Upstate and Down River

As spacious and leisurely as apartment living is, we decided to go explore our fair state on Saturday. We packed up the kids, their "nature buckets," and maps and headed "Upstate." Here they are enjoying the car ride. Did I mention that their nature buckets are actually their Halloween buckets that I picked up at the dollar store last week? What a bargain- candy bucket, nature bucket, and hat all for one dollar!Here are two of the adventurers in outifts of their own choosing. Aren't they cute? Twinners!

We went to the mountains of Paris Mountain State Park- and it was gorgeous! Fall colors, blue skies, balmy breeze yet autumn was definitely in the air. Oh, and they had cool stairs to climb.


We had a great time. We hiked. We picked up sticks. We picked up rocks. We filled nature buckets with all kinds of twigs and nuts and nature junk. I tried to take their picture toward the end of the day. Matty was willing, but Mitch informed me that he was "too tired to have my picture taken." All in all, it was a wonderful day. We were impressed with the beauty of our new home base and it was very good for an apartment dweller's soul to see the boys....well, being boys.

And because we were on such a roll, we headed to a pumpkin patch the next day. Well, this was another side of South Carolina. The side that makes us call it South Cack-a-lackee. We went to the Hillbilly Farm of America (not the real name, but works well enough). There, we witnessed farm workers shooting pie pumpkins 150 feet into the air from a pumpkin cannon, while cursing loudly in front of our children. We also paid way too much for hayride tickets, and then had to wait forever because Bubba forget that we were waiting and went in to have his lunchtime vittles. However, we did manage to get a few photos. Note, please, Mitch's outfit. He planned it out specifically for the farmers to see. I have no idea how the Disney pins factor in, but he was not to be persuaded otherwise.

Here are some photos while we were waiting.

Please also note the ever present dirt smudges on Matty's face. OK- Bubba has done had the vittles. It took him awhile...what with the three teeth and all. Time to get the tractor going!
OK- Did I tell you that it was a haunted hayride? It was truly frightening, even in broad daylight. Here is just a sneak peek. It was like Freddy meets Jason meets Hillbilly. Hope you do not scare easily!

Here is the dreaded haunted mannequin and the shopping cart of doom.

The haunted oven.And of course, prepare yourselves! Protect the children! Nothing chills you to the bone more than the hideous haunted pink gorilla with a front butt!

This, my friends, is only a mere sampling of the horrors that abounded in the Haunted Forest. It is amazing we made it out in one piece.