Fun Visitors

These past couple of weeks, we have been blessed to have wonderful company here in Boone! First was a visit from Paul's old college friends and their kids. We spent time with them only one afternoon, but I heard about them many times when we were still dating, so you can tell how excited am I to see them finally. And also Paul, too. Because they haven't seen each in many years. He told me that last time Paul saw them were when Shelly was pregnant with her first baby which I met today that the baby is already 14 years old!!! Hahaha time goes by so quickly!

And second visitor was James! He is Paul's cousin, Bob and Lynda's son. James is a rock climber, and he was planning to go to rock climbing in Tennessee with his friend. But his friend couldn't make it this trip, so James decided to come to North Carolina. We were so glad that he called us and would like to stay with us for couple of days. He came over at night after Luke went to bed, so the next morning when Luke woke up and found out James were sleeping down stairs made Luke excited. He showed James all his toys, even though James was still half sleep. But James was so nice and good with kids, Luke immediately felt comfortable with him, and after that moment Luke didn't need Mama or Dada around him. We hope James come visit us again sometime soon.

Third visitors were Paul's sister Liz, her three kids (Olivia, Scott and Alison) and Paul's cousin Bob and his wife Lynda. We had such a wonderful time together.

On the first day, we went to blueberry picking -- which is my first time time, and the first for Paul, Liz and her kids too. Bob and Lynda had done this before, so they know what to do! It was a very beautiful place on the side of a hill, looking out into the mountains of North Carolina, and we enjoyed it very much!
I didn't know there are both sweet and tart blueberry bushes. Of course I went to the sweet bushes, and Paul and I picked one gallon. I never tasted blueberries this sweet before!!!! Luke loved them too--maybe too much. He ate so many blueberries while we were in the field today!

Scott is a very good blueberry picker! He picked so many so quickly! Lucky Liz, she had such a great helper (^v^)
And thanks for Olivia and Ali for playing with Luke while we were working! I didn't have to worry about Luke at all -- they gave me time to focus picking berries and eating them :) Paul and I were taking about coming back here again to pick more, but we have to find some kids to come with us (to look after Luke)! Hahaha.




The next day, we went to Blowing Rock. We had yummy ice cream and play at the play ground in town.
We all enjoyed the morning, and had fun with kids!
And after the Blowing Rock, we wanted to go to Grandfather Mountain. We drove along the Blueridge Park Way, and near Grandfather Mountain, we saw a deer running along the side of the road. It was beautiful and little scary, because they were too close to us... We reached Grandfather mountain, but we decided to not going though the gate, it was little late and Bob and Lida had to go back to home that day (plus, it was very expensive to go in!). Instead of the mountain, we decided to have lunch in Banner Elk. After lunch we stopped by the Scottish shop in town. It's a very small shop, but there were a lot of Scottish items that you can buy. And I'm very impressed to see people proud of their heritage and traditions. I found the "Wallace" tartan, and though I'm not a Scottish ancestor it made me excited to see them and feel part of it!
Here is Paul and Luke at the Scottish store (Oh, this is not "Wallace" tartan).

We always take a picture at this spot. We took another one when Luke was few months old!

Liz and the kids stayed a few more days, and we had a fun time. We wish we could see them soon again before Luke forgets how to say "Yaya (Olivia)" "Cotty (Scott)" and "Ai (Ali)".