Mimi's Visit (Flashback!!)

Remember October? Ah..it was a great month. Let's revisit it shall we? (I am soooo overdue with another blog, but cannot write anything more recent until I post about Mom's trip!)

Back in October, Mimi visited us to spend a little time with Jonah and see the FABULOUS colors that come along with the fall season here. We hung out at the house and played, drove the Blue Ridge Parkway and went to the Boone Heritage Festival. It was a whole lot of southern Fall fun!

We filled one of our days to the brim because of the beautiful weather! First we headed to an overlook above our town. It is such a neat view and our small town feels even smaller. At that same park, Jonah climbed on his "favorite rock". He was pretty proud of himself.
 

Next we headed to the farmers market and the Heritage Festival. Jonah stopped to show a bunny one of his choo-choos, and then we continued on our way.

The festival is held at the same location that the Horn in the West production is performed every summer, so it looks like a little township set up around the outdoor theater. There were all sorts of things going on including musicians having a jam session and story tellers. There were also old cabins to be explored.

 

 

 

Here is Jonah inside a little cabin shed. He even got Mimi to join him!

 

 

There was a great example of fall colors across the street, so we took a few pics before we drove onto the parkway.

 

It was a bit hazy on the parkway that day, but it didn't hide the grand scope of it.

Oh how we LOVE it when Mimi comes to visit!!

Trout Lake

Getting out into nature is not necessarily my forte'. However, we happen to live in one of the most picturesque areas of the country, so I have been trying to break out of my natural tendencies. The last month or so, we have explored the great outdoors only a stones throw from our house (alright...5-10 minutes away, but close enough!). The first adventure was around Trout Lake a few weekends ago.

Jonah and Mama walking the trail, and Jonah climbing his "favorite" tree.

 

We came across a stream and spent a lot of time there.

 

Watching the leaves travel on the water, under the bridge.

When we got to the lake side, we watched horses walk along the trail and Jonah stirred the leaves  in the water.

 

On the walk back Jonah got a little weary and had to catch a ride on Daddy's shoulders. He sat for a while on a tree that a beaver had carved out and then finished the outing with a snack.

 

Tweetsie

Tucked into the mountains, just minutes from our house, is a family amusement park called Tweetsie Railroad. It is an old west themed park with a huge engine as one of the main attractions. We live so close to it in fact, that all day long we can here Tweetsie's whistle as it chuggs along and can see puffs of smoke from our living room window as it winds through the hills. As close as we are, we had yet to visit Tweetsie because it can be quite an expensive venture. That all changed last weekend when in less than two days we received free passes to the park from a sweet lady I barely know AND our cousins the Custers called to ask if we wanted to join them for the day when they made the drive from Greensboro. Yes!! At 10 o' clock on Saturday we made the 4 minute drive to the park.

Here is the engine that we hear and see all the time. They keep it really shiny and clean, despite the coal bits floating in the air. See, the engineer is cleaning it at the station.

 

 

The very first thing we did was ride the engine. Here are the Custers and a very excited Jonah! It wound through the beautiful mountains and made a couple of stops so actors could act out wild west skits.

 

 

After that we headed up the hill on the chair lift to the little kids ride area. Jonah loved the chairlift and you couldn't beat the view, going up or back down.

 

 

The kids area had rides for Jonah and Wade's ages, a theater to see skits and musicals, and a petting zoo. The boys took advantage of just about everything and warmed up to each other too.

 

After lunch we headed over to the petting zoo where the boys got to feed goats, pigs, deer, and llamas. Well, not so much the llama. He was weird and giving everyone the stink eye. There was a baby goat that got out of his pen that Jonah got to really bond with.

 

Hopefully we can save up and get a season pass for next year. There was so much to do and we are so close that it seems like a shame not to. Hopefully this has tempted all of the Cousins to come and visit us in North Carolina next summer too!

Day at Claytons Beach

Even though we were on vacation for a week on an island, we only spent one day at the beach! It was ridiculously hot the first few days and, as you'll see, not everyone thought the beach was all it was cracked up to be!! (Thanks again to KC for some of the photos.)

My very own personal cutie-patootie.

The beach at Claytons, a bar and grill on the water where we got fish tacos and pina coladas for lunch.

If you remember from our vaca earlier in the summer to Kiawah Island, Jonah was not a fan of the ocean. Playing in the sand was great, but the waves...not so much. Well, I'm not sure what changed since May, but he was all about the water this trip. With Mom, with Dad, or alone he spent a majority of the time in the water.

 

 

 

 

Most everyone spent some time in the water, even Cuz Noah went in with his Mama a bit begrudgingly. The Texas Smiths were pro's.

 

This was really Noah's happy place that day. Everyone else could have the sand and water.

A big attraction for the kids, Lord only knows why, was a lovely puddle near our tent. We'll refer to it as a "tide pool" instead of the hot, bird bath that it really was. Auntie Bec was a good sport and accompanied the kids. Thanks Bec!

 

We tried to get a picture of all 4 cousins at the shore. It's a pretty accurate account of how they felt about it.