Trip to Mountains, Part Three

One of the best parts of the first part of our trip was being with grandparents and staying on a farm.  We stayed at the Cloud 9 farm and LOVED it.  It is about 15 minutes from Asheville and the owner, Janet, was AWESOME. She took the kids out every morning to feed the chickens (with big tall rubber boots in all sizes!) and every afternoon to get their eggs - which we got to eat.  The kids LOVED the chickens.  They were even brave enough to go into their cages by the end to feed them.  We got to feed the laying hens and also those that were almost ready for eating.  Noah called them ducks all week, but even he got a chance to put the eggs gently into egg containers.  The rooster would crow every morning - but not too loud.  All the boys couldn't wait till Janet came over, they could throw on their boots (even Noah was rambling around them by the end of the week).  It was the highlight of the stay.

 We went blueberry picking and raspberry picking and blackberry picking. The boys loved hoping on the back of the truck, with me on the front with Noah, and heading down the hill to pick the berries and see the lake and the other chickens.  The blueberries and blackberries were everywhere and delicious.  I was amazed to see how many berries grow wild on the mountain and Janet had some wild raspberries, too, on her farm.

 We fed the cows (kids did NOT like that) on the last morning.  We called for them - the kids were excited to do that, but when the cows starting coming - they were big - and the kids were scared.  They let me feed them all the carrots and apples we brought for treats.  Afterwards, we tried some of the fresh honeycomb Janet had and bought some souvenirs.

 On Monday,  hiked up halfway to the highest peak on the property before poison ivy deterred us. We weren't wearing pants and the poison ivy was everywhere, so we went back down and did the paddle boat in the lake.

We also loved the house and the hot tub.  Noah slept with Katsu and I, my parents had the big room, and the other boys had the blueberry room.  They spent all their time playing video games and on the full size air hockey table.  They couldn't wait to come home and play.

We celebrated Noah's 2nd birthday at the house.  We had cake - which didn't cook properly at all - so, more of cake soup, two days before and opened his Thomas presents from my parents one day before.
We had a great time at the rental!  We love Cloud 9!