Biltmore in the Fall

We decided to take a quick day trip to Asheville and visit the Biltmore during leaf season. Here in the mountains we are in the peak or slightly past the peak of leaf season, but down the mountain some there are still mainly green trees instead of the brilliant oranges, yellows and reds we have up here. It was interesting to drive down the mountain yesterday and see it. I see it every day, but Chris doesn't so it was different. When we went to Biltmore in September A was upset with us because we didn't "go to the big house." She really wanted to go and we just wandered the gardens and the village on the estate. It was funny when we got to the estate because there was another couple with a little girl about A's age, who also referred to it as the "big house." We wandered through the rooms upstairs and the basement because A wanted to see it all apparently. There were a lot of people there so we had to wait in line several places and A wasn't sure about that. Normally when we go we don't have to wait in lines to see rooms or get down stairs or anything like that. They were putting up Christmas trees in the different rooms, so she was excited to see those. I suppose we'll have to go back once the Christmas trees are really being shown off and see them then. I think we'd like to try a candlelight visit this year, but we'd need to have an early showing.

After visiting the big house we went and walked around the trails at one of the ponds. It led to a waterfall. The waterfall scared A a bit (we're at the age where lots of things are becoming scary to her and we can't figure out why) but she had her Daddy so knew she was safe. We walked and met a puppy named Zeus and had a family of five mallards follow us around. Since one of A's favorite songs right now is about ducks (5 little ducks went out to play, over the river and far away, mommy duck said, "Quack Quack Quack," and 4 little ducks came waddling back. Repeat until you get no ducks coming back) she really liked the ducks following us around.

Once again, a few pictures are posted below, but a majority of the pictures are posted here.

A took this one, but I think it turned out well.

Pumpkin Carving

Well, after the horrid loss to Texas (it happens occasionally) we carved pumpkins. We sat out on the deck and carved away. A was NOT fond of gutting the pumpkins, and lost interest immediately after she was told to stick her hand in one and pull the innards out. NJ just dug in and we all had a blast. I even attempted to get A to help me by pulling the innards out, but no dice. A and I made a puppy while Chris and A made a "Jack" from "The Nightmare Before Christmas." Isaac and NJ made jack-o-lanterns, and a fun time was had by all. Here is a link of some of the fun pictures from the weekend. A lot of them are found on the previous two posts, but some of the pumpkin carving time are found on this site. :)

Today we had to say good-bye to NJ, and A went around the house looking for her. A was a bit cranky and very upset that NJ left. A did follow NJ around most of the weekend, so NJ was probably glad to leave since she is not used to being a "big sister." Yesterday when I took both girls to the store we were asked if they were sisters, and NJ declared them to be cousins. A then echoed her. It is interesting to see how they interact right now because A is undoubtedly the more dominant personality. However, since NJ is older, A chooses to do what NJ does and follow NJ. Chris and I imagine this will change once A grows a bit and has a sibling.

Anyway, it is time for me to take a shower so I'm going to go. Here is one picture of the carvings from yesterday though. :)

Pumpkin Patch

We went to a pumpkin patch today since it was beautiful outside! We also did the corn maze, which was surprisingly very good and long. It took us 20 or 30 minutes to get through it all and we didn't find half of the stuff they said was there. :)

Park Day in October

NJ and A moving beds inside

Hiding

Lately hiding has been a fun thing for A to do. We regularly have to find her in places. This morning while I was doing dishes,  A unpacked and repacked the bag with herself. It is fun to see exactly how small of a space she can take up.

Rainy Saturday

What do you do when there is nothing but rain forecasted and no OU game on? Well, we packed up the car with raingear and set out for Biltmore. We wandered around the gardens and A actually seemed kind of upset to not visit the house. We will hopefully go back in a few weeks and see the house decorated for Halloween, or at least once fall sets in and we have some pretty leaves to see. Here are some pictures from our wet Saturday.

A was uncertain about the topiary not eating her. We couldn't convince her to get any closer than this!

I do my homework!

This is what we regularly get told when asking A what she's doing. We have no idea where she learned the phrase, but are kind of disturbed by it. I mean, what 2 year old needs to do homework? She basically just sits at a computer and pretends to type or something along those lines, and it is really cute, but disturbing. I know that my work has recently instituted a "homework" policy, which I attempt to do, but let me tell you, I missed out by doing homework in school! I didn't realize that if you didn't do homework then you had time to do other things, you know this may be why I went to school forever.

I think that we are finally getting over our cold/allergies/sinus infection throughout the house. We are thinking it is more allergies, but because we can't get the load of gunk out of our sinuses it is turning into a sinus infection for each of us. We had a rather wet summer and so apparently the mold and ragweed count is astronomical. Who knew!?

Overall besides for working and attempting to keep a household together we haven't done much this month. We've been too drained on weekends to go many places. We also haven't really had the need, so we attempt to catch up on sleep. A even seems to go along with this plan often. Our other weekend activity has been watching football. A is quite intent on watching football and will often ask to starting about 9. As an OU ex-pat we were able to watch the OU/TU game last weekend on the internet. We should be able to get most of the games so we are excited.

Anyway, it is about dinner time so I need to go help Chris get that together. Hope all is well by you.