How Georgia Does Snow

We don't get much snow in Georgia. Right before we moved here in 2014 there was an unexpected cold front which iced over the roads and crippled the city for 48 hours. Commute times ballooned--it took my father-in-law EIGHT hours to get home that day--motorists were stranded, and many parents could not reach their children. Several daycares and schools had to remain open overnight to shelter unclaimed children. Basically, it was a nightmare of epic proportions which made the rest of the country mock Atlanta relentlessly. 

Ever since that disaster, any inclement weather is met with extreme caution and white-knuckled terror. And though I grew up in San Diego where the weather is always moderate and kind, I have spent at least 10 years of my adulthood living in areas where snow and ice and cold winters are a thing. So I just have to roll my eyes at the freaking out that commences anytime the temperature threatens to drop to 36 degrees F as it did this past weekend. 

All the meteorologists predicted possible flurries late Friday night and snow Saturday morning. But even though it wasn't supposed to start until well into the evening, the schools decided to close early on Friday. 

Sure. The storm could always blow in faster than expected and we wouldn't want people to get stuck again. It was somewhat annoying, but I at least understood their reasoning. 

The kids were beyond excited. Both Adelaide and Zara said several prayers begging for snow. By the time David and I went to bed on Friday, it was raining an icy mixture, but not really snow. And when we woke up on Saturday morning, this was about the extent of our "big" snow storm. 

 

The kids were still super excited and begged to go play outside. And Benjamin even let me put his hat on him (and kept it there) which he normally doesn't allow. 

Lack of snow notwithstanding, it was extremely icy. Some areas cancelled church on Sunday out of caution for the ice, but not us. It took us 20 minutes to free our cars from their icy enclosures. 

All our poor plants and bushes had long icicles and were weighed down by the frozen water. Our trash cans were completely sealed shut. 

The temperatures were still rather cold throughout Sunday but the sun was shining and most of the ice melted. But "out of extreme caution" the school district decided to cancel school on Monday because many of the roads in the northern part of the county were still quite icy. 

Fine. One snow day. But then they just announced that they've canceled school AGAIN. And now I have lost my patience because this is just bordering on ridiculous.  

Which makes this meme that much funnier because IT'S TRUE.

Also the expected temperature for Thursday is 70 degrees. 

Hahahaha. 

If they cancel school on Wednesday too, I'm going to riot. 

New Things on my Walls

So back in October we had family photos taken. This was our first time having professional family photos taken and I wanted them to be perfect. I obsessed over what we were going to wear and spent countless hours pouring over online catalogs and shopping in stores looking for just the right looks for each person. In the end, I think we look pretty great although I like my outfit the least. The kids looked adorable though. I'm especially fond of Benjamin's vest and pink bow tie.

We got the professional photos back very quickly and then I spent another few weeks agonizing over what photos to have printed, what size, and what method to use (print vs. canvas). Once I figured that out, it took me another week or two to decide what companies to use (Costco, Shutterfly, MPix, Nations, etc.) to have them printed and another week or so to decide what frames to buy. In the end, I bought like 10 different frames from Ikea, Hobby Lobby, and Michaels and ended up returning the majority of them. I overthought every aspect of this whole endeavor and stressed myself out over it which was just plain silly but it's done now and we finally hung our new photos on the walls. And I love it. 

In our living room, we wanted to keep our collage wall so I had to try to balance the photos that were already hanging up there with the new family photos. In the end, I removed some of our wedding photos and put them in the hallway and condensed the kids' photos into two collage frames (white frames from Ikea). 

For the big family photo, I went with a 16x24 print (from Nations because it was much cheaper than Shutterfly) in a grey frame from Michaels. I tried out so many different frames but I liked the simplicity of this one. It won out over more ornate and elaborate ones. 

We also had a 12x16 canvas print done of the kids (from Costco) which looks fabulous. I didn't like their prints (I thought the color was over saturated) but their canvases look wonderful. 

But I wasn't done there. One of my absolute favorite photos was the large wide shoot of the entire mill. You can't see our family very well but I just adore the weathered look of the wood building coupled with the bright greens of the tree with the sun shining through. So I had that photo done on canvas (again from Costco) in a 18x24 size.

I paired it with four 8x8 prints (again from Nations) in driftwood frames from Hobby Lobby which complement the wood of the mill nicely. David liked the kissing photo which is why these ended up in our room above our bed. And also because we were running out of wall space.
 

And because I loved this 11x14 frame from Hobby Lobby so much, I had this photo of Adelaide and Bhaer printed as well because I just adore it. (This print is from Costco because I wanted a brighter, more saturated look for this one. I had one printed from Nations too and it was too dark.) 

Now my walls are full of pictures and I can stopped stressing over total first world problems for now. 

Hiking Stone Mountain with Chris

In a happy confluence of events, an old high school friend named Chris moved to Georgia a few months ago to attend graduate school at UGA. We finally had an opportunity to get together over the Christmas break to do a little hiking at Stone Mountain. 

I guess I should have explained Stone Mountain better to Chris (I thought he'd heard of it) but he was a little perplexed by what he found. Stone Mountain is basically that--a huge stone that you can hike to the top of. But that stone also has a large carving of several Civil War generals and during the warmer months, they do a laser light show where the generals come to life. 

And they have expanded since we last visited eight or nine years ago and there's a whole complex and theme park. Chris called it Six Flags over Robert E. Lee and that made me laugh. Atlanta is such a large metropolitan city that it's easy to forget that I live in the South.

Still, it was a fun hike with beautiful views of the surrounding area.

 You can even see downtown Atlanta from the peak.

And my girls are a little in love with Chris now. Adelaide just saw this picture and she exclaimed, "That's Chris! He held my hand."

We'll definitely have to do it again sometime...but maybe not at Stone Mountain.

Asheville Trip - Day Four

Our last day in Asheville! It took us awhile to pack up and clean in the morning. (The one pitfall of staying at an AirBnB instead of at a hotel.) My original plan had been to hit the road and stop at Tallulah Falls but since it was very cold, we decided to check out a few other things in Asheville before heading home. 

Our first stop was an antique car museum at the Grovewood Gallery. The space itself is historic and was once part of Biltmore Industries' massive textile production center.

The girls were even allowed to sit in this old fire truck.

The majority of the cars they had on display were Cadillacs (as it used to be a Cadillac dealership) but they did have this Ford Edsel.

But my favorite was this blue 1957 Cadillac. It's a bit of shame they don't make such fun looking cars today. We also visited the Homespun Museum next door which talked more about Biltmore Industries and the textiles they used to produce there. There was also an artist's gallery with an array of beautifully crafted glass, ceramic, wood, furniture, stained glass, toys, etc. They had a beautiful rocking chair that both David and I loved but it was $4,000 so we had to pass. I did buy a honey pot stirrer for $6 though.

From there, we walked across the street to visit the historic Grove Park Inn, one of Asheville's premiere hotels and spas. It's an incredibly unique and beautiful hotel with absolutely gorgeous views of Asheville.

F. Scott Fitzgerald was a frequent visitor and he often came here to write while Zelda was in and out of hospitals. I would love to come back and stay here one day.

The Grove Park Inn also hosts the annual Gingerbread House Competition. We wandered through the hallways and floors looking at the entrants in the competition--youth, teen, and adult.

This amazing creation was the grand prize winner. It was a truly incredible work of art.

These were some of my other favorites. This was the teen first place winner. 

The most incredible thing was just how intricate and delicate most of the work was.

After that was all done, we ate a quick lunch and made one final stop--Ultimate Ice Cream shop. Even though it was freezing out, we wanted one last stop at an Asheville original. The ice cream was quite delicious. After that, we got some gas and hit the road to head back to Georgia.

We went a different route so this time we didn't have to travel on a lot of mountainous backroads. It went much quicker until we hit traffic on the I-85 as we neared Atlanta (because of course). But it still only took us about 4 hours to make it home and the kids were champs. They all took naps and needed no bathroom breaks so we were able to do the trip without any stops which is its own kind of miracle.

We were happy to be back and the cats sure missed us, but I'm glad we got to visit Asheville and especially to see the Biltmore at Christmastime.

