A Family Getaway...

On December 29th, Tony took a day off so that we could do something fun as a family.  We needed a getaway so we headed out to Winston-Salem and Pilot Mountain for the day.  We started our morning with hot Krispy Kreme donuts which the girls loved.  They begged for more, in fact Reece's exact quote was, "If I have one more donut I will be hyper enough not to whine on our hike today."  Good try Reece but that did not work.  We headed to Old Salem after our yummy breakfast and walked around the town and visited the Old Salem bakery and got some of their sugar bread.  We grabbed some lunch at Subway and then headed to Pilot Mountain for some fun hiking.  The girls LOVED all the rocks and were quite the rock climbers and adventurers.  We did one trail twice because it was so much fun for them and then hiked along another trail and saw some rock climbers repelling.  We sat and watched them for a while and the girls were fascinated.  We hiked about a total of 2 miles and the girls did great.  Tony and I had visited Pilot Mountain this summer by ourselves and although it was very nice, Tony and I agreed that this visit was much more exciting.  We ended our day with dinner at "The Depot" restaurant in Cody Creek (this was a place Tony and I visited this summer and loved) and then drove through a light show in Winston Salem.  It was a great family day and was much needed by all.  

The bridge leading to Old Salem.

The baker making fresh sugar bread, YUM!

We saw this billboard and had to go back and take a photo.  It is a gun shop advertising that liberals are welcome.  We got quite a laugh out of this.

Then further down the road we saw another billboard for the same gun shop.  Again, Tony turned around so we could take a photo. 

Reece determined to climb up on this rock by herself.

She made it!

 Reece trying to do some rock climbing of her own.

 Forging their own trail....

 Tony and the girls enjoyed forging their own trails and got pretty high in some places.  Can you see them in this photo?

 Tight Squeeze...

 How low can you go? 

Please rocks, do not fall!

The girls holding this rock up...

 More forging...

 Hello up there!

 Regan looking for some pet snakes. 

 

 Tony hid up in this ledge and the girls could not find him.  I told them he went on up the trail.  So, they started plotting on how they could scare him and then Tony yelled "boo" and scared them all. 

Regan on the ground laughing after daddy scared her good!

 Our little monkey....

 Right after we posed for a picture a rock climber came up over the ledge.  It was quite startling.  It would have been funny if he came up right when we were taking the photo.

 Tanglewood Park Light Show

 They had the Carol of Bells playing while you drove through this section.

Chick-fil-A used to sponsor a light show near where we used to live and we made it a tradition every year to drive through the light show.  But, the light show was discontinued about 5 years ago and we have not had anything local since.  So, it was nice to take the girls through this light show.