Tinkerbells

 Two years ago, we moved to Lexington during the week of Halloween. While we usually don't do very much on Halloween, last year I read about the short carriage rides offered for FREE on Halloween in downtown Lexington. Last year, we headed out there just to do the carriage ride, having no idea that most of downtown gives out candy to the kids too. Rachel was just thrilled by this.
So about two weeks ago, I began to hear from Rachel: "Mom, can we go downtown again this year?"
So with a little planning, and thankfully, since I was able to get off work a little early today, we headed downtown again for a carriage ride and "candy hunting" as Rachel called it :-)

 Here is Rachel checking out her candy while we waited for the carriage ride

Even the horses were dressed up today...

Our Family, October 31, 2013

We thoroughly enjoyed the carriage ride again!

There were tons of people out today downtown and we enjoyed seeing several of our church family and friends around town.

Rachel found her friend, Jessica, from ballet class

 We also found the girls' friend, Alexis, from church with her mom,Ashton, and her aunt, Carrie.

                                        
                                       
 Here are the girls at the end of the evening. It is a little hard to see, but Bekah's face is covered in green lollipop the exact shade of her Tinkerbell dress!

 We enjoyed a great afternoon as a family and I am sure we will be going downtown again next year!

                                     

Centerfest

On Saturday, September 28, we headed to Bedford, Virginia for Centerfest. This was our first out of town festival. Brent actually found out about this festival from someone who saw his pictures on facebook and told him about it.
Our first adventure started during set up. At previous festivals, Brent's booth has been on a very flat spot. However, here we were on a hill with with lots of wind and here the fun began. Thankfully, the gentleman at the booth beside us had extra cinderblocks he loaned us to hold up the canvas displays.
Here is the completed booth:

 Though set up was a little hectic, it turned out great!

Our little helpers

                                              

 

 Here they are, entertaining themselves. Bekah was "writing her name" Rachel enjoyed trying to figure out how stilts work! Then they were treated to cotton candy right BEFORE lunch! Oh well, it was a special day!

 Midmorning, the girls and I got into the van. I turned it on, got each girl in her seat, turned on their usual "sleepy" music for while we are in the car and...
neither one took a nap!
So both were going from an early early morning until Bekah finally couldn't fight sleep any longer. While she slept her big sister walked around with me to see some of the other vendors' booths.

 On the last street we found a kids carnival. So Rachel did get a quick train ride as her special treat.

Here is Brent visiting with festival goers that came by his booth.
 We had a great day in Bedford and really enjoyed being a part of Centerfest!

Natural Bridge

I was reading the local newspaper a couple of weeks ago and noticed an ad that I had been hoping to see. We live about 30 minutes from The Natural Bridge here in Virginia and last year they ran a special that discounted admission to $2 a person plus one canned good per person for the food bank. We also did this last year when they ran this special and I was hoping we would be able to do it again.

 First we headed for a late lunch at the Pink Cadillac. Yes, this statue is really outside the restaurant. I am not sure sure you can see Bekah's face very clearly, but she was definitely NOT a fan of sitting this close to this guy!
After lunch, we met our friends Molly and Hannah at Natural Bridge. Molly and Hannah had never been to the Bridge before and we thought this would be a fun way to spend a Friday afternoon!

All the girls

 We headed inside to drop off our canned goods and pay our $2 admission. The gift shop is, of course, attached to the ticket area and we got a picture of the girls with the tape measure bear. We got the same picture last year so it was neat to see how they have grown in a year

Rachel    September 2012

Rebekah   September 2012

Rachel and Rebekah    September 27, 2013

 We then headed downstairs to the butterfly habitat and what used to be the toy museum and is now...
the kids arcade and indoor playground area. All the girls liked this area.

 

and the younger two liked to try Skee ball too!

 We then headed to the butterfly area. See if you can find the butterflies in these next two pictures. They were a little harder to spot this year.

 Except for the one Rachel found! That is actually a moth according to the worker there and it was literally the size of a small bird and as you can see there were several others of the same kind preparing to hatch. We asked about them and found out they would be released into the habitat the next day. I was actually glad... that moth was Huge!

 A trip to Natural Bridge wouldn't be complete without a trip to the Wax Museum. Brent and Bekah hung out with some new friends and the girls helped out with a checker game.

Of course, we made the trip down to the Bridge too. It was a this point that my camera battery completely died so this was the last picture we got of the trip. We had a great time seeing the Bridge with our friends. Though the Natural Bridge is possibly set to be auctioned before too long, we hope that we will be able to do this day trip again next year!

Our family, September 27, 2013