The Blackburn Family

Casey and I spent the weekend in Lake Lure without Graham. It was our first weekend away from him and I don’t think he cared one bit. I was sad to leave him on Friday, but I have to say by Saturday I was feeling fine and enjoying my quiet day. I was a bit sad to come home today and wanted another day to relax and enjoy the mountains. We were excited to see Graham though and when we went to get him he acted like we were strangers! He was clinging to my mom and clearly wasn’t very excited to see us.

We rented a cabin way up a mountain with a wonderful view. The only bad part being you don’t want to drive on that road in the dark and it takes awhile to get places. But, why go anywhere when the cabin has everything? We did go hike at Chimney Rock on Saturday and we went on a tour of Lake Lure. I found the tour extra exciting because they pointed out a few Dirty Dancing sites and I LOVE that movie. It was very cold though thanks to a cold front that came through the day before we arrived. Figures. At any rate this is the same time of year they taped Dirty Dancing and we saw where the water scenes were filmed. While on the boat we were wearing jeans, long sleeve shirt or sweatshirt and heavy winter coat…. and we were still cold. So I really don’t know how they filmed in that weather in the WATER! In summer clothes! Since the leaves were turning at the time they came out every morning and sprayed all the trees with green food coloring to make it look like summer. We also saw some big houses where the rich “summer”. I would love to know where all these people get all their money. Maybe they could share a little with me or get me a nice cabin.

I still have some other pictures of Graham and some videos so hopefully I can get to them this week, but for now here are some Lake Lure pictures.

View from the porch and kitchen window:

Hot tub and we did go out there last night even though it was really really cold (probably 40 something). We didn’t read the instruction until about 6:30 and then realized it could take 6-8 hours to eat in cold weather. So we made a fire inside, roasted marshmallows, filled the house with smoke since Casey made an outdoor sized fire inside, watched a movie and then sat in the hot tub around 11:00. There were so many stars and it was a perfectly clear night. I really didn’t think it was that bad outside, but Casey ran inside like a little girl while I tried to fix the cover and lock it down. The strange thing is I freeze in my own house after I take a shower in the winter and it way warmer in here than it was outside!

Fire pit area. I was really hoping to use this area, but after being in the cold and wind all day Saturday an indoor fire sounded much more relaxing…. until the house filled with smoke.

The front porch which I wish we could have used more, but again too cold.

Lake Lure from Chimney Rock:

The top of the trail:

Chimney Rock from below:

Lake Lure, the stairs in Dirty Dancing – watermelon scene

Lake Lure, this is where the water scenes were recorded when they were practicing the big lift

Our house should be ready soon, just need a few finishing touches:

I will post more later this week. I have more videos and pictures, but here are a few of our trip to the pumpkin patch today. We didn’t really know what we were getting into! It was a small amusement park, but the boys are still a bit young for most of it. Playing with the hay seemed to be the biggest hit so maybe I need to got out and get a bale of hay to put on the deck. They also enjoyed walking (or crawling in Sam’s case) around the pumpkin patch and touching the pumpkins. They did not however like us trying to pose them for pictures!

Playing with the hay:

Hayride:

Pumpkin patch:

Not sure what is going on here, probably mad because he wants more animal crackers. We didn’t realize it was almost 12 at this point and boys had not had any lunch yet! Sam handled it much better than Graham.

I thought I would do something a bit different this week and give you updates on everyone in our house!

