Day Three On The Mountain

The third and final day at the mountains meant packing up for one last trip before heading home. But before we did, it was goodbye to the room and the river and the boardwalk overlook view we called home for a weekend. Of course we needed a few pictures.



And because I couldn't decide which one was cuter: exhibits A and B.




As you can see we kept most of the pictures a little ways away from the water, what with us holding two small children and a camera all at once. It's there in the background, though. Up next, proof that you can either get two babies to look at a camera or smile, but seldom both at once.




As promised, after checking out we headed to Hillside Orchard Farm, a place with more jellies, jams, spreads and locally made food items than a Wal-Mart warehouse. They also have animals, tons of pumpkins and gourds in all sizes, shapes and colors - pretty much everything you might expect from a large, commercial family farm. Even old farm equipment, a performance stage and small gem mine. I just hope to go one year when Buxton is old enough to race through the corn maze, or maybe even try out the haunted maze they have at night in late October.



Those rabbits were everywhere, which was fun to explain. We also saw baby goats, hens, turkeys and this mule, which Buxton not only tried to touch but out-"hee haw."



I'll admit I'm as prone to hyperbole as the next person, like when someone says that this or that is so big it's as big as just something incomparably bigger. But this place honest to goodness had mountain apples as big as a person's face. Don't believe me?



So many pumpkins. Where to begin?



We let each of the little ones pick out their own pumpkin, which Aunt Anna may still need a little getting used to. Especially when a little girl becomes enthralled with a green pumpkin with a scratch mark.




We even found out that both pumpkins bounce, a fact perhaps not lost on Buxton who by all appearances felt this pumpkin needed prayer and the laying on of hands.



And just as our trip came to an end, something even more remarkable than all our adventures and two babies who never once cried for home, arrived. Well look at that. Maybe you can get a baby to smile for a camera.