Obama Mama

I'm stealing my friend Ellen's blog title.... So obviously there's a historic election on our hands. You'd have to be literally living under a rock to not know that or be affected by the media and commercials. North Carolina is a "battleground" state so there has been a ton of activity with candidates and the such campaigning here, especially since Raleigh is the capital. Anyone that knows Dave and my views on just about anything knows that we're definitely voting for Obama over the other guy. Hopefully enough people will agree with us and we can get some hope for change in Washington that is long overdue. Ok, I'll step of my soapbox now....but get out and VOTE!James Taylor, being a Carolina native, was doing a Obama benefit tour throughout North Carolina. Arden and I were headed downtown to the Obama headquarters anyway to get a new sticker and ended up attending the free concert. It's a bit challenging to actually "see" a concert with a wandering toddler, but she was a hit with the crowd because of her shirt! She even got her picture taken a few times.

Pumpkin Patch

We headed to Hill Ridge Farm's Pumpkin Patch over the weekend with the Cuales and Marks families. All the kids seemed to have a blast! Not sure how much "farming" actually occurs on this farm but they had tons of activities for the kids. Arden really loved the corn playroom which was a gazebo filled about a foot deep with corn kernels. She thought it was the funniest thing to toss them in the air. She also played in the hay maze and Dave and I commented on how different the maze probably seemed to someone that's only 2 feet tall! Then we took the much anticipated hay ride to the pumpkin patch. Arden was excited on the hayride and pointed to things as we went by.

But she was in pumpkin mecca when we got off. She's been obsessed with pumpkins this month, pointing to them and getting all excited anytime we go anywhere that has a display of pumpkins (which of course is quite a frequent occurrence in October) So she got off the hayride and maybe a beeline for the field of pumpkins. She wanted to touch and sit on all of them, selecting the perfect one (or maybe 30) pumpkins that she wanted to take home. It's so much fun to see her experience her world and watch her do new things!

2nd Trip to Asheville & a BABY FREE Weekend!

It's a good thing we love Asheville, because we headed back there for our second weekend in September! This time we were invited to a wedding at Claxton Farm, which is where we got married almost three years ago. We thought it would be a great weekend to enjoy the setting of our wedding without the stress of it! And best of all, my parents offered to watch Arden so we'd have our first baby-free weekend! I was worried about being upset, but I didn't cry at all. We of course missed her, but it was time for some couple time. We spent Saturday sleeping in & getting a big breakfast and walking around Asheville shopping. We found we got more stuff for Arden then we did for ourselves, including a adorable tie-dye skirt that she will eventually grow into.
The wedding itself was very nice. There were some similarities to our own wedding which was almost exactly three years earlier. I still love the uniqueness of this location and it suited not only Dave & mine, but the bride & groom- Neill & Cori's personalities very well. Dave had lost his wedding ring while we were at Shakori back in April so I got him a new one and gave it to him at the same place that he received the first one. Hopefully, he won't lose this one!