The Barn

Every October we take our glorious two-week Autumn trip to enjoy the cooler weather & changing leaves.

We had begun mapping out this Fall - the plan was to include DC in the trip, we haven't gone as a family in four years & it would coincide nicely with our U.S. History study this year. We came so close to booking a hotel when we decided to cancel our trip this year & put the funds toward sprucing up our backyard. We're tied into our home for several more years & would like a more useable space - extended patio, screen & fence. It will be totally worth it!

That being said, we're finally home in October to enjoy some of the local Fall festivities.

Every third weekend in October there is a property about 30 minutes from here & they hold a barn sale. We stumbled across it when we were in town two years ago (we had taken an earlier trip that year) & loved it!

We realized that last Saturday was the third weekend  of the month & decided to visit the barn sale again. It's grown in two years!!! I believe it's an extended family that hosts the sale on their property & all of the ladies do a wonderful job staging. I almost believed I was up north! (if it hadn't been 80 degrees!)

This. I want this. I LOVE this!

 

The barn. It's absolutely lovely.

  

This year they had a case with lots of homemade baked goods and they were also selling coffee.

 

That cake!!!

Ah, multiple photos, and, we get this. At least half of them are looking at the camera. After the fact I notice Jackson's shirt was up & Addison has a rhinestone under her nose. Yeah. Oh, why are their faces painted? That would be because I talked my family into going to the free Fall festival taking place at a local church earlier in the day!

Yes, FREE. All of it. There were bounce houses, games, people dressed up as different Disney characters & superheros, face painting, train rides, food & prizes. It was a great time!

I was so impressed that it was all free.

 

Jackson got into one of the popcorn bags.

Train ride!

Meeting Spiderman.

 

They were serving delicious barbeque for lunch! They also had water bottle stations set up & Ray & the kids enjoyed a couple of rounds of snow cones.

The kids loved the face paintings.

It was a glorious day & wonderful to see what an October Saturday at home can be like!

We interrupt our regularly scheduled program to bring you snow!

The Friday morning of our drive through the Blue Ridge we woke up in the little cabin in Laurel Springs to Addison climbing up to the loft where Ray & I were sleeping.

"It snowed! It snowed!"

She desperately wanted to see snow on our trip. I was pretty sure she was just confusing frost on the ground with snow. I humored her & looked out the window.

Snow!

It was a very slim layer, but, still snow.

The kids quickly added some layers to their pajamas & went outside.

The girls were thrilled but Clay was less than impressed with the cold.

Ray build them a little handheld snowman. So adorable!

We packed up around lunch & left to drive more of the parkway. I was sure that all of the snow would melt quickly but it was so cold that it continued to stay in more shaded areas! It was so neat to see Fall leaves on the parkway one day & snow the next.

Pennsylvania

On Sunday we left Jen & Gabe & drove the 1.5 hours to see Ernie & Ruth.

The kids were very happy to play with each other.

Monday morning Ruth & I took our youngest out on a shopping excursion. Breakfast at Panera, coffee & shopping at Target & a quick stop at Trader Joe's.

When we arrived home the kids were having a glorious time playing outside.

I really love Ruths' home. It's one of my all-time favorites. I really love the coffee nook she's created since the last time I was there.

On Tuesday morning our family went to Milburn Orchards. We love this little place! They have so many fun things & it's so fun going to a big pumpkin patch, so different from the ones around our house.

The kids played in a hay maze, a corn maze, "spider web" (a big rope play ground), "gopher tunnels" (awesome huge tubes underneath a hill). We also visited all of the cute farm animals.

I may've eaten three apple cider doughnuts.

The girls really loved playing with each other. They spent quite a bit of time outside "treasure hunting." These were their hunting clothes.

We stayed with them until Tuesday & left for the rest of our trip after dinner.

Manhattan and More

Last Friday morning we left Jen & Gabes & drove to take the (free) Staten Island ferry over 

to Manhattan. 

It took us to the financial district where we indulged in goodies from Au Bon Pain, visited the site of the World Trade Center & watched the girls fawn over costume jewelry. The nice guy on the left gave them each a ring (which Kate dropped in the water on our ferry ride back).

Tourist central, aka Times Square. 

Walking to Rockefeller Center. 

We walked a bit around the city & surprised the kids by taking them to FAO Schwartz. Of course they had to play on the giant piano from "Big." I loved that movie when I was a kid! 

After the kids played on it Ray showed them the clip from the movie on his phone. 

Clay didn't seem to impressed by his subway ride back to the ferry.

Before getting back on the ferry we grabbed a quick dinner at Chipotle-cheap & easy to eat gluten free!

After leaving the city we drove to Cranford, NJ  

to stay with our friends, Matt & Heather for the night. We hadn't seen them in over five years & we stayed up talking until 3am!

Matt & Heather have 3 girls & our kids had a blast playing with 

each other! 

Their little town is so cute & I love that you can walk to so many places. They also had a scarecrow contest going on & there were all different kinds of scarecrows around the town. It reminded me of being in Stars Hollow on Gilmore Girls!

We walked to a great coffee shop, Rock'n Joes, 

before walking to the train station & going into the city. 

We took the subway over to Central Park. We were all hungry & conveniently enough Sabra hummus was at the park & giving away little tubs of hummus & pretzels.

After spending some time in the park we decided we wanted burgers. Two of the girls are gluten free so we walked over to five guys where we knew it would be safe for them to eat. 

After five guys we walked to Dylan's candy shop. I had promised the kids a few weeks ago that we would go & they didn't forget! 

The bottom floor was uncomfortably packed so we went upstairs to the sweet shop. We even scored one of the cupcake booths to sit at! 

Ready to indulge in some goodies! 

We had fun trying yummy beverages & chocolate fondue! 

Time to leave NYC

Our girls were naturals on the subway. 

We made it back to Cranford a little after 8 & stopped at Rock'n Joes - another 4 shots of espresso for me!

Isn't my drink pretty?

We hung out at their house a little longer & the kids ate dinner.

We also enjoyed another viewing of, "What does the fox say?"

We left Matt & Heather & drove back to Jen & Gabe. We got to their house around midnight & went to church with them the next morning. After church we ate lunch together & then left for the next leg of our trip!