Birthday, Biltmore, & Thanksgiving

The end of November was a fun time for us. We got to celebrate Jason's birthday and travel to North Carolina for Thanksgiving. Jason enjoyed his cookie cake that I made him as well as the new additions to his wardrobe :-) I spared him and did not put 29 candles on the cake this year...I'm almost certain that last year I put on 28 haha. We left for North Carolina 2 days after his birthday.  When we arrived we rented a car and headed to Biltmore, which is near Asheville, NC. We stayed one night at the Inn on the Estate and were able to see the house with all the Christmas lights and decorations. We also went to dinner at the Inn. We got all dressed up and had a great time. It is probably one of the only times we will go to such a fancy place haha. The food was amazing and the service was wonderful! We counted it as a mini honeymoon along with our trip to Jackson we took earlier in the month. We also went on a tour of the winery and were able to walk around the gardens. After Biltmore we went back to Raleigh to have Thanksgiving with my sister. It was nice and relaxing. The trees were colorful and it was pretty warm out compared to Idaho. We went hiking and enjoyed the weather. Thanksgiving was full of yummy food. Everyone ate too much as usual and enjoyed some football and dominoes.  We also got to go see the Rockettes. I thought it was a great show. I think Jason enjoyed parts of it. He is always a good sport! And you can't go to Raleigh without going to the Farmer's Market restaurant for breakfast!  That is one thing that Jason misses from Raleigh. He had a couple waitresses come over and ask how he has been.  (I think that means he went too much...) He said it meant he was a loyal customer haha.  We left the day after Thanksgiving and didn't get to do any black Friday shopping (one of the few years I haven't gone.)    

Below are some pictures. Although for some reason I didn't take any on Thanksgiving :-( 

Jason and his cookie cake (see only 10 candles)

4 new shirts - super exciting bday gifts!

my attempt to write happy birthday...

Jason in front of Biltmore

Entrance of Biltmore

Biltmore - so pretty and amazing

Biltmore at night

pretty tree outside Biltmore

Trying to take some pictures of ourselves

Jason studying the beauty

One view of the Inn where we stayed

Picture of the clock at the winery

Another view of the Inn

We walked around outside and then rested in the chairs haha

And me resting

View from our chairs

This was where they had a blacksmith and some old farming equipment. 

More of Biltmore at night (you couldn't take pictures inside but  we got to walk
through 42 rooms and it took us 2-3 hours to see everything )

The gardens. Not much growing at this time but it was still pretty

We walked to the bass pond and little waterfall

The water was so flat and pretty

poinsettia tree in the greenhouse.

Winter has started!

Not sure how it got to be November 12th already!!! Time has been flying by. Here in Idaho we seem to have gone from Summer directly to Winter. I think we had one week that had fall like temperatures. Since then it has cooled off a lot. It has been freezing every night and we have had a little snow on the ground a couple times now. Today it tried to snow on and off. Nothing stuck to the ground, but it was very chilly and windy with a high of only 32. It is getting harder to get out the door at 5am to make it to the gym with it in the teens in the mornings; however it is very nice having a garage so I don't have to scrape my windows every morning :-)

Over the past month we have been pretty busy. Jason was in Alabama for a few days toward the end of October. We also made a trip to Texas to remember a wonderful lady, Jason's Grandma Mayme who passed away. I was very blessed to get the chance to meet her this past summer. She was a great person who was full of life and touched many lives. I also had parent teacher conferences at school, which always makes for long days, but they gave us last Friday off as a comp day. It was one of the few Fridays that Jason and I both didn't have to work so we headed to Jackson for a weekend get-a-way. We stayed at Spring Creek Ranch which was beautiful. It snowed covering everything in a blanket of white. There is nothing more peaceful than snow falling sitting next to a warm fireplace. (my opinion) We stayed Friday and Saturday night in one of the cabins. We were able to spend some time at the National Museum of Wildlife Art, walking around town, visiting a campsite in the Elk Refuge, and just relaxing!  

Jason has had some "drama" at work this past week so it has been a little frustrating for him. He was on lock down on Friday and was a little grumpy, BUT the Ski Swap was last night and his mood quickly changed when he found some skis to ensure his winter be filled with skiing fun! I also found some pretty cheap skis. My level of approval is much lower being a beginner skier who has only skied two other times. hehe. We are looking forward to Thanksgiving so the slopes will open and we can get skiing. 

