to the mountains and other ramblings.

A few weeks ago I published a whole bunch of posts all at once.  Several had been written for a long while, and the others at the time that I posted them.  It helped me cross something off my mental "to-do" list - finish all those posts in my draft folder, and it felt good to accomplish it.  Then, I started a "currently" post a week later, and never finished it.  It felt forced, and kind of boring even to me.  At the same time, I started going through something of an existentialist crisis (ok maybe that's a bit of an exaggeration) and got all anti-screen time for a couple of weeks, not turning on my laptop once.  I have come around to finding more of a balance with my electronic devices, and while I still plan to keep the blog going, I am trying to figure out which direction to take it.  For a while, I was hoping it would be like the popular blogs that I read regularly, with hundreds (thousands?) of followers.  But then I got all nervous about trying to "promote" it.  Who are these people reading about my private life and seeing all my pictures of Arlo?  Likely harmless moms like me who just enjoy reading about other parents day to day adventures, with an occasional recipe or craft idea mixed in.  But there will always be the worry that it might not be a harmless person, as well as the nagging feeling that maybe when he is old enough, Arlo won't want his photos and such shared with so many people.  Case in point - I have this pin I put up a while back on Pinterest.  It's a picture I took of leggings that I crocheted, and I just happen to be modeling them.  The picture only shows me from my knees down, and my feet are bare.  It has been pinned something like 1,300 times.  This means that thousands of people have seen this pin of my feet, and it kind of weirds me out.  And these are just my feet. 

I am not planning to change the settings of the blog to private, as I think anyone reading this found their way here through me or someone who directly knows me.  And luckily I have never received any negative comments on my posts, something else that I fear would change my relationship with this space.  When I started this blog it was strictly for me.  I wanted to document our first pregnancy so I could always look back and read about the little details.  Then, it kind of grew into what it is today.  I expect that this blog will continue on something of the same path it has been on, perhaps with fewer posts but more meaningful content.  If there is a recipe I want to document, I will post about it.  Arlo's growth and development updates will continue.  There will also probably be random life updates here and there as well.  But as for the posts that were more geared towards capturing more followers, those are probably done.  If you are here reading this, I am so glad you are.  And I don't mind if you share the blog with people you know personally if you think it's something they might enjoy reading.  My posts going forward will be things that I want to remember and read again.  Which brings me to why I sat down to write this today.  We took a little family trip to the mountains this past weekend, and it's definitely worth remembering...


The mountains are my happy place, and one of the main reasons that I fell in love with North Carolina and decided to move here.  Every fall since we moved down south, Erik and I have taken a trip to Asheville or a nearby city.  In light of the fact that this year has been an extremely expensive one for us, and our previous house still hasn't sold or rented, we almost scrapped our mountain trip this year.  I am so glad we decided not to.  I look forward to this trip so much, and always come home feeling happy and recharged.  This year was no exception, we all had a wonderful time.  This was Arlo's third trip to the mountains - last year he was not even walking yet and the year before he was still in my belly!  We always stay in a place that is dog friendly so Lucy can come along.  I like to think she enjoys the mountains as much as I do, but I think she is just happy to be going anywhere with "her people."

yay family wagon!

Photo above taken on the drive out.  If you look closely, you can actually see all of us (Erik is in the reflection of my sunglasses!)

We stayed in a little cottage up in Mars Hill, about 25 minutes north of downtown Asheville.  It was somewhat slim pickins for lodging because we waited so long to book the trip, needed something in our limited budget and wanted a house that would allow dogs.  So it was kind of in the middle of nowhere, and the pictures online made it look a bit run down.  So, I didn't expect to like it as much as I did.  There were two bedrooms, so Arlo had his own room.  The living room windows offered the most beautiful mountain view.  There was a full kitchen, bathroom, sunroom, and laundry.  So maybe the floors were a little slanted and the heat was this weird underground propane blower that came up through a big grate in the floor.  I think it just added to the character, and was just right for a weekend away. 

We headed west on Friday morning, I would say early but that is only ever a pipedream when it comes to getting out of the house with a dog and a toddler.  So we didn't actually arrive to the mountains until mid-afternoon, and we were starving when we finally got there.  We had lunch at this adorable little restaurant in Boone called the Hob Knob Farm Cafe.  Afterwards we found a neaby park where Arlo could run and stretch his legs after the drive.  After picking up some groceries for the weekend at the local natural grocery store, we finished our drive to Mars Hill, and it was already getting dark by the time we arrived.  Arlo of course was wired after sitting in the car for so long, but we managed to get him to sleep quite easily at a reasonable time.

