nate and fiance

nate and katie came out to see us this past weekend. (hence the lack of posts) the main reason for the visit...to show off katie's new ring! ;)

here are a few pics from their visit. we were able to get some drinking, good food, wii fitting, football, shopping, tubing and basketball in. yep, it was pretty jam packed.

sweet mountain

brian and irina arrived friday evening and we had waited to eat dinner with them. they arrived around 7:45 and we were out the door by 8. we decided to treat everyone to makotos, a japanese steakhouse here in boone. it was the first time for most and everyone had a good time.

brian brought his wii wheel and we played a little mariokart after dinner. it was the first time we played with three players. really not a fan of the four-split screen. a little too chaotic for my taste. we did get to play angela and family for the first time. we kicked a little butt, i'm not bragging at all! ;)

saturday the weather finally cooperated and we were able to enjoy the mountains in full force. aaron had read in the paper that sugar mountain resort opened it's ski lifts for scenic summer rides. you can either hike or bike the trails. the lifts are rigged to carry bikes up. it was crazy seeing them float by. well, after a 20-25 minute ride up we decided to hike down. even mom managed to keep up, she even passed us at one point. here's the sugar flickr set. as you can see we all had a great time.

after hiking we headed over to sugar grove for their annual music festival. we caught the carolina chocolate drops and the kruger brothers. it was brian and irina's introduction to bluegrass. and i think they both enjoyed the music. when we arrived home, the weather was still great that we decided to get a little fire going. we sat outside, cracked open a bottle of wine and enjoyed the evening chatting.

so that's how our sweet weekend wrapped up. we didn't plan everything around sugar, it just happened. and before i forget, my mom picked about 10 gallons of blackberries. literally. our counter tops were barely visible, she had bowls and jars everywhere. luckily she took it all with her. poor brian had to haul it all back to maryland. another sweet item.

mario mania

i'm just a tad addicted to mariokart. yesterday i unlocked all the characters which means achieving star level on all the courses. aaron asked, "what is there left to do?" plenty. there's still vehicles to unlock and double-star status to achieve on all the courses. when that's done, there's speed records to beat. it's endless. thanks nintendo for creating video game crack!

wii bought one

as you know by now both brian's household and mine got nintendo wiis for christmas. it was quite a surprise, neither one of us had any inclination we were getting them. i had sworn off video game systems after buying a ps2 for aaron a few years ago and he played it a handful of times. so far he's played every day. if there is any down time or nothing on tv (which seems to be all the time now) he plays wii sports. i don't know if it's because the games are more interactive than other game systems but the nintendo seems to be a better fit for him. one of the main reasons i like it...it makes me laugh watching how serious he gets when playing and how funny his gestures are. (see above)