The Bradens: Asheville Trip

A few days after Christmas, Kyle and I had a little gettaway to Asheville, NC for a few days. Grami and G-Daddy were so WONDERFUL and kept Colsen while Kyle and I had some time by ourselves!! THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!!! We had such a fun time!!! The great thing about Asheville is that it is only about a two hour drive from Charlotte! We left Charlotte around 10 in the morning and got to Asheville around 1, we stopped for lunch. After getting checked in to our hotel, we decided to head to this place called the Arboretum to check it out. I had told Kyle before we left that I would be willing to do a "little" hiking. Just to let you know, I'm more of a spa girl rather than a wilderness girl. Needless to say, I was a little nervous about what he had in mind. Well...it turned out great!! The Arboretum was just what we were looking for!! Due to all the snow and ice that Asheville had gotten so recently only one walking trail was open. That was okay with us, I mean, me. And the trail that we were taking was only about 3 miles long. This sounded perfect and it was!! Taking this walk was one of the highlight of the trip!! We had such a fun time talking and hanging out and looking at the beautiful surroundings!! Everything was snow covered, so it was so pretty to look at. After that we came back to the hotel and Kyle watched the A&M vs. Georgia game while I relaxed! I watched a little too. We wished the game had gone a little differently, but there's always next year! After the game we headed to downtown Asheville to grab some dinner and then we came back for a goods nights sleep. It was so nice to sleep in the next morning!! We did miss our little guy who at home comes in every morning and hands me my glasses and says, "I want milk, trucks, garbage" By the way, trucks and garbage are names of the videos that he likes to watch. Like I said, it was nice to sleep in!! After getting ready, we headed back to downtown Asheville to get some breakfast and look around at some of the shops. It was so cold and the wind was really blowing that it made it hard to enjoy walking around. My VERY SWEET husband let me use his North Face jacket, which was sooooo warm!! At that point I decided that I need one of those. I didn't really need a warm coat in Houston, but now that I'm living in Charlotte it is a must!! After downtown, we headed to another shopping area close to our hotel called Biltmore Village. It was fun to walk around and we even stopped into a bake shop and I had yummy lemon square!! Our next stop was going to an REI to look for a new coat for me. We headed to this nice shopping area that even had a moving theater! So we checked out REI and they did not have my jacket. I was sad! I think was even more sad because he wasn't going to get his jacket back! :) After having a full day of shopping we headed back to our hotel for some rest and to check out the movie times! I had really been wanting to go see the movie the Blindside. After relaxing a little bit we got ready and headed out to our movie. The movie was FANTASTIC!!! If you haven't already seen it, go! It is that good!! After the movie we went to yummy restaurant that was right next door to the theater. I had a crab cake and key lime pie!! You would have thought I was in South Florida. Anyway...the food was delicious and the best part was spending time with my incredible husband!! The next morning we headed back to Charlotte! Our little getaway was just what we needed!! We had such a GREAT time!! Thank you again Grami and G-Daddy for keeping Colsen!!

While we were on our walk, I took several pictures of the nature around us!! I love holly bushes at Christmas!!

My sweet husband took this picture of me! Thank you, sweetie, for letting me borrow your coat! I couldn't have made it without it!!

This is a picture of the path that we walked on and the nature surrounding us! It was so pretty!!

Animal foot print

My WONDERFUL mountain man!!!

Being silly!!

Another nature shot.

I thought this was so pretty, the tree against the very blue sky!!

Me and my man!! Can you see the mountains in the background!!

This picture was taken right before we left Asheville! Aren't the mountains beautiful!!!

Taken from up in the mountains looking down at the town of Asheville.

Before we left we went to this place we had heard about called the Grove Park Inn! At Christmas the have the national Gingerbread competition! I got a few pictures of some of the INCREDIBLE gingerbread pieces!! Who knew you could do so much gingerbread!!