Tons of pictures...and a few words too

I have been blogless for almost the whole month of October. My excuse is that 1) this is one of my favorite times of year and I'm doing everything I can to spend time enjoying it with my family and 2) my work load is sucking up every other moment of time I have when I'm not with the family...even time when I should be sleeping and finally 3) I was sick and still can't seem to shake this nasty cough, even 2 weeks later I want to just crawl back in bed. In order to keep some sanity I have given up pretty much all other forms of computer activity and the closest I have to a hobby right now is watching Max & Ruby Halloween cartoons with Gordon!

This month we have been to Maggie Valley. Gordon and I went to the mountains for a whole week. I had to do some audits in remote areas so it was great to be able to stay with my parents and have them take care of Gordon. I ended up consolidating all my appointments in one day... I drove from NC to TN to KY to VA and did all 5 audits in one day! The rest of the time we enjoyed being with Grandma and Grandpa. We saw lots of friends on the mountain too and even went to see the elk herd up on Cataloochee mountain. Then there was the "normal" stuff of the Apple Festival in Waynesville and the Maggie Valley Fall Festival and of course dinner at Granny's Chicken Palace and breakfast at Joey's Pancakes. The highlight of the trip for Gordon had to be the tractor rides on his Pa-pa's BIG tractor. He is still talking about that. We missed Shannon, he stayed home and had work to do of course...it never ends. We are getting excited about our big first family vacation next month, I feel like it felt the first time I ever went to Disney and I just can't wait to see Gordon's reaction when he see's Mickey and the gang and that big castle...and of course his "Aunt Debbie" (whom he now associates receiving new clothes with - if I put a new outfit on him he says "its from Aunt Debbie" - because she sent a few Mickey Mouse shirts for him in September!)

Just this past weekend we went to the Statesville Hot Air Balloon Festival - that was fun, tiring - but Gordon was so excited about seeing real hot air balloons. They are one of his favorite things. He really wanted to ride in one, but they didn't have rides, maybe next time. Today was Gordon's Halloween Program at his school...he is the big frog. It was just darling. He is the biggest (and oldest) one in his class. Monday he will be moving up to the 3 year old room - my BABY is almost 3! Oh geez...I just realized I haven't even sent out his birthday party invitations...maybe I'll just call everyone :P SO much to do and time is passing so quickly - the only thing that seems like it will never get here...the election. God help us. And that is all I'll say about that...for now. So let the picture show begin:

The Elk Hunter (and I skipped taking pics after his fall into an elk "pile" where he ended up with poop covering one entire leg...thankfully we were able to get the pants off, change into "daycare clothes" and back at the cabin Grandma was an expert at elk stain removal from his nice pants!)

Warming their hands by the fire...we had beautiful fall weather!

What kind of trouble can I get into now?

"Calm down Gram!"

Now that's a fire truck!

I like this one because you can see a little of the gorgeous color right outside the window

What manner of torture is this??

Amazing...he'll do anything if Grandma asks...he'd never do that for me!

Ah...the BIGGGGG TRACTOR!

He's going to miss his grandparents this winter!

At the park near our house this weekend:

These were at the Balloon Festival on Sunday - the first few...show what happens when a toddler gets too much "fair" food - funnel cake, ice cream, hilliblly root beer...he was a wild man but a lot of fun:

This was the classic reaction - Look at all the BALOOOOOOONS!

The school program today!

if he looks like the pudgiest frog you've ever seen...he had his sweatshirt and corderoy's on underneath it...the teachers didn't know they should take them off first...oh well, he was cute as ever! He sang (softly) and did the hand motions and stuff...mommy was so proud :)