Graham
Graham has molars! Being the observant mom that I am I discovered this after they were pretty far in and only by accident. I was tickling him one day and he leaned back and was laughing. I saw some white way back in his mouth so I had him laugh again and then just stuck my finger back there to feel and sure enough there were two molars on top. So perhaps that explains the not wanting to sleep and need to be held non-stop a few weeks ago. Considering at the time he had 4 total teeth in his mouth and 2 that were just barely coming in I didn’t expect molars to show up already. It looks like he grew teeth numbers 3-6 on top all at once (including two molars which I hear are the worst, so I say he did pretty good with them). He still only has 2 bottom teeth, but his gums are a bit puffy and he is chewing his fingers a lot so I think more are coming. I didn’t realize molars would show up so soon. He loves walking and is going pretty quickly now. I still love watching him walk. He is really into words and trying to repeat the words he hears. Here are a few of his favorites. None are said “correctly” which really bothers Casey, but we can tell what he is trying to say. Cracker, cookie, truck, JD, bib, button, mama, dada, banana, blueberry, grape, night night, bunny, light, gate and diaper. We also drill him often on his body parts and he knows most of them. He actually knows a lot of words and points to things when we ask, but can’t say most of the words yet. We of course think he is really smart.

Lindsay
Several weeks ago while sitting on the couch editing pictures I managed to pull/strain a muscle in my back. It hurt pretty bad for awhile, but I figured it just needed time to heal. Then one day I woke up and no pain, but the area felt almost numb. I guess my muscle finally decided enough was enough and turned itself off. I didn’t realize it at first, but my right arm doesn’t function at full capacity anymore. I can’t lift it higher than shoulder level in any direction and my shoulder blade “wings”. Awesome. I work out all the time, eat right and still manage to pull a muscle while sitting on the couch. Am I 90 or something? So now I get to go to physical therapy so I can teach my muscle how to work again. At least I am not in pain, but not looking forward to the process of bringing this muscle back to life. And speaking of muscles, I have joined Stroller Strides and I love it. It has been a great way to get exercise and meet some new moms. Some of which are clearly a million times richer than me, but that’s okay. They are all really nice and maybe one day they will invite me to their awesome beach houses. Graham enjoys the class and running around with the other kids after class. Oh, wait this is supposed to be an update about me! Yesterday I realized the following:
1. I am not a morning person and no matter how many times I tell myself I will do it, I will never get up early to exercise.
2. I have no ability to dress myself and need a personal shopper
3. I need more money
4. I look horrible in skinny jeans, they are clearly not meant for short ladies with hips that have birthed a child (or the thighs that go with those hips), also they make me feel like I am in 7th grade again
5. Old Navy sucks
6. I love Starbucks
So as you can tell I made an attempt to go shopping last night which never ends well for me as I hate shopping and would actually rather be cleaning my house. I am not one to buy trendy clothes. Since I never shop I need clothes that are pretty classic and will last me many years. Tonight I tried to find at least one trendy outfit in my price range and maybe find some shoes to go with it. I have decided I should just give it up and accept that I am now a mom and it is okay that my style is about 10 years old, my jeans aren’t cool, I wear tennis shoes or flip flops at all times, my hair is always a mess and/or dirty and all the exercising in the world will not make this extra belly fat go away. Okay, really I can’t blame any of these thing on being a mom because this was all true before I had Graham.

Casey
Casey works. Done. Ha! He is a man of few words…. written, not spoken.

JD
JD continues to puke on a regular basis (irritable bowl) and get fur/litter all over my house, but I love him. He is harassed most days by the little one and tolerates a good amount of hitting and pulling. Most days he sneaks off and sleeps, but some days he is dumb enough to hang out with us.

Tuscan and Moose
They continue to be annoyed by the presences of the new creature that makes a lot noise and grabs at them. I don’t let the creature around them much since he can be a bit rough and doesn’t fully understand his strength or that they are tiny and fragile. Most nights they still enjoy running around the bonus room with us, but have started leaving us a lot more presents to clean up at night. This is their way of protesting against said creature.

I had a request for a walking video so here it is! I will try to get more this week. It is fun watching him walk as he is learning. I just started putting shoes on him this weekend since it got cold so watching him try to walk with shoes is hilarious and loud! He is really proud of himself and walks a lot now. He is starting to go a bit faster and is falling a little more, but no serious injuries. I think he is more mad about falling than he is hurt. He is already such a perfectionist.

Here are a couple pictures I took the other day when he was eating. He had oatmeal all over his face and hair.