Happy Birthday Lilly

Lilly turned 1 on Tuesday the 15th. Unfortunately, Tyson was out of town on her birthday so we celebrated it on Friday. We got a purple butterfly cake, some balloons and decorated her highchair with pink streamers. After eating pizza we let her open up her presents. She liked the presents but didn’t give much of a reaction. After present time she eat her cake. She was very lady-like while eating the cake. She got small fingers full and carefully put them in her mouth. She didn’t tear into the cake.

I am very sad my baby is 1. Although, she is still adorable and wonderful I am finding it sad watching my baby get older….and it is just beginning.

Happy Birthday Lilly –

I have loved having you in the family. You are the most amazing addition and have been the best baby ever. You eat well, sleep well, and have a wonderful attitude (most of the time). You are very loving. You love to give hugs and kisses to your mommy and daddy, the people in your books, and all of your toys. Nothing makes me happier than having you sit on my lap and getting hugs and kisses from you.

You are good at Mommy and Me and are great at climbing on all of the toys. When all of the kids are off playing you like to sneak up to their Mommy’s or the teacher, flash them a smile and your puppy-dog-eyes, and have them pick you up for a hug. You like dancing with the music, clapping your hands, and waiving hello/goodbye. You also get excited when the bubbles and parachute come out.

Thank you for being nice to the dog even though sometimes he isn’t nice to you. Thank you for always trying to help mommy when she is cleaning up. Thank you for being a good traveler and going with us to North Carolina, Florida, Wrightsville Beach, Atlanta, Utah, and all of our other weekend trips. You never cried or complained when we were out exploring. Thank you for being mommy’s best friend when she moved away from home.

Your mommy and daddy love you so much.

Love,
Mommy

Lilly's First Halloween

I am trying to get all caught up on blogging about our busy October. It was Lilly’s first Halloween and it was packed full of activities. We started off our celebration with a Trunk-or-Treat at our church. Tyson decorated the trunk so well. We even had spooky Halloween music. After the trunk-or-treating was done they had games in the gym and a pumpkin carving contest. Tyson’s pumpkin did not win and we are sure there was some cheating. It was fun having Kathy at the Trunk-or-Treat with us.
On Halloween we started off the night by walking down to Birkdale Village for their Halloween Festival. It was packed. By the time we got there all of the stores ran out of candy. So we trick-or-treated on our way home. There were some spooky houses that scared Lilly a little bit but she still had a lot of fun talking to all the new people and holding her candy bag.

Look how cute Lilly is in her costume. People kept calling her a boy but that is what I get for putting her in brown. I think she is the cutest Kangaroo in the world.

We had zero trick-or-treaters come to our apartment. We put the sign on our door letting trick-or-treaters know they were welcome but no one came and we had a lot of left over candy.

A Visit From Family

Our next visitor was Tyson’s mom, Kathy. She came the day after my friends left. Tyson started off the visit by bringing Kathy to Biltmore while Lilly and I spent the day at home. Lilly needed a little break to get back on her schedule. For more information about Biltmore see previous post.

The next day we went to Boone, North Carolina. This was a first time to Boone for all of us and it was a blast. The Town of Boone is a university town in Watauga County, atop the Appalachian Mountains. Boone acquires its name from the famous pioneer and explorer Daniel Boone, who on several occasions camped at a site generally agreed to be within the present city limits.

We started our visit at the Mast General Store. The Mast General Store was opened in 1883 and has the reputation of carrying everything from “candles to caskets”. It was crazy how much stuff was in the store. They had clothing, candy, toys, kitchen supplies, home décor, etc. It was a lot of fun spending time in the store.

We then went to a local attraction called Tweetsie Railroad which is North Carolina’s oldest theme park. The theme of the park was Wild West. We found this amusing considering we just moved to the South from the West and we were visiting a Western theme park. The park had a coal-fired locomotive you could ride around the park. During your train ride they had actors that would perform a skit. The park also had old fashion carnival rides and a petting zoo. Lilly had her first ride on a carousel but was more interested in watching how everything worked then waving at her dad.

The drive to and from Boone was beautiful and we enjoyed the fall scenery. We even bought a hand-made birdhouse from an old man on the side of the road.
During the next week Tyson had to go to Raleigh on business so Kathy, Lilly and I headed down to Charleston, South Carolina, for a girls trip. Charleston was amazing!! I am so glad we decided to visit. While in Charleston we went on a guided carriage ride of the city. I learned a lot of information about Charleston that I had never known before, including facts about the many natural disasters that have occurred there. Lilly loved the horses. We spent some time shopping at City Market. Here is some information I found about the Market:

The land on which the market sits was donated by a wealthy Charleston family in the early 1800s to be used as a marketplace. The main building, Market Hall, was erected in 1841. Behind Market Hall, four open-air buildings span from Meeting Street to East Bay Street, near the waterfront. The market originally sold foodstuffs, including meat, fish and fresh produce grown locally.

