October Vacation Day 3 - Chimney Rock, Ornaments, and a Halloween Party

Heigh ho, heigh ho, it's into the mountains we go! And Grammy gets a little dizzy from the heights...

Chimney Rock State Park was our first activity of the day on Tuesday morning, and it did not disappoint. There was a nice nature center for the kids to see and indigenous animals on exhibit outdoors.

One of those animals was a squirrel, and the kids found a lot of acorns for it that they put into its enclosure.

Mila was so excited to give him one that she didn't stop when I asked her what she had in her hand as she rushed past me; she simply held it up for me to see!

Cole, Andrew, and Vanessa prepare to take on the mountain - with eight kids four and under! Brave souls!

I had had injections into both hips so that I would be more mobile for the trip and in less pain, but my doctor told me to avoid hills. Chimney Rock itself was on top of a mountain, and I suspect mountains were included in his directive, so I stayed behind in the car while everyone else hiked up to it. (I listened to The Book of Mormon on my phone, following President Nelson's advice, and I passed the time watching what went by - including two deer who unexpectedly ambled across the parking lot!)

When I saw the pictures after my family came back, I was glad I had remained behind, and not just because f my hips. It was soooooo high up, and I detest heights.

Cole, Emily, and the girls stand on top of Chimney Rock. (I think I might have been screaming at this point if I were up there!)

Awwww. Cole sent me his secret sign to tell me that he loved me. Love you, too, sweetie!

Craig with Jessica, Andrew, and their kids. (Again, yeesh!!)

After climbing the mountain, we drove home for lunch, naps, and some relaxing. Vanessa sat on the deck and did people's make up - she is going to offer make-up sessions to her clients who come to her for photos, and this gave her an opportunity to practice...

... as well as spend time with family. I love Cambria's face in this picture! So happy!

As the kids got up from their naps, I invited them to make a Christmas ornament with me.

Glitter, beads, more glitter... this craft activity proved to be wildly popular.

I had brought twenty-four plastic globes to fill and tons of beads and other things to put inside the ornaments.

Each child made one for themselves and then one for a family member.

There were three artificial Christmas trees in the house and we hung our completed ornaments on them.

They turned out really well!

With empty globes still left, Vanessa clipped some pieces off the bushes outside the cabin and we made another round of ornaments as mementos of our family get together in the mountains of North Carolina. She wrote, "North Carolina 2018" on each one.

The ornaments took almost three hours to complete (and then clean up) and while I was doing that activity, Emily was working on a nature activity with the kids. I did not get to see that and unfortunately didn't get any pictures of it.

That night we held a Halloween party after dinner. The kids dressed in their costumes.

Cambria, Ian, Lukas, Julie, and Susan in front; Mila and Titan in back.

For years I have had a pumpkin piñata that I used in my classroom for seasonal decoration, saving it to break some day with my family. This was it! I filled it with candy and we suspended it from a rope with Andrew on a ladder holding the rope.

The kids lined up in age order, youngest to oldest, with the help of their Uncle Curt and Aunt Emily. (The photos are not in age order; we had four rounds of whacking the piñata, and I used the best photos of each child that I could get.)

Kate gives it a good whack.

Then Mila.

Titan (Surely Captain America has the strength to break that piñata!)

Julie (Such a cute kitty!)

C'mon, Spiderman!! (Ian)

And Wonder Woman hits it hard.

Finally, after each child had had four attempts to break the piñata, I stepped in and hit it a couple of times, and when the candy went flying, the kids all screamed with joy and ran to gather it all up.

Sitting on the couch and going through their loot.

We gathered in the family room afterward to watch a Halloween movie, Bigpaw, which is actually a Thanksgiving movie, but it worked!

The kids moved to the floor - when we are all together, the grownups get the chairs and couches!

Susan and her mama. 

When the movie finished, for some reason the kids called it Pinkpaw instead of Bigpaw. All of them had seen the movie before this, but Pinkpaw it is now.

What a day! I love my family.