The Cater Fam: Mini Vacay

Since we are TRUE Floridians, our girls have never seen mountains or snow. So, we decided to take a trip last weekend up to N. Carolina and see both. We left last Friday morning to make the 6-7 hour drive (depending on who was driving), and then drove home Monday!! It started out kind of rocky, as Madison woke up late Thursday night with a stomach bug. Needless to say, I was STRESSING out with all the planning, and knowing how excited the girls were to make this trip. So we just took it one hour at a time, and by Fri. morning she was doing a little better. So we loaded the girls up and met up with Bill's parents, who were making the trip with us. We decided to allow Kynley to ride with Papa and Grandma, so Madison could have the whole backseat to herself, and just rest. Kynley did not object, because she knew she would get ALL of the attention, and lots of treats, from her grandparents. As a good submissive wife, I let Bill drive first, knowing it wouldnt last long...See, when he gets in any car that isn't the police car, he falls asleep. So, 15 min. into the trip, guess what happened, yep, Mr. Narcoleptic started to doze off. Luckily, Bill's parents needed gas about the same time, so we switched drivers promptly!! The rest of the trip was AWESOME, seeing that Shelly Andretti was behind the wheel (just kidding mom)!! Around 4 or so, we started winding in and out of the mountains, it was REALLY pretty, but the ear popping was quite annoying.

We decided that we would stay at a place called Ridgcrest Conf. Center. It is located about 30 minutes from Asheville. Bill used to go there when he was young for conferences and camps. It is set in the mountains and GORGEOUS!! As we approached Ridgecrest, I looked at the outdoor temp. guage and it said 22 degrees. I def. knew we weren't in Florida anymore. Our plans were to do something around town one day, and drive to a ski resort another. Since Madison was still recovering, we decided that we would stay close on Sat. and go skiing on Sunday. Saturday we hiked up one of the mountain trails that Ridgecrest is built on. It was GORGEOUS!! Madison and Grandma made it halfway, then headed back down to rest. A little further up, Papa and Kynley decided to head back down. So Bill and I headed to the top, and WOW what a view!! It was so quiet and peaceful up there. I was able to just look around and thank the LORD for all that he created.

We got up Sunday, got all dressed in our ski clothes, and headed for the hour or so drive to the ski resort. On our drive, snow flurries started to fall, it was REALLY cool (literally)!! Well, we got there and it was PACKED, since it was MLK weekend. Bill and I headed to the window to pay for our rentals and lift ticket, and the lady said, "we are out of rentals right now, there will be more at 5:30"!! If you could have only seen the steam coming out of Bill's ears. He just stood there in disbelief, saying "we did not drive from Florida for this to happen". So finally the lady said, you can go down the moutain and rent some equipment there and bring it up. Well, thats what we did. Bill's parents stayed there with the girls and let them play in the snow, while we made the drive. Apparently, everyone had the same idea that weekend, "lets go skiing in N. Carolina"!! We finally made it back up to the resort to find the girls and their grandparents snuggled up in their van. The girls were cold, wet, and had enough!! I was a little sad, since I didnt get see them play in snow for the first time!! So Bill's parents offered to take them back to Ridgecrest and let us ski. We figured they wouldn't last all day in the snow, so drove seperately, which obviously was a good idea. So, Bill and I got all kinds of bundled up and headed up to ski for about 5 or 6 hours!! It was a good little get away, even with all the snags that we ran into!!