A Quick Trip to NC

This weekend, we headed to the beautiful mountain country of Franklin, NC to visit my parents before school starts.  I am constantly amazed at how well the children travel.  It was an 8 hour drive and we made it in 1 pit stop and 1 lunch break.  Of course, stopping for lunch where they have a playground for the kids certainly helps relieve a case of the wiggles.  Another wise investment before this trip was a pair of headphones for each kid.  It made movie time much quieter for the adults.  Ahhhhhh.

We had a last minute surprise visit by my older brother, Carl.  Last time we saw him Mary was 9 or 10 months old!  That's over 4 years.  Carl got to meet Adam for the first time.  Last year was the first time I had seen my oldest brother, Bill, in around 8 years.  I can't remember the last time all 3 of us were in the same place at the same time.  Hmm, maybe one day.

Mom and Dad took us panning for gems.  I'll admit, I've always wanted to do this ever since I heard that Franklin is the gem capital of the world.  It was great fun.  I think the only downside is that we found so many, I never have a reason to go back and do it again.

Someone loved the muddy water.

We made out with about 10 lbs. of gems.  Garnets, rubies, an aquamarine, topaz, quartz, rose quartz, fool's gold, kyanite, amethysts and even an arrowhead!  The gem man called the arrowhead the "crackerjack prize".  I think all these gems were the prize.  Mom and Dad are going to get me an estimate on making the aquamarine into a pendant.  Mom picked out some stones for herself and Mary got a handful of the bigger ones to carry around in a bag to call her own.  

On Monday, we packed a picnic and headed out to a creek for some fun splish splashing fun.  The water was cold, the scenery beautiful and the rocks plentiful.  Adam was super happy with a bucket, a shovel and the rocks.  

My favorite picture of my parents.

*  My parents have 2 cats.  Mary told me, "Grandpa said they used to be boys, but now they're girls." Bahahaha!  

**Thanks again for a wonderful visit.

***Oh, the return trip wasn't so easy, but I won't bore you with the details.  Doug thinks I'm a terrible driver and Mary can successfully vomit into a Ziploc bag as we're driving on curvy mountains and Adam cannot. The good thing is we made it back.  Now, time to go shampoo the inside of the car...