I finally took time today to finish organizing and unpacking my office. I have the bookshelf in and I got a small table for my scrap booking things. We are getting there with getting the house in full living order...maybe next year we will start furnishing the basement :-)  

One week from today we will be flying to NC for Thanksgiving. Three and a half weeks until my parents visit for an early X-mas and only five and a half weeks until we will be heading to Texas for Christmas :-) The kitties never like us this time of year because they don't get very much attention. They usually forgive us over time. haha. That's all for now. Pictures below of our adventures!

Kitties sitting at the back door watching us in the backyard.

Fall colors in the back yard.

One of the great sunsets from the backyard.

Outside the Wildlife Art Museum in Jackson 

Pieces in the museum

Outside the museum they had lots of statues.

The enterence

Our room. Jason playing with the flue

Other view of the room

Our cabin. We are the bottom right room.

One of our rocking fires.

We ate dinner at the snake river brewery in Jackson

It snowed!

View from our room in the morning. We were right next to the pond.
The building is the restaurant.

The restaurant from the above picture. The Granary. We ate breakfast here.

View from our table to the Granary

Inside the Granary

Road to the campsite we drove up to in the Elk Refuge

Walking around the campgrounds just for fun.

Pretty snow :-)

Jason throwing snow at me. 

Our famous self portrait.

Our drive home from Jackson on Sunday was very snowy.

My finished office 

Another angle

and one more

Our "new to us" skis. 

Relax and Travel

Well it has been a couple weeks, so an update is only right. The last weekend in September Jason and I decided to head to the corn maze is Shelly, ID. (It is only about a 15 minute drive) They say that the maze has about 7miles of walking trails and there are 4 different mazes within the big picture that they create. Some may say it is cheating, but they do give you a map and you have to find the punch stations that are numbered. I'm glad they do or I would be the one lost and spending the night in the corn haha. The other day on the news or somewhere online I read that a family called 911 because they couldn't find their way out. (Can't remember where, but not in Idaho) Frightening... Anyway we had a great time. It was a beautiful day in the low 80s and bright sunshine. We then went to Buffalo Wild Wings (one of Idaho Falls newer additions) for some beer and football :-) It was a nice relaxing weekend.
Last weekend we were in Wisconsin for Jason's friend Nathan's wedding. We flew out on Thursday and were back late Saturday night. The weather there was beautiful as well and the leaves were starting to change. It reminded me of NY in the Fall and made me miss the Northeast Autumn. The wedding was a blast and it was nice to finally get to meet some of Jason's friends from college. One day I hope to actually see where he went to college or one of the Texas A&M games, however the last few weeks have been rough for Jason and his team that can't quite seem to pull off a win despite the decent playing in the first half.  Although they pulled off a win today so he was in a good mood hehe. While away is Wisconsin Jason and I missed the first snow in Idaho Falls. I got a text from my friend who was watching our cats that said we had about 2-3inches on the ground. She said all our neighborhood kids were building snowmen. I'm a little sad I missed it but when we got back the hills and mountains around still had snow so I got to see some white. I know I'm a little crazy but I do like snow and enjoy seeing everything covered in a blanket of white. Jason will be making snowmen in our backyard with me this winter, he just doesn't know it yet... haha.
The weeks seem to fly by lately I think because school/work has been so busy and we always have things to do. I have a training on Monday in another new program we will try to implement in our school. Sometimes I wish the people that came up with these "genius ideas" actually knew what it was like inside the schools, but that is just my opinion.
This weekend was another weekend of taking it easy for us. We mowed the lawn and finally pruned our rose bushes...or what we call pruning...We hope they come back next year. We are trying to be good home owners and keep our landscaping looking nice...we have some learning to do though...
I made a cherry almond cake with some of the cherries we had froze from our cherry tree and tried to work on my scrapbook some.  We also cleaned out the garage a little and I finally finished staining the bookshelf that I started back in June...(oopps) I am hoping to get it into the house in the next week and maybe finally finish my office and unpack the totes of books stacked in the corner.
Tomorrow will be a day of grocery shopping, cleaning, and church. Jason just found out he will be going to a meeting in Huntsville, AL not next week but the week after. I also just found out my parents will be visiting in December. I am soo excited!!! I don't think I can ever get enough family time :-)
We are still excited about our trips in November to Jackson and NC.
Not many pictures this time but a few of the maze and the wedding.

Cool looking clouds 

The reflection on the wall from out front door

Jason taking on the maze

Side ways view of the maze.

me punching the card at a check point

Getting ready to enter the green maze

Jason trying to fold the pocket square thing, looking handsome in his tux

I had to add this. Look at Jason in the middle sporting
 his suspenders and having a grand old time

At the wedding