LABOR DAY 2017

Up early on this holiday to get started on our adventure. Hubbie or I have never seen all the beautiful waterfalls around our area so today we are going on a hike to see Triple Falls and High Falls in the Dupont State Forest.  We met daughter, son-in-love and g-daughter I and d-in-love , g-son and g-daughter R at 9:00 this morning to begin our adventure.
We arrived early enough to get parking spots in the parking lot which as we left was  overflowing with cars.
This was a beautiful, cool morning for a hike and we all had so much fun and enjoyed this beautiful place very much.
Pictures are better than a thousand words so this will be a many photo blog post.

 One and two falls.......

 Three of the Triple Falls ...

 High Falls.......

Covered bridge on top of High Falls.

What a wonderful day ,we hate to hike back down the trail to the cars. Even after an almost 5 mile hike !!!

We had some tired little girls when we stopped at Soli Luna in Laurel Park to have lunch.

We made it home at 3:00 and I got the weekly laundry started and then hubbie and I attacked our overgrown yard. We have several unwanted vines overgrowing some of our shrubbery and while hubbie ran the weed eater I clipped and pulled and made huge piles of the unwanted vines for hubbie to haul away.

#2 son and Tif stopped by for a visit and scavenged some old wood for a project they are making.
By the time chore time rolled around hubbie and I both were ready for a break from our yardwork.
After chores I finished laundry and then after writing this blog post I went for a long soak of my sore hips in a hot tub.
I am so grateful for the wonderful day God blessed us with today and for the blessing of  a wonderful family to do this life with !!
God Bless and Good Night.

APPLE FESTIVAL FUN SUNDAY

Up and out to get chores done this morning and get ready for church. We cooked potatoes and corn on the cob before we left .
Church was good and we had 3 folks join our church  family this morning, all the Glory to God.
We came home for lunch with #1 son's family of smoked butt from yesterday , corn , potatoes,green beans, fried okra and slaw, yum !
After lunch hubbie went down to help #1 son move a sectional couch up stairs . G-son took this pic .

G-daughter got her own room now and looked like such a big girl on her new bed.

Son bought new furniture for the  downstairs and hubbie went back down to help get that into place
.I sat and enjoyed a relaxing afternoon out in the warm sunshine, knowing these nice warm sunny days are numbered now it was nice to have this afternoon to soak it all in.
Hubbie and I did chores early and went  out to market to take our 2 hour stint of collecting parking money. Market makes quite a bit of money each year by charging festival goers $5 per car to park in our lot. Last year we made $4000 and we are hoping to do that this year .
Our time was from 6:00-8:00 this evening and we parked several cars to add to the pot.
Only one car with a couple young girls in it came in the exit gate and jumped out of their car and ran before hubbie could get to them to collect money. We figured is someone was that desperate it must be very sad !!!

 The empty market looked a little scary when we went inside to leave the things for the folks who are taking the tomorrow morning shift.

#1 son's family met us at the end of our shift and we all went up town to let the kids have some festival fun.
G-daughter won her own alien this year.

Well some one had to carry it !!!!

G-son met a friend , Walker , at the rides and was off on his own so not many pics of him except this one of him and d-in-love and g-daughter R sliding .

And he did take time to challenge his dad in this game while little sister watched.

He took one ride with his sister before Walker got there.

G-daughter R rode this ride on her own, she was mesmerized by all the lights after the ride started and was so funny with her arm up on the back of the seat.

We had funnel cakes with David and Linda , Walkers uncle and aunt and then headed home around 9:00.
It was a fun evening and the kids enjoyed it very much.
We ran into a lot of our farmer friends and they all said they had had a great festival so we are very thankful for the nice weather and huge crowds of festival goers on their behalves.
Very thankful also for a wonderful blessed Sunday filled with family and friends.
God Bless and Good Night.

