Truly one of our favorite family outings is to head up to Blowing Rock and Grandfather Mountain. Especially in October when the air is crisp and the leaves are in their peak colors. On this trip the leaves were particularly golden, and even our 6 year old could appreciate their beauty as we drove along the parkway. We managed our first hike as a family, winding almost a half-mile up Grandfather mountain over many rocks and large roots. The kids were super hikers, much to our surprise (although going down was much easier I must admit!)
Tyler enjoys the waterfalls along the parkway more than anything, while Sydney enjoys the animals of Grandfather park. Most trips this way allow us some time to stop and visit into a few of our favorite local establishments, one of which is the Candy Barrell/Mast Store in Valle Crucis. We also enjoy the downtown area of Blowing Rock, with it's fantastic park, little quaint shops, and of course no trip to BR would be complete without pizza on the deck at Mellow Mushroom. This past weekend's trip ran a little later than usual, so we had to skip dinner in BR and make our way home just in time for a quick tubby and bed.
But the lovely part of living in Hickory is that there's always next weekend, and the moutains are only 45 minutes away. 
Sometimes it is just good to be silly together...we recently had our pictures taken by our favorite portrait photographer, www.catherinekeene.com. They were all so good, we're having trouble deciding! But this one was just fun, so we thought we'd share.
