Wednesday we left with a full car and headed to our first of 4 states on our journey. We drove to Dalton Georgia and spent the night there. We woke up early the next morning and headed to Atlanta, to visit the aquarium.
Emerson read lots of books.
This guy talked a lot! He kept us very entertained for sure!!
AQUARIUM bound with our masks!
The kids loved seeing all the fish and water life. We left Georgia to head to our next stopping point, South Carolina. We found this gem and boy am I glad we did!! IT was delicious!!! Best sweet potato fries I've ever had!! The barbeque was AMAZING!!!
We finally made it to North Carolina at about 630. The kids went straight to the creek and started exploring!!
These are the faces of two parents who trekked 3 states in less than 24 hours!
The next morning we headed straight to Hol lotta Donuts! The kids were mighty impressed!!
and so was WAlker!!
We shopped in West Jefferson and met the sweetest shop owners who wanted our picture to post on their site! She thought it was so cool we had come from TN and she fell in love with Emerson searching for the PERFECT ring!
After our bellies were full and we couldn't shop anymore. HA We headed to Burnt Hill Stables in Laurel Springs, NC to ride horses. Riding horses has become one of our family's favorite vacation activities. This was my favorite by far. They gave us lots of freedom and we all ended up trotting several times over the hour. We saw beautiful mountains, creeks, trees, etc and had a great time. My horse and Emerson's horse did not get along so we had to ride farther apart and Davis' horse was REALLY slow but we all really loved this trail ride.
We headed back to West Jefferson to grab a bite and while we waited Emmy and I checked out the cheese factory.
She loved watching how cheese is made and couldn't get enough of the video! HA!
That afternoon we headed to kayak for 3 hours. The kids were great paddlers and the view was incredible. It was so dreamy I couldn't stop taking pictures and taking in all the beautiful colors.
We found this cool mural in West Jefferson and had to get a photo!
More creek exploration...
cold and tired momma and daddy...
The next morning (Saturday) we headed to our fourth state of Virginia. We biked a 17-mile trek down a mountain. It was an old train track called creepers trail. I could not get over the beauty as we biked. It was absolutely breathtaking!!! I was almost proud of our kiddos for biking like champs and never complaining EVEN when it started raining!! (the last hour or so it rained pretty hard)
We were soaking wet and covered in a black rock grimy mixture from the trail.
DO YOU SEE ALL THAT BLACK GRIME????
After cleaning up at the house and getting dry clothes we headed out to mine for gems. Both kids were so excited about this activity despite Walker and I's hesitation. I mean when is the last time you paid $50 for a bucket of rocks? HA! We ended up at the wrong mine but once we got on the property just decided to go with it. The kids could have cared less what it looked like and how uncomfortable it made us so we definitely took one for the team and made a memory! HA!
Making these memories with the kids was something I never want to forget. At whatever cost I took as many pictures as I could...I now have a bruised belly--I got it while riding bikes and trying to take pictures-- we will be able to reminisce and look at our journey in the blog book.
We came home and went straight to our scratch off map. We each picked a state and scratched it off and now we are beginning to plan our next journey!!