BUSY APPLE FESTIVAL MARKET DAY

The 7am alarm is becoming to normal wake up time around here and even on this Saturday we were up and out for an early start.
I hurried through chores and hubbie and I headed out to market. If we don't get there early on this Apple festival day there won't be a place to park in the market parking lot and we will have to carry cakes a long way.
Daughter pulled in right behind us when we got there.
We got set up while Brenda , the market neighbor took care of g-daughter I.
Hubbie left shortly after to make a stop at Lowes for some lumber so he could come home and work on a new chicken tractor he is making from the camper cover we got a couple weeks ago and he is filling the smoker with a couple large butts to smoke all day.
Daughter stayed all day and helped and we were busy all day with some very busy streaks where it took both of us to wait on customers. G-daughter I slept alot this morning in a little bouncy seat daughter brought for her.

Katlin, daughters "little sister" and my adopted daughter came through to see g-daughter I and we had a nice visit. She is finishing up her masters degree at Duke .We are so very proud of her.

We took turns with g-daughter I and she was very good all day.
We walked up on the crowded street after market and made our way from one end to the other. G-daughter I was excited for her first Apple Festival trip !!!!

 

The streets were very very crowded and we only stood in line a couple times for some kettle corn and caramel apples. There were so many people filling the street we couldn't see what was in the booths for sale anyway.

We made it back to the market parking lot and our cars in record time .
Daughter went home and I went to Aldi for baking supplies for next week and a few groceries for lunch tomorrow. I made it home about 4:30.
It was really nice to get home into the quiet country after the crowded streets of town.
It has been a really nice cool, cloudy day today but no rain. The high temperature was 73 degrees today which made the perfect weather for the street festival. For all my apple farmers sake I am very happy the storm moved through quickly and gave them the really nice weather day.
Everyone is keeping a weary eye on hurricane Irma as she continues to churn across the Atlantic toward us.

It's anyone's guess right now which path she will choose and I know without a doubt the folks in the gulf are very concerned .

This day ended very beautifully as we finished up chores and headed inside for a relaxing evening.

Thankful for the blessings of this day and for the love of Jesus Christ.
God Bless and Good Night.

BUSY APPLE FESTIVAL FRIDAY

G-daughter arrived at 7:15 to get this day off to a good start.
Hubbie entertained her while I did chores because she wasn't interested in going back to sleep this morning.
I decided to fix her a bottle when I came inside and she drank 2 oz. and then went to sleep.
Hubbie and I had our breakfast then I got started on my baking for the day. Tomorrow is the Apple Festival Saturday but it's hard to guess what kind of sales I will have at this event.
I baked 12 caramel, 6 pound , 2 applesauce, 1 cherry pie cake and 1 pan of brownies before having a late lunch.
G-daughter hd taken another 2 oz bottle at 10:30 and her and hubbie had spent the rainy morning just relaxing.

Whew thankfully this will probably be the last day of this much cake baking for quite a while.

My back is hurting and my feet are numb after working all morning into the early afternoon before taking a break to have lunch.
I took a turn with g-daughter and she got sleepy so I put her in her swing and amazingly she took her paci and went to sleep for her longest nap of the day.

She has been fussy all day like her tummy might be bothering her  but she has eaten great today, taking over 3 oz this afternoon.
Daughter picked her up at 4:00 and hubbie and I watched the early news and waited out a rain shower before getting chores done.
It has been a rainy first day for the annual Apple Festival in downtown.

We usually go on Friday night for our trip to the festival but with the rain we decided to fore go that trip this year.
G-daughter R started her new pre-school today and of course she had no hesitation and seemed to love it according to other g-ma who took her today.

On this same day last year she started her Tuesday, Thursday play school at First Baptist , my oh my what a difference a year makes.

Harvey can't make up his mind this evening whether to leave us or hang around as on and off rain showers continued bringing the rain total for today to 1/2 inch.

I spent the evening icing cakes and getting things ready for an early market day tomorrow.
Thankful for today's wonderful Heavenly blessings.
God Bless and Good Night.