Got To Be NC Festival

Now that Finn is big enough to interact, we’re always on the lookout for fun things to do together as a family. Matt heard about the Got to Be NC Festival on Friday night and immediately emailed me to see if I’d be up for going the next day. Of course! It was like a mini version of the N.C. State fair, specifically for smaller children and it was so much fun! It was not nearly as crowded and overwhelming as the fair, and much more child-friendly. Kenna went almost completely silent when we first walked into the fairgrounds and she saw all the fun rides!

(I had to laugh when we pulled up and Finn had managed to completely conk out in the 2 minutes between when we parked the car and when we got the stroller out. He’s just so darn cute!)

 We started off gently with a little strawberry ride, which of course, she was thrilled about because of her current love of Strawberry Shortcake (the tv show). Waiting in line to ride in a giant spinning strawberry:

Finn was all smiles when we got him set up in the stroller. There was just so much fun stuff to look at!

We lucked out that Papa and Mimi were in town meeting our new niece, Ella. They came with us to enjoy our day at the festival!

Mimi could not resist the smell of the giant turkey legs cooking… just one ended up being enough to feed her, Papa, Matt and Kenna! Finn definitely got a few bites too.

Kenna’s second choice of rides was a mini version of the fairground swings that go wider, higher and faster as the ride progresses. I was not sure how she’d handle it (and was silently saying prayers that she didn’t somehow slide out of the bottom and get flung out of it!) but she held on tight and absolutely LOVED it. She ended up riding it twice more before we left! It was totally worth it for the super big grin she had the entire time.

Matt and I were so impressed at how brave she was on the rides, especially a really fast one she rode with Papa. She seems so little to me still, but I have to admit sometimes that she is really growing up so fast and I’m constantly amazed at how much she can handle. We were so proud!

 Our favorite part of the day was the petting zoo where you could pet the animals up close and feed them by hand! That two dollar cup of animal feed might have been the best two dollars we’ve ever spent! I think I loved feeding and petting all the baby cows, sheep, goats, alpacas, and deer as much as Kenna did! They were all super sweet and gentle and seemed to love being fed snacks and loved on so much.

These little baby cows were SO soft! Much softer than the sheep, which was surprising to me! Petting their little ears was like pettting a puppy.

 This little goat very nearly needed to come home with us. He was SO sweet!

 The highlight of the trip for Matt was where we stopped for lunch- the Pig Jig was a section of tents/booths where local Masonic lodges had each made their best barbecue and were competing against each other… for ten bucks you got an all-you-can-eat plate to try them all out! We stuffed ourselves trying to find the best NC barbecue, and had hush puppies, coleslaw, lemonade, and even a piece of homemade pound cake to round it out.

Surprisingly for a three year old, Kenna absolutely loves barbecue- this was her second plate! The silly face was because she had just dumped a water bottle down her shirt. We lost count of how many hush puppies Finn ate!

 After walking through more of the festival and seeing more of the vendors and booths, we stopped by the Jim Graham building to see the Fiber Arts part of  the festival (mostly a craft show of sorts with local yarns and wool for sale). It was mostly a pit stop for bathrooms, air conditioning, and a chance to get out of the sun, but Kenna did get the chance to learn how to spin wool roving into yarn with a really cool homemade spinning wheel. She seems to have caught an interest in handmade/crafty things from somewhere...

 We had promised Kenna some ice cream, so on the way out we found the homemade NC ice cream booth… unfortunately the NC State ice cream wasn’t there like it normally is at the fair. Somehow Daddy got stuck holding everybody’s cones while Kenna took one last ride on the “big swings.”

 

 Waiting to give the man her tickets because she's apparently grown now. Where did my little girl go?

 What a fun, fun day! We'll definitely be on the lookout for this festival again next year!

Mountain Wedding!

A few months ago, Matt was asked by a good friend of his from preschool to officiate her wedding! We got the honor and joy as a couple to get to know Terra Warwick and Juan Sosa a little better until the time that their wedding date snuck up on us... 10/10/10! (Isn't that fun? They'll never forget their anniversary. And I say that because I am the one who forgets our anniversary date in our marriage!)

