North Carolina-- part 4

After the Biltmore tour we drove out to Winston-Salem to visit some great friends.  We got to see the Kellys and the Waltons.  We love those families!

We got to have lunch with the Walton family at Five Guys.  I was so excited to see them!  It has been way too long and so many things had developed since the last time we hung out (i.e. I got married and they had a second--super cute--baby).
I was having so much fun with Gracie... she is just a hoot!

I wish we had pictures with the Kellys, their family is so much fun.

On Thursday we left to go out to Asheboro to check out the NC Zoo.  They were having an albino alligator exhibit, pretty cool!

Fatty elephants!

Peek-a-boo!

Here are some more pretty birds

Gila Monster!

The big bear was following me!

And a couple videos, one of a polar bear showing his stuff, another of a crazy bird doing some sort of water dance we couldn't figure out:

North Carolina-- Tuesday

On Tuesday we were in Asheville to see the Biltmore Estate.  David was so excited to show me how huge the Estate is and how beautiful the grounds are.

Here we are at the entrance:

 Doesn't that look like a castle?

Please forgive me but I don't remember a lot of details from the inside of the house and they didn't let us take pictures so here are a few I borrowed online:

This is the library.  It is FILLED to the gills with books and it is said that George Vanderbilt read every one of them.

The banquet hall.  Umm hello hugeness!

The main kitchen.  This place was buzzing non-stop everyday to feed the tenants and those employed at the estate.  Most/all of their food was from the farms developed on the 125,000 acre estate.  Yes, you read that right, 125,000 acres!  The house itself is 4 acres of floor space.

Mr Vanderbilt's room.  Everything custom made to fit whatever style he preferred at the time.

Mrs. Vanderbilt's room.  Isn't that gorgeous??!!  Edith Stuyvesant Dresser, George Vanderbilt's wife was actually about 6' tall.  That bed doesn't look long enough to me.

And of course being me I thought this was really cool:

The indoor pool.  The lights have actually been there the whole time.

I guess George was very into fitness because he had a workout room with showers adjacent to the pool.

Yep, they had a bowling alley.  Of course it wasn't automated like they are now so they had to set the pins every time.  Still fun though!

All in all this chateau has 250 rooms, 34 bedrooms, 43 bathrooms, and 65 fireplaces. The basement alone would house a swimming pool, gymnasium and changing rooms, bowling alley, servants' quarters, kitchens, and more.

And that's just the chateau!  They have absolutely gorgeous grounds.  There is a huge flower/herb garden, a lake, pond, winery, countless crops.  Its honestly somewhere where you can live off the fat of the land.  So gorgeous!

Here are some other pictures outside of the chateau:

You really need to experience this for yourself.  One tip: wear good walking shoes!!

North Carolina part 2

Sorry for the long delay but here is Sunday and Monday--

We went to church in Concord the first Sunday.  David opened up the ward in that area so he is really attached to the people there and the area.

After church we headed out to Shelby, which was probably one of the cutest and most entertaining stops on our trip.  We stayed with the Porters there are they are just the kindest most southern hospitality people out there.  When we pulled up Bro Porter was so excited to see us and one of his first comments was to David, "Well ain't you got a purdy lady?"  The whole night was like this and it was so fun!  He is so spunky and his wife compliments him so well being down to earth and kind of quiet like me.  She made a HUGE spread of food for dinner.  There was a green salad, beef stew, mashed potatoes, kool-aid, tomatoes, I can't even remember everything but I'm missing some big ones because they had at least 3 main course meals.  I think I ate the most there.
Here are our wonderful hosts:

After dinner I was chatting with Sis Porter when Bro Porter said he was going to sing for us with his brother.  He was very good!  Here are the videos:

We both slept well that night!

Monday--

We met the Becks Monday morning at the Waffle House for breakfast.  To give you a little taste of the Waffle House, here is Jim Gaffigan's take on it:

David ordered everything on the menu (or so it seemed with the amount of table space his plates took up).  I ordered a chocolate chip waffle and it was pretty good!  Sam Beck has the best redneck accent.  "It jus' tickles me pink" came out whenever he was happy about something.  It was fun to try to understand him.

After Waffle House we went to "uptown" to meet up with the Mull family at their bike shop.  They were the exclusive provider/repairs for all the missionary bikes in the area.  I tried the unicycle:

And I almost fell over... a few times.

Here is "mama"

We had Tastee T's for lunch and I had my first exposure to hush puppies-- basically fried cornbread.  They sure were interesting and David couldn't eat enough.  Before heading out to check out some more sites we took a group photo

We meant to climb Chimney Rock after this but we got there too late.  We passed by the lake that Dirty Dancing was filmed on and Chimney Rock is where Last of the Mohicans was filmed.  There have been so many movies shot in NC because the landscape is just awesome.
Instead of climbing up we went miniature golfing instead.  I was ahead the whole time until the last couple holes then of course David caught up and beat me.  Dag nabbit!!  It was a pretty cool course though... right next to this cool little stream.

We departed for Ashville after this... lots more pictures to come from this trip!  Stay tuned...

North Carolina trip part 1

Sorry for the delay in posting these but we're still recovering and also school just started.

After arriving at the Charlotte, NC airport

Hot dog all the way.. so yummy!

A member family joining us for lunch

The Craddick family

Brian with us in front of his grill.  He remembered David the minute we walked in, but who wouldn't?

North Carolina Speedway... so cool!

