A couple weeks ago, we packed up for the weekend and headed up to the mountains to see Papa and Annette! William was so excited. He was convinced that he would see some bears in their backyard, ha!! It's about a 4.5 hour drive, so we were all ready to get there, after sitting in the rush hour traffic leaving Raleigh/Greensboro. We got there late Friday night, and hit the bed soon after, since we had a big weekend planned!
We were supposed to go to Tweetsie Railroad on Saturday, but it was such a gloomy, rainy day, that we decided to go Sunday on our way home. That worked out great - Sunday was a gorgeous day and perfect for it! Saturday, we grabbed lunch at a local restaurant. (Sidenote- everything up there is "local", haha! It's in the middle of nowhere and you have to drive about 40 min DOWN a huge mountain to get to any food/stores). We went to Emerald Village after lunch, and mined gems and walked around all of their touristy spots. William LOVED it! He thought he was like the dwarfs from Snow White. We got to rinse everything and find the jewels and then pick which ones we wanted to keep. After that, we rode around checking out different sights, and had dinner and headed back home to celebrate Robbie's birthday and relax!
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| On the way!! |
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| Thank goodness we found a raincoat and boots before we left Raleigh! |
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| With his miner hat! |
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| Inside the mine, there were huge fish that you could feed! |
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| Checking out the train display! |
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| Washing the rocks off |
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| I found one! |
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| Our haul! William was killing me - he keeps calling them jewels, haha!! |
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| He was EXHAUSTED after that! |
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| Sisters - ready for dinner! |
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| William was sooo excited to check out this real caboose! |
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| Robbie was crammed in the 3rd row of their car all day Saturday, haha!! Bless him. |
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| Lego playing back at Papa's before bed! |
Sunday was Tweetsie day! We got up early and packed up and headed down the mountain. Truth be told, I was dreading Tweetsie. We just LOVE Disney and nothing really compares haha! But it was SOOO fun!! William had the best time, and the day just flew by! The big train ride was super fun, even if we did get COVERED in coal, ha! It's a nice long ride, with lots of role play between Indians and cowboys along the way. They had skyrides that took you from one part of the park to the other, which was fun! William loved all of the kiddie rides, shows, animals, and would you believe, we got out of there only spending $10 on one souvenir?! :P
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| We're here! |
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| Riding the train! |
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| Beautiful day!! |
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| Riding the skyride! That thing was crazy - it keeps moving as you get on and off - you have to be quick! |
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| We took W to a show where the kids can interact with the characters! |
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| There he goes in the parade with all the kids! |
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| They had lots of kiddie rides... |
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| And a whole zoo area with all kinds of animals! |
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| A baby goat escaped and all the kids got to pet him, haha! |
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| W's favorite ride - the mouse train. It takes you in this cave and you see mice mining cheese - it was so cute! |
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| W rode with Hannah on this skyride trip! |
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| W and Robbie waited in line FOREVER for this little 2 second go kart ride ha! |
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| Carousel! Even Hannah loved that! |
After a full day at Tweetsie, we drove into Boone to shop, and then hit the road back to Raleigh. William (and Hannah) slept the entire ride back. They were exhausted!! Thanks, Dad and Annette, for a fabulous weekend!! We hope to get back up there soon! :)
