Well it has been a while, but we just haven't made
very many pictures lately, until we headed out to the
gardens for the Butterfly release. The kids did
crafts and all though the weather wasn't great we
enjoyed a walk thru the gardens. The best part
is in the Orchid observatory, this is where they have
all the butterflies that are in their chrysalis's and
just emerging. The kids both got to release a Monarch
butterfly. Just like with the hummingbirds it is so fast
that the picture was just of their hands with the butterfly
gone. There were lots of them around thou for photo
opportunities. It was a nice morning and the kids had
fun! They also had a magician that they watched
twice and Elizabeth even got to be an assistant.

Our very own butterfly and dragonfly.

Bravo to the magician!

Nice hat or is it hair?

The magician made great balloon animals too!

A lady bug and catipillar

Apple Festival and Camping!

Well we headed up to the mountains for Labor Day Weekend.
We stayed in Bonclarken which is a retreat affiliated with
our church. The kids camped with MiMi and Pappy
down in the campgrounds while David and I stayed in one
of the residency halls. I can't call it a hotel, because although
they did bring towels and tidy up the room one day that was
it. We had no TV, radio and barely lighting. Your not really
meant to be in the room much, and thankfully we weren't.
We went to the Apple Festival on Saturday and then spent
part of Sunday looking for some water Falls my Dad thought
were relatively close. THEY WEREN'T! The kids did
some fishing and they loved this little creek that ran by
the climbing wall. We also paddled around in paddle boats on
the lake and enjoyed walks around it as well. The weather was
good and overall we had a nice relaxing weekend. Our Labor
Day was spent driving home and doing laundry from the
weekend outing. The kids caught up at MiMi and Pappys on
their cartoons and came home later in the day. Hope all of
you had a nice weekend and enjoyed weather as pleasant
as we did!


The little stream was a big hit for snails and rocks!

Hendersonville has these great Apples all along

the street that the businesses have painted in

a variety of designs. As you see we took pictures

in front of several of them.

The one below is a great one for the Festival!

Of course this one was Matthews favorite. It had

a train painted on it for the NC railways.

This one was one of our favorites. Its a carmel

coated apple! We also enjoyed a couple of those

while we were there.

Matthew really ENJOYED getting a geode and

having it split open right in front of him, and getting

to help split it. It was exciting for us to see and

for him it was GREAT!

They enjoyed doing some fishing off the end of

the gazebo at the lake, and both caught a few

little fish along with a turtle!