Phase shifting

We have definitely shifted into the terrible toddler stage with Christopher. He is easily set off into temper tantrums, is sometimes hitting during them, and is much harder to distract and reset once he goes off the rails. He's still sweet as pie most of the time. So, Tony and I discussed it, and we'll keep him...

Last weekend we went to Oktoberfest in nearby Walhalla. We saw some folk dancing...





Ate a lot of good (read: bad) food, and the kids went on some fun rides...
We met up with some friends from the neighborhood there, so John and Henry went together on some of the rides...

They went down a huge slide (I went down once myself; it was awesome in a terrifying kind of way!)...

Christopher and daddy went on the carousel, but Christopher got kind of upset as soon as the ride started...

Day Out with Christopher

Since I was to be a tech-widow all weekend (Tony started "Sweeney Todd" at Centre Stage), I decided to head up to Spencer, North Carolina, with the boys in tow, for the Day out with Thomas, at the North Carolina Transportation Museum. Although the night in the hotel with Christopher waking up every two hours was HELL (I repeat, very bad), we had a great time at the Thomas the Tank Engine event the next day. Christopher was at just the right age to be totally bowled over by the blue train, and he has been reading two Thomas board books over and over again at bedtime for the past month or so, along with another train book. I figured the timing was just too good to miss.

We got to see Thomas driving up and down the tracks several times. It was great. We didn't actually ride Thomas, but I always thought, why would you? We did with John, and of course, while you are riding on Thomas's train you can't see Thomas himself!

John was mostly interested in the animal crackers I had in the backpack, so that kept him happy. And he was happy to help Christopher have a good time.

Apple Picking in NC

Cruise director Kerri led us on another fabulous excursion a couple weekends ago: Apple-picking at Sky Top Orchard in Flat Rock, North Carolina.
Despite the morning rain, which burned off while we were there, we all had a fabulous time!
(These are actually in reverse order, so we had clouds then RAIN then glorious sun!)

Picking apples was actually not the highlight. There were lots of playhouses and forts and swings, goats and sheep, and ducks and geese to feed. And a bamboo forest to explore. We will definitely try to go back again!