Road trip to Asheville, NC

I was determined to see fall in Western North Carolina and if we get early orders I didn't want to "wait til next year" cuz when I do that we move then we miss it......it happens every move it seems.
I planned a quick two day trip to the Asheville, NC area. We packed the cooler, and some movies and headed to the west!


We stopped in a park in the town of Hickory, NC for lunch and some playtime.....then back on the road towards Brevard, NC in hunt for Looking Glass Falls.
According to Addison and Brady this is the ONLY way to swing. Brady found a nice puddle of water at the end of a slide here too...woops!

Pisgah National Forest

We found our way! What an amazingly beautiful ride we had through the mountains in Asheville to get to this point. The kids even stopped watching their movie to 'oh and aw' over the colors. Amazing....and pictures, on my camera at least, just don't do them justice.

I had never seen a real life God made waterfall.....plenty of man made ones, but really wanted to see a real one.....and now I have!

Looking Glass Falls.

Reagan and Brett posing. They were happy to climb down the rocks to get a picture taken!

I'm sure I looked all a mess.....Scott's one bit of advice was, "don't lose a kid while you're looking at the leaves!" So I had to oblige....yep, Brady's on a leash. Had never used it but when I found out that to get to the waterfall you just pull off on the side of the winding road and walk along the side til you get to the look out, I decided it was for the best....and Addison, well, she'd rather I held her all the time anyways so she was perfectly happy in the Ergo!

We'll have to go back in the summer to wade in the water!

Gorgeous there....
around....
every turn!

Mountain Fresh Orchard apple stand

Awww.
Awwww.
Peek....... a-boo!

Pretty gourds.
Pardon my planning, but during my research I discovered that North Carolina is a top apple producing state and that the county we were in, Hendersonville, is the top apple producing county in North Carolina. Jackpot! We were surrounded by orchards! We stopped at this apple stand to pick some yummy apples before heading to the hotel. Brett is the honorary apple chooser outer. Here he is with his half peck of apples!

Quality Inn and Suites, Hendersonville, NC

Well, I chose a hotel based on them having an indoor pool. Wouldn't you know it wasn't working! The crappy part is they didn't tell me, not even when I checked in so we were all in our suits and got to the gate and saw a sign that said, "Closed. Chemical imbalance." I thought Brett was going to have a chemical imbalance! I was less than impressed that they didn't at least tell me when I checked in...would have saved us from getting our stuff on and hopes up! They had a putting area and arcade so that did the trick, then we headed back to the room for our weekly movie night......the Addam's Family was on.

No they didn't all sleep in the same bed, but they were snuggled up with their Daddy bears and dogs and were watching a movie.
Another must have at the hotel was free breakfast! I got plenty of looks when I was juggling four kiddos between drinks, making waffles, getting yogurts, and buttering toast. One lady just kept commenting on how busy I must be, and how full my hands are, and how brave I was to be doing this alone with four kids. I KNOW she checked for a ring on my left hand to see if I was married. I finally kindly stated that my husband was in Afghanistan she replied in a concerned voice with, "oh, I pray he comes home safe." On the outside I said, "thanks, us too!" On the inside I was thinking, "thanks lady, my kids didn't need to realize that not coming home safe was an option!" Oh well. We enjoyed our manic breakfast and then headed back to the room to pack up.

Grandad's Apples

The apple stand was fun and fit into the little time slot we had available on Sat. evening, but I wanted to go to a full fledge orchard and Grandad's was just down the way from our hotel.

The kids loved the barn and the scarecrows and the tractor on the silo!


Friendly farmers!

I had asked Addison if she wanted to pet the dinosaurs....this is the look I got!

Not sure how the dino's fit into the equation but they were fun for the kids to look at. The llama's didn't seem to mind them either.

Brett and Addison getting some food for the llamas.

Big brother lifting Addison so she could put her food down the chute.

Brady on the fence watching them eat. They like the Llama, Llama books so we made up some fun rhymes. From Brett, "Llama, Llama wants MORE mama!!!" Nice try....out of change, bud!


We got pulled around the orchard in these cow barrels. We opted against the corn maze....all of my visual outcomes with that weren't good ones. They really enjoyed the barrel ride though!

Pumpkins, pumpkins, we like pumpkins! (song from Barney on the Farm...shoot me!) Like it or not that's the song that came to A & B's minds when we were walking through the rows of pumpkins! We didn't purchase any, ours were already at home.

Posing nicely on the wagon.

Brett at it again....filling his bag with the perfect apples.

It's hard to see the color definition in this pic but this is the view from the back of the barn....beautiful....minus the backhoe. We had apples coming out of our ears, but had a fun time there. We took a brief walk through the orchards. The ones closest to the parking area were picked over but they were loading and unloading crates of apples while we were there so those must have been from deeper into the trees.
We jumped in the car and headed to find the North Carolina Arboretum.....

N.C. Arboretum

We found the Arboretum with no problem, paid our $8 per car to enter and were welcomed by some beautiful fall scenery.

These trees lined a small hill that separated two parking lots......perfect sunlit leaves all dancing in a row.
We just played on the hill for a good half hour. The kids had a blast! Brett said, "Mom, don't you wish we would have brought our rake?!?" What a goof.

Buried big kids.

Can you find Reagan?

How about Brett?

Brady throwing leaves.

Addison throwing leaves.

Four happy kiddos.....Brett had just chugged a Kool aid and had a nice red mouth/lips/teeth....lovely.

They could have played all day on this hill, but I figured we better see what was inside.....!

In the leaves.

Just one last thing mom....rolling down the hill.

Well, we went inside and the nice lady let us check out an explorer pack. It had a net, binoculars, a magnifying glass, pictures of bugs and leaves and a map.

We found a love tree!

And a fort someone had made....I wouldn't let him go in it. I wasn't up for pulling him from the rubble if it toppled over. We turned many stones and logs and didn't find any good bugs to look at with the magnifying glass.....darn.

Pretty leaves.

Interesting leaf.

Colorful leaf. Reagan and I were in search for the best leaf....these were some contenders.

View from the back side of the Arboretum. We really should have married in the fall.....

Sisters......and Reagan with her biggest leaf! Now, on to find the Blue Ridge Parkway.