Boone

Who's in the mood for an OG Rachael blog about how vacations don't always live up to expectations? Get ready for some pretty pictures and a whole lot of frivolity.

We just had a nice little long weekend in the Blue Ridge Mountains; and while yes, it was beautiful and yes, it was a refreshing change of pace, Tim and I are not sure it was a great value in terms of where we stayed. In fact, this trip has us rethinking Airbnbs altogether. I’m embarrassed to say how much we paid to stay there, and it’s tacky to talk about that anyway, but I’m getting a little ahead of myself. (And for a couple of you who told me I need to go to Substack, I tried, but it wouldn't let me upload photos, only gave me an error message. And you know I can't blog without photos!) 

The photos of the house looked lovely, and it had five-star reviews (including a very enthusiastic review by a mom of five, of which the youngest was a baby). I was excited to take the whole family (minus Delaney with her marching band commitments) to the mountains for some hiking and fall weather, and a nice break from the usual hustle and bustle of the weekends. I don't know if I'm the only one this happens to, but I got so uptight hoping for it to be perfect. My stomach tied itself in knots in the days leading up, and I had a sore lower back, which for me is often stress-related. We don't do this stuff often, but made a spur-of-the-moment decision back in February to make this reservation, get it on the calendar. But as the final 10-day countdown approached, I could feel myself getting all wound up about it because, as the family's memory-making activity planner, I feel so much pressure. I don't think I have the stomach for weekend trips because it's too short of a time to be trying to ensure everything turns out perfectly. It didn't help that around here, Columbus Day isn't a day off for most people, and NOTHING was canceled. We were just walking away from it all. 

We left around noon on Friday, and after a few traffic delays, arrived in Boone as the sun was starting to set. I tried to reacquaint myself with driving on hills and windy roads again, as I've become so accustomed to the flatness of North Carolina's coastal plain. Everything was so picturesque that I wanted to turn my head and look at a mountain view or a pretty house, but things changed pretty quickly every time I took my eye of the road for even a second. 

Tim had placed a Walmart grocery pickup order hours earlier, but it turned out to be asking too much of Walmart to have it ready even an hour later than scheduled. So he canceled the pick-up order and went in with three of the kids, while I stayed in the car to try to nurse Thomas and do some people-watching. Boone is a very lively little college town, and it was a busy night at Wally World.

With groceries crammed in any available space and Tim behind the wheel, we left Walmart and set out for our little Airbnb. The owner had texted many instructions, and I scrolled back through them now, looking for the pertinent information to give Tim as he negotiated the last few turns. There was just a little bit of light left as he turned onto a very narrow and steep gravel road leading up a mountain. "He says turn into the second driveway after you see the house number sign; or you can keep going into the neighbors' cul-de-sac and turn around and come back to it, which some people find easier." Tim saw no reason not to take the sharp left onto the second driveway, but the car couldn't quite turn that sharply. So he had to back up a little and try again. And then we weren't going backward or forward for a few tense moments as the motor revved and gravel flew. But he figured it out, and as we were going up the driveway I said, "I'm sure glad I wasn't the one driving!" Annie said, "Me too!" and I laughed. I think the only one who couldn't see any humor in this was Timmy, who dreads mountain roads and heights in general.

Tim would become a pro at this driveway after a couple more times up and down over the next couple days. I told him he should try just going up the road really fast, and then as he's about to pass the driveway, slam on the brakes and turn the wheel hard. Then I giggled at random for a while every time I pictured that. I do crack myself up.😊

The house had a rustic log cabin feel, and was decorated with lots of bear and other assorted wildlife kitsch. It was all decked out for fall now, with little pumpkins on the table and trays of pinecones. I'm partial to pinecones myself in decor; I felt right at home immediately on walking in. Everything looked very clean and smelled nice. The bedrooms all looked cozy and inviting.

Annie staked her claim to a bedroom she'd have all to herself, and the boys ran downstairs to check out the highly anticipated game room. Foosball and this other game were broken, but the ones that worked were good to have. I think air hockey was a favorite. I took a few minutes to shoot baskets with Joey.

