A Weekend in the Mountains

We just had one of the best weekends ever!! I have been wanting to see our mountains with all the fall colors for a long time. We planned to go see our good friends the Van Brederode's (who moved there in the spring) over Columbus Day weekend. About a week ago I talked to Darcie on the phone and she said the leaves hadn't changed much...so we were pleasantly surprised! It was incredible!!

We arrived Saturday afternoon and went on a hike to a peak that was suppose to have a 360 panoramic view, but it was too foggy and rainy. We enjoyed going out to eat at local southern diner with Rob and Darcie that night and catching up.

Rachel's reunited!Views from the Van Brederode home

Sunday we had gorgeous weather! We took advantage of it by driving around and taking lots of pictures. I also really enjoyed church that was a little "deerfront." We were welcomed so much that they were doing their best to convince us to move here.
We had a full day on Monday. We started off gem mining, which was a lot of fun. Rachel loved searching for the colorful jewels. And the scenery was amazing.


We then went to an apple orchard. It was pretty foggy yesterday so we missed out on the views from the orchard and it started to rain too. We did manage to barely fill two "pecks" of apples.
This was one of my favorite views of the Blue Ridge Parkway. It was just SO much color. WOW!
We were all wet, cold, and hungry. We found Louise's Restaraunt. Don't you just love that name? Chicken pot pie, corn chowder, mashed potatoes, baked apples, barbequed pork, biscuits, and homemade pie. Perfect southern country comfort food! I was more stuffed than a turkey!

This is Linville Falls. We had to purchase rain coats and as soon as we got them on, it stopped. As we totally expected. But it's good we still had them, with all the water that was dripping off the trees. Plus, I thought my "Poncho Princess" was rather cute!
Just beautiful!!! I only took 200 pictures. So I had to put them in a video. It may be a tad long but it was hard to narrow down. It was all too picturesque!

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Disney on Ice

Jake bought tickets months and months ago for a birthday present for Rachel, so this has been a long anticipated event. It was a great show and Rachel loved every second of it! On the way home she asked us if we could do it again tomorrow.
The princess number was for sure a favorite, but she may have enjoyed the Halloween one more
We saw our good friends the Carter's there. We tend to have the same great ideas...we saw them at the zoo over Labor Day too. Their seats were just a couple rows up from ours. Rachel had fun seeing Layne and Rian and would turn around after ever number to make sure they liked it too.

Fiesta Mania

Fall seems to be the time of festivals around here. The first one we went to was Festival in the Park at Freedom Park with our friends the Larson's. I'm not sure how much fun the kids had. Even though it was overcast, it was one of the hottest days I've experienced here. It was mostly the humidity.I'm not sure if you can tell, but Rachel's hair is pretty soaked with sweat.

Then yesterday we went to a Festival that was put on by a local Presbyterian church. I was really impressed and we all had a lot of fun. The weather couldn't have been better. Plus, everything was free from the pony rides, jumping castles, magic shows, to cotton candy, popcorn and ice cream.
We met up with Rachel's friend Ava and found we had unplanned twinners. Two cute!

Tommy was not too sure about this. He wouldn't take his eyes off the pony.



With all the junk food in their little tummies I thought for sure they wouldn't eat dinner, but they ate it all. Amazing.

Our whirlwind Utah trip

My youngest sister, Brittany, got married last weekend. Even though I have a few pictures, I didn't take nearly as many as I wanted to. We flew all day Wednesday and enjoyed the dry, pleasant, mosquito-free evening. On Thursday I put together all the bouquets and boutonnieres and went to the wedding dinner at the Lion House. Friday morning was the wedding, putting together the centerpieces and other arrangements, then the reception.
I LOVED working with these beautiful fall colors. I might just go into business, but then again, I'm not sure I can deal with that kind of stress on a regular basis.
Brides are Rachel's most favorite thing. Brittany made one gorgeous bride!My adorable red princess.
The niece and nephews and the new Uncle Ben
My handsome boys. And the looming storm in the background.
Their cake.
The centerpieces
This little guy couldn't get any cuter.
Despite the light rain and strong winds it was a beautiful night. The full rainbow was spectacular. I thought the bride and groom looked pretty classy holding the umbrella too.And a typical amazing Utah sunset.
This is Rachel peeking out of her room window looking down on the big farewell. Too cute. She of course came down and didn't get to bed till way late. I think this trip is the most sleep deprived my kids have ever been.Such a cute little helper that next morning
Then off to go boating at Utah Lake for our Herway Family Reunion.
She's getting a little too mature for me.
Jake's brother Steve is headed out to New Jersery to serve a full time mission for our church for two years. His sister Nicole just got back from Paris after serving her mission for 18 months. Jake hadn't seen his other sister Natalie and her family for 3 years, since they live in Texas. So it was a fun reunion to be all together again...and it was no small miracle that it worked out.
Last time Rachie went boating she whined the whole time. This time she was all giggles and smiles, she LOVED it.

Great Grandma Packer, teaching the girls how to do headstands and somersaults.

That Saturday night we went to the BYU game against Florida State, which was a huge upset. But it was still a lot of fun for me to be back on my old stomping grounds. I sure miss that place.

And here we are, all the Herways (and Portugals)...a picture worth a million bucks to Anita, my mother-in-law :)
Rachel and her cousins Bryn and Scarlet.
We flew back to Charlotte all day Monday. I really really wish we could have stayed a few days longer, but it was great to see EVERYONE in our families in those few quick days.

"Uh-Oh"

The culprit? I'll let you guess.
After an hour of scrubbing there's still a hint of rainbow visible. This happened in a matter of a couple minutes! Tommy is fast, destructive and all over the place. We're about to fly to Utah and I don't know how we're going to manage with that kid. We're going out for my sister's wedding and a Herway family reunion. So friends, I won't get to see you, but I love you and we'll be back at Christmas time.