space exploration at yates mill

Oliver saw an astronaut costume at Target and immediately decided that's what he wanted to be for Halloween. He kept talking about it so I finally got him the costume. He wanted to wear it everywhere, including to bed. After the preschool Halloween parade at school, we went for a walk at Yates Mill. Oliver insisted on bringing his costume and had fun wandering the woods, pretending he was on the moon. It was such a beautiful fall day.

Blue Ridge Parkway: Scenic Views

We continued driving along the Blue Ridge Parkway, stopping at many of the scenic overlooks. Every view was stunning. We stopped at a trail head for a hike to a different waterfall, but it was longer than we thought so we continued on to Mount Mitchell.

sky meadows

After picking pumpkins at Hollin Farms, we headed down the road to Sky Meadows State Park. We did a short hike that provided fantastic views and lots of cows. 

Elsa took an unfortunate step.

The kids loved playing in the hay and the tunnels. Ben and I loved relaxing in the grass, enjoying the perfect fall weather.

cox farms.

My kids die over the awesomeness of Cox Farms every year. I have to admit, it's a pretty amazing fall festival, especially if you can catch it on a less-crowded day. Which is harder and harder to do each year. But the festival keeps getting bigger and bigger every year. (By the way, if you go in the future, be sure to buy your tickets online. There is no fee and we were able to walk right in. The ticket line was more than 50 people deep.)

We had fun meeting some friends there a few weeks ago. The favorite for everyone is the crazy hay ride with lots of fun gimmicks and the silly corn maze with all kinds of fun surprises. Oliver was in love with the slides and it was hard to keep up with him. He was headed right back to the top the second he hit the bottom.