My Wonderful Birthday

My birthday was last month, so the fam and I decided to head north for the first time of the autumn season.

And no, I'm not really 25. Brown Eyes made that card for me...would you look at those lips? He asked DH how old I was going to be, and 25 was his response. What a man.

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I love going up in the mountains during the fall. When you can catch a day that's not raining, the air is crisp, the aroma is either a musky pine medley or a cinnamon apple cider, depending on whether you're indoor or out. Almost any establishment you enter in the north Georgia mountains will offer some form of apple-something. It's apple season up here, and it's wonderful.

Along the way, we hit a few of my favorite antique stores because my DH both knows me and loves to spoil me. He more than tolerates antique stores; he actually enjoys most of them as long as it actually has antiques in it. Especially antique guns, knives, blacksmith tools, etc.

After a little shopping, wherein I bought myself a 1938 Illustrated World History book...



...we went to Amicalola Falls. Yeah, I figured spell check wouldn't like that. It's pronounced {am-i-ca-lola} with a short i. The word is derived from the Cherokee language, and it means tumbling waters. It is the highest waterfall in the State of Georgia, and it is absolutely beautiful.





There are three places from which to view this cascade: the bottom, from across the middle of it, and from the top. In the middle, the state built a path around the mountain from a parking lot to a bridge that goes across the falls and then continues down in hundreds of steps. We chose to drive because we didn't think the kids could handle the hike up all those stairs, but you can walk from the bottom to the top if you like!

This picture was taken on the bridge that crosses over.





Here's another one of the boys and me. Look at my sweet li'l dumplin' there on the left. Isn't he just the sweetest thing ever? {insert sarcasm here.}




Here's the view from the top of the falls as it goes over the edge. It's just beautiful!




I can't seem to resist taking pictures of pretty flowers.




Here's Lil'bit on the slide. We stopped by the "prayground" while we were there.



Here's my Brown Eyes posing on the side of the trail...what a handsome kid.



This one's kinda funny. Although I don't think I would have wanted to be the one in the truck when it fell off the side of the mountain and was finally caught by the trees!


That's a very old pick up truck, in case you can't make it out.



This is Brown Eyes hanging out in a tree beside the small, quiet creek that feeds that massive waterfall!




After Amicalola Falls, we drove around the mountains hitting more antique stores and a couple of pumpkin patches.

This is the parking lot of one that we stopped at briefly before moving on to our favorite place.




Then we got to Burt's Farm. We love this place! We have sweet memories of coming here during the first couple of months after moving here, seven years ago.




These are pretty...




These are, um, unique?...




But these are my favorite punkins of all...



You can pick a wheel barrow if you need to haul one of those grand-daddy pumpkins!




Here's my oldest, Mini-me...he looks like a young man to me now. Wow.




Brown Eyes by the baby pumpkins. They have every size you can imagine.



When went to the top of the mountain on which Amicalola Falls runs, we stopped by The Lodge, which is a place we love to stop just to go in the lobby and look out the huge glass windows...


This view is even better the more the leaves are changing.


Before we went, the boys shared a quick checkers game by the windows.


What a blessing my family is to me, and how thankful I am that we got to spend my special day together in such a lovely place.

What's your favorite thing to do for your special day?