Friday we drove up to Charlottesville for a very quick family trip. We have gone for the past two years to visit historical sites, attend concerts, drink wine, and pick apples. This year, we decided to go again in conjunction with a work picnic that was happening in Hanover. Central Virginia is absolutely gorgeous at this time of year with the changing leaves on the mountains. It is also the best place to be for picking yummy Fuji apples.
For the past two years, we have gone to Carter Mountain Orchard to pick apples, have apple donuts, and enjoy the fall-ness that is an orchard. Since we have gone the last two years, and I am very big on tradition, AND (yeah I know there's not supposed to be three "ands"--whatevs) we have a child now, I felt that going apple picking at an orchard was pretty much a necessity. Now it will be a necessity for years to come--and I LOVE that!
This year, we (I) decided that we should go to Carter Mountain's sister Orchard, the Chiles Peach Orchard. This was our first stop. The difference is that Chiles is about 15 miles past Charlottesvile, in Crozet, and they have an actual pumpkin patch--not just pre-picked pumpkins.
When choosing between the two, I thought that it would be pretty neat to pick our own pumpkins and that the pictures to go along with the outing would turn out pretty good too.
I WAS RIGHT!Although the patch was pretty picked over and trampled on, it was pretty fun and we got three perfect pumpkins. After we picked out our pumpkins, we walked about five minutes down the path to the apple trees to pick a bag of Fuji apples.
I used my new Ergo carrier for the first time and LOVED it. Thanks to my lovely BF, Amy, and another blog I read, I decided to get the Ergo to use for many different walking with child situations. I'm so glad I did and cannot wait to use it more!
We tried a few apples to have some fresh fruity goodness, and WOW they were soooooooooooo good. I let Parker suck on mine a little bit, and he really seemed to enjoy it. It got a little close to being a choking hazard, but I monitored him closely to avoid that situation.
When we were done picking our fruits, we headed to a winery about two miles down the road, the King Family Vineyard. It was very close to closing time, but Ry was the only one doing the tasting, so he just ran into the tasting room real quick while I found a parking space and got Parker out of the car. This was one of the most beautiful places we have ever seen, and definitely the most beautiful winery we've ever been to. Because of this, we decided that this would be another excellent place to take pictures.
WE WERE RIGHT! :)
Once we left the vineyard, we traveled to our final destination, Waynesboro, to check into the hotel and have dinner at a local place called Cracker Barrel. HAHA! It was so good. There's nothing like down-home-bad-for-you-cooking when you've been traveling and walking and carrying around 23-pound children all day.
This was Parker's first time staying in a hotel room. We were able to book the suite in this picture. We moved the sofa up so that the packnplay would fit behind it in the corner (yeah, we put baby in the corner.....) It worked out really well, and he slept all night. Success!
It is amazing how much stuff you pack when traveling with a child. The trunk was full, the back seat was full, and I had stuff down by my feet. I love it, though--everything seemed ten times more fun with Parker there!Saturday we made our way home. We had the work picnic to go to at 12, so we stopped at Short Pump on the way to kill some time. Once the picnic was over, we headed back to VB for Ryan and Bryan's 30th Birthday celebration with his family. Ryan's mom, who we call Honey, fixed dinner ((THANK YOU! :)). We had yummy lasagna and salad for dinner, and one of the best cakes I've ever had with, my favorite, buttercream icing for dessert.
We had a great trip but were SO SO glad to be home sleeping in our own beds again. I am looking forward to taking many more trips together as a family and making new memories!
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