2022 Mountain Trip - Days 1 & 2

We had another wonderful trip to the mountains at the beginning of this month, and my parents were able to join us this year which made the trip even more fun! 

Wednesday, October 5

The kids dismissed for fall break at noon on Wednesday, so we hit the road straight from the school pick-up line.  But first, Chick-Fil-A!

Aaaand thennnn Chick-Fil-A again for bathroom breaks and Autumn Spice milkshakes before driving the rest of the way to the mountain house!  Thankfully, our drive was easy breezy.  My parents, who had left about an hour behind us, didn’t have the easy breezy drive that we had, though.  More on that later.

When we arrived, per usual, I did a little house tour for Instagram stories, and I also took a bunch of pictures because… this was my favorite mountain house ever!!  It was just the perfect mix of mountain-y, modern, and quaint, and we couldn’t have loved it more.  I don’t typically post this many pictures of a house, but I just had to capture every single bit of this space because it was seriously the cutest! 

I had a lot of people DM me on Instagram and ask why we always get such big houses when we go to the mountains and the answer is – because the vast majority of the rentals in North Georgia are big.  Occasionally, we will stumble upon smaller houses that are better suited for our family size, but the majority of those are not in good shape (to put it nicely).  Haha.  So really, we don’t have much of a choice.

We also got a really fantastic deal on this one, too, because it was a brand-new listing.  It had zero reviews when we booked it (which is risky in itself), so the owners had it priced waaaay cheaper to encourage people to stay there so they could build their reviews.  Brian told us to enjoy the house during our time there because he looked at what they’re charging now and we’ll never be staying there again.  Hahahaha.

Anyhoo, here’s the house!  They had live plants everywhere outside and inside (I’ve never seen live plants inside an AirBnb before).  And they had everything all decorated for fall, too!  Those are real pumpkins on the front porch!

When you first walk in, there’s a HUGE dining room table on the right and it opens up into the family room on the main floor.  Look at those gorgeous vaulted ceilings and that light coming in the kitchen!

In the pantry, they had the cutest little coffee and hot chocolate bar with all the fixings… their attention to detail was impeccable.  We were so pleased with this place, y’all!

The master bedroom is right off of the family room, and it is just the quaintest little room.  And check out that bathroom!  It was gorgeous. 

 

The master bedroom also has its own entrance to the back deck, and we were quite pleased with the view!

Also on the main level were two more bedrooms, a shared bathroom, and a laundry room… also super cute and quaint.

Then downstairs in the basement was another entire house!  The basement was HUGE, and it had a nice TV/lounge area, a ping pong table, a wet bar, a bedroom, a bathroom, and the cutest little reading nook under the stairs that I didn’t get a picture of.

The back yard was amazing, too.  There was a huge deck that could be accessed from the main floor, and it had a big table, and then you could access the area beneath the deck from the staircase on the deck or from the basement below.  That area was FULL of twinkle lights (my most favorite thing, y’all know!) and they had Cornhole and Ladder Ball for us to play.

Further down into the back yard, there was a set of stairs and then a big fire pit area where we would sit around and roast marshmallows and such.  Seriously a dream!

Anyway, enough about the house and back to the trip – after all of the pictures were taken, we got everything unpacked and settled in.  My mom and dad were less than an hour behind us, so we decided to play some Cornhole and Ladderball in the back yard while we waited for them. 

Well, unfortunately, there was a terrible wreck on the main road coming in, so my parents sat in that for hours without moving.  Once they were finally almost to the wreck, they had to be completely rerouted along with 10 miles worth of traffic, so they crawled the rest of the way until they could get back on the road they needed to be on.  They ended up getting there about three hours behind us.  Sheesh.

The original plan was for my parents to stay with the kids while B and I ran to the grocery store, but when we realized it was going to be a while before they got there, Brian just made the trip to the grocery store by himself. 

When my Momma and Daddy finally made it to the house, I greeted my them with a glass of wine because I knew it was much-needed after sitting in that traffic for hours upon hours.  Haha.

My mom had made spaghetti for us to have for dinner, so once they got the tour of the house and were finally settled in, we started heating the spaghetti, making the noodles, tossing the salad, and making some garlic cheesy bread to go along with it.  While the oven was preheating for the bread, my dad noticed that smoke was pouring out of the oven, and when he opened the door, there was a big fire inside.  We hadn’t even put any food in there yet, so we had no idea why it had caught fire.  The scary part was that it was a gas stove, so I was terrified the whole thing was going to explode.  I HAAAATE gas stoves – they scare the crap out of me – so I honestly didn’t know what to do.

