Labor Day Weekend Fun

We had an eventful 3 day weekend.  Saturday we spent all day outside enjoying the cooler weather.  We played frisbee, threw the softball, practice hitting, went to ball practice, played cards of the front porch, played kiddie volleyball, and just had plain old fun.  Saturday night we went to visit my cousin who was home from Richmond (where she works) and we had chinese take out and let the 4 kids run wild in the playroom.  I started my tanning bed sessions while I was there.  I am usually anti-tanning since I have gotten older and know better, but I am just in it for 3 weeks until Mellie's wedding.  I have this beautiful yellow dress that I am going to be wearing and I am trying to even up some bathing suit lines I have on my chest and shoulders. 
Sunday morning we packed a cooler and a change of warmer clothes (just in case) and we headed up to Mt. Mitchell.  We had a few problems finding our way due to state signs not being complete and for us just asking mapquest for directions to Mt. Mitchell instead of Mt. Mitchell State Park.  We got there finally and hiked up to the summit.  Then we took a moderately aggressive nature trail out into the park.  We got way out there and it was so quiet and it smelled like Christmas!  It was very cold too!  It was maybe 65 degrees in the sun and in the deep thick woods it felt colder (especially when we were all still in shorts)  The climate at 6684 feet is very similar to a Canadian forest and the trees were so different than around here.  Lots of hemlocks and ash trees and ferns and moss.  We kept reading about bear warnings and we heard a grumble way off and me and Brandon looked at each other and we couldn't decide if it was a bear or someones dog.  Abigail got a little worried and we told her that bears were only aggressive when they had young babies to watch out for and that this wasn't the time of year for young babies.  I don't know if this was to put her mind or our minds at ease!  Later on when we were closer back to the parking lots we heard the noise again and realized it was motorcycles starting up! WHEW! 
After a day of breakfast at home and a pack of crackers in the car, we were ready for a good meal.  We went to the Mt. Mitchell restaurant and Brandon had local trout that had been recently caught about 30 miles away and brought straight to the restaurant.  Abigail ate an entire baked potato and a hot dog and Emily had a cheeseburger.  I had a bowl of chili and Emily's baked potato.  Then Brandon had apple pie, Abi had a scoop of icecream, and Emily had carrot cake.  My goodness they were hungry.  It's amazing what a little bit of hiking could do to my kids!  When we left the restaurant at 7pm, the temperature outside was 54 degrees and we were still in shorts!  We thought about putting on our jeans, but figured if we hadn't changed by now there was no need to.  Besides, we were planning to head on home and the car was warm inside.  By the time we drove back down to the bottom of the mountain it was 68-70 degrees again.  July is the hottest month on Mt. Mitchell and the average temperature then is 67 degrees.  Why didn't we think about going here a month or 2 agao when temps at home were 100 degrees?  We thought about how nice it must be to camp there during the summer.  Hmmm??  Maybe next summer?!?  We got home about 10pm and got baths and watched the movie Hachi, A Dog's Tale.  The girls had picked it out from Netflix and couldn't wait to see it.  It had to be the saddest movie I have seen in a while!  We got into bed by 1am and then today we have hung around the house.  I did a little house work, Brandon worked on his Bobcat, and the kids have did nothing but watch TV and color.  Abigail has tee ball practice this evening.  Then the 3 days of "vacation" will be over.   I am dreading tomorrow when reality strikes back.  I am excited to see Emily play her 1st ball game though.  Hope everyone has had as good of a time as we have this weekend!