What a weekend to be in the GREAT state of North Carolina! There are a few heavenly treasures buried right around us in and near Statesville! We have experienced a few of the highlights this weekend. Friday kicked off the annual Balloon Rally in Statesville (they now call it a Festival, but that is not what I grew up calling it). This is an event that is one of Statesville's finest and the weather cooperated beautifully, so that it shined even brighter when the 1st balloon arose! Bryson and I parked across the rode from the airport's runway so that we had a perfect view for the 40+ hot air balloons that were in flight. Bryson was very anxious because he couldn't remember exactly what they looked like from last year and I of course made a big deal about because I have many cherished childhood memories from this event and I hope he will too. They floated right over our heads and some onto Interstate 40! My mom met us at our look out spot to capture the floating wonders as well! Afterwards we went to the good ol' Boxcar for dinner.....because mom loves their salad bar! Thankfully, we turned in early Friday night because we had no clue what was a head of us for Saturday.
Saturday morning we planned to travel a little north to Jefferson to eat at a little, old, historic restaurant called Shatley Springs. This little diamond, still in the rough, has been around (as a restaurant) since the early 1950's. Their main feature is the country ham, but it comes with ALL the homemade fixings.....mashed potatoes, green beans, pinto beans, corn, slaw, cooked apples, biscuits, and fried chicken! It is a true southern, home cooked meal! We usually make the trip a couple of times in the fall because they close for the winter and this is the perfect time to capture the beautiful fall leaves. We called before we left to try and make reservations, but they were booked, so we took our chances and left home at 9:45 am. We got there around 11:15 and the lady said it would be an hour and 1/2 to 2 hours. So we waited.....impatiently because our cinnamon rolls from breakfast had worn off by that point. Brooks and Bryson played by the pond behind the restaurant and mom and I rocked on the porch. Well, 1:00, 1:15, 1:30, and even 1:45 went by and we STILL had not been called to eat. Needless to say, their sense of time is still a little prehistoric! FINALLY, we sat and began eating about 2:15 and finished up around 3:00ish.
In the back of mind, while we waited and waited and waited, I knew that we had to be back in time to see the balloons (again) take off because we had promised Bryson that we go into the Rally to see them blow up and float away. So I knew that we would be pushing it by staying so long in the mountains, but we had one more stop to make. On our way up we saw a cute, little pumpkin patch that we just had to check out. Remember we got pumpkins last weekend. Brooks and Bryson decided that they wanted to make a jack-o-lantern, which Bryson has never done because I am weird and I like to keep pumpkins through Thanksgiving and I hate to mess them up (I know I am crazy)! So we stopped at the patch and got another pumpkin to create a jack-o-lantern. We made it back down the mountain quickly because Brooks passed as many cars going down as he did going up. We got to Statesville about 4:30, stopped by the house to drop Brooks off and to grab some coats. And off we headed to the Balloon Rally to hopefully, be in the gate before they took off. HA HA, what a joke! The airport is about 5 miles from our house, we left the house at 4:45 and parked in the parking lot at 7:00!!! So again we waited and waited and waited! We saw the balloons take off from the car and they looked like they weren't going too far, but there were 2 that looked to be in the direction of the house. I called Brooks and he looked, but couldn't see anything, so we continued to crawl in the long line of traffic for hours. Brooks called back a few minutes later to tell us that one had landed in the front yard :( I was soooo sad that we were not home! He took pictures and invited them back for their Sunday morning flight. We FINALLY made our way into the Rally just in time to see the beautiful moon glow with the hot air balloons. We got lots of pictures and even got to talk to the #30 balloon that landed at the house. We ended the night at a Birthday party for a sweet girl named MaKayla! HaPpY BiRtHdAy MaKaYlA, sorry we were late :)
We told Bryson to wake us up when he got up on Sunday morning, so that we could go search for the balloons to find were they were taking off from for their final morning flight. Bryson didn't let us down, he woke us up at 7:00 am! We got up, threw on some clothes, brushed our teeth, and went searching. We could tell the wind wasn't blowing from our way, so we went a little southwest and found a field with 5 balloons laid out ready to blow up and fly away. We got a front row spot for these balloons and the others that decided this was the perfect distance to make it to their destination. We saw many take off and then we went and found some landing. After a couple more hours of balloon watching we got breakfast and came home. The boys have now craved the jack-o-lantern and the plan for the rest of the day is a swim and a nap!
The week ahead looks busy.....I have a workday tomorrow! I love workdays, don't get me wrong I love my kids too and the days pass a lot faster when they are there, but I can accomplish some things tomorrow, take Bryson to school for the 1st time this year, and not be tied down to a strict schedule! Tuesday is Bryson's last soccer game and then his team is having a party afterwards! Wednesday and Thursday look LONG with LOTS of meetings scheduled! Friday is the Fall Festival at Stony Point, so come out and have some fun! And Saturday we will create our little ______________ for Halloween!! You will have to wait and see what he will be :) Have a fun, safe, great week! Remember to make someone smile and help someone out every chance you get, its more for you than them! Love the Exhausted Derting's and Gaze!
