Well - this weekend was supposedly peak leaf viewing on Skyline Drive, in the Shenandoah National Park - and at one point during the weekend, I put the entrance to the park on my GPS... What's normally a ten minute drive was approximately fifty-four minutes! The people were out and about for the leap-peeping and Ryan and I were not interested in waiting in a line of cars to see those leaves..
However, we saw plenty of beautiful Autumn colors down in the Shenandoah Valley over the weekend and also fit in some Fall fun while we were at it! We laid low on Friday evening - I'd cooked a brisket in the crock pot that turned out divine (if I do say so myself) and so we had brisket and watched a spooky movie - Blade - which I had never seen.
Saturday I would have loved to sleep in... but I couldn't stay asleep past about 6:15. *sigh* I met a friend for coffee around 10:00 and then Ryan and I went to have Mexican food for lunch and perused some shops - including an amazing consignment shop that yielded an incredible find for me - a pair of brand new Ugg rainboots that retail for $120 and I got them for a whopping $35! You have to love when a visit to the thrift shop yields such an amazing find - they are so toasty and warm - I'm so glad I have them!
After hopping from shop to shop, our final stop was Lowe's to grab some pumpkins and then we headed home and made our way to the back deck to carve pumpkins! I carved a raccoon into my pumpkin, while Ryan went with a more traditional Jack-o-Lantern - and they both turned out amazing! They are now proudly displayed on the front porch and bring some delightfully spooky cheer to the decor!
We enjoyed a pretty laid back Saturday evening - we had broccoli cheddar soup (okay - but not a recipe I'll use again) and watched The Haunted Mansion (the original) before heading back out onto the deck to roast marshmallows and enjoy the twinkling glow of our pumpkins, while lighting marshmallows on fire (because that's what I do) and listening to the Halloween Party playlist while a gentle Fall breeze rustled the crunchy leaves in the trees!
After church on Sunday, we headed to the nearby Virginia Arboretum to see if the gingko trees had begun turning their golden yellow color - and they're almost there! We took our tripod and tried to get some pictures that may be used for our Christmas card this year! The color right now is pretty prevalent everywhere and so it wasn't necessary to look too far to see gorgeously golden yellows, bright burnt oranges, rusty reds and here and there, some positively purple trees!
We also popped over to Long Branch Plantation because I remembered that the tree planted directly to the left side of the house was always a brilliant shade of orange and I wanted to see if it was blazing with color. And I was not disappointed! The color at Long Branch was everywhere and there were even leftover flowers from a wedding that no doubt happened on Saturday - everything about the gorgeous old home is stunning and these colors were so spectacular!
After cruising around the countryside for a little while looking at all the leaves, we made a quick stop at Lowe's and then headed home to watch football and cook four loaves of banana bread! That's right, I went a little baking nuts and whipped up two loaves of Banana Bread with Chocolate Chips and two loaves with Brown Sugar and Pecans and I sent two of those loaves off to work with Ryan this morning! We rounded out our week heading back to church for the evening for the Holy Spirit Conference.
The speaker was incredible and the conference was - while wonderful - also somewhat emotionally overwhelming; at least for me. I'm so glad we attended, but it was quite the blubbery end to the weekend for me! I'm so thankful and blessed to have my husband to walk beside me in this life, he blesses me in ways I don't think he even realizes and for that reason alone (although I have tons) I know he is absolutely a gift from God.
I cannot believe that this weekend is the LAST weekend in October! Where has this month gone? All too soon we will be carving the turkey and exchanging Christmas gifts... but before I get ahead of myself; who has their Halloween costume? Our arrived on Friday - we'll reveal them on Halloween!
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