After a long day on the road, we were hungry and tired, so Tim turned the oven to 400 to make our Red Baron pizzas. I was changing Thomas on the bed when I started to smell something burning. I came out of the room to see black smoke billowing out of the oven! Tim was like, "You've got to be kidding me." Amazingly enough the smoke alarms didn't go off, but he turned the oven back off quickly and we opened up the doors. There were two ovens, and the pizzas cooked in the other one without incident. That was a relief because we had no backup plan for dinner that night. Smoking oven notwithstanding, the kitchen was well stocked, up to date, and had high-end appliances.

We like to wind down by watching a little TV before bed, so we plopped down on furniture that turned out to be surprisingly uncomfortable; then went to bed on a mattress that was super saggy was not supportive of my 44-year-old body in any way. I would have gladly traded the Bosch dishwasher for a decent mattress. And so you know I'm not The Princess and the Pea here, I have found the mattresses in all other rentals and hotels in recent memory to be satisfactory. None of the Airbnb reviews mentioned the mattress. Is this a taboo topic? Is it considered impolite to leave that honest of a review? Does nobody care about the surface they're sleeping on after a day of sitting in a car or walking on trails? I realize that renters also receive reviews (Tim was actually turned down as a prospective renter of a property near my parents' because he didn't have any reviews), so maybe this has something to do with it?

I didn't have much planned for the next day, which was Saturday. I thought for the first part of the day we'd just relax at the house and hike the trail up the mountain we were staying on. Then later we would go to Mass and out to dinner afterward. That's pretty much how it worked out. But once the sun came up in the morning, I found out that being in the house was not enjoyable at all. It had almost no natural light coming in, and not a lot of artificial light either, despite what the bright Airbnb photos would lead one to believe. My pupils were adjusting size based on the brightness of the windows, and as a result were the size of pinpricks, making everything indoors appear shadowy and dark. If I hadn't had a Kindle, I would not have been able to read in there. Tim couldn't see anything either. Someone might say, "Why did you go to the mountains just to sit inside?" To that I would reply that for what we paid, it SHOULD be just as enjoyable to be inside the house as out, and with a baby in tow, there has to be rest and downtime. Even without Thomas as an excuse, this is the way we are; if we didn't want to be comfortable and happy indoors, we could have stayed at a hotel or camped, which is what you do when you just need a place to lay your head at the end of the night, and don't care how nice or homey it is. 

Timmy took the picture because he didn't feel comfortable walking out onto the rock.

Had the weather been warm enough to sit outside, I would have enjoyed the huge porch with the rocking chairs and table. I could have sat out there with a book and some tea for a long time. But not with Thomas. There was a broken slat on the railing, and he could have easily wiggled through that opening. The stairs at one end of the porch had nothing to close them off with, so it was not a place we could take him even had the weather allowed. Life with a toddler, I know. But it makes me appreciate the beach houses with their little gates. Is it so hard to do?

Nothing about this house was babyproof. There were so many things for him to get into.

Tim's selfie with some random family back there🤣

The hiking trail from the edge of the driveway up the mountain was great exercise. I found myself very intrigued by a little structure perched on the side of the mountain that looked like kind of a lookout. I wished I had binoculars to get a better look, but I didn't dare try to go down the side of the mountain to get to it, and to test the wooden walkway that led to it. There was no need to die on this trip! But I am fascinated by abandoned places, and I always want to at least look in the windows if not go inside for a tour. I did not take a picture, though. The view at the top of the mountain did not make me want to break into song as one Airbnb reviewer described, but maybe I have impossibly high standards. Timmy was a good sport even though all of this was like a punishment to him. He was so glad just to be on the way back down.

By now you might be wondering, is there anything I really liked about this trip, anything that I didn't find fault with? Yes, a few things: Mass was good, it always is. The dinner we had at the Indian restaurant afterward--yummy, and with great service. Then we had leftovers the next day. The Blue Ridge Parkway and the Rough Ridge trail, which is where we took most of the photos in this post, was a fun excursion. I had never been on the Blue Ridge Parkway before, and I'd assumed it was just a scenic expressway, and we would just see beautiful views as we flew by at 65 mph. But the speed limit is only 40, and there are so many places to pull off. I would have liked another day to drive around there and make another stop or two. We noticed that the further we drove, the more fall foliage there seemed to be. We must have been gaining elevation.

