The Bishop Family: July 4th in Highlands

We spent the week of July 4th with my family in Highlands, NC. My aunt and uncle have a cabin there, and we got to use the cabin next door. Within just a few minutes of arrival, our butler came to welcome us.

I can't remember the last time my family took a vacation together (probably before I was in middle school), but we really enjoyed our time together. Will especially loved all of the attention he got, and he let me know by not needing me at all while we were there.

And of course the hat obsession was in full force.

The first day we were there, we went to eat lunch in town then came back to the cabins to chill and get ready for dinner. My dad, Wayne and Russell cooked some delicious steaks for us all the enjoy. It was Will's first time having steak, and he loved it!

We also celebrated Wayne and Russell's birthdays that night since they are a week apart.

Aunt Deborah made a delicious butterfinger cake.

The next day was the 4th, and we started the day off with a hike up White Mountain.

Will loved riding on his daddy's back!

Although sometimes being behind Daddy isn't always the best place to be...just sayin'.

The views were amazing.

That night, we went downtown in Highlands to watch fireworks from a large lawn.

Will loved them and kept saying, "da!" his version of "boom!"

The next day, my mom kept Will at the cabins while the rest of us (Dad, Russell, Uncle Mark, Aunt Deb, Molly, Whitney, Wayne and me) set out to go white water rafting down the Nantahala River. The only other time I've been white water rafting was in Costa Rica in college, and I was thrown out of the raft twice, so I was a little nervous. When we learned there was only one class 3 rapid at the end and the rest were classes 1 and 2, I felt better about it.

We had the best guide and were the only raft spinning down rapids and doing other fun tricks along the way. It took us about two to two and a half hours to get down the river, but the weather was perfect for it. We had a nice cool mist forming over much of the river which helped keep us from getting too hot.

Oh, and the 52 degree water helped with that, too.

All of us managed to stay in the raft the whole time, but we all got our fair share of getting soaked.

I was looking back at my man to make sure he hadn't fallen out of the raft since he was in the back with the guide and had to stand up for part of it.

We didn't know we were going white water rafting when we packed for the mountains, so we had to make a Walmart run on our way to the river. My five dollar pair of sunglasses didn't hold up to well in the rapids...