Zach and I haven’t been able to go on our little Christmas trip to Banner Elk, North Carolina for the past 2 Christmases! Last year I was pregnant so duh, skiing was out, and 2 years ago we knew we’d be trying to get pregnant so we went to Disney since we knew it’d be awhile until I’d be able to go again! Needless to say we were excited about this trip and after being apart so much in November we needed the “us” time too!
On the way up we took our time and went to Ikea in Atlanta! Got Zach a desk for his work area in the guest room! We thought about finishing our attic and adding an office and extra bedroom but decided to make do with what we have for now to save some money 🙂
On the way up my brother sent me a text and said that Javon had posted their engagement pics so of course right when we got to our condo I found a computer to check ’em out!
We went for cheap this year and our condo reflected that…it was very cozy. Haha!
It did have a kitchen though which was great! I made chili before we left and brought it with us and we ate in the room for breakfast, some lunches, and some dinners. I think we ate chili 3 or 4 times! And Zach even made his famous pancakes one of the mornings for me 🙂
We got there Friday night and we planned to ski on Saturday for half a day, not on Sunday, then a whole day Monday. Well we were so tired Friday night that we decided just to relax on Saturday and save the money! This time of the year we spend soooo much on other things and didn’t feel like dropping around $200 on one thing. So we thought we’d do our Christmas on Saturday then ski on Sunday and Monday! I was SO excited about this trip because now that Kye is only nursing twice a day I only had to pump in the morning and at night…sooooo much better!!! I got to wake up without an alarm for the first time in 9 months! Of course I didn’t sleep in that late but hey an extra 90 min is an extra 90 min!
We enjoyed the day Saturday (post to come) and went to see New Moon in the afternoon. I’d already seen it but thought Zach would enjoy it (he did). We went to a 4:00 movie which here would be a matinee…but not there! It was considered full price because it was after 3:00 and it was $9.50 per ticket!!!! Craziness!!! It was still cheaper than skiing though haha. For dinner we were PUMPED to eat at Smokeys. It’s a pizza place we found the last time we went (we were engaged at the time and we actually picked out Kye’s name there!). It’s a little dive up on the mountain and sooo yummy. We went there again but this time it’s under a different name 🙁 I guess Smokey’s was after the people’s pet dog and the dog died so they changed it to That Pizza Place. Whatever…it was still good! We were the only people there and we had fun pigging out and watching the local football team (Appalachian State) play in the semi-finals on tv.
On Sunday we planned to ski but woke up and it was raining! Oh well another day to just laze around and relax…I was good with that plan 🙂 We decided to see another movie but this time made sure it was a matinee time. We went and saw The Blind Side (still $7 a piece for matinee…crazy!). I figured it’d be a cheesy family movie but I was SO impressed! I LOVED it and it totally made me want to be a foster mom someday 🙂 We went around town in Banner Elk trying to find a little ornament to remember our trip but no where had one. We did get pics in front of the big Elk downtown though 🙂
For dinner we went to a steak house in Banner Elk. We got there at 4:15 and it turned out the place didn’t open ’till 5! But like 6 other cars were waiting for the doors to open! I figured it was gonna be super good. Turns out, it was alright but it was also the only steak place in town haha.
we went to get ice cream for dessert!
The condo had an indoor pool and hot tub! We hadn’t taken advantage of it the whole trip so since we got done with dinner so early we decided to try it out. I felt so strange putting on a bathing suit when it was so cold outside. At least I got to rock my big red poofy jacket!!! It was a really fun, relaxing couple of days which I really needed and I think Zach did too!
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UGHH I am going to barf at your hot body. 🙂 One day… I will be skinny again.
Hi Emily,My name is Jane and I'm with Dwellable.I was looking for blogs about Banner Elk to share on our site and I came across your post…If you're open to it, shoot me an email at jane(at)dwellable(dot)com.Hope to hear from you soon!Jane