Pumpkin Patch

Last week Jonah and I went with our mom and tot group to Red Wolf Farms pumpkin patch. To refer to it as just a pumpkin patch is a bit of an understatement. It is a real working farm that also does tours for kids during this season. There was so much to see and Jonah is getting to an age where he really enjoyed it.

The first stop of the excursion was to see all of the animals. They had pigs, goats, chickens, bunnies, calfs, and "creek" creatures (turtles and stuff). Jonah got to touch them all and was excited to see each new animal. (He was really well behaved too. No pushing, waited his turn, and followed directions. I was really proud of him!)

 

 

 
Personally I loved watching him feed the chickens and the calf the most. He held a handful of chicken food with one hand and would dole out the pieces one by one with the other. The chicken waited patiently for him.

 

When we went over to the calfs, he had a great time with one in particular. He went up to the fence and stuck his finger through the slats. The calf would lick his finger and as he moved the calf would follow. Too cute! The leader then lined all of the kids up and let each one of them hold the bottle of milk for another hungry calf. Jonah wasn't afraid at all.

 

We also walked down to the creek that runs through the farm to see the "wild" animals like the crawdads and turtles. (The turtle was just a shell, and Jonah kept trying to get the crawdad to crawl into his hand cause he thought it looked like his "catter-pitter".)

 

After we saw all the animals we took a tractor ride over to the pumpkin patch and play area. Jonah is crusing along next to his little buddy Simon. (They are soooo cute together!!)

 

Jonah took off for the pumpkins as soon as the tractor stopped. (Literally...a worker had to run after him cause I was still on the tractor.) He thought he was a big enough stud to lift a pumpkin himself. Not quite kiddo.

 

We ended our time at the farm with a little running around, a little playing in the corn and wheat boxes (in lieu of sandboxes) and a little tractor racing. All in all, it was a great way to spend a morning.

Jonah's ABC's

The other day, we went to the outlets to do some shopping.  While waiting for Vanessa to finish checking out clothes at Gap, Jonah and I broke out in song.  Well, maybe that's a bit of an exaggeration, but I did get Jonah to sing his ABCs.  He missed a few letters, but he did a pretty good job.

The video is very quiet, so you might have to turn up the volume to hear Jonah singing.

A Boy and His Bug

Please do enjoy Jonah and his "catter-pitter".

 

Woolly Worm Festival

New fun fact about the area we live in. A nearby town, Banner Elk, is the home to the annual Woolly Worm Festival. Being accustomed to cute, little town events in Iowa we thought we would take an hour on Saturday and check it out. Boy were we in over our heads!!

The 34th annual festival has grown over the years into an event which draws approximately 20,000 people over 2 days. (By the way, Banner Elk is normally a town of about 1,500) People even come from nearby states to race the infamous Woolly Worms. Folklore has it that Woolly Worms can predict the severity of the upcoming winter. The overall winner of the races is the one the prediction is made by. (You can look it up on Wikipedia) Over a thousand worms are raced and the winner gets 1,000 bucks!! Anyway...the traffic into town should have been an indication of what we were in for since a 17 mile drive took over an hour. (Let me also mention that I am going to TRY to give a more "cheerful" account of the days highlights. When we decided to go, Jonah and I were both getting over colds and were fit to be tied. Poor Andrew just went down with a sinking ship.)

Jonah was acting silly walking into the event and was having us essentially "drag" him there while holding our hands. Right inside the gate was the first attraction. Woolly Worm cutouts to pose in! Jonah actually wanted to do this so we got some cute pictures. (However he did have a fit when we didn't do it over and over. Another fit happened when we said he couldn't play with the dogs at the "doggie daycare" located right next to the cutouts since it was a daycare and not an attraction.) 

After that we headed over to the kids play area. They had a giant inflatable wonderland set up, which happened to be too old for Jonah (and too expensive). We settled for a "wee" right next to it.

 

We attempted to get some food after that. Again, we were not prepared for the scope of this thing and had to leave to get money before we even started. Fair food prices were in place and a simple bite to eat turned into an undertaking with lackluster results. Jonah did get corn on the cob to eat though, which is always a pleaser. Amongst the tents of the several hundred craft vendors was set up of a couple of women with huge birds. I don't really know what their purpose was...but Jonah is a boy and got to see a big bird.

We figured we should actually see the main event before we left so we went next to the worm-race-area. Again...look at the size of the stage. There are 25-30 worms racing up vertical strings all day long. I don't know if there is any actual training involved or just luck. (Look really closely at the second photo and you can see the worms on the strings.) Jonah and I looked on with wonder.

Since the day was kind of a bust in the worm department, and we had really talked it up in the morning, we decided to buy Jonah one on the way out. (Mind you, you can find these guys everywhere, but vendors make a killing off of them!) In the end I was so glad that we did in fact get Jonah one because he became a little obsessed with it. He was oh so gentle with it and had a lot of playtime with his new friend when he got home. (Next blog!!)

Fall is Falling

Last weekend we decided to take a drive on the Blue Ridge Parkway to take a closer look at all of the changing colors. Man O Man was it beautiful!!! Growing up in Fresno my Nana and Papa used to take me to Woodward Park each year to look at the leaves. (woohoo!) I liked it but always thought it was funny that you had to go to a specific place to see them, like seasonal decorations. When Andrew and I moved to Iowa we were blown away by how much more color there was in the fall. Bright red's and golden yellows were everywhere. Then we moved to North Carolina and the Blue Ridge Mountains are blowing everything else away!

The colors themselves are highlighted by the sheer size of these mountains. Our elevation here is slightly lower than Shaver Lake's, but the mountain ridges go on and on and on. Everything seems wider and grander. Here are the boys with the Thunderhill Overlook behind them. It seems so vast but manages to be so peaceful too.

Jonah is into climbing now, and being as how we were on a mountain, he was able to find some really great rocks to crawl on. I found some really cool trees. (Aren't they kind of artsy? I don't know. I just really liked them.)

The coolest part about our little jaunt that day was that it was only about 10 minutes from our house. No packing up the car. No day trip. Just a ten minute drive, for the heck of it. Crazy that this is our reality now.

Walks with dad...

Recently, Jonah and I have been taking walks when I get home from work.  This gives him time to get outside and burn off some energy.  It gives me time to spend with Jonah.  And it gives Vanessa a (sometimes) needed break.  Here are a few pictures from a recent walk down the street.

This is the face he made when I asked him for a BIG smile.

He likes running on the "yeddow" line (as he calls it).  Fortunately, our place is on a dead-end street so very few cars ever drive down.

Jonah is still obsessed with letters and points them out everywhere.  He is starting to learn to spell and read a few words.

Jonah has become quite the jumper.  He's always trying to jump off things.  Fortunately, he's generally pretty good about knowing when he needs me to catch him and when he can jump on his own.  Here's a series of shots from one of his leaps off the stone "wall".  He didn't quite stick the landing.