So two weekends ago, we drove up to the beautiful Linville, NC area (near Boone and the Blue Ridge Parkway) for the weekend to participate in their wedding. Granddaddy and Nana B. graciously offered to keep Kenna until Sunday when they drove up for the wedding, and Matt's sister Leanne's family kept our dog Pontouf, so we truly had a free weekend just the two of us! (Thank you all again!)

It was a new experience for Matt and I for him to officiate a wedding on his own. For me, it was fun because I got to hang out with and get to know the wedding party during the rehearsal and all of the wedding events! The weather was beautiful all weekend, and we couldn't have had a better or more refreshing time in the mountains.

We drove up Friday night just in time to settle in and change clothes for the rehearsal. I never got a picture of the cabin we stayed in (even though every time we left to go somewhere I said "I want to remember to get a picture of the cabin before we leave"- ask Matt), but it was a beautiful place in a really adorable small mountain village. Matt and I were not sure we wanted to leave! The rehearsal was our first glimpse of the beautiful wedding site Terra & Juan picked out. Here is the only picture I got of it right before the sun went down among the amazing fall colors:
After the rehearsal, we made a beeline for Matt's favorite barbeque place, Pappy's, where we ate the most delicious corn fritter appetizer I've ever had! Matt loves this barbeque place, and has even driven all the way to Banner Elk just to eat there a couple of years ago only to find that it was closed for renovations. It's open now and even better than we remembered!
I resisted the urge to force him to stand in front of the restaurant with the sign for a picture and took this one of his delicious dinner arriving instead!

On Saturday, we had a wide open day until the rehearsal dinner that night... and we packed a whole weekend into that one day! We started out by sleeping in and then getting coffee and breakfast out at a really cute local cafe called The River Dog. I felt SO SPOILED- those of you who have kids can understand how just sleeping in and having an uninterrupted, un-rushed breakfast with your love is an amazing "break!" Oh how we used to take that for granted!

We had seen posters around town that nearby Grandfather Mountain was having an "Octoberfest" so we decided to start the morning there. They had a small craft show with local artisans and lots of fun kid activities like a mini fair. Since we clearly didn't come for the beer, we got our funnel cake and apple cotton candy "to go" and took it on a ride up the mountain! It was so strange to see the ski slopes covered in grass and to take the ski lift with no skis, but also very peaceful and perfect, beautiful weather!
On the way up:

At the top, we hiked up to a little lookout point. The view from the top:
All those little green dots are Christmas trees!
After we left, we still had a little time before the evening wedding festivities, so we headed into Valle Crucis to go to Mast General store. We love this place! By this point, Matt and I were both seriously ready to move to the mountains. We didn't take any pictures, but here is a link to when we went two years ago right before Kenna arrived. We would love to make this a yearly trip!

We got back in time to change and head out to the rehearsal dinner- Juan's family hosted a delicious fiesta at a local Mexican restaurant with such delicious food! Right afterward there was a welcome dessert for all the out of town guests, with beautiful fall decorations and an amazing guitar shaped groom's cake (I somehow managed to not get any pictures of that either!).