Asheville Trip - Day Three

We started out our third day in Asheville by visiting the downtown area. Asheville is--for lack of a better term--a total hipster town. It's an artist and craftsmen haven and there's a big focus on natural, local, and organic products, hand-made and artisanal crafts, and an awful lot of drinking out of mason jars. I was very intrigued by the variety of artist galleries and studios that are open to the public and I was most excited to visit Lexington Glassworks, an open glass blowing studio where they produce their amazing products in front of an audience. 

We got there just in time to see them begin their newest piece-- a blue vase. The two artists worked seamlessly in a perfect choreographed dance to produce several glass products and all the while, they talked us through the process and why they were doing certain things. The kids were totally restless but David and I were fascinated. 

Afterwards, they walked around and answered questions and we browsed their shop. Of course, being that all their wares are made of glass we were hesitant to remain long with three kids in tow. We purchased a beautiful hand-blown glass ornament (purple, of course) and then walked back through the city to the Over Easy Cafe. 

We had put our names down for a table before we visited the glassworks and by the time we were done there, our table was almost ready. Good thing too because it was very cold and windy that day. The cafe was very small--only 10-12 tables--but the food was delicious. I ordered the Eggs Benedict because that's totally become my thing lately even though I normally hate runny eggs yolks and David got their lavender french toast which he immensely enjoyed. The kids plowed through some pancakes and yogurt and granola and it was all-in-all a very delightful meal. 

After our meal, we headed back to the Biltmore Estate. Our tickets were good for two days so I wanted to return and visit the rest of the estate. In addition to the house, the grounds have two hotels, a winery, a barn and farmyard, and the Antler Hill Village full of more shops, exhibits, and restaurants. 

The kids enjoyed seeing the animals but our favorite was probably the farmyard.

They had lots of hands-on activities for the kids and several demonstrations including a broom making and wool spinning. It was quite cold and windy so we spent some time indoors playing with some of the toys they had inside the stables.

When we ventured out, we played with a bean bag toss and the game of graces. Basically, you have a hoop and two sticks and you throw the hoop to another person who has to try to catch them with their sticks. It was surprisingly fun and we had a great time playing together as a family.

When we left there, we wandered through the village. They have a statue of young Cornelia Vanderbilt and her dog Cedric. When I asked them later what they liked best about our Asheville trip Adelaide said she liked the dog statue best. So there you go.

They turned their former impressive dairy operation into a winery and we wandered through their old buildings and some awesome tunnels but didn't partake in any of the wine tasting.

We then went to the playground to let the kids run around a bit. But it was pretty cold so we didn't stay long.

 We got off the estate much quicker this time and went home for dinner, baths, and bedtime. David and I then stayed up to build a puzzle together. We've been in a puzzle building mood. We've built several puzzles lately.

Asheville Trip - Day Two: Biltmore, The Gardens

After the house tour, we grabbed a small bite to eat at their cafe (pretty decent food) and did a bit of shopping and then we went to explore the various formal gardens and the open pathways and trails. It was a beautiful day and the outdoors were simply gorgeous. 

 And here is an extraordinarily rare photo of the entire photo thanks to the very kind grandma who offered to take our photo.

I won't talk too much about the outdoor shots. I mostly took photos of the landscape and our family.

It was nearly impossible to get any good photos of Adelaide because she kept flapping her arms and pretending to be a bird. Or something.

Since it's winter, there weren't many flowers except for what was in the conservatory.

 Adelaide is about to fly away.

Oh look! I exist. Zara took this photo.

We then walked out to the bass pond and boat house and around the lake to a man-made waterfall.

Benjamin was just excited that we actually let him out of his carrier and/or stroller to walk around on his own. (I had him on my back in the carrier during our house tour so Adelaide could ride in the stroller. I had hoped he'd sleep through most of it, but he only napped for about 30 minutes of it.)

The view on the way back. We took the long way back and we were all tired after our walk.

We headed back to our car and tried to go home. But because of the high number of guests, they had traffic only going one way so we had to drive through almost the whole estate to get back to the exit so it took us FOREVER to just leave the estate. We went back to our AirBnB, ate dinner, and put the kids to bed. All in all, a pretty great day.