After our little hike to the top of another mountain--this one with a much more satisfying view, we drove along the parkway for a while longer before deciding to have Panera for a late lunch. For Timmy. Panera would not have been our pick, but it seemed like a fitting reward for the kid we kept dragging up mountains. Panera (really all fresh bread) is his favorite. We waited nearly an hour for our food even though the restaurant wasn't even that crowded. It was people using the app for "rapid pickup" that were breaking the system. We were dining in, but they didn't give us buzzers like they'd do at home. We just stood there waiting and watching the kids working their tails off getting orders ready, thinking surely any minute ours would come up. When I finally approached with my receipt to ask about our status 45 minutes later, the girl told me our order hadn't even come up on their screen yet, but she'd start working on it anyway. We ended up having lunch at almost 3! But it was yummy. Nobody fell apart during the wait, not even Thomas.

I don't know when our next mountain trip will be, but I'm glad that we have now familiarized ourselves with Boone and the surrounding area, and I feel confident about how I'd go about planning another getaway and getting the most for our money. But if Timmy has his way, it won't be anytime soon.

The last couple mornings it's been 59 when I wake up, the air clear and a little crisp, and I've been taking my coffee to the back porch. Summer seems to have just run off the stage all of a sudden, like Napoleon Dynamite when the music stopped during his dance routine. A week ago yesterday I was in the pool after school with Joey and Thomas. Thomas and I were floating around together, the water was a perfect 88 degrees, and it was great! until Joey started crying because something had stung him. I hurriedly dried off and went inside with them. I didn't know it at the time, but that was my last opportunity to enjoy the pool on a hot day this year. It's bittersweet because as much as I love fall, I wasn't quite ready for summer to end.

With Thomas's nap schedule so unpredictable, and him consuming my attention when he's awake, it's been very difficult to get any blogging done, but it feels like time for an update. He's worn out from his ISR swim lesson, and might last another few minutes napping in his car seat on my bed.

Thomas is 16 months old, and he has added opening doors to his list of skills. We have the knobs you don't even need thumbs for, you just push down, so it was only a matter of him getting tall enough to do it. (He's kind of on the smaller side.) He loves being read to, and will hand me the same book again and again to read. Good Morning, Farm Friends is his current favorite; it's one of his Imagination Library books. His favorite page is is the one that reads, "But rooster has a job to do--cock-a-doodle-doo!" I love his excited gibberish when he's anticipating that part. He also loves Rescue Squad No. 9. There's the part that says "Go-go-go!" He says that as he's trying to hand me the book. I never know where I'll find the laundry room hamper anymore; he pushes it all over the house. His mop of curls gets crazier looking all the time, but I won't get him a haircut yet because I'm worried that once the curls are gone they won't grow back. That's what Carolyn tells me happened after Tim's first haircut. I do take him every so often for a bang trim so he can see.

You can see the mattress in the photo above as well. That is what we have in lieu of a crib because this spoiled baby has never slept in one. I nurse him to sleep every night on that mattress, and then take him into our bed with me when he wakes up an hour or two later. Rachael from 10 years ago would be absolutely appalled by this. To my younger slack-jawed self I would say, "You did what you had to do then; I do what I have to do now, and I've decided that I've got to get all the baby snuggles I can while they last. He's got the whole rest of his life to sleep independently." *

Our weeks are full and sometimes hectic, and our weekends have turned into pretty much a whirlwind. I think we're a little overscheduled at this point, something we (especially I) have always been against. We've always said every kid gets one extracurricular, and that's more than enough with five kids. But when it comes to Joey, he is still so open to trying new sports that we just want to take full advantage of this sampling period that we get with him for however much longer it lasts. This fall the new thing he wanted to try was flag football, and that season overlaps with baseball, which is already time-consuming. But again, for now he seems to like everything; Tim feels like that needs to be encouraged, and I grudgingly agree. 

