s also hard to imagine what my life was like before him. And it was such a treat to be able to spend our special day with family, and also be able to see one of my bridesmaid’s from the wedding, Emily, and her husband, Mike. Now that they are living in Lake View, which is just a short-drive from the farm, we were lucky to have them stop by for a few hours and a lot of laughs.

On Monday, Will and Devon headed back to Fort Collins. It was wonderful to be able to spend some time with my brother and be able to meet Devon. I am so very proud of him for so many reasons, and I hold him very close to my heart.

The rest of our last day in Iowa was spent visiting my Grandma Young, buying a crazy amount of beef sticks and skinless brats and making a brief stop to see James and Emily, and meet their precious girl, Stella. And what an absolute sweetheart! I could have just put her in my mouth, she was so cute. And Taylor loved her too... A little too much.

Tuesday morning we sadly packed up and said Goodbye to my parents and the farm. It’s never easy driving away... Especially when I have no idea when I’ll be back. And just think – The next time we get back to Iowa, we could possibly be a family of four. BAM. So all of you lovely Midwesterners that I didn’t get to see this trip, next time you see me I’ll have an infant AND be able to share a bottle of wine with you. Double the fun.

So we left Iowa and headed north through the absolute nastiest, windiest weather we had ever driven through. Correction, that Chris had ever driver through. Because with torrential rain, crosswinds of 40mph and a topper on our SUV, no way was I driving. So while Chris was battling tsunami-force winds, Taylor, Ruby and I were watching Cinderella for the billionth time in the backseat. And after white-knuckling it for eight hours, we drove into Greg and Sue’s driveway just in time to stuff ourselves full of Thanksgiving dinner.

And let’s just talk a little bit more about all the food we ate this trip. We’ve already mentioned the barbeque and fast food, now top that with turkey dinner, Halloween candy and a whole pan of Special K bars. Good stuff, people. A total calorie-fest. And even though I was on a major junk food bender, I’m still going to blame my tight pants on being 16-weeks pregnant. Let the holiday season begin!

Oh, and on Wednesday morning we woke up to SNOW. And because we left super mild temperatures in Asheville, and because everyone kept raving about how nice the weather was up north, I packed exactly one pair of jeans, one sweater and a bunch of short-sleeved shirts, tunics and leggings. So Wednesday we got to go shopping. Yay!

And before hitting the stores, we stopped at Chris’s Grandma Bernadette’s house to visit with her and all of the other relatives that were there. Bernadette’s house is the hub for all Amys activity in the area. And being that she birthed nine children, who in turn all had big families and everyone pretty much lives within 30-miles of Superior, it’s pretty much an all-out Amys party all day long at Grandma’s house.

Four generations of the Amys family.

We were also lucky enough to have our visit coincide with Chris’s Aunt Adele’s trip, who was also braving the northern temperatures while she was away from her home in Key Largo. And even though we have been fortunate to spend time with Adele’s daughter, DeAnn, and her grandkids while they visited their summer cabin in North Carolina, we hadn’t been able to see Adele since she came up for our wedding. But because Adele is a regular follower of this blog, she felt like she hadn’t skipped a beat in spending time with Miss Taylor. And our sweet T was equally as enamored with her Great Aunt.

And because we were going to be driving all day and night on Sunday and not able to take our princess trick-or-treating, and also because we still had tons and tons of family members to see while on our short trip, Greg and Sue hosted a Halloween extravaganza at their house on Friday night. Giving Taylor one more opportunity to wear her Cinderella costume and eat lots of sugar.

We had a few other princesses at the Amys costume gala, namely cousin Angel’s daughter, Brynn, who was dressed at Sleeping Beauty. And let’s just say the Princesses Aurora and Cinderella got along splendidly at the party. They were inseparable. And unbelievably adorable.

And not just the kiddos got dressed up, as most of the adults put on some disguises as well. And not just of fictional characters, they impersonated other Amys family members. Cousins Rod and Steven came as Chris’s dad and brother. Good stuff.

We even managed to get a group photo of everyone.

And the kiddos even got some trick-or-treating practice too.

Princess Taylor, enjoying the fruits of her labor.

So the party was a blast, and Saturday was spent recovering and eating left over candy. Because, honestly, by that point it was Go Big or Go Home as far as calorie consumption was concerned. Seriously. I was eating the final Special K bars for breakfast as we pulled out of the driveway on Sunday morning. And the drive back down south went as smoothly as it could, 18-hours on the nose, with us finally parking our car in our driveway at 4.30 in the morning on Monday.

And the roadtrip recap reads: 42-hours in the car through eight states during ten days. Many, many family members and friends seen. Lots of food eaten. Enormous amounts of fun had. And now, after that much time basking in the uninterrupted glow of grandparent-attention, one very spoiled little Taylor.

We are very grateful for the time we were able to spend with everyone, and hope that we won’t have to wait so long to see everyone again. But if any of you ever need a break from the winter-cold, we can surely show you a good time down here in Asheville. But I would recommend flying. Or investing in a portable DVD player.

Birthday party palooza

So what’s better than one birthday party over the weekend? How about THREE birthday parties in one weekend. That’s right, the Famous Amys crew celebrated back-to-back-to-back birthday soirees this past weekend, and now that we’ve come down off our cake and ice cream buzz I can recap all the excitement.

Friday afternoon we traveled to south Asheville to help baby Oliver celebrate his first birthday. Kelley and Jaime scouted out an awesome location right on Lake Julian, and had a canoe ready to go for anyone who wanted to brave the water. And, of course, my little girl was all about it.

I don’t know who enjoyed the Thomas the Train cake more, Taylor or the birthday boy.

Saturday morning we headed to the CCA pool to party with Hunter on his third birthday. We’ve known Will and Ashley for a few years now, and have spent the summer watching their son, Hunter, perform his daredevil stunts at the pool. He and Taylor are pretty cute together, and she always watches him with wide-eyes as he does his floatie-less jumps off the slide and board.

Oh. And Hunter is also obsessed with Toy Story and had a Buzz Lightyear cake at his party. So Taylor is officially in LOVE.

And Sunday afternoon we joined the Bound family in celebrating their darling daughter, Rell, turning three. LeAnn and Jamie set-up their backyard like a mini-water park, complete with slip-and-slide, baby pool and a sprinkler.

Rell’s party had a Hello Kitty theme, and LeAnn even made the fabulous cake herself. And if she needed proof as to whether or not it was delicious, she had to look no further than Taylor, who polished off her piece about five seconds after the birthday girl blew out the candles.

And it’s always fun watching Taylor, Rell and Elliot play together. Those little ladies were destined to be best buds about seven years ago when their mamas solidified their relationship at the downtown restaurant we all worked at. And, lucky for us, they seem to be pretty happy with their predetermined friendship.

So you can imagine that by the end of the weekend we were officially partied-out, but it was a fantastic three days spent with so many of our wonderful friends. The only hiccup has to be that since we left Rell’s party Sunday afternoon Taylor has been chirping, Momma! MY birthday coming up? MY Princess birthday tomorrow? MY BIRTHDAY! Ah. I have a feeling we’re gonna have a long eight months ahead of us.