The Biltmore

We  planned to go to the Biltmore in Ashville, NC about 2 hours away on day 2 of my families visit.  But sadly, Kari became very sick.  It actually turned out for the best because it was super rainy and the next day was nice and sunny.  So day 3 we headed to Ashville, NC.  

The Biltmore was amazing.  We weren't allowed to take pictures of the inside.  I was kind of sad about that, but then I realized I would have taken way too many pictures.  So here are the outdoor photos and what I remember from the audio tour of the Biltmore Mansion.

This was the view from one of the balconies.  The Smoky Mountains are those dark blue hills in the distance.

We purchased umbrella strollers for the twins to ride in instead of taking our huge double stroller.  We had to carry them up and down stairs so this worked out great.

Here's the crew.

The Biltmore is just huge.  I remember it had an indoor pool that took 3 days to fill and warm up.  They would swim in it for a day and then drain it.

There was a two lane bowling alley, fitness room, a huge library that looked like the one from Beauty and the Beast.  It even had the spiral staircase!

One room was King Louis the 14th or something...anyways it was decorated in reds and velvets.  It was where Mrs. Vanderbilt gave birth to her babies and it had a bassinet in the room too.  There was a balcony that looked over the gardens.

There were separate changing rooms for men and women and secret doors.
Back of the bus picture.

Kira and Kari hanging out.

The architecture is just amazing.

Cheese.

The four of us.  Kari, Melissa, Me and Michael.

Me and Melissa

After the tour we left the estate so we didn't have to pay $20 for a burger.  We ate at Zoe's Kitchen.  Mmmm good.

I got the steak sandwich with caramelized onions.

Nels bought the kids a frosty and fries from Wendy's across the street.  Isak thought it was fun to feed Nels the fries.

Then we headed back to the estate to look at the conservatory and grounds.

So Michael was absolutely wonderful with the babies.  He was always pushing one of them in the stroller or carrying them when they got fussy.  Wow!  I don't know what we would have done without him.  Thanks Michael!!

Pretty flowers.

The boys and the babies.

Kari, Melissa and Me.

We noticed this plant named St. Anthony's Rick Rack and we thought of our home town St. Anthony, Idaho.

There was a lot of walking.  I am glad we went when it was sunny instead of rainy!

Nels remembers the elevator in the mansion.  It was an Otis and still ran on the original motor!  Also, the stone was from a quarry in Indiana and the foundation had stones 19 feet thick...or something like that.

Melissa up on the balcony.

Nels, Melissa, Michael and Kari.

Me and Isak.

The babies were troopers.  They were pretty happy for the most part.

Holding both babies is pretty hard!  I need some more muscles!  :)

The end of the trip Melissa and I took some goofy pictures...

And there's our ride.  Nels did a great job driving us all over the place!

It was a fun trip and I am happy I got to go with my sisters and Michael!

Sisters and Nephew Visit--Day 1

Finally Blogging again!  March has been very busy.  Two groups of visitors and Nels traveled two weeks too.  So to catch up...our first visitors were Kari and Melissa and Melissa's son Michael.  They came at the beginning of March.  We had a blast and I am so happy they came to see us!!

Here's some pictures of our adventures.  

Melissa found this Giant head called Metalmorphosis during our search for things to do in Charlotte.  So we drove by to see it.

 It was a pretty amazing art piece.  It was also freezing cold this day!  The wind whipped right through us.  The girls didn't bring coats, but luckily I had one for each of them to borrow.  Here's my one armed picture of the group...group selfie??

 Sisters holding my babies.  Isak and Kira loved all of the extra loves.

 Melissa and Kira.

 Me and Michael.

 We met Nels for lunch at Jim and Nick's BBQ.  I ate all of the cheddar biscuits.  Mmmm.  Later in the day we went to the Mint Museum in Uptown Charlotte.

They had some very interesting pieces of art.  Here's a few....oh and I took them with my new Samsung point and shoot camera.  Yes, I took back the Nikon...and I am glad because I love the Samsung.

 Ties with shovels.  We had fun coming up with reasons why the artist did this.  It was a display of  Ralph Lauren's fabric design from the 70's.  One reason we came up with was it shows the transition of physical labor jobs to desk jobs...what do you think?

 View of Charlotte.

 Babies and Kari looking at art.

 This room was cool with art made with crystal.

 This was my favorite--a bunch of different staircases in the crystal.

 The gang. :)

 Trying out the zoom on my camera.

 This is without zoom...I think the zoom works pretty well especially with the lighting to capture the details above.

 I still remember this piece of art even after a month.  It was just so weird!  It reminded me of a potato  growing sprouts.

This was another one that made me look twice...just different.

 A little blurry...me and Kira.

 The girls.  I didn't realize how dark my hair is until my sisters came!

 Nels was working...so it was just us.

 Group selfie with Charlotte in the background.

That was all for the first day.   Here's a random picture of Kira and Melissa.

February Happenings

Here are the pictures from February:

Isak loves to drink dad's smoothies.  He gets the cutest mustache afterwards too.

One warm day we loaded the kids up for a bike ride.  It almost looks like they are holding hands, but they aren't.

Isak doesn't look to sure about it, but Kira looks happy.

Oh Kira.  She loves to be outside. Isn't she just angelic??

"Yep, I am the man of the playground."  Isak walks around like he owns the place.  :)

Kira gives the biggest smiles and laughs while she is swinging.

Kira would often look over at Isak to see if he was having as much fun as she was.

Isak smiling.

A few more of Kira.

Just love this smile!

One weekend we went to Chik-fil-a.  Kira drank from the straw.

We went shopping to buy Nels some clothes.  I was in charge of entertaining the babies.  This is what we look like rollin' through the mall.  Ah!  Watch out!

Playing with the ipad.

Nels sportin' the bow tie he purchased during our shopping trip.  He tied it himself.  :)  It is not a clip on or a pre-tied bow tie.  He watched some instructions on YouTube and presto!

One day Kira could not fall asleep for a nap time. So I put her in the bouncy seat.  I thought she would climb out but within a few minutes she was fast asleep.  Reminded me of when she was a baby.

This was from a year ago.  How they have changed!!

The week of Valentine's Day snow came in abundance!

We stayed in pajamas the whole day and enjoyed soup.  Look at these cute babies!

Yes they drop goldfish on the floor and then eat them..

Since we didn't get to do any shopping for Valentine's day the babies worked with what we had...paper.  We cut out hearts and wrote down nice things about Daddy.

Like:  He reads to us, he snuggles with us, he gets out all of our giggles, he shares his smoothies with us and more. :)  Nels liked it.

And I am officially caught up!!!  I will have to take some more pictures soon!  Until then, have a fantastic day!!