Good friends, a retirement, sink, and a Mill Fest

What a busy past few days!  On Thursday, our best friends from Louisiana came to visit.  They had a whirlwind of a trip themselves, so they were only able to stay the one night, but it was a great short visit.  The boys "camped out" in the TV/toy room.  It was WAY past their bedtime already, but it was so cute to hear them whispering to each other.  It is so awesome how well they get along.  

On Friday, I had to head out to a retirement party, some of the gang went to the local science center, and Steven stayed back waiting for the countertop installers.  The retirement party was for my old supervisor with state parks.  It was so good to visit with old friends from the state park system, and to honor and see my old supervisor as he embarks onto the next stage of his life.  He will be missed that is for sure.  All I can say is I am glad I was out first- otherwise I would have been a mess!

After the party, I headed back to see William, Anita and Mikey before they took off, and then headed to meet Steven at a local Fall festival.  

On Saturday we spent a rainy day inside while Steven worked on the kitchen.  He installed the sink and faucet, and wow, does the kitchen already look amazing!  I can not wait to get the cabinets stripped and painted and the new hardware on.  Oh, and the tile backsplash, and floor. . .slowly, but surely.

On Sunday we headed out to one of the local annual festivals, the Murray's Mill Festival, held at the same place Steven and I were married.  We had a great time- made candles, a stool, a tool box, visited some critters at the petting zoo, Gray got his tractor fix, got to see a civil war re-enactment, and got to listen to some great music.   

A weekend full of non-laboring for Labor Day

How do we know the end of summer is near. . .

the end of the local Crawdads baseball season, 

the Hickory American Legion Fair is in town,

time to start hiking. . .and the leaves are already changing in high elevations,

I see you!  

Helping Daddy over the rocks.

Sleeping or taking in the scenery. . .but not looking at the camera

with cuz Sophie Bee

kids back in school = a quieter Chuck E Cheese (maybe that is an oxymoron).

These three pictures are too cute.  I love Gray's expressions on the roller coaster simulator.

Labor Day was a wonderful holiday weekend with friends and family.  We indulged, worked it off, will quit wearing white now, and enjoyed the extra day as a family.

Monday hikes

Now that the weather is getting a bit cooler, we are able to get out and hike more.  Gray is also able to walk a bit farther, which makes it easier on both Steven and I.  I am going to try and spend all our Mondays hiking until it gets too cold for us.  We had a dentist appt. with Dr. Ross in the afternoon, so we couldn't go far, but a quick trip to Riverbend was perfect.  Gray probably hiked close to three miles! I had to carry him for a small bit of it, but otherwise he did it all himself!  I was so proud of him.  Next Monday will be Labor day, and Dad will be with us. . .wonder where to next?

Bear needed to come along.  You can imagine who carried him most of the hike 

Leopard frog that jumped right in front of us.  Gray was so excited.

Playing in the sand.  Ever since the beach, he is fascinated by sand.

Smile!  I love Mommy and Gray days!

Fall is on it's way. . .

Gray on his new trike

The weather here has been so amazing.  You can already feel the fall weather on it's way.  We have turned the air off at night almost every night for the past week.  This is always my favorite time of year!  

This weekend we had to run to Charlotte to look at what will be our new counter tops.  I will be so glad to have this remodel done- and we are not even close yet!  We still have the floors, painting, hardware, dishwasher installation, and the counter tops left!  

On our way back we decided to swing by the Charlotte airport to their overlook parking and watch the planes as they took off.  Gray of course loved it.  We talked about where they might be going, and I think he decided they were all going to see Mam-moo.  :).  Why else would you get on a plane?

After Charlotte we stopped by the flea market to visit Maw-Maw and Caitlin, and walk around a bit.  Then we headed home and got in one beautiful evening walk before getting ready for bed.

The chaos that is our kitchen

Watching the planes

The Queen City in the background

 On Sunday we headed to Taylorsville and spent a few hours with the Herman's.  As always, Gray was the center of attention.  It's like a celebrity when he comes to town- even Andrew is waiting on this kid!

After our visit we headed over to a local orchard and picked some apples and Asian pears.  Gray loved it, and was so excited to get home for dinner and eat his apples!  He loved them with his sunflower butter!  I see some homemade applesauce and pear chutney in our future.

I am already excited for this fall and all the extra time I have to spend with my family!  Tomorrow is Grayson and Momma day (as we like to call it), and I can't wait to see what adventures we get to go on next.

Of course, what trip to Taylorsville would be complete without a ride on a tractor? Uncle Mike was showing Gray "how to pick up chicks". . .literally!

Boys.

Ruby Doo. (she gets a bit jealous with Gray around)

My little apple picker :)

He was so excited to get under the limbs "into the tunnel" and get the big apples everyone else missed. We just had to watch for the ones with spots. . .he was so excited, this was not easy to explain.

Just a couple months and there will be a patchwork of yellow, orange and red in these mountains!

Celebrating the big 2!

Chocolate chip choo-choo pancakes for breakfast

For Gray's birthday this year we invited folks to join us at Tweetsie, and then we also celebrated the following day at Maw-Maw's. For a week we had been talking about his birthday, which he likes to call his "Happy Day". So on Saturday, August 4th we headed up the mountain to Tweetsie Railroad, Gray's favorite place on earth and celebrated his second birthday with Aunt Nita and Uncle Mike, Elizabeth, Guy and their two kids, Harrison and Amelia, and Kat and Josh and their two boys, Grady and Myles.  We had such a great time and Gray loved having friends their with him at Tweetsie.

Playing with Aunt Nita

Buddies

Guy and Harrison

Gray and Harrison- Harrison wasn't too fond of the planes, and poor Harrison, Gray kept trying to make it go higher.

Schronce family

Hang tight Uncle Mike

Ice cream- Gray's favorite

Gray and Harrison were so good taking turns ringing the bell on their boat!

The Hokie Pokies

Proud Daddy

For the party at Maw-Maw's I had been selected to do a lego house party.  House Party & Lego supplied me with plates, and free lego build and read sets, balloons and stickers to throw a party.  So Gray had a lego/farm themed party.  We had a great time with the family!

Gray helped me make "Lego" juice packs

His lego cake

Gray's gift from Maw-Maw