The next morning we headed into Asheville for the day.  We started in the west side of town, which is a destination itself.  We did some shopping at the cutest kids consignment store, where we totally scored on winter clothes, boots, and a Halloween costume for Arlo.  We had lunch and then headed over to a hard cider brewery that a friend had recommended to me.  I felt a little weird drinking while having Arlo with us, but we ordered a flight (tray of small cider samples) and Erik and I split it.  So we basically just tasted some different ciders, not really drinking enough to feel the effects.  And Arlo didn't care, we were sitting outside where he could run around in their greenspace and use their corn hole game as a ramp for his trucks  :)

After the cider we headed towards downtown Asheville, and stopped at Votex Doughnuts on the way.  It has been something like eight years since I had eaten a doughnut, so I was well overdue.  And oh man, was it worth it.  We split two doughnuts, taking one for later, and I could have easily eaten all three myself.  So. freaking. good.

We burned off the doughnuts by walking around downtown, doing a little shopping and enjoying all the things that makes Asheville what it is.  For example, live music playing in front of the giant yarn-bombed iron. 

It was late in the day by the time we left downtown, so we made our way back to the house, picking up stuff for dinner on the way.  We might have also bought potato chips and ice cream that we later enjoyed with a side of doughnuts.  Hey, it's called vacation for a reason!

On our way home the next day, we stopped at a pumpkin patch a bit south of Asheville.  They had a corn maze and hayrides but we opted to keep it simple and just pick up some apples and cider, and take some photos in the pumpkin patch.  Here are a few of my favorites:

 See you next fall, Asheville.

29 weeks

Due to a very busy weekend and week so far, I am just now getting to my 29 week update, even though today marks the start of the 30th week. This past weekend Erik and I took a wonderful trip to quite possibly my very favorite place, the Blue Ridge Mountains. We spent most of our time in Asheville, but stayed up a little north of the city in Weaverville. Erik found a pet-friendly house to rent so we were able to bring the Munchkin with us.  Highlights of the trip included a visit to The Tobacco Barn (a huge antique warehouse), delicious dinners at our favorite restaurants, Plant and The Laughing Seed, shopping in downtown Asheville, and taking long walks in the morning with Lucy - soaking in the amazing mountain views and fresh air. Quite possibly the best part of our trip was stumbling across a great band playing downtown on Saturday afternoon, the Crow Quill Night Owls. They were so entertaining we watched them until we had to leave for dinner. They play music from the 20's, 30's, and 40s, along with original tunes, and a couple of them were playing homemade instruments. So much fun!  On Sunday we took the long way home, driving north along the Blue Ridge Parkway to enjoy the fall color and lovely views. Before we got off the parkway to head home, we made sure to stop at an orchard near Spruce Pine and hand-picked a big bag of apples to take with us. It was a blast and even Lucy had fun there, running around and sniffing at the fallen apples. This trip was exactly what we needed and will be the last as a family of two before this new little guy decides to make his appearance!
 
The 29 week photos were taken on the property of the house we rented for our stay.  There were a few great backgrounds nearby - a scenic mountain view, a 100 year old church, and an old barn.  The photos in front of the barn turned out to be my favorite, and quite a nice change from the wooden fence in our backyard.
 

29 weeks + 3 days

 
At 29 weeks the baby is the size of a butternut squash, weighing around 2.5 lbs and measuring in at a little over 15 inches from head to toe.  His muscles and lungs are continuing to mature, and his head is growing bigger to make room for his developing brain.  Every week I continue to feel more and more activity from this little guy.  Last night in bed he gave me such a hard kick I actually jumped from surprise.  Fortunately none of his movements have ever been painful in any way, but he sure has some strong legs (just like his father.  Another cat 1 cyclist in the making?)  ;)

 

29 weeks + 3 days

 
I have felt a few more Braxton Hicks contractions since last week, almost always during exercise.  These days my exercise routine consists pretty much of a 30-45 minute daily walk with Lucy and some stretching or very light yoga poses.  The hills around our house provide a pretty good workout, even if I am only walking at a medium pace.  I get out of breath much easier now than I used to, so I try not to push myself too hard.  Sleeping has been an issue on and off.  I guess this is to be expected in the 3rd trimester, and even on less sleep than usual I still feel pretty normal throughout the day so it's not been too much of an issue.

I had an appointment at the birthing center yesterday morning, and that went very well.  I only gained 1 lb since my last appointment 2 1/2 weeks ago, bringing my total weight gain to around 15 lbs.  The baby measured in at 29.5 cm which this midwife said is perfectly fine.  At this point we would expect 30 cm give or take a little, so if nothing else he is a touch on the smaller side. 

