Taking It To The Mountains

 

My mother (this is Robbie) has been asking for years that we (the family) go on vacation with her and Aubrey.   It's never worked out with our schedules until this year.  Of their week in the mountains, we were able to stay 3 days/2 nights (Thursday - Saturday).  We stayed at a place called Blue Ridge Village Festiva Resort in Boone/Banner Elk, NC.  Honestly, we had no idea what to expect . . . . the resort's actual website has little information.  However, to our surprise, the place was nice and we had a blast.  It's one of those places that's perfect for kids . . . . you could spend several days there and never leave the site.



Just like our trip earlier this year to go sledding, Maggie fell asleep about 15 minutes from our destination.

 

The resort had a fishing pond that included paddleboats:

Campbell, Martha, and Aubrey (grandpa)

A lake:

Meet Lifeguard Ranger Maggie

A view of the lake from our room.

A stocked fishing pond that was stocked with very smart fish.  Throw some corn in the water and you'll see the fish aggressively attack and eat it.  Put a piece of corn on a hook and the fish will have nothing to do with it.  Regardless, we got to fish:

My girls fish in style!

We even tried fishing from our paddleboats:


Daddy and Campbell trying to outsmart the fish

We came across a fire pit where people were roasting marshmallows in the middle of the day.  After gnawing off some wood and spending 90 minutes with dental floss, I was able to make fire (or after the front office game me wood, a starter brick, and matches).

 

 

She likes a s'more.

They had putt-putt:

Check out Maggie's concentration



Check out the obstacles at the course . . . . not only a tree, but you have to get around a Maggie





Campbell's got impeccable form 

We even played a bit of tennis:

 

We relaxed in the pool and hot tub:

 

 They even had evening recreation events for the retired . . .

My mom and Aubrey playing an intense game of Chutes and Ladders

Okay, that's a joke . . . what started out as a game with the grandkids turned into the grandkids chasing squirrels leaving them to play. 

I had an idea on Friday . . .  we're in the mountains, so we need to take the girls to go play in a mountain stream.  While shopping for candy at Mast General Store, we found a stream in their back lot.  This turned into an impromptu dip into the water . . . 

nothing wrong about teaching the girls about skinny-dipping at an early age

Later that night, we found a local park (3 miles away) that had a stream runneth through-it.

One's more excited than the other . . .

My water girl

 We left on Saturday, but my mom and Aubrey stayed an extra day.  My mom went fishing on Saturday (after we left) and finally reeled in the fish we spent two days trying to catch.

 

 

I'm glad it worked out so we were able to join my mom and Aubrey for a few days.  It was nice spending some time with them and nice to have the girls get to make memories with their grandma and grandpa.