I love fall y'all!

There have been lots of "goings on" around here since my last posting so here goes nothin':

The weekend before this past, we took Kennedy on her first camping trip. When she was attending Centenary Day School they had a learning segment where the teacher set up a camping scene in their classroom. Ever since then she has talked about wanting to go camping. We figured our days were numbered with the weather changing so we took the first availability we had to follow through on the promise we'd made to take her camping. We decided to go to Fort Boonesborough State Park Campground on our first go-round. This pregnant lady needed access to a bathroom and we wanted some sort of civilization just in case Kennedy didn't do as well as we thought she would. Plus...this particular campground had a trail system and we thought that would give us something to do before dark.

Well - I am here to tell you folks: you'd think she'd been a thousand times before. She did wonderfully! We went on a Saturday late afternoon and got directly to setting up the tent once we arrived (which as you will see below Kennedy was super involved in).

 Once the tent was set up we decided to go for a hike on the campground trails. Although hiking with Kennedy = snails pace hiking, we enjoy it anyways! Don't you love the marshmallow roasting stick she picked up on our hike! Ha.

 We love this backpack we got at a consignment sale before Kennedy was born. We have used the heck out of this thing. Since she's a "new hiker" it's nice when her little legs/feet get tired to swing her up in the backpack and resume our pre-child hiking pace. Here she and Tim are in front of the Fort Gate.

 ~Sweet Little Cheeser~

 Who says a good meal can't be had when camping. All we girls needed were some Doritos, hot dogs, fruit snacks and Capri Suns (well, the last two were just for her). She ate every bite of her fire cooked hot dog too.

 After dinner it was SMORE COOKIN' TIME!!! I would love to tell you that Kennedy shares our love for smores, but it would be a lie. She was more content to eat plain ole marshmallows.

 After dinner and a short walk around the campground to see everyone's Halloween decorations (the RV campers that is of course) she was tuckered out so it was time for PJ's, snuggling, her trusty Tinkerbell flashlight and a Veggie Tales DVD. I figure why deny ourselves modern conveniences, right? I was in the tent with her and ready for bed before her DVD was even over. She didn't skip a beat and went right to sleep as usual. Tim stayed up to listen to the UK v. Auburn game on the radio.

 We were up before the sun the next morning and Tim got right on makin' breakfast so we could make it back in time for church. She wanted to be out there with her Daddy rather than snuggled up with me in the tent. She didn't care that it was Fa Fa Fa Freezing!

 Campfires don't cook things at a rapid rate, so shortly after the sun came up we had our bacon, eggs and toast. She ate every bite of that too. What a camper! I can't wait to do it again soon. We loved it and it was an awesome family outing.

This last picture is kind of posted as a joke. Everyone that is close to me jokes with me about having some sort of animal magnetism. Well....this trip proved that theory when this black kitty showed up relatively soon after we arrived and DID NOT LEAVE US ALONE. Sunday AM he meowed all around our tent and we joked about how it was just like home. Every time Tim looked at me and said "I swear...it's unbelievable" or whatever I kept stating - "I've not fed/touched it!"

On Thursday of this past week Kennedy and I (along with some other ladies and kiddos from my Moms group) went to the Pumpkin Patch. The trip was scheduled for 10 AM so I figured it wouldn't be crowded and we'd get lots of time in each area and I could have been more wrong - it was crazy! I guess it's a popular field trip spot (says the ignorant mom of a toddler) so there were tons of school aged children there. It was literally crawling with people. Luckily because we had a group reservation we had a tour guide and got through the hayride, pumpkin patch picking, petting zoo and snack time relatively smoothly. The play area was a completely different story but we survived and have some cute pictures from the day.

Chelsea was in town on her way to Gatlinburg with a friend so first we had breakfast with her. Clearly Kennedy couldn't have been happier about that!

 Here's my girl with the pumpkins she felt were fit for us to take home.

 I just find these creatures to be quite intriguing so that's why I took a picture of it. Kennedy was obviously intrigued as well.

She was desperate to feed these animals but I wasn't about to waste money on pelleted pet food: seriously! There were so many kids dropping it everywhere she just picked some up out of the dirt and offered it. This little goat did eventually nibble it out of her palm but I wasn't quick enough to catch it on film. Can you imagine how stuffed these animals are after a day of school children come through, each with their own dixie cup full of 50 cents worth of feed? Sheesh!

Although it was a brisk morning, the hayride was really nice. They drove all around the apple orchards and pumpkin patches. She really enjoyed this part.

 

 She went down this slide at least 12 times....basically until the amount of kids in line stressed me beyond what I could handle and I told her we needed to do something else. I try to be the laid back, very zen mama, but I have my limits and watching 2nd and 3rd grade children (whose parents have seemingly dropped them at the orchard for the day with no supervision) cutting in line and pushing my baby out of the way so they can go down the slide before her pretty much turns me into a sweating, heart-racing protective mother hen. At least there were those 12 times down, right? She LOVED THIS SLIDE though - can you tell?

 We then rolled around in the hay which was great fun and seemed like the perfect play solution to the "slide o' bullies" as I have named it. I was regretting that diversion a few days later when she was producing more snot than I feel is humanly possible for a child her size - hello allergies....eat my Zyrtec! It only lasted for two days praise Jesus and the inventors of Zyrtec.

 One more stop to take pictures amidst the overly priced pumpkins that are put out on display in an effort to lure in unsuspecting pumpkin lovers like me. I'm proud to say we resisted and came home with the two miniature pumpkins pictured earlier in the post with Kennedy. Well - those and this adorable picture. They were part of our package deal which was priced just right!  

 Pretty sure that's enough out of me for now. Next up - Abby's baby shower was this past weekend and I've got lots of cute pics to share. =)