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".

my best graphic design....

...was this, for a t-shirt...

i was looking for something else in all of my pictures and came across this. so i posted it.