Brooke and Alex had two days off school for teacher workday so we decided to take the four day weekend and take a trip to the mountains.  We went to Fairy Stone State Park which was southwest of us near the Appalachian Mountains.  We had a pretty drive up with all the leaves changing and found a nice rest stop for the kids to play on a playground halfway there.  Once we checked in we had dinner and then explored the lake around the cabin area.  The next morning the kiddos really enjoyed playing in their new bedroom and on the rocking chairs on the porch.  Alex and I went to throw some more rocks into the lake near the cabins while Brooke and Daddy got ready.  Then we walked from our cabin down the road to the trail head.  We picked a short 2 mile hike along the edge of the lake to a dam (Lake Shore and Turkey Ridge Trail).  After lunch and hot cocoa we headed to Oak Hickory Trail for a one mile run through the woods (and climbing through some fallen trees).  We headed to the main beach area of the lake to take a look and let the kiddos play on the playground.  After a day of tromping through wet trails we dried our shoes by the fire and after dinner had some smores.  The next day we went hunting for fairy stones.  AJ was the best at it and ended up finding all 4 types.  After lunch, AJ let me go for a 5 mile challenging hike on Little Mountain Falls Trail which truly had what one could hardly consider a waterfall but after 2 miles of uphill ridge climbing had a beautiful lookout point.  AJ took the kids to play at the lake and playground and made them both walking sticks.  After nap/QT we ‘blazed a trail’ around the edge of the lake from our cabin to the amphitheater. We found a path back to the road and ran into four white tailed friends who let us take pictures of them.  It was a gorgeous sunset and fun hanging around the cabin for our last night before heading home.