We are trying to plan a couple of vacations for the fall and decided those trips are not going to happen until we got a box for the roof of the car (double strollers take up a lot of room!). REI has Yakama gear on sale right now so we decided to drive to Asheville to get the Skybox 16.
We got on the road around 8:45 am and everyone was happy until the last 20 minutes of the 2 hour drive when Rylan was fed up with the car. Unfortunately, being in REI didn't make him much happier - though Carter loved it. He was walking with Brian and as soon as he got in the door he just said "ooooohhhhhhh" (he's just like his mom and dad!). We walked around for a little bit but didn't see anything we really needed (though plenty of stuff we'd like). We can't wait until the boys are a little older and we can start doing more outdoor stuff with them.
I had called on Friday and put the Skybox on hold so it was waiting for us. Luckily they come fully assembled so we just had to take it out of the cardboard box and move the bars around on the car to get the Skybox in the right place. It was difficult though with 2 screaming kids that weren't happy about being in an unmoving stroller!
After REI, we went to the Western North Carolina Nature Center since we get in free with our Knoxville Zoo pass. Since it was lunchtime, we went to the Asheville Recreation Park first which is adjacent to the nature center to have a picnic. We set up by the playground and let Carter play some too while we ate.
So after lunch, we went into the nature center. We were really impressed by the exhibits and all the animals we saw. Most of the animals were active, and if not, were sleeping right next to the fence just a few feet away. All the exhibits were shallow but wide so the animals weren't really able to hide. We saw snakes, foxes, wolves, bobcats, bears, otters, sheep, goats, and a few others.
Carter liked all the foxes and wolves. He kept calling them dogs though.
Doesn't it sort of look like Carter is trying to get on a real fox in that last picture?
Whenever Carter saw a sleeping animal, he turned to us and said "sssshhhh" with his finger up to his lips. He also does this when he sees Rylan sleeping in his bouncer or carseat. Carter usually then proceeds to scream and laugh about it. We're really trying to break that habit.
Our cute bobcat ...
Carter's favorite animals were the bears. He loved watching them.
Right now when you ask Carter "how many" of something there are, he always answers "two". It's the only number he seems to know. Almost every exhibit had two animals though so he lucked out whenever we asked him how many of a type of animal he saw! Also, the only color he can say is "blue". So if you ask him "what color" something is, he'll answer blue. But if you ask him to point to something that is red, he'll point to something red (usually). So he knows more colors, he just doesn't say them.
I took Carter into a petting area to see some sheep and when we came out, we found Brian had made friends with some goats. Apparently Brian was just standing by the fence and they came up to him (probably thinking he had food for them).
When we were done at the nature center, we got back on the road and headed toward Tennessee. We got off of I-40 a few miles before the border and took gravel roads up to Max Patch to take Rylan on his first hike. Unfortunately Rylan cried almost the entire 30 minutes it took to get up to the bald.
Yesterday was our first cooler day (high in the lower 80s in Asheville) - it was really clear and beautiful. It was especially cool on top of the bald with a strong wind.
The boys hitched rides on us. Carter didn't want to get into the carrier at first. But once Brian picked him up in it and he remembered what it was, he was super excited. This was the first time we used the carrier this year - Carter is so much bigger now!
And Rylan got to ride in the Bjorn.
This is the view of the bald from the parking area ...
We did the 1.4 mile short loop up to the top of the bald. The grass had been cut recently and baled.
When we got to the top, we took Carter out of the carrier. He immediately went to one of the hay bales, stood in front of it, and started saying "cheese" (I didn't even have my camera out yet). He's figuring me out!
Me with the boys ...
Some cute pictures of Carter ...
Our first family of four photo ...
We really like Max Patch. There are great views in every direction and it's just a great place to hang out for awhile.
Rylan did great the entire time we were on the hike. He even fell asleep as soon as we started heading back to the car.
The drive home was a little rough with the sun in everyone's eyes and Rylan fussing a lot (he'd been in the carseat a lot and I think he was just so over it). But we made it. We got home around 8pm (and remembered that we had the Skybox on the roof and didn't try to pull into the garage with it on!).
It was a long day, but it was an awesome day. We had so much fun!
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