Ducks, Views and Gems

We started the morning feeding the ducks. (Mackenzie and I had taken a practice round the evening before, but as 38 ducks were getting closer I was getting more nervous because the food was gone and I'm leery of birds anyway. We took reinforcements with us for the morning feeding.)

We set out on the Blueridge Parkway. The views were breath taking. I loved hearing the girls get excited over the beauty of God's creation. They have fallen in love with autumn and seeing the leaves show off their vibrant colors. We stopped at Blowing Rock to take in the views. (I think the girls would have been satisfied to stay there and climb on this one big rock all day!)

Our next stop (after lunch of coarse) was at Emerald City. We took a tour of their "museum" displays and then headed down to mine for gems. We still have to sort through the bags of treasures and identify which rocks are true keepers. (I figure they will all be labeled keepers if we leave it up to the girls :)

Another full day of fun and exploring ended with three very sleepy gals, 2 exhausted parents, and two grandparents with a plan of sleeping in late and catching up with us at noon the next day.



misc. funnies from the day...

When we arrived at our hotel it was a corner room and had two different views. As Mark and I were admiring the mountain view we heard Haleigh from the other window. "Oh yeah! Look at that, we can see McDonalds!!"

During the car trip the girls were making up stories for their monkeys to act out. We overheard Sophie's intro, "according to legend..." It was a blast for Mark and me to just listen at the stories unfold in the back seat.

The final posting of our trip will follow once I get the pics from Mark's phone, my battery died in the camera and I didn't pack the charger.
toy store,"grossology" exhibit, apple orchard and boat tour