Thanksgiving 2014

Thanksgiving was a blur this year.  Rebecca (Scott’s sister) had an unexpected emergency and had to be life-flighted from Amarillo to Dallas.  She was in the hospital for almost 2 weeks and had a few surgeries to remove a blood clot. The doctors at UT Southwestern were simply outstanding and literally saved her life.  Our big kids went to Evadale for the week.  We had friends watch Henry for us during the day and went back and forth between Aledo and Dallas.  Mama Jo cooked a big meal on Thanksgiving for everyone. We didn’t take many pictures but here is one of Mama Jo multitasking.

Here are a few pictures of the big kids in Evadale.  Nathan likes that he can walk next door to Aunt Margo’s by himself

He also went to the deer lease with Pop and Sam

Here is our Thankful Tree for this year

We definitely have lots to be thankful for!  Thanks to everyone for their thoughts, prayers, and support during our crazy week!

Friends

Our good friends Ben and Carrie brought their crew up for a weekend in November.  The kids played great together and we had a great time catching up. 

On Saturday morning we went to the museum

That evening, we broke a pinata to celebrate Carson’s 4th birthday.

We know it was a hard trip for them to make but are so happy they did. Hopefully, we can return the favor one day.

Camping Fall 2014

We went camping with some friends in early November at Dino Valley in Glen Rose.  We had perfect weather.

On Saturday morning we went for a pretty long hike.  3-4 miles by our estimation

There were some pretty neat natural rock features on the hike.  We used one for a snack break

We came across this troop of boy scouts that had been camping in the backcountry.  They were looking for the same scenic overlook that we were trying to find.  Let’s just say the park map was not very accurate.

We found one of the overlooks

We had lunch and played at the playground

We flew our kite for a little bit before we headed home

and done.

Halloween 2014

We carved a pumpkin for Halloween

Nathan had to have a #2 for Johnny Manziel

This was our family costume for the year (thanks to our friends up north who made it possible)

Henry was our football

We trick or treated in the neighborhood

and got a big old pile of candy

Happy Halloween and Gig’em Aggies!

Asheville, North Carolina

Jennifer and I took a trip at the end of October to the Blue Ridge Mountains and Asheville, NC.  I gave a presentation at a conference, so we turned a business trip into a weekend getaway to celebrate my birthday and our anniversary.  Thank you to Nana and Pappy who came to our house and took care of the kids.  Here is a recap of our trip.

Wednesday we flew from DFW to Charlotte and rented a car for the 2 hr drive to Asheville.  At the advice of the rental car clerk, we stopped in Shelby for some bbq at Bridges. The scene was a blast from the past and the food was pretty good too.

Soon, we were on our way to the mountains.  Here they are in the distance

That evening we checked into our hotel and went downtown for some dinner.  We did a little shopping while we waited for our table at Tupelo Honey Café. This food was outstanding.  We split the meatloaf.

Thursday I had breakfast with a colleague and then attended the first part of the conference and gave my presentation.  Later we headed out for some exploring.  We split a burger at Juicy Lucy’s.  It was good, but not the best meal we had that week.  From there, we headed to an apple orchard in Henderson County for some traditional fall recreation. 

The weather was beautiful and it was a nice setting with views of the blue ridge mountains

Apple picker extraordinaire

From the orchard, we kept it going at Chimney Rock State Park. It was a nice park, although overpriced and over developed.  Here is “Chimney Rock”

We climbed the stairs

And enjoyed the view

After we climbed up chimney rock, we took a short hike to see Hickory Nut Falls.

That evening, we took the scenic route back to Asheville, had some yummy pizza at Marco’s, and then saw a movie to cap off the night.

On Friday, we waited in line all day—I mean we visited Biltmore.  It was a very impressive estate, but we were not prepared for all the people.  Here are a few pictures from our visit.

We had lunch at the Stable Café and ate in a horse stall.  The food was surprisingly good. 

After lunch, we took a short visit to the Antler Hill Winery and Village, did the wine tasting and bought some wine to drink in the hotel.  After a short rest, we went downtown for dinner.  We ate an early dinner at the Early Girl Eatery, a strong competitor for the best meal we had on the trip.  We had the local mountain trout with mashed potatoes and greens, which was outstanding.  After dinner we did a little shopping, explored downtown, and watched some street performers, .

We had a strange interaction with an elderly gentleman while we were watching this group of drummers.  After this, I decided that Asheville was like an eastern, non-adobe, bigger version of Taos.

We had so much fun at the movies the night before that we decided to see another one on Friday night.

On Saturday, we had breakfast at Tupelo Honey Café.  Jennifer had the sweet potato pancake, and I had the shoo mercy omelet. It was intense.  It had fried green tomatoes, bacon, ham, jalapenos, and pimento cheese.  I couldn’t finish it all.  We told ourselves we needed a big breakfast to fuel up for a hike, but it wasn’t really true.

Then we hopped on the Blue Ridge Parkway and enjoyed some fall foliage.  It was neat because it was mainly green at lower elevations, peak color a little higher, and then beyond peak towards the top. 

We hiked Mt. Pisgah.  It was a nice trail, but very busy.  We chalked it up to a Saturday in the fall during peak foliage and enjoyed the weather.

The view from the top.  You can’t see it but there was a huge, imposing tv tower on the peak that really took away any notion of being in the wilderness.

Selfie from the parking lot.  That is Cold Mountain in the background.

The drive back was beautiful

That afternoon, we did some shopping in the Biltmore Village Historic District.  It was a neat area where the shops were in old homes

Then we went back downtown and did some shopping and browsing in the boutiques.  Asheville has a much bigger downtown than you would expect.  That evening we ate at Farm Burger, and then headed back to the hotel and watched a football game before calling it a night.

On Sunday, we had breakfast at Louise’s Kitchen in Black Mountain.  We ate on the porch of a Victorian style house turned restaurant with a view of the mountains. The food was delicious.

Then we drove back to Charlotte and caught a plane back to DFW.  Pappy cooked steaks for my birthday and then we had chocolate cake.  The perfect way to end the weekend.