asheville

Downtown Asheville is charming! Another yarn shop stop at a shop full of sock monkeys and other knit fun guys! The old Woolworths has been transformed into a two story art gallery and still has the original sad fountain.

great smoky mts

Just a little bit west of Asheville, the Great Smoky Mountains sprawl from NC into TN. There were so many butterflies on our hike up past the Applachian Trail. The farm and mill were great places to learn a bit about what life was like in the Great Smokies. These junior rangers earned another badge at their 27th park.

biltmore gardens

It was such a fun day spent exploring all the expansive grounds all around the Biltmore. It is an amazing place full of farms and gardens.  We found a statue of the boy's favorite Cedric at the tavern named after him where we enjoyed live music and dinner.

biltmore estate

The Vanderbilt's 250 room mountain retreat was dazzling covered in a special Chiluly glass display. The boys thoroughly enjoyed the kids audio tour hosted by Cedric, the mountain dog.

johnson city

The drive through the Blue Ridge Mountains included these views - serious blue ridges!

We found a highly recommended Tupelo Honey restaurant in Johnson City... Yum, the biscuits!

roanoke pinball

We'd hear about this fun pinball museum - and it delivered on the cool factor. Each row had machines from a different decade. I liked the oldest ones that best... I guess Guitar Hero snuck into this vintage-y place already?!

roanoke childrens

If we lived in this area with little ones, I would've lived in this children's museum (adjacent to the science museum)... It was still fun for these big guys too.

roanoke science

We had this amazing science museum in downtown Roanoke nearly all to ourselves. There were so may fun things from a touch tank to a butterfly garden to programmable robots.

roanoke treats

We scratched some plans to slog around NYC in the heat advisory weather and headed for the mountains!  Our first stop was Roanoke which was full of treats.

"Something wonderful is about to happen" is written on that glass door to this amazing cupcake shop! The green treat and lemon cupcake - omg!

Right across the way was my first stop on the birthday week yarn crawl!  The owner (who is a quirky knitting celebrity) took a jumping photo with me, because that's her kinda quirk - but our hair came out to play!

tidbits

Brunch at a place with Into the Mystic lyrics (our wedding song) painted on the walls?! And an oyster bar?!

 Meeting up to fly some mini drones with some buddies.

We missed our milkshakes at Ted's ;)

Saw some good comedy at the State... a perfect date night!

climbzone

This place never disappoints! We switched up water park plans with our friends to take a trip up for some climbing. The boys have now mastered the walls and even made it up the ninja ramp without help.

lego 2

The boys were excited to find a Zelda scene and Link creations.  I was pumped that they had some lego creations sponsored by the National Parks - because that is our jam this year!  The woman that created the entire Harry Potter village was so nice to bring each building down to show the amazing interiors. We came home with a new set of mini figures the boys were thrilled to buy with their own mula.

lego 1

We caught the annual lego fair which has amazing new displays every year! We played some lego mini golf and the boys raced their lego cars. They built their best design - Aiden came in first, Keaton second, and J last place ;)

good list

An actual warped loom in my house! Feels like this is many years coming ever since I had that giant floor loom that would've needed at least three people to warp properly and was just overwhelming... I still remembered the basics from the class at the Art League but need to work on my tension.

This cupcake at the National Harbor was so memorable it has become the cupcake he compares all other to! It has a huge hunk of cookie dough on the top.

Reorganizing all the tsum tsums into his new cool shelf - will need another one!

Unleashing all the legos that were with us in Arizona and finding new spots for them ;)

tidbits

So much excitement for this Teen Titans Go movie and it met all their expectations and made the favorites list!

So many opportunities to get together with friends this summer and play outside (in between all the rain storms)

Make your own sundaes are a big favorite.

We made it to the Disney store for their mickey special pin release - since Mickey turns 90 in November! We were in the line before it opened with the second to last spot to purchase the pins ;)

good list

Ever since we left Disneyland these boys have been excited to collect more pins - thanks to this monthly subscription box we get deliveries of some surprises each month!

My sister, the giveaway master, asked as many questions as possible in this AMA (ask me anything) giveaway with this quirky yarn shop owner that was giving away this super expensive yarn bag. She won the bag and surprised me by sending it along with my parents filled with treats (like this yarn camera pin!) as an early birthday present! It makes me smile because every time I see it it reminds me of that rush of excitement when I saw she won! And now I win too! ;)

Playing Dweebies and making Dweebie sandwiches in this simple fun game we found at the book fair a while back. Card games keep us happy around here...

Finally getting this guy’s eyes checked and cleared up meant a funny pair of dilation glasses that he rocked on the way home.

poppop's bday

It was a nice day to eat brunch outside (yum Eggs Benedict with smoked cheese and all sorts of avocado toast, etc etc) and see the movie theater release of Newsies with the original Broadway cast with PopPop, the birthday guy!

by white house

So much buzz going on around the white house... This T rump street performer would activate with a dollar in his hat and really wanted the boys to floss with him. Aiden was on the mission to Make America Fun Again.

renwick 2

You stand on circles to get that folded sculpture to open and close. You can write on wooden cards that get added to the layers and layers of carved wood full of messages. Keaton wrote "Always be yourself "totally unprompted and that makes me happy.  The light through those lantern like sculptures... so much to feed the imagination.

renwick 1

The Renwick never disappoints and this Burning Man exhibit is no exception. You're not standing in the middle of the desert surrounded by a seven mile semi circle of people, and art, etc... but it gives you a really up close view at the unique art.