Vollmer Farm Back Forty!

The weather has cooled off a lot just in time for the first of October, and just in time for the fall opening at Vollmer Farm, which is about 45 minutes from us.  During the fall they have a really neat area called the Back Forty Palyground.  (During the summer we went to Voller Farm to pick blackberries and blueberries)

It has so many great things to do for both Avery and us, we wish we'd got there with more daylight left so we didn't have to rush to do everything!  We skipped the pumpkin patch and hayride and went right to the "playground"

We could have taken a tractor ride to the area, but instead we walked using their wagona to get to the area and Avery pointed the way!

It was forty acres of playland that will surely wear out a kid!  With chocolate still on her face from the homemade ice cream stand, Avery ran around from place to place there! 

Avery rode the "Tot Rocket", a zip line for toddlers

She saw what it was like to become a train engineer

She rode pumpkin car swings

Colleen and Avery rode the Moo Train Express, and the tractor actually pulled the train pretty fast!

We took turns going down the 80' high tunnel slide (You go fast, you slide on a burlap mat!)

 Colleen aimed for the prize with the sling shots (if you get the bean bag through the pumpkin's nose you win a free drink)

We all jumped around on the 2500 sqaure foot Great Pumpkin Jump

 Avery walked through sunflowers

and showed off her "personality" by making faces at the camera

Colleen found a rainbow

We played in the Corn Box

Daylight was fading so we couldn't do the corn maze.  Next time!  Then we roasted marshmallows over the bonfire before we got ready for the barnyard movie.  They were playing Land Before Time, and we got some snacks and watched it for a little while

But we got bored with the move way before Avery did, we didn't realize how dull that movie is!  (Avery like it though, she kept pointing at the movie and saying "Dino!").  So we headed out about 9pm to drive home and rest up before our 10-mile run tomorrow as part of Colleen's half-marathon training!

Pink Shamrock 5k and Horseback Riding

On Saturday afternoon awe ran in the Pink Shamrock 5k race, sponsored by The Hibernian Irish Pub in downtown Raleigh in the South Glenwood Avenue area.  It was also put on by 1in9 which is a foundation dedicated to easing burdens for those women diagnosed with breast cancer (Hence the Pink for breast cancer and Shamrock for the Irish Pub).

Here we are ready to race!

We ran together and Colleen knocked almost a minute and a half of her 5k time from her last race...and the course was really hilly!

Our cousins Christine and Charlene signed up as volunteers for the race and joined us for the after party...the Hibernian set up a beer tent with free beer and free food (Bangers & Mash and Shepard's Pie) plus a band playing.

They didn't have free Guiness at the post-race party outside so we went in to get a Guiness before we headed out.

Sunday we drove up to Triton Stables in rural Durham County for Colleen to get her first of two horseback riding lessons.  (The two riding lessons were actually Jim's birthday gift to Colleen last November)  Before the lesson started Avery went and petted some of the horses

Here is Colleen walking the horse out of the stable and to the field

And here she is riding

Afterwards Avery helped Colleen feed the horse.

We capped off the afternoon Sunday by donig a 9 mile jog around the park and neighborhood as part of Colleen's half marathon training!

Weekend in the mountains

Last weekend we rented a cabin for the weekend up in the mountains near Grandfather Mountain in Linville, NC.  It was a nice two bed, two bath mountain-top cabin with a great view from the back deck.  We went up there with Colleen's cousins Christine and Charlene who live near us in Cary.  It was a dog friendly cabin too so Kylie joined us on the trip!  Avery got to visit Tennessee for the first time ever on this trip too!

Here is the great view from our back deck (where there was a hot tub too!)

Kylie enjoyed the view too!

The cabin was great, it was all hardwood with huge windows out back overlooking the mountains

 The first day we went apple picking at an orchard name Alta Pass which was on top of a mountain with a great view!

Avery rode with mommy in the backpack while Kylie ate cores off the ground! We gave Avery an apple and she loved eating them fresh off the tree, just like us!

 Here are the cousins, Christine and Charlene enjoying the apple picking

After we went picking we drove the Blue Ridge Parkway and enjoyed some great views before the sun set.  We then put Avery to bed and we all enjoyed some relaxing time in the hot tub on the deck with some beer and wine.

The next day we went first drove a few miles to hike to a waterfall called Elk Falls right near the TN/NC border.  It was in US Forest Service property a few miles off of US-19E.  What a great waterfall, listed by the USFS at 45' high, with a great clear swimming pool at the bottom!!!  (In the summer it will be great to come back when the water isn't so cold)

Not one to be afraid of the cold water, Kylie loved playing in the water and chasing her water toy, litterally bounding in and splashing into the water each time!

Jim played around with different shutter speeds to try and get different effects from the waterfall.  As mentioned in a photography guide book, this water is beautiful but hard to photograph because it is open/exposed and it is impossible to eliminate the sky in the background.  Oh well, it was still fun for him to photograph:

 We then hiked just a very short distance downstream to a set of smaller pools and rapids.  Avery loved playing the little pools (She had her cool Keene's on of course), and didn't mind that her feet were in chilly cold water.   She loved picking up rocks and throwing them into the water and saying SPLASH!

We were so close to Tennessee that we drove across the state line so Avery could pick up another state on her list of states she's been to:

Then we got a great photo on the reverse side, AVERY COUNTY NC!

Then we ate lunch at a patio in a really neat little mountain town called Banner Elk at a place called Bayou Smokehouse.  They are dog friendly, have a great patio, and the staff even gave Kylie bowls of water and lots of petting.  Oh, and the biscuits are amazing there too!

After lunch we went to another waterfall located at a really out-of-the-way spot!  We drove 8 miles on a gravel road through the mountains (In thick fog too!) to a waterfall near a little town called Globe, NC.  It was a thin peacefull fall with a little ankle deep wading pool at the bottom that of course Kylie got soaked in!

Then we drove back up 3000 vertical feet on another 8 mile gravel foggy road to probably the neatest town in the region called Blowing Rock.  It was so foggy we couldn't even got a good picture of it, but it is a real artsy town and almost all the shops are all pretty stone buildings and tons of art galleries, cafes, craft shops, etc.  We ate pizza in town for dinner and headed back up the winding private road in the fog to our cabin.  We then enjoyed another night sitting on the hot tub on our deck enjoying some relaxing beers.

The next day we ate lunch in blowing rock at a restaurant called Canyons which normally has an expansive view, but was socked in with fog!  Dang.  If you go there, the Buffalo Shrimp was a very unique item and was very good!  It has quite a history, it's been a speakeasy, a brothel, a casino, a grocery store, and now a restaurant and bar.  This is the best photo we could get with our iPhone, the peaks of the taller mountains were hidden by the clouds.

Then we hit the outlets near Blowing Rock before we headed back home.  It was a quick weekend trip but very fun and relaxing!