Amicalola Falls State Park

Funny how you live in a place forever (wellllll....for US it seems like forever) and we are still discovering beautiful areas near our house that we never knew about. We haven't had a good family time in awhile - well, we don't think of them as *good* when the kids are out of sorts (guess I need to change the way I process a good time huh?) So, we thought in advance and planned out a trip to a waterfall a hour from our house in the Blue Ridge mountains. Zac promised me coffee from Starbucks on the way up...I promised the kids a picnic, so with those kind of plans...how could it NOT be fun?! So, after a quick stop at the grocery store and our favorite little coffee chain...we were on our way.
The air up in the mountains was so refreshing and the wildflowers were amazing...I love wildflowers. I made Zac take a close look and asked him in the sweetest way possible to PLEASE PLEASE promise me a garden of wildflowers in our next home. He said yes. :)

we first started up a trail (when I say "up" what i mean is "UP" ) which brought us to a platform with a view of the bottom of the falls - and then this sign. "Should we try it?" I asked my love "Yah, we'll start and see if we can get up there." Usually it wouldn't be a problem for us to climb, but I had Finn in the sling, he had a 30 lb Tristan on his back - and Brady was...well...very focused.

So...all that to say - little mama got her butt workout for the day. Yes indeed, the ol' posterior is feeling it today. Trinity made it up with no problem, of course. That girl has the tannest most muscular little legs I've ever seen...I have great plans for her - I want her to take dance SOOO bad. Anyways, digressing a little....back to the falls....

We made it. It was SPECTACULAR. The air was even purer then on the trail, there was a cool mist - and I wished for just one moment that it would be possible to take camping chairs up there and just hang out for hours.

Told you - isn't it lovely? Much more so in real life.

Brady was concentrating so much on seeing the *big* falls that when I would ask him what he thought about the creek or the smaller ones on the way up he would get nervous and say "these aren't the ones we came to see." I reassured him several times on the way up that we WOULD reach our final destination. Once we got there he looked at it, smiled, and told me he was hungry and ready to go. Talk about task oriented.

Koala loves hikes...pretty easy climbing just hangin' in the Becco, lovin' on daddy.

Afterwards we had a picnic of sandwiches on sourdough bread with lemonade - and homemade cowboy cookies Brady and I had made the day before. There was a lovely playground by the visitor center that was perfect for our family....when I say *perfect* what I mean is *empty.* I love having a public space all to myself.

Tristan loved it to. He ran around snacking on the go, enjoying the freedom of just RUNNING. Koala has slowly been turning into a Tasmanian devil.