Today, more than 100 vendors sell everything from local foods to souvenirs. The most celebrated residents are the ladies who weave and sell sweet-grass baskets. The craft of basket-weaving, passed down from West African slaves, is considered one of Charleston's most vibrant traditions.

I learned that you should carry cash when you are at the City Market. We also spent a short amount of time at a beach near Charleston called Isle of Palms. Kathy and I decided that we should have brought beach chairs and spent the whole day at the beach. It was a beautiful beach and there was hardly anyone there. The weather was perfect but everyone else thinks it is cold.

Kathy, Lilly and I also spent time at the Latta Plantation, Raptor Center, Discovery Place, and the Children’s Library in Charlotte. She got a full tour of the surrounding areas/towns, had a tour of the local parks and walking paths, went to church with us and celebrated Halloween by going to our wards Trunk or Treat. We loved having Grandma Kathy come and visit us, especially Lilly. I had to work most days so while I was working Kathy would take Lilly on walks or just play with her so she didn’t have to wait for boring mommy to play with her. Thanks for coming and visiting us!

A Visit from Friends

Tyson and I were lucky to have two sets of visitor’s in October. Our first visitor’s are my best friends Jennifer and Emilee. We started off their visit with a trip to the U.S. National Whitewater Center. This was my first time at the Whitewater Center and I have to say that it is one of the coolest places I have ever been. The center is located on approximately 400 acres (mostly wooded) and includes activities such as whitewater rafting, kayaking, canoeing, rock climbing, mountain biking, hiking, rope courses, zip lines, and a mega jump. It features a man mad river which has 12 million gallons of well water, going through 680-horsepower pumps and over natural boulders cemented in place to make continuous rapids. It was beautiful and amazing and you should all go look at the website, usnwc.org.



We bought the AllSport Pass for $49 that allowed us to do all the activities. That is cheaper then Lagoon! We started off the day with some rock climbing and rafting. We had a great time rafting and no one fell out. This is good considering I almost fell out when we rafted the Snake River and I had to have the guide snag me mid-air. We did have to rescue a lady that fell out of another raft who seemed to have given up on rescuing herself. We also had to share our raft with three middle age women from LA who thought they were cougars and were trying to pick up on raft guide. They couldn’t figure out paddling and it was up to the three of us to handle things. Good thing Emilee and I were the winning canoeing team at girl’s camp. How great is it to go rafting in October and not freeze!

We spent the rest of the day trying out the zip lines, mega jump, and rope courses. We spent a good 3 hours in harnesses walking around in the trees. Just like this guy…but cooler:


Look how awesome we are in our gear.



The Whitewater Center would be the first place I would take the Steve Ballard family to if they came and visited us. This activity is PERFECT for them, hint hint…come and visit Steve Ballard family.

The next day was spent in a mountain town called Ashville, or like how they say it here in the south Ash-vull. While at Ashville we toured the Biltmore Mansion. This mansion is the largest privately-owned home in the United States. While there we toured the home, the gardens, the bass lake and the winery. Don’t worry we snuck out before they had us do any wine tasting. Fall is the peak season for Biltmore due to the beautiful fall leaves.



The day before Jen and Emilee left we spent some time touring the area closest to us. I drove them around the lake, through the posh neighborhoods, into an amazing park, through some small southern local towns, and to the Latta Plantation. The Latta Plantation is my favorite local place. It is a beautiful plantation that has been turned into a nature preserve. While at the plantation we took a tour of the home and went on a short hike. The views were amazing and the weather was great.



One thing I really love about North Carolina is how amazing the parks and outdoor areas are taken care of. Every park on our area has tennis courts, trails, beaches, and volleyball nets. Plus there are so many trees everywhere you always feel like you are in the woods. The area is also fantastic at doing a lot of family oriented activities that are free or very inexpensive. This area is wonderful and everyone should come on visit us.

Before Emilee and Jennifer left we did one last activity and painted our own pottery at a ‘paint your own pottery’ place. It was a fun and relaxing activity to end their visit.


Don’t worry; I also made sure they had some southern food and a tour of Charlotte.