The Orchard at Altapass

Our last stop on our mountain trip was The Orchard at Altapass--it's an apple orchard on the blue ridge parkway.  It was another beautiful day and most importantly it was D's birthday! Picking apples was a fun experience, although let's be honest...Daddy picked the majority of them, the kids ran around and I took pictures :) 

 

 

  

  

 

 

 after apple picking we stopped in the main building to get a snack and listen to some music--the dancing was a fun bonus that Nora just had to get involved in!  Her daddy was a great sport and obliged his princess. 

and a dancing video for you pleasure :)

Grandfather Mountain

We debated a little bit about whether to go here verses do something else more exciting for kids like Linville Caverns or gem mining.  I'm so glad we stuck with Grandfather Mountain.  I have lots of memories coming here as a kid with my grandparents and it was fun to experience it with my own kids.  Holden has also told us numerous time that "climbing the mountain" was his favorite part of our trip. 

Crossing the bridge was no big deal to the kiddos and the did really well climbing around on all the rocks.  For obvious reasons Davis was stuck in the pack for this whole activity, which he wasn't too thrilled about..he wasn't fussy, he just wanted to get down and kept telling us about it!

and wasn't it the most beautiful and clear day?  

 

 

 

 

 love this picture with my all my faves! 

CHOO CHOO's!

One of the main reasons for our trip to the mountains was to celebrate D's second birthday.  Our LittleD is IN LOVE with trains right now...it's his most favorite thing to play with so of course there could be no better place to go than Tweetsie! 

 We had super fun morning at Tweetsie, it was a weekday and a little wet, so there was hardly anyone else there.  Davis had a bit of an emotional day due to a mix of being somewhere new, being off his sleep schedule adn maybe not feeling 100%, but when we were on a train he was a happy boy! 

 

 

a 'little' drama about not wanting to sit on the horse...

 

 a monster spider!

 the kids love riding the rides and daddy and i loved not having any lines to wait in!

 

picture with Hopper and Porter

 Davis LOVES all mascots/big animal costumes.  He's never scared and always wants to hug them. 

 He also loves real animals so we thought he'd really enjoy the petting/feeding zoo.  

 but this kept happening....the roaming goats would take his cone...the poor kid would "lose it" every time his cone got stolen.  He didn't understand that he had to hold onto the cone and just let them eat the food and of course in normal 2 year old fashion he wanted no help from any of us.  So needless to say, we were "THAT" family in the petting zoo and quite honestly we've thankfully not had a lot of experience with public breakdowns...so after about 5 minutes Mike and i just picked up the crying toddler and left to go ride trains, since that's what seemed to be working.  Best Decision of the Day! 

the ski lift was also a fun experience for the kids. 

 There was a sudden downpour during our time at Tweetsie, so we stopped in the saloon to get some snacks and watch the dancers.  The show was pretty "hokey" but Nora thought it was great :)

 talking with the conductor's and learning about how trains "go go"

 

and of course i couldn't leave without taking a few Old Time photographs..

If there wasn't enough evidence of all the fun we had in the above pictures...these below should be telling! 

Fast asleep still clutching his new train

 even the big kids were worn out!