Timmy's still on the travel soccer team, he likes it, and it gets him out of the house on a regular basis. Unlike Joey, his friends don't live in the neighborhood; he interacts with them mostly through a screen. It's not what I would consider ideal, but it's how it is, and Timmy's perfectly happy with that. Tim takes him to his away games, which are usually within a two-hour radius. I have to say, after some bumpy years with him as a little boy, I see a more mature personality beginning to take shape; he's really pleasant, with an agreeable disposition and a good sense of humor. He's been overall more patient with his brother (Joey) too, which is really good to see. Our only troubles these days come when his keen sense of what's fair clashes with whatever my agenda happens to be at the time. 

The girls are both doing something new this year: Annie cheerleading and Delaney marching band. They have both been working their tails off since July with so many practices and skills to learn, and I admire their dedication. They didn't get it from me. You know I'm not really a sports fan, but I do go to games here and there to see them. I'm a huge dork about it too, sitting really close, smiling and waving, and taking awkward pictures and videos. Would I even be their mother if I weren't doing these things?

I did not take this picture. I screenshotted it from the team's Instagram Stories.

Not to mention, Tim and I have extracurriculars ourselves. He's got the school board--his last year doing that, and that's good. That's been kind of a big commitment, and in addition to meetings they give him homework, which he doesn't like. I have decided to take on a little more volunteering, this time in youth ministry. I want to be alongside Annie these next two years as she prepares for Confirmation, as well as see if I can be of any help to our parish's fledgling program. Last year I don't think I could have spared the extra couple of hours, with Thomas being so little; but we're in a bit of a different place this year, and I have just a little more flexibility.

I find downtime wherever I can, and read whenever I get a few minutes. My sister Grace recently told me about a book recommendation from a podcaster and blogger we both like. The book, which was very popular about 10 years ago was  The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society. I must not have been in the right frame of mind the first time I tried to read it a long time ago. It's entirely in the form of letters among friends, and it seems to start in the middle of an ongoing conversation. I was like 'what is this?' and I lost patience quickly and gave up. A few days ago I gave it another try after my sister told me about it, and almost got stuck on the first three pages again, but I'm so glad I kept going! It keeps getting better and better. I'm a quarter of the way through, and it's such a fun historical fiction read. Historical fiction is not usually what I would describe as fun. The best would be to curl up under a blanket on a rainy, cold day to read this book.

On the horizon is our long weekend in the mountains next month, and then a long visit from Tim's parents, along with a not as long visit from Karen and Matt. We're looking forward to all of it.

*Just don't ask us how that's going with seven-year-old Joe.

MA trip and other summer happenings

Another summer is hurtling by me, and my toddler has been keeping me very much on my toes, but I've been working on this blog a little at a time. We made our annual summer trek to Massachusetts from June 28 to July 5 -- already over a month ago.😲 It's always so great seeing everybody up there, and there's so much to do, which makes it a fun change of pace. Since I'm having a hard enough time finding the time for this blog -- at the moment I'm letting Thomas empty out a desk drawer -- it's going to be mostly a photo dump.

We hiked Purgatory Chasm again with some unsavory characters who thought nothing of bypassing the "closed" sign. (It was closed as a precaution after heavy rain the day before.) I said my kids would have been appalled had it been my idea, but they didn't bat an eye since it was their cousins.' They act like they're dying if I enter a store through the wrong door. 

Thomas and I went out to dinner with Grandma and hung out at home while everyone else did some game room and Go Kart place. 

I personally enjoyed the lake days best of all, and I was super excited to see that my first choice of activity back when my niece surveyed all of us -- the waterslide place -- made it onto the list. That ended up being second favorite for me this time, though, the first being the lake in Hopkinton where they could paddleboard and kayak. Carolyn, Thomas and I found a nice spot on the beach and just watched him play for the most part. It was VERY toddler-friendly, just a big puddle for him to splash in. Another family lent us a little truck for him to push around--they must have noticed I was very unprepared--but he was mostly happy with rocks and dirt. For me, being able to enjoy the outdoors in the summer is the best, especially if I'm in the vicinity of water on a beautiful day.

I recall now as I look through these photos again, that Thomas was not doing his best on this trip. He had a cough and sniffle the day we traveled there, a fever a day or two after that, which ended up being on and off for the duration, and he was not quite himself at any given time. It was too bad, but I do think he ended up having fun too, even if he needed more rest and cuddles than usual.

