The Mountains

I forgot how serene it is where our friends live.  It's absolutely beautiful and Murphy is a quaint little town.  We enjoyed ourselves immensely and they fell in love with Little T.  Of course, everyone who meets her falls in love with her!  The only thing I did not love was the winding roads.  I'm not talking about the lazy winding roads you might see on TV, no, I'm talking about hairpin curves!  And most of the curves going up to their place are like that.  Good grief!  Oh, and when you are riding in a big old conversion van up a mountain don't.look.down!  OMG!! If you do you might think you are going to go off the road and crash because the stupid van is so big and the road is so skinny!!

While we were there we wanted to go to Rock City to see the lights but because it was so cold we decided against it.  It got down into the teens which is way too cold for this transplanted NC girl!! Instead we drove around (in the back of a jeep...on winding hairpin curve roads....) for a bit and saw the sites.  At night we played pinochle which we haven't done in 3 years.  Fun game, good food, great friends - couldn't ask for a better quickie vacation! 

Beautiful creek that runs on their property.  When we visited in the summer we opened the window in our room and we could hear this creek at night. 

This is their house.  It has a huge front porch that is nice to sit out on.  Oh, and that big blue van?  Yep, its ours and I really dislike the thing.  When it's windy outside and you are driving it - you are pushed all over the road - not fun going up a mountain!!

This is the road going away from their place - I bet it was gorgeous during the fall!!

Their "backyard" has bird houses.  There must have been 50 or so finches that were flying around! 

Big T and Little T having fun with cards.

While we were there L bought Cranium  - run right now to a store near you and get this game!!  We laughed so hard playing it. You act out different things, or you use play dough to create the object you want your partner to say, or you use your partner as a puppet to act it out, or you hum a song, or you draw the object on a piece of paper with your eyes closed - you get the idea. 

Here's Big T with R.  He was supposed to be using R as a puppet acting out bobbing for apples.  Don't ask me what he was trying to do with his mouth!  I kept taking my partner S and putting her head to the table!  :)

L is rolling out some play dough getting ready to make an umbilical cord!

Okay - one of the things we all had to act out was a nutcracker. Picture this, Big T and L pretending to punch themselves in their "nuts and then making a face while trying to crack them!  Oh my - I was laughing so hard I almost peed my pants!!!

This is Little R with play dough on his cheek - don't even ask me why!!