Where the winners stand!

A family David baptized-- Sias family

Howard family.  Their little girl in David's arms always tilts her head to the side when someone says "smile!" so I was laughing and doing it with her.  The mama is about to pop!

We arrived in Charlotte about 5:30 Friday night and went to Salisbury to hang out with David's uncle's dad (Bill).  Got some pizza and just chatted it up!  Bill let us borrow one of his cars which was so nice of him.
The next day we headed to China Grove to get some good southern hot dogs and hamburgers at Brian's Grill.  You have to get it "all the way", aka chili and onions.  So good!
After indulging our taste buds we went off to the Charlotte Speedway to check out the awesomeness.  It was so cool, we got a tour which allowed us to sit in this 12 passenger van and they drove us around and talked about the history of the speedway.  Then they took all of the practice cars off the track and we got to ride on the track on the vans.  They took us up on one of the slopes and stopped.  The van started beeping because the incline was so great.  Then we went really fast.  I loved it!
After finishing there we went to the Zenger's house for a bbq get together with some families from the Concord ward.  It was fun to get to meet these families that have such fond memories of David.  David was one of the missionaries that opened the Concord ward, so that was cool to see.

More to come!!

I'm having a bad day

It is one of those days.  Woke up in an optimistic mood until I found that Aunt Flo decided to pay me a visit 2 days early making me frustrated and disappointed for many reasons.  I still haven't recovered from this yet but the tears have stopped.

In about a half hour I will leave to pick up David and head to a funeral in Farmington.  It is a very sad reason to have a funeral.  Here is the story.  How tragic this is for the family.  We just had lunch at their house back in June and Gabe was the liveliest, funnest kid.  David and he were fighting each other with play swords it was fun to watch.  He was a ball of laughter and brought it to everyone's faces.  He will be an amazing angel!

Lets just say I can't wait for today to be over!

Crazy Gym Week

Somewhere someone or something does not want me working out this week.  I have had a couple gym days that were so strange and happenstance that I could have easily just walked right out and went home instead of getting in a good sweat.

Tuesday I had decided I was going to go swimming.  I knew that my cap was starting to wear thin and I have plenty to replace it with.  So Tuesday morning I'm searching my not very big apartment to find the bag that has all the other caps in them.  I could not find it for the life of me! I just ended up deciding to go one more day with this cap and search again when I have more time and a clear mind.  The cap did not rip, luckily.  BUT I forgot my gym card and the gym has a very strict "you don't get in without your pass even though we have your name, photo, and account number on the computer and can easily look it up to let you in so we'll make you pay $5 now" policy.  Luckily I was able to convince them that I did not lose my pass it was just on my other keys and they let me in but I can no longer use that excuse because they only give you 1 free pass.  Grr.  Anyway, so I get to the locker room to change into my swim suit and I pull out my goggles... broken.  Right at the nose.  My first thought was to call my mom and ask her to buy me new goggles, but they wouldn't get to me in time to go swimming that day.  Gosh, something is up with my brain right now.  I was very tempted to go home but I knew that David wasn't home and I didn't have house keys (another day another story).  I was stuck at the gym.  So I put my suit and my cap on, walked outside, grabbed a kickboard and just kicked for 45 minutes.  It was so boring but at least I got a workout in.

Now yesterday I was planning on doing my usual hour routine when I'm not swimming.  10 minute cardio warm up, weights for about 40 minutes, then about 15 minutes of hard cardio.  I get into the locker room, pull out my gym clothes and realize I forgot underwear.  I had shirt, shorts, socks, sports bra, shoes, and that's it.  I was so ready to just go home, but instead I decided to get in at least 30 minutes.  I wasn't about to do weights because some of the things I do could be really awkward without underwear.  So I put on my clothes, went upstairs commando, and did the elliptical HARD for 30 minutes.  It was weird.

We're going to the temple tonight so hopefully I don't forget anything there!

Decisions Decisions...

It has become more and more apparent that we need a second vehicle.  I might be wearing off the niceties at work by more frequently asking for rides to and from work on some days, David has noticed he eats more when he has the truck (there is a logical explanation), his practice schedule when school starts is going to require him to be incredibly on top of the bus schedule or require a car, and we're hoping to have an excuse soon that would require us to both have a car for important appointments.

Now we have in mind what we want, keep in mind we can't go out and buy just any car.  We would like to have a car that first, fits David, second, is in our budget, and third, is still under warranty.  Right now we are looking at the new Kia Optima, Kia Sportage, or Hyundai Sonata.  They all fit David well, have great warranties, can be in our budget, and get much better gas mileage than the truck.  The Sonata and Optima are our top 2 picks.

Right now I have a really hard time thinking about spending that kind of money, in a few months I might be more open to looking into the investment.  I've been trying to think of ways to postpone the purchase for as long as comfortably possible.

I have only one idea besides continuing to ask for rides from co-workers, maybe I should get a bike.  It is a 4.5 mile bike ride each way to work.  Going to work is downhill, and going back home is a gradual uphill.  The only hitches I have about getting a bike is I don't work in the best neighborhood so that scares both David and myself a bit, I'm not exactly the most experienced bike rider, a bike is still a bit of an investment, and I will NOT want to ride the bike to the gym after work given the ride there is way steep, like San Francisco steep.  The gym is very important to me since I credit my improved colon health this year to having a mostly regular attendance at the gym because it decreases my stress.

What to do... what to do...