Memorial Day Weekend

This weekend was such a great weekend!! 

Ja’s Athletic Director at North Forsyth let us use his cabin for the weekend.  The cabin is in Fancy Gap, Virginia, which is just about an hour up the road from Winston.  So Ja invited his best friend from back home, Jeff, and his family to spend the weekend with us.  So Jeff loaded the van with Tammy, his wife, and their three kids, Tanner, 4, Tate, 2 1/2, and Taylor, 1 1/2.  They drove to Winston and got in about 9:30 on Friday night.  Everyone ran around for a bit and then it was bedtime.  Tanner had a great time with the boys and loved chasing them around, as long as they were facing the opposite way and couldn’t lick him!

This was how comfortable he was at the end of the night, and how in pure heaven the dogs were!!

Saturday morning we got up and ate some breakfast and loaded up about 8:30 to head to Fancy Gap.  We got up to the cabin right at 10.  We unloaded and took in the absolute beauty of the view.  The cabin was absolutely amazing and is just about as close to sitting in heaven as you can get!

It was too cute because Tanner kept saying he wanted to go climbing on the mountain.  We kept trying to explain to him that we were on the mountain, but the only thing he’s ever known is a climbing wall with a rope on it.  That’s what he thought we would be doing!!

Saturday was a great day.  We loaded up in Ja’s truck and headed to the fishing pond.  They have the greatest dock made with a shaded area in the back that was perfect for Taylor.  Tanner fished and fished all day and was incredibly.  Tate played with the worms and then ‘pushed’ the fish into the pond once they had been caught and unhooked.  Those poor fish took a few good pokes in the gut before they were finally set free!!

Jeff and the boys heading to the dock to get ready for some fishing!

Tate – the master of the worms!

Tanner and his first of 98 fish!

Ja and the Whitehead boys.

Taylor hanging out and giving us a smile!

 

Jason and his HUGE fish!

Tammy and Tate showing off her HUGE fish!

Tammy and me after a hike up the other side of the pond.

After a few hours of fishing it was back to the house for some lunch and some naps. After naps it was time to head to the waterfalls and look for some crawdads.  I have never seen this done, but Jeff is from Iowa and apparently there are HUGE crawdads in the streams there.  This is not a picture of a crawdad that Jeff caught, but it gives you an idea of what he was looking for.

The boys had a great time, but I think Jeff had the best time of all.  Nothing like being a complete boy with your boys and turning over muddy rocks in a stream that is coming from a waterfall.  It was a great afternoon.

Then we headed back and everyone got ready for our cookout.  While we were waiting for dinner we got a few great pictures of the families.

Jeff, Tammy, and the boys

Ja and the boys

   

My love!

Tammy and her boys

 

Ja grilled out some brats and hamburgers and hotdogs.  We had an awesome dinner. 

After dinner we were all hanging out and waiting for bedtime.  We looked over and Scrappy (Tate) was laying on a bench and it looked like he was posing for an underwear ad.  I scrambled to get the camera, sure I had missed the moment, but the kid was loving the attention.  This is the shot we got.

Tell me that kid isn’t going to end up in Calvin Klein one day!  We also got a shot of the boy butt naked, but we’ll save that for his high school graduation!!

Sunday morning we woke up to this:

The clouds were so low and we were so high that we were literally above the clouds. It was unbelievably amazing.

That morning Jeff cooked us a BANGING breakfast.  It was absolutely delicious.  Pancakes, eggs, sausage – the whole nine.

Sunday we did a lot more fishing, some sunburning (for me), some more climbing in waterfalls.  After another great day, it was time for the Whiteheads to pack up and travel home.  They left about 6:30 and figured it would be easier to drive while the kids were sleeping and then they’d have today to be at home and be able to spend some good QT with the kids before going back to work tomorrow.

After the Whiteheads left, Ja and I tried to turn on the TV.  It wasn’t working.  Holy shit.  No TV, no cell phone reception.  What in the world were we going to do!!  We contemplated going home (ridiculous, I know), but decided to stick it out.  We figured out the TV and took a trip to the local Dollar General and got a few movies and some ice cream.  We had a great relaxed night in!

This morning we got up and cleaned the place up.  Since we were allowed to stay there for free, it was our duty to wash all sheets and clean the place.  Once we were all packed up we headed about 25 miles up the Blue Ridge Parkway to Mabry Mill.  It is the most photographed thing on the Blue Ridge Parkway.  We spent some time looking around and it really was awesome.  It is a working mill that at one point in time sawed logs and ground corn into corn meal for the surrounding communities.

We were told we had to eat the Mabry Mill restaurant.  Ja told me that he had been told that the sweet potato pancakes were unreal.  I was sitting at the table, contemplating whether I wanted a good ol’ grilled cheese or if I was going to venture out and go local.  I had never heard of sweet potato pancakes and was a little apprehensive, but oh Sweet Jesus!!  They are by far the most delicious pancakes I have ever had and ranks in the top 10 best foods I’ve had my whole life.  They were absolutely delicious and totally worth the drive.  We’ll be going back!!

We stopped at a few antique country stores on the way back and picked up a few souvenirs.  Then we hit the road and headed home.

It was a GREAT, GREAT weekend and I really hope we get to do it again soon!