speed. i am speed.

today's (very procrastinated) cake features lightning mcqueen for 3 year old nathan. i was having a bit of trouble with thin frosting, but i made it through. hopefully, young nathan will not hold it against me...

 

Day 4... boring

no pictures from day four. nothing was very picture worthy.

we headed to blowing rock for a bit of shopping. it was pretty lame, so we ate at mellow mushroom and headed to the tanger outlets. i scored some fun stuff for the boy at the osh kosh store. derek got some kitchen stuff at one of the kitchen stores.

then, we were off to the toy store, so isaac could play with the thomas table. we let him pick out a train. he chose harvey, after carefully considering spencer, molly and dennis.

we hit a bookstore so i could have some reading materials for the downtime. i chose time travellers wife. now, if only i could find a way to read for leisure and not let the book consume my life. i have a problem.

for dinner, we met up with kris, holly, and hannah stewart for dinner at pappy's bbq. i used to coach hoops with kris at fhs before we both left a few years back. now he and his wife work in banner elk. terrific.

anyhooooo... that's about it.

today it's very clear and blue outside, so we're thinking of getting up on top of a mountain or something....

the monkey in action....

Day 3 - Official Roan Mountain Post

Yesterday, we took the advice of the Duncan family, and headed off to Roan Mountain on the border of NC and Tennessee. We hiked around (hiking, pleading with isaac, cleaned up an accident, sat at the top of the mountain, climbed big rocks, ate candy) for a few hours. The boy is a trooper. And a monkey.

standing super tall:

Derek and Isaac walking back down the mountain.

Family photo.

I got a super cardio workout by carrying the boy here and there....

Isaac crashed on the ride home and slept until the early evening. Then, he and Derek went off to feed the ducks at the lake. The rest of the evening was spent playing in the room, watching tv in the room, and eating food in the room.

Roan mountain

Super hiking boy.
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

Day 2 - Tweetsie...

Yesterday, we began calling around a bit, to find out hours, prices, etcetera, for some of our potential stops. Upon calling tweetsie, we learned that they were now only open on the weekend (since school starts tuesday - makes sense). Anyhow, thankful that we called, we loaded up our little train junkie and headed out. Isaac rode all of the kiddie rides and fed some dirty animals. He was very well behaved on the chair lift, much unlike last summer's death defying (squirmy) trip up the mountain. Anyhow... for some reason, we don't have many pictures of the actual ride on Tweetsie, probably because we were busy shifting Isaac and the camera back and forth between us. So, sorry. These other pics will have to do....

 

 

 

 

It started to rain around one, so we left the park to eat at Pssghetti's... We've always wanted to try it because of the name, but never have. It was very good. Priced for unsuspecting tourists. And now we can check it off of our list. We hit the toy store to pick up a much needed addition to Isaac's Thomas the Train collection: Harold the Helicoptor ("Heeewode deh Heltocter"). Then, we lounged around our place for the rest of the day, due to the endless rain drops falling from the sky.

And now, Isaac has just awakened and strolled downstairs. His first words were, "mom, where's my trains?"...

Mountain Vacation - Days 0 and 1.

We made it to the mountains on Friday evening with little fan fair. fan fare? whatever. we're here.

On friday night, we unloaded, made a grocery run and headed down to the lake to feed the ducks and take a paddle boat ride. The duck pictures were a bit blurry and without faces, due to isaac's violent throwing method and a tough angle for pictures. However, here's a picture in the paddle boat. Isaac did most of the pedaling. Or paddling. Why are they called paddle boats? Hmmmm...

 

Yesterday, Saturday, our first full day, was a little overcast, and we had an extremely tired and cranky 2.5 year old on our hands. We opted for a low key morning, making our obligatory trip to the Mast General Store. There was a little blue grass quartet on the back deck, so we sat and listened that while enjoying bottled sodas. Can you see the tiredness in the boy's eyes?

 

After a long and much needed nap, we went out to eat at Tokyo Japanese Steakhouse. I have had an increasingly strong desire to eat at Kimono in Winston and I was hoping this would satisfy that craving. Unfortunately, it was absolutely terrible... the food and the service. The only points I gave them were for leaving a ginormous squirt bottle of shrimp sauce on the table. :)
Anyhoooo... after that, we headed to the Banner Elk park and played and played and played. Isaac climbed everything there was to climb. Swung on all the swings. Slid down all the slides. And even conquered the monkey bars (with a wee bit of support from the mom).

 

 

Blue skies today... not sure what's on tap...
We DO have a pretty sweet internet connection, so look for more updates. Unless you don't care. Then, don't look, I guess. :)

we'll be comin' 'round the mountain....

the day is finally upon us...

tomorrow, derek and isaac and i will depart for the mountains for a much needed vacation. isaac is excited because all he knows about the mountains is that thomas the train was there last time. i think he might be disappointed, but i'm hoping that tweetsie will suffice. derek is excited because he won't be at work. or available for work. or thinking about work. ok, that last one is not true. i'm excited to go to the mountains, which i prefer any day over the beach. especially given my skin's affinity for acquiring a sunburn in under 15 minutes.

i'm not sure if we'll have the internetz there, so posts could be sparse. (sparser?). i'm sure i'll find a way....

the end.

firetruck cake...

this one's for isaac's cousin, who turns 2 in a few days.

 

cruise ship cake

 

speaking of thomas...

...here's the cake i made for noah and luke mielke to enjoy (eat, smear, smash, lick, etc) at noah's birthday party, while the rest of us ate from the superhero cake.

day out with thomas...

a few weeks (months?) back, we went out to blowing rock to tweetsie railroad for the "day out with thomas"... thus began isaac's obsession with thomas the train...

here are some pics. if you click on any of them, the internetz will whisk you away to my picasa album, which contains many more thomas pics...

walking in from the parking lot, we caught our first glimpse:

the useful engine, himself:

meeting thomas's conductor.

the family.

B cupcakes.

made these for a wedding shower for a former student.

 

 

superhero cake for a superhero

here's the latest cake.
it's for the 4th birthday party for little noah m. who has spent the better part of the last year battling brain and spine cancer. he's a tough little man and i'm honored to make his cake...

 

 

 

greetings...

this morning, i went into isaac's room, while he was still sleeping, to put away some laundry. lucy followed me in and promptly licked isaac through the slats of his crib, waking him up. i said, "hey buddy". and he said, "hey sarah".