Probably one of the most exciting things of this past week (besides our trip) was starting our birthing classes.  I mentioned last week that we are taking a 12 week Bradly series, and I am SO happy we are.  Since the series actually extends past my due date in January, the instructor has offered to let us take the last two classes out of order and join into one of her already in-progress class series which will allow us to take all of the classes (hopefully) before our little guy arrives.  The topics of the last two classes are breastfeeding and newborn care, so she said they could be taken at any time.  We took our first class on Monday, and learned about newborn care.  During the class, we took turns diapering, changing, and swaddling a "doll" baby.  It sounds silly, and of course will be much different on a live baby, but the instructor had some great tips and tricks for us newbie parents.  It turned out to be a lot of fun and quite humorous at times!  The highlight of the class was watching Erik take his turn swaddling the doll.  He walked up there and wrapped up the most perfect burrito swaddle with such confidence you would think he did it everyday.  I could have cried it was so adorable...  I know he is going to be such an amazing Dad, and I can't wait to see him in action when the baby gets here.  It gives me the warm and fuzzies just thinking about it.

Our second class (but really the first class of our series) was last night, and was just as great as the previous night's class.  It was an intro to the Bradley method and covered everything we can expect to get out of this series.  We learned some relaxation techniques, talked about exercise during pregnancy, and nutrition requirements among many other things.  I can't say enough great stuff about this instructor, she is truly a blessing and quite possibly the perfect person to take a birthing class from.  She is extremely knowledgeable, confident, and so approachable at the same time.  I feel so lucky to have found these classes as this is turning out to be a wonderful learning opportunity for both of us.   

We have a baby-related project on the schedule for this weekend, and if we are able to finish it by next week I plan to write a post about it.  I have been looking forward to working on it for months now, and it's getting to the point now where we need to get it done soon.  Watch for that post hopefully coming up next!

And finally, a few more photos from our trip this weekend...

Apple pickin' (even though it looks like a red potato!)

This lasted about 2 minutes, then Erik was put in charge of the apple picking tool!

Sweet baby Lucy enjoying the sunshine

An instagram vacation

Erik and I just returned from a nice long weekend out in Asheville.  The night before the trip, I spent a good amount of time completing a project that I have been putting off for months...  I organized the past six months of photos on my laptop, backed up everything to my external hard drive, and then deleted everything off the camera card, all 4 GB's of photos... And wouldn't you know I didn't use the DSLR once on the trip.  I downloaded instagram on Erik's iphone shortly after we left the house, and used it to take every photo during the trip.  It was so much easier than dragging around the camera/bag/lenses everyday... And besides he always had his phone with him.... Of course I am not to sure how happy he was that I kept grabbing it to snap photos here and there... Anyway, here is our "instagram vacation" - Easter weekend in Asheville, NC...

Lunch @ Boba House in Greensboro.  Lucy: sidewalk guard dog.  Passionfruit bubble tea - the best ever.

Car crochet, backseat dog, Mtn to Sea Trail that crosses parkway.

Sweet little mountain cottage we stayed in.  Lucy made herself right at home.

The B Family.  Yup, that's us!

Downtown.  Welcome to Asheville!

Dinner @ Plant (same place we had our wedding dinner last September).  All Vegan, completely delicious.  Chef Jason recognized us right away as the "wedding couple."  Awwww...

Cesar salad with Tofu.  Tomato soup amazingness.

Cheese plate that will rock your world.  Seriously.

Wine in juice glasses.   Dogwood tree in bloom outside our cottage.  Pretty Lucy.  Mountains.

Enjoying the mountain air outside our cottage.

Hike to Green Knob Lookout Tower.  Pretty dog down below who didn't want to climb stairs.

Back to Plant for Easter Brunch

Hungry belly, large sunglasses and unwashed hair.  No shame.

What do vegans eat for breakfast?  Brunch everyday at Plant if they are very, very lucky  ;)

Shaved Seitan Ruben with crispy home fries.  There. are. no. words.

Warm cinnamon roll with sweet almond glaze which we shared for dessert.  Both of us had to exercise extreme self control to keep ourselves from picking up the empty plate and licking it clean like wild animals.  It was that good.

I guess I took more photos that I realized!

Clearly we did nothing besides eat, eat, and then eat some more.  When surrounded by so many amazing veg options though how could we not?  A very fun (and tasty) trip indeed!

Happy Easter from the B's!