So..thanksgiving.....

Even though I am still recovering from the flare up in my hip/leg that the drive gave me, I would not trade our yearly trip to NC for nearly anything. We look forward to it every year, spend a lot of time just hanging out with my brother, and his family, as well as my sister and hers. Rarely, do we even do that when they are here......
This year B took us to Pilot Mountain.
Gorgeous.
Rumored to have been a lookout point for indians and pioneers. I believe it. You can see nearly forever from up there. We spent some time at the lookout point, then hiked up to the "knob". If we wanted to , yeah right, we could have gotten a permit to climb the rocks to the real actual top.
nuh-uh. Not happening.

So nothing profound in this post...just fun pictures...

My brother's boys did not tag along...just my two and the nieces.

K and S on an "elbow" tree.

Love this one.

From the lookout. If I was better at direction I could tell you we could probably see Virginia or Tenn. on the horizon. Literally it was like looking out on the ocean horizon we could see so far.

Considering the lore of the indians and pioneers it was almost creepy how many profiles we could see in the rocks. This one was the most real - forehead, nose chin, mouth and the moss even looks like hair. Perhaps the indians are right, the spirits do still live inside the rock.

Sis and her hubs - a rare nice shot!

The dude. Who could not get enough climbing.

At the bottom of the knob..up up up....

At the over look...

A shot from another path the kids did not venture down, just us grown ups. I totally did not climb over a fence to an illegal area to get this shot...nuh-uh not me...

Me and my hubs.

Another illegally gained shot....

Well maybe this is where I get profound.
These two.
I adore them.
The three of us have certainly lived, experienced, lost and loved a lot.
I am so darn proud of both of them.
I looked at my "baby" brother over that weekend, cooking, working around his house, parenting...and just could not get over the man he has grown into. I still look at him occasionally and think I expect to see the young boy I used to drag, literally, out of bed by his feet.
Then there is my sis - whom of course I see more often, so don't tend to ponder as much.
She is so strong and it amazes me daily what she accomplishes some days.
I know Mom is looking down beaming from ear to ear to see these two.
To see what they are maturing into.
The giving, caring, strong, loving people they have become.
I wonder if anyone who knew my parents as the teenage parents they were,
ever expected three wonderful, mature, giving back,
providing for their families, and much much more adults,
to come from that union?
Sometimes I look back at the childhood the three of us had,
and wonder how on earth we all came out so well!
God is good.
Good things do come with time, prayer and patience.
I am so glad for the place we all are in our lives right now.
Just wish we weren't so far apart most of the time!