Tim participated in the Chris Foley Memorial Golf Tournament, along with other friends and family of Chris, who passed away a few years ago from cancer. Tim grew up with Chris and his twin brother, and the other guys in these pictures. The tournament raised money for Camp Sunshine, which is a retreat in Maine for families with children who have a life-threatening illness.

Funny story: You might notice that in the picture above, Tim is wearing his very weathered  Birkenstocks. His golf shoes, purchased who knows how long ago (he doesn't golf much), exploded at the first or second hole. He thinks the glue had weakened from being stored for a long time. He had to go to the car and swap them out for his Birkenstocks, which made him the object of ridicule all day, but he says they actually made for great golf shoes.🤣 In fact, I don't think there's a single activity he wouldn't do while wearing them. He wore them to work with socks for awhile, until he finally found some closed-toe shoes his feet could tolerate. I'm pretty sure Birkenstock makes shoes that are more suitable for work and golf, but you know they don't feel as good as some old broken-in Arizonas.

I donned a sundress, left Thomas with his aunties and cousins, and joined Tim and everyone else for dinner after the tournament. It was so nice catching up with everyone, and also strange to see us through their eyes. It is mindboggling to them that we have five kids, and that the last one was born just last year. Most of them have two, and they're all at least teenagers. 

We had perfect weather for the lake and waterslide park. Joey was on and off the waterslides nonstop the entire day. He slipped and hit his nose at the edge of the pool as he was getting out one of the times, and came walking up to us with blood running all down the front of him. He wasn't hurt that badly, but it was a very startling sight for us to see, as you can imagine. Tim was disappointed I didn't get a picture, but it was hard to remember to get a picture when I was checking him out and making sure he wasn't going to die.

Annie says her favorite thing we (they) did was the game room, and Timmy's was the Go Karts. The Go Karts were also at the game room, I believe. So that was a big hit with the kids. 

Annual wiffleball tournament

All the grandkids. Top row L-R: Juliana (20), Alexa (19), Sofia (18, almost 19), Annie (14), Thomas (1), and Natalie (14). Bottom row L-R: Delaney (15, almost 16), Timmy (11, almost 12), and Joey (7)

We celebrated Delaney's birthday a few days early. The aunties and cousins didn't want to miss the chance to spoil her on her "sweet 16."

"Sushi" treats made by Auntie Kathy

The challenge is always to see how many memories can be made in just five short days, until it's time to go home. I think everybody did a great job!

We had another easy travel day -- Tim with four of the kids in the car, and Thomas and I flying. We flew out of Providence this time at Tim Sr's request since he's the one taking us to the airport and he knew in advance about some major traffic problems Boston was going to have. After flying out of Providence, I have to say, where has it been all my life? I might never go back to Logan. Everything is nice, like really nice, even pretty bathrooms. And it was dead. The only gate that had anything going on was our gate, and the rest of the concourse was empty. I let Thomas have the run of the place.

Back here in New Bern, a busy summer is coming to a close. Delaney got her license right after her birthday, and that has been a gamechanger around here. Having her able to drive herself around, let alone anyone else, has been a huge help to me. Marching band has been a big commitment, and then I've also been delegating to her a few of the errands I would otherwise be doing myself. Yesterday after I asked her to go fetch Joey from a friend's house in the neighborhood when his mom wasn't answering my text, Annie said to her, "It must be fun having your driver's license." I said, "You'll find out yourself soon enough--you're next!" Delaney has also just been hired at Harris Teeter, so she'll be starting her first job soon. Cheer practice has kept Annie busy since we got back. It was one week on, one week off for July, but for August it's at least a couple days a week, including a day camp they hosted for little kids in the area. Timmy has been enjoying a very laidback summer of videogames and a couple soccer practices a week. Joey has been living his best life, swimming with one friend, going out with another friend and his family on their boat, and spending very little time at home in general. (But at least he doesn't need to be driven around because his friends are all right here in this neighborhood!) I'm actually feeling a little bad for him that school starts for him and Timmy this Thursday. Then there's my buddy Thomas who makes sure that I'm planning my days well and not wasting any time, and really cherishing my moments of reading or relaxing by the pool.

It is truly a wonderful life.