Labor Day Weekend!

We decided to head up to the mountain house with Jeff's family for Labor Day weekend this year! I was so glad we did for several reasons, one of which being that it was the last weekend before Rhyan started PRE-K! And I was thrilled to soak up the entire weekend together as a family :-)

We headed up Friday evening after naps. We decided to do sleeping arrangements a bit differently this time and put mack in one room, Rhyan in the other, and Jeff and I slept in the downstairs living room by pushing two twin size cots together. It was an arrangement that we all actually preferred! Usually Rhyan sleeps in the living room but then we have to be super quiet when we get ready for bed or if we wake up before her!

She was excited to be sleeping in the big girl room! (on a KING bed!)

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Since the 4th of July was such a "washout" (literally), we were also pretty excited when Sky Valley decided to reschedule their fireworks to  Labor Day weekend! We decided it would be so fun to take the kids!

Unfortunately, with Mack being sick, we just didnt think it was wise to take him. I hated for him to miss it, BUT, he is only 2yrs old and while we can play around with bedtime a little bit, fireworks dont even start till after 9pm. So it was probably best that we let him stay back with Jeffs parents.

SkyValley did their traditional pancake breakfast Saturday morning, which we had a great time attending! And I just have to mention that there was a lady with about a 9 month old boy sitting behind us and he kept screaming bloody murder (not upset, just screaming). She turned and apologized to us and I just smiled and told her "you dont even know. it doesnt bother me at all... i'm smiling b/c i'm just happy its not my son!" :-)

That night, Highlands put on their fireworks show, so we decided to meet up with my best friend from hygiene school, Cara, and her family (they live in Franklin, NC, just about 20 min from Highlands) for dinner and to watch the show! We had a GREAT time visiting and oh my, dinner was delish! It was at a grocery store with a restaurant inside. Called Mountain Fresh (i think?!). So good!

Cara and Josh have 3 kids and decided to leave their son back, too. So it was fun to just have our older ones (who are all girls) hanging out! It seemed to take forever for it to start, but it was fun hanging out and catching up. Jeff and Josh always seem to get along great, also, which makes hanging out so FUN!

We had a great time just hanging around the house on Sunday... playing and chasing each other.

And then in the afternoon, we decided to go exploring! Of course, Mack needed his "lightenin queen" hat and sunglasses to explore. Duh!

We headed down to the waterfall, which the kids thought was GREAT! It was a beautiful day, so of course, i brought along my camera and tried to get a few pics. Jeff was thrilled ;-)

Jeff let the kids take off their shoes and walk around in the water, which was COLD! I dont see how they tolerated it for so long, but they stayed in and played and threw rocks for about 15 minutes! CRAZY!

Btw, Jeff had decided to shave his head that weekend. I about died. Thankfully, he's let it grow back. Shew.

We also decided to go on a walk! It really was pretty fun! We made a game out of seeing if we could find different items (squirrel, bird, flower, moss, butterfly... what was funny is that some of those things the kids found but they were STATUES! ha!)

Look at this amazing view we enjoyed on our walk! That house is in a GREAT spot!

It was such a lovely weekend. The weather was nice! The only thing that was difficult is that we were in the midst of potty training Mack...
He had shown interest a week prior and I had started working with him. Long story short, as long as I took him once an hour, he stayed dry! Even on the drive up there, he stayed dry! So we only brought night time diapers (which we put on him only at night b/c he was staying dry at nap too!) and even one morning he woke up dry!
However, we had started him on steriods on Friday for his bronchitis and what I didnt realize is that they can make you very thirsty. So by saturday morning, he was drinking 2 cups of water every couple of hours! PLUS the cup of milk he had with breakfast. So he started going through clothes like crazy. :-( We ended up having to go out and buy him some diapers b/c he couldnt stay dry at all! I felt badly b/c he had made SUCH great progress... completely dry for an entire week! But thats what the prednisolone did :-(

Unfortunately, we have not been able to re-capture the success that we once had. I'll probably try again in March or so. I really think that he's mastered being able to go on command, but he doesnt recognize the pressure and feeling of needing to go until its too late if we dont take him on schedule. And I dont want to have to take any kid to the potty on schedule. Not at his age, anyways (at that point he was barely 2). So we will wok on it again, when we all have the patience and when Mack can stay healthy enough to stay off of steroids! (he's been on them 3 times since September!)

But overall, great weekend full of fun and family!