Time Away

This post is not so much about the kids but is something I wanted to remember so am posting about it. We had our first night away from the kids this week and it was awesome! I had been asked to do a talk at a state conference on spiritual care - as a result I would have hotel for 1 night paid for in addition to a small stipend. Because of work and family I decided not to attend the conference in full that would have run for 5 days. But Brent and I decided to take advantage and enjoy a night away - really about 30 hours. Nana and Granddaddy were gracious enough to agree to watch the kids for us. The kids had a great time of course!! And although we missed them we had a great time.

The location was the Grove Park Inn in Asheville - I had never been and after going hope to go back sometime in the future! We arrived early on Tuesday and asked if we could have an early check-in - that was okay'd and in the course of the conversation I asked if there was a better room than the standard room we were receiving. The receptionist said she didn't think so but she would ask and boy am I glad she did. We were upgraded to a panoramic room (only 8 on the property) with 2-way views of the mountains and Asheville - it was great! We were able to open the windows and feel the mountain air. We then spent the afternoon visiting the arboretum which I highly recommend!! It wasn't costly and there was lots to look at - we stayed mainly to the outside trails to enjoy the awesome weather! Then we headed back to the Inn to change for dinner - after walking about 2 miles into town we enjoyed a wonderful dinner at Tupelo's Honey (again - really recommend it!). Then after working on my presentation for a while we headed out to the golf course to look at the stars b/c the skies were clear.

My presentation went well I think and then we headed home. Brent had planned a scenic detour on our way - so we covered a part of the Blue Ridge Parkway that we hadn't been on before - it was so nice - windows down and gorgeous views! We are fortunate to be so close the mountains of NC!

So we came back enjoying our little get away and loving our kids!! Although we had planned for our 10 yr anniversary (this year!) to go back to our honeymoon destination (Nova Scotia) we will have to hold off b/c of the kids so maybe we can snag another little get away like this one.

The bummer of the trip is that we forgot our camera :) so we just have the memories of what we saw - next time we will remember.