As soon as my dad opened the oven door, the whole house filled with smoke and the fire alarms started SCREAMING.  Olivia hates loud noises, so that in combination with the fire really freaked her out so I sent her outside with Jacob.  Meanwhile, my dad was trying to get the oven rack out as the fire was on the rack as well as in the base of the oven.  He managed to get the rack out and then he used a damp towel to beat the fire out inside the oven.

It took a while to get it out completely, so all the while smoke was just pouring into the house.  We opened all of the doors and windows and when I went to check on the kids Olivia was full-on bawling.  She was so scared.  I felt so bad for her.  I picked her up (which is no easy feat because she’s almost as big as I am!) and I snuggled her close.  It was a whole ordeal.

Meanwhile, Brian was contacting the owners to let them know what was going on because we didn’t know if the smoke alarms were going to notify them or the fire department. 

My dad finally got the fire out, and once everything had settled, the smoke alarms finally went off.  Upon inspecting the oven rack, we saw that there was a bag of Chex Mix – yes, A BAG – all melted to it.  Apparently, the people who had stayed there right before us thought it would be normal to put a bag of Chex Mix in the oven?!  Anyhoo, the moral of the story is – ALWAYS CHECK INSIDE AN OVEN BEFORE YOU TURN IT ON TO PREHEAT IT!! 

It has never actually occurred to me to do that before because I know that there aren’t going to be any foreign objects in ours at home, so I would never think to do that anywhere else either.  So, here’s your PSA, friends – ALWAYS LOOK INSIDE THE OVEN BEFORE YOU TURN IT ON.  Haha.  So crazy.

Whew.

By the time that was done, it was almost 9 PM and we still hadn’t eaten dinner.  Thankfully, they had toaster oven, so we were able to bake our bread in that since the oven was a mess, and then we finally sat down to eat. 

And that was the last time we cooked anything at the house!  Lol.

My poor parents… they did not start out this trip on a good note.

By the time dinner was done, it was late, and the kids were exhausted since they’d been up early for school, and poor Olivia was still freaked out from the fire, so we let them watch some cartoons while we cleaned up, and then we sent them to bed.

B and I lounged in the living room with my parents for a bit after that, and then we all went to bed, too.

 

Thursday, October 6

Thursday morning we woke up to temps in the 40's!  

After breakfast and showers, we all piled in one car and made the drive to Tallulah Gorge.  The hike down into the gorge was gorgeous and a bit intense as we had to hike down the mountain and then hike down 310 steps to get to the suspension bridge.  When we reached the staircase, Olivia saw the sign and said, “Warning, strenuous trail?  LET’S GO!!!!”  Hahahaha.  She’s always down for anything.

The hike down was definitely strenuous, but the view was so worth it!  The suspension bridge was a little unsettling as it’s suspended over the canyon and it hangs from cables, so it shakes as you walk across it.  Olivia got a quarter of the way out there and she immediately turned around and ran back.  The shaking really freaked her out.  Eventually she braved it, though, and she made it all the way across. 

We spent a few minutes on the bridge taking pictures, and then we made the hike back up the 310 stairs, stopping a couple of times to take breaks.

After our hike, we drove over to Helen for some Oktoberfest activities.  First up, was lunch at Troll Tavern.  We ended up getting a table outside by the river, and we enjoyed some German beers and food.  The weather was just perfection and it was so, so nice.

Up next was the Georgia Mountain Coaster!  B and the kids and I had ridden it a couple of years prior, but my parents had never ridden, so we wanted them to experience the fun.  Jacob rode with Brian and Olivia rode with me, and this time Olivia let me go fast the whole time.  The last time we pretty much rode the brakes all the way down.  Haha. 

Once we were done at the coaster, we did a little bit of browsing in the stores, and then we watched the polka band play for a bit.  And I will never not think of Home Alone when I hear polka music.  Hahahaha.  #PolkaKingOfTheMidwest    

Once we finished in Helen, we made the drive back to our house, and on the way back, we stopped at the Old Sautee Store, which is an old 19th century general store turned gift shop.  They had soooo many historical items in that little shop and it was really neat to see all of the old stuff.  Look at that old safe – it’s from 1834!  Almost 200 years old! 

We passed the one local donut shop – Cowboy Bob’s – on the way back to our house, so of course, we had to stop there, too, and pick up breakfast for the next day.

Back at home, we played Cornhole and Ladder ball for the rest of the afternoon and then we made tomato soup and toasted cheese sandwiches for dinner.  We ate on the back porch so we could enjoy the sunset.

After dinner, we sat around the fire pit and roasted marshmallows for s’mores.  The weather was just perfection the entire trip and we truly couldn’t have asked for anything better. 

The rest of the night was spent snuggled up on the couch watching Hocus Pocus 2 (for the second time for us!) because my Momma and Daddy hadn’t seen it yet. 

And that was our first full day!  I’ll be back to recap the second half of the trip soon! 

Happy Monday, y’all!