It's the most wonderFALL time of the year!

I only have a few minutes to show you some of what we did on our mountain trip this week...
We were in Linville, NC and Grandfather Mountain.

We "mined" gems. We haven't identified them yet but I'm pretty sure we found well over a million dollars worth of precious jewels. :)

We made our own candy apples! It was so much fun to roll them in the caramel and then in the nuts or sprinkles. All but the apples and wax paper came in a kit together.

We made cards. Some of these are so much more cute in person and when you read the insides. Maybe you will be the happy recipient of one of these handmade creations!

We saw all kinds of fun animals! I thought it best to post only one picture and this one has a fun story. No, we didn't run into this cougar while hiking. But it almost felt like it though. We had just watched the otters playing in the water and thought we'd go see the cougars on the way to seeing the bears. There was a little wall, part brick, part glass. It came up to my chin or so. The glass was covered in condensation but there was a little spot that someone had rubbed with their little gloved hand (it was COLD). I made my way over to the cleared out spot to search for the cougar(s). As I was bending down, April said something to the effect of, "It's in the tree." So I stood up and sure enough... it was RIGHT THERE! I'm talking jumping distance! So I gasped and jumped back a little. Of course I un-nervoused myself and walked back to the wall to get this awesome shot of this beautiful creature. Mmm.

Yeah, I crossed that bridge. Oh, did I mention that it is 1 mile off of the ground? I think I also forgot to mention that on this particular morning that a mile or so up the mountain it was, oh, about 0 degrees outside... and winds at 60 mph. At times I thought it was nearly that cold in winds nearly that fast as we got ready to cross the Swinging Bridge, crossed it, and sat amazed at God's creation on the other side of the bridge. I am comforted that God did not set things in motion and let them be... He is still and will always be in control! I love my God!!!

We did so much more and I hope to take some time over the next few days to show you!