Sweet, sweet Highlands

So I've been absent. I'm sorry.

After my last post, I got a stomach bug, and it was rough. After throwing up all night, I literally could not get out of bed for a day. Except to pee. My body was hurting from laying in the bed so long. It gave me a new appreciation for women who are put on bed rest during pregnancy, and for so many other people who are bed-ridden. I cannot imagine how awful that must be.

A few days later, I was finally able to be up and about, slowly resuming my normal wifely and motherly duties. Praise God for a sweet husband, who is pretty good at taking care of me when I'm sick. He's better than I am when the roles are reversed. That's for sure.

So last week was a week of slow recovery, and then we left for a short vacation.

We took some friends to a cabin in Highlands, NC. Derrick and I went to Highlands about four years ago and have been wanting to get back ever since. A few months ago, I decided this year would be the year. I decided to book a cabin, and if other people could join us, so be it. If not, we'd have a family vacation.

Turns out we had several friends who wanted to come. And I'm so glad they did.

Here's a picture of the beautiful house where we stayed.

Although the girls and I didn't make it very far on the hiking trip, the others hiked to a beautiful lookout. I have a sneaking suspicion that Elizabeth won't be an outdoorsy kind of girl. She likes to play outside, but make her walk for a little ways, and she's whining up a storm. Poor Layla cried when we had to turn around after making it only 500 feet along the hiking trail. Elizabeth cried too, but for different reasons. Layla actually wanted to hike. =) She's my kind of girl. Not that I'm a huge hiker, but I do enjoy the occasional hike up a mountain trail. When the girls are older, I'll just have to hike every weekend to make up for lost time. Until then, we'll just play in the leaves at the cabin.

I didn't take a ton of pictures, and yes, I realize Elizabeth isn't in any of these, but she kind of had a rough few days. Let's just say she wasn't smiling a whole lot. But I did get one great picture of the scenery. Look how beautiful it is. I'm telling you. If you live in the Southeast and have never been to Highlands, you should plan a trip. It's a friendly, laid back town with great shopping and dining. There's one store, in particular, called Dutchmans Interiors, that I just love. I bought some really great Christmas decorations there this year and could have bought a lot more. I hope we will make it a yearly tradition to take a trip to Highlands in the fall. And one day, down the road, we'd love to have a place there. A girl can dream, right?

We got home from Highlands just in time to head over to a friend's house for some Halloween fun. The girls dressed up as characters from Yo Gabba Gabba.

Hope you enjoyed the end of your October. I promise not to be so absent, assuming I do not come down with another stomach bug. God willing.