Girl's Weekend...WOO HOO!!

The first weekend in the New Year, I was able to head to Charlotte, North Carolina for a much needed girl's weekend with my sister and our great friend, Christy. To start, it was nice to be on the plane without the kids. I could read, sleep, and not have to worry about my kids behaving!

Christy picked us up at the airport and we headed to Asheville, North Carolina. Asheville's about 2 hours away from Charlotte, up in the mountains. It was beautiful! On the way to Asheville, I saw a sign for Krispy Kreme, so we had to stop...

YUMMO!

In Asheville, we rented a super cute cottage with all the necessities, including a hot tub! We got settled, changed for dinner, and headed out to the Grove Park Inn to find something to eat. The Grove Park Inn is a beautiful, huge resort in Asheville. We walked around for a little bit, got a drink and snack in one of the bars and decided to head to have hibachi at a restaurant outside of the resort. Before we left, we had to get a picture in front of the gigantic fireplace in the lobby...

Me and Jess with our drinks and truffle popcorn at the bar

Jess, Me, and Christy in front of the fireplace...the picture just

doesn't do it justice!

A random chef taking a picture with us at the hibachi restaurant.

Good thing we were only one of two tables occupied in the whole

restaurant (they were closing early because of the snow) because

we were very giddy and laughing the whole time.

Cheers!

Outside the restaurant...you can see the snow coming down

After dinner, we went back to the cottage and enjoyed

some drinks (and more chatting) in the hot tub

We had big plans for the next day; shopping, pedicures, the Biltmore, and specific restaurants we wanted to eat at. We were definitely flexible that day because a lot of what we had planned to do didn't happen. A lot of places were closed because of the snow (it didn't snow much that day though!) and we decided, for how much time we were planning on spending there, the price for the Biltmore was a little steep.

We ended up eating lunch at Tupelo Honey Cafe (after a couple other places were closed), which was an awesome, southern-style restaurant. We did a little shopping in downtown Asheville...Tops Shoe Store and Lululemon (two of the only stores that were open) and I spent way too much money. We did find a place for pedicures that was open, so we headed over there for some relaxation time and then to the mall beside for some more shopping (although half the stores were closed in there as well). We ended up back in dowtown Asheville for dinner at the Lobster Trap, which was another great restaurant, and went back to the cottage for some more time in the hot tub.

Jess using the old-fashioned phone to call about pedicures

The snow-covered trees

This is as close as we got to the Biltmore Mansion:

Jessie's meal at Tupelo Honey: Shrimp and Grits

and the hard rosemary lemonade (yummy!)

Enjoying my Starbucks and wine during my pedicure

Me and Christy at The Lobster trap for dinner

Oysters!!

Christy loved her crabcakes!

When we got home, we were freaking Christy out

by walking and then sitting on the ledge, so

we decided to take a couple of pictures.

Our artsy picture

Christy and me in front of our cottage before leaving

The next day, we left Asheville and headed to Charlotte. We did some more shopping at a huge mall in the area and then met Christy's family for dinner. It was great to be able to see and spend time with Mike and the kids.

Jessie and Kendyl

Me, Kaitlyn, Kendyl, and Jessie

Me with Kaitlyn and Luke

The older sisters

For our last day together, we had planned to go shopping all day, have an early dinner, drop Jess off at the airport, and me at my hotel for my early flight the next morning. Well, the weather had different plans. Five inches of snow (and a layer of ice) later, both of our flights were cancelled, the kids were home from school, and pretty much all of Charlotte was shut down. We made the best of it, finding some places open, and went to lunch with the girls and a few stores.

Jessie and I were both able to leave Wednesday (I was scheduled to leave Tuesday, Jess on Monday). It was nice to be able to spend an extra day together, but we were both glad to get home. We had a great weekend of quality time and relaxation!