Fall Fun at Poppy and Nanny's

What an amazing weekend (10/8-10/12) Natalie and Abby have had at Poppy and Nanny's!  We've had beautiful fall weather and oh, so much fun!

It started Thursday afternoon when we FINALLY hit the road at about 2:30pm.  I was quite tired and between getting gas, food, bathroom breaks and pull-over-so-mommy-can-rest breaks...it was taking a while.  Then, we had one of mommy's Jo-Jo driving adventures.  About halfway through the trip, I stopped off of Hwy 64 for a rest break.  Somehow, when I got back on the interstate - I went the wrong way.  I I didn't realize it until I was back at Hwy 288 - which is where you get ON I-64.  At this point I'm probably 20-30 minutes out of my way and the babies are getting restless.  I decide to stop, get gas (in case I get lost again) and give the girls a break.  We are doing pretty well:  I use the bathroom and the girls are happily walking around the gas station - pleased to be free.  I turn around to get a drink from the cold case and suddenly hear a crash and then screaming and crying.  Spinning around, I'm blasted by some kind of liquid in my face, momentarily blinding me, while I try to locate the source of the crying.  Abby has run to one side of the store and is crying absolutely hysterically.  Natalie is closer and upset, but not as bad as Abby.  A 2 liter bottle of mountain dew is spinning wildly and loudly on the floor, spewing dew EVERYWHERE from a puncture in the bottle.  It was chaos.

I find the girls and pull them away from the torpedo bottle and try to calm them down.  I felt terrible.  I wasn't sure what had happened but I was sure the girls' were responsible.  Moments before they were touching the bottles and saying, "mama's juice".  (Sad, I know).  The store was a mess.  There was mountain dew everywhere - all over the cold case, in the aisles, and there was probably spray a good 8-10 feet from the bottle.  For good measure, there was also dew on me and on Abby - although we weren't soaked through, thankfully.

Abby remained pretty upset until we left the store.  I think the combination of the crashing sound, the feel of the spray, the sound of the squirting (which was really loud) and the bottle spinning around on the floor was just sensory overload for her.  Some chocolate chip cookies picked up at the checkout counter seemed to help.  I did offer to pay for the bottle as I checked out.  The guy was super nice (he had brought us tissues before).  He kept saying it wasn't our fault, and something about a delivery guy.  I was completely confused until I saw a delivery guy unloading pallets from his truck.  I finally pieced together what the clerk had been saying.  The clerk said that the delivery guy bumped the bottle display, which apparently caused the bottle to fall - probably from the top shelf.  It then hit the corner of the metal shelving which punched a hole in it like a knife.  Since it's under pressue, the 2-liter then became a spinning little torpedo.

I don't know how long we were at the store, but my plans for a restful little pit-stop were definately blown.  Fortunately, all the dram made the girls very tired, and after eating their coveted cookies, they dropped off to sleep for the rest of the trip.  Finally, at least an hour later, I was back at the point where I'd first stopped to rest in the first place.

We finally at 10:30 we arrived at Poppy and Nanny's.  What should have been a 6 hour trip - took about 8.  Fortunately, it went much better from that point on:-)


Friday
We were fortunate that Poppy had the day off from working at the community college where he works as an Academia Adviser and teaches classes.   Our first field trip was to the bus garage to see "Poppy's Bus" (yet another one of his jobs).  Quite a while ago, Poppy and Nanny gave the girls a

Fisher Price bus, which we have always referred to as "Poppy's bus".  Now, the girls love buses and whenever they see one on the road, they call out, "Poppy's bus, poppy's bus" and "more bus, more bus".  So, Friday, we were able to see his bus live and in person.  I couldn't help but be aware that in only 3 or so short years, Natalie and Abby could board the bus for their first day of school...:-(


After our bus adventure, we visited Nanny's elementary school to have lunch with her.  Natalie and Abigail tried their hand at some classwork and had their first taste of school lunch food.  They were unimpressed.

After "lunch" we headed out to the stables to see the horses.  One of the members of Poppy's church (job #4, btw), works at the stables.  (It's nice to be connected!)  I was fully expecting the girls, especially Abby, to be pretty hesitant, if not fearful.  But, they did amazingly well. 
We immediately spotted the cutest little ponies - who were very eager to eat straw or grass from the girls hands (whose enthusiasm to feed them cooled once they saw the ponies' teeth.)

Inside the stables, we found the most beautiful horses.  Natalie and Abby were very excited.  They rubbed the horses and even sat in the saddle of one.  They were really so cute.  They kept pointing and shouting, "more horses".  They were also thrilled to discover that the stables were home to several stable kitties.  Kitties are always a welcome and happy diversion.

Outside, we discovered a llama and a few donkeys.  They weren't as friendly though, so we went back to visit the little ponies.  Abby wanted to much to feed them, but wouldn't get closer than about 2 feet.  She would pull up grass and toss it in their direction.  So cute:-)

After a real lunch at my favorite Mexican restaurant, where the girls' ate almost nothing, of course, we dropped Poppy off for bus driving and hit Walmart - always a must.   The rest of the afternoon and evening were spent hanging out and playing at Poppy and Nanny's.

Saturday

Saturday was just an amazing, fun day.  We traveled about an hour to Graves Mountain Apple Harvest Festival.  The day was a little overcast, but nice.  There were crafts, pony rides, music cloggers, hay rides, animals, food, pumpkins, and lots and lots of apples!

After their experience at the stables, Natalie and Abby took the the riding ponies like pros.  They absolutely LOVED their first pony ride.

We played in a pumpkin patch...

...and visited the farm area.  The girls saw goats, cows, sheep, pigs, chickens, pheasants and peacocks.

Poppy picked apples for them to eat right off the trees. 

We took a hay ride (another first) through the beautiful grounds of Graves Farm.

We finished up the day by watching the cloggers and clapping along.

It was really a wonderful, perfect fall day.  The only downside was that Ben wasn't with us.

Sunday was truly a day of rest.  We popped by church to say hello to everyone there then had a little lunch.  The girls took their first nap since going to Poppy and Nanny's.  We hung out, played and just relaxed.  Monday we had to head home, but not before we stopped by the College to say hi to Poppy's co-workers.  After lunch, we headed home.  Although I had to stop and rest a few times, the trip wasn't as bad as the trip up.  We were home around 8pm.

It's always so much fun visiting Luray.  It's such a beautiful place and there is so much to do.  We've just begun to scratch the surface of fun things to do at Poppy and Nanny's!