The Rest of our Weekend~

After our pancake breakfast on Saturday morning, we loaded up the van and headed to the mountains.  The Blue Ridge Mountains are SO magnificent in the fall.  The splendor of God's creation is most evident to me during this season. Oh, how I LOVE the fall.  The colors of the trees, set against the Carolina blue sky....well, I just don't have the words to describe it.

It took us longer than our anticipated 2 hours to get to where we were going, as the winding road going up the mountain was bumper to bumper with all the others who had the same idea as us!  So, we just rolled down the windows and enjoyed the mountain air as we gazed at the colors that surrounded us.  When we were coming up to 2:00, we decided to eat our picnic in the car instead of waiting 'til we reached our destination. We were still in the mountain air, surrounded by the beautiful colors, right??? And keeping the tummies full and little ones happy is a priority. :)

About 3:00 we arrived at our destination and started with a small nature hike through the woods.

This photo was not posed.  Kate and Charlie are such sweet buddies!

Kate finds some fall leaves

Littlest brother with biggest sister

Our "twins"

Posing by their favorite tree

     

Then we headed up the mountain to the mile high swinging bridge~ the highlight of a visit to Grandfather Mountain!

The breezes at the top of the mountain were BRISK and it was COLD!  Quite a change in temperature from lower down where we took our little nature walk.

Grace and Daddy at the very top

All of us after blowing walking across the bridge

Oldest sisters

And the baby sister

 All too soon, our glorious day came to an end, and it was time to head down the mountain.  We had planned to stop for dinner in the quaint town of Blowing Rock, but due to the crowds we continued on and ended up stopping at a Cracker Barrel closer to home.  The hearty "home" cooking hit the spot, and the younger children were able to warm up with some hot chocolate there as well.  

And needless to say, we all slept well that night!

Sunday morning dawned another beautiful day, so we snapped some pictures before leaving for church. 

Littlest sisters

These 2 sisters share an extra special bond

And one last photo of everyone after our Mexican food lunch

 And then, before we knew it, we were saying goodbye, as Emily headed back to school with her wallet a little fuller {smile} and hopefully, her heart a little fuller as well!  Thanks for coming home, Emily!  It was SO good to see you!  And we miss you already and love you to the moon and back!