fall in the mountains.

There was never a chance for a weekend trip to the mountains and I really wanted to experience the fall colors there. So I decided to take the kids out of school one Monday and make the long drive for a day trip. The kids and I left at 5 a.m. (Ben helped me get the kids loaded up and then he headed out of town for work that week) and made the 4 hour drive to the mountains. The weather was perfect. We hopped on the beautiful Blue Ridge Parkway and stopped at some scenic overlooks. We hiked Mount Pisgah. It was a 3 mile hike with a pretty good elevation gain. The kids were such good hikers and it was so great to be outside with them, enjoying the beautiful views and colors. They loved climbing on all the rocks and thought the giant antenna at the top was pretty cool. The people we passed on the trail were all so nice (and usually pretty shocked when they saw me with 5 kids). They gave me lots of words of encouragement (calling me wonder woman, mom of the year and telling me I was doing a great job). They cheered for us when we made it to the top and as we went back down, people coming up the trail said they had heard about the mom with all the kids from people that had already gone down ahead of us. They told me I had become a legend on the trail. Pretty funny, but it was nice to encounter so many kind people. If only they had seen me trying to help Simon poop on the side of the trail! (With Ruby on my chest, I was trying to help Simon get his pants off. Then I told him to squat and he thought I said squawk so with pants down, he started squawking like a bird. It was pretty funny.) Hiking with the kids was easy because we were all happy to be outside. The real mom challenge was getting them all in bed when we got home at midnight. Ugh.

After our hike we stopped at Looking Glass Falls and walked around a bit. The kids like climbing on all the big rocks in the river. Then we stopped at Sky Top Orchard but we didn't have the energy to pick apples so we just enjoyed their delicious fresh apple cider donuts and the most refreshing apple cider slushes and played on their fun playground.

Our final stop of the day was Ikea. It was a little crazy to stop there at 8 p.m. with all 5 kids but we were passing by so I took the chance. The kids were actually great and had fun playing in all the displays. I picked up some odds and ends and some Christmas stuff and then we hit the road for the 4 hour drive home. It was a fun adventure and we all slept well that night.