The wedding itself was on Sunday afternoon, and it was the sunniest and warmest it had been all weekend! Because I was so focused on watching the wedding and listening to what Matt was saying, I didn't get as many photos as I'd like of the ceremony. But I am very glad we have some memories of this special wedding! Here are some of Matt and the happy couple:
and here's one that shows the total beauty of the area!
Kenna spent the whole wedding blissfully happy, running from mountain to mountain while her Granddaddy chased her. Two year olds plus four hour car trips make for very active toddlers!
The reception was one of the best I've ever been to, with a buffet of delicious food and a really great band! I visited with Nana B. and stuffed myself silly on mini crab cakes and sweet tea while Kenna burned off the rest of her energy dancing with Daddy and Granddaddy:
The reception hall alone made me want to get married all over again. There were large columns throughout the room that were actually large trees, and everything was covered in twinkle lights. When we saw it at the rehearsal, we thought it was a big, beautiful room, but at the wedding, we found out that the walls all opened up to make it like a huge outdoor pavilion! This picture truly does not do it justice:
Juan is a really talented musician (hence the guitar groom's cake, and the guitar that everybody signed with paint pens instead of a guest book!) and played and sang a song he wrote for Terra for the wedding. It was incredibly beautiful and sweet! One of my favorite things about weddings is seeing all the married couples in the room seeming to reminisce about their own weddings and how long they have been married as they celebrate with a new couple starting their own marriage. I thought my heart would burst when Matt and I danced with both Kenna and my pregnant belly squished between us! We stayed as long as we possibly could until we had to get back on the road.

I'm always a little sad to see the sun setting as the mountains move into our rear view as we head home. The drive home from Boone will always remind me of a long conversation Matt and I had on the way home from another good friend's wedding in Boone where we both were at a crossroads with our faith. We spent the long four hours seriously discussing and deciding whether we were going to truly live our lives for the Lord, or keep on calling ourselves Christians while following our own plans. I'm so thankful firstly for a loving heavenly Father that continues calling us into reconciliation and obedience to Him, even in the midst of our sin and selfishness, and for a husband who loves me and loves the Lord- I treasure the way we have held each other up in our faith through the hard times so far and that a weekend alone with him only reassures my certainty that he is the very best friend I could have!

What a good, good weekend. We came home happy tired, refreshed, and ready to sleep in our own beds. Congratulations to Juan and Terra, the new Mr. and Mrs. Sosa!

"Lazy" August Days

For three years now in August we have gone out to Cary for a craft show/street festival called Lazy Days (we barely took a single picture that first year, except for this one I posted on my craft blog!). It has become a fun family tradition now because the highlight of the afternoon is getting lunch and a cupcake at the deli/bakery that made our wedding cake almost 6 years ago (wowza! 6 years?) called Blue Moon Bakery. I will always remember sitting in their cafe area with Mom tasting about 20 different cake/icing/ganache filling combinations, and then settling on plain old vanilla cake with vanilla icing because it was just so good. It is especially fun to have taken Kenna with us for her second year in a row. We even got to say hello to the owner and tell her that we got our wedding cake from them and are now bringing our almost-two-year old daughter to get cupcakes... and she remembered delivering our cake to us! (I guess our odd last name is fairly memorable).

Even though it is always incredibly hot in August, it was not too bad this year. There are several different places where there are "misting tents" set up to cool things off, which Kenna LOVED. She is a pretty big fan of anything involving water or water being sprayed at her. I had thought that she would enjoy the festival part of it a little more this year since she was old enough to enjoy all the little kid freebies and such... which she did, but the combination of hitting it right at nap time, the heat, and not being able to get out and walk very well was not a winner with Kenna.

She did however, enjoy spinning the wheel at the Chick Fil A booth and winning a cow pez candy dispenser which she adorably kept calling "moo" and also got a hat!
Last August our sweet little cupcake eater was a wee little 9 month old:
And this year she is a big 21 month old! (And ate the whole cupcake by herself):
Barely a crumb left:
Between the heat and all the fun things to look at, our little one conked out hard in the car on the way home. We thought she was so sweet, still clutching her juice and her two balloons:
It was hard to show self-restraint amongst all the lovely and interesting handmade things! The one thing we got was this adorable little apple dress for Kenna. It caught my eye and Matt agreed that it would be perfect for her. Since Nana can't be here anymore to make the beautiful handmade dresses she made for me when I was little, we thought this would be the next best thing. She wore it to church the next day, and we got a few pictures of her in it:
The back is my favorite! I love a little girl in a sundress- she just looks so breezy and comfortable and little-girly!
And since we didn't get a single one of all three of us at Lazy Days (which I really wish we had now that it has become a tradition!) here is one of Kenna and Daddy at church: