Almond Farm Pumpkin Patch, A Wedding and It Finally Feels Like Fall

Phew what a weekend! It felt like a three-day weekend for our crew since the kids were out of school and Ryan took a vacation day from work on Friday. When we saw a small fall break appear on Chase’s school calendar, we wanted to take advantage of the time off of school and planned to head to a local pumpkin patch as a family.

(Overalls: We Wore What / Headband / White sneakers: Madewell) 

We made our way to a new-to-us spot, Almond Farm, in Concord, North Carolina and spent several hours at the family farm. The big kids were most excited about picking out their own pumpkins to carve so we stopped by the pumpkin patch first and loaded up our wagon with an assortment of pumpkins of all different shapes, colors and sizes.

Everyone we met at the farm was so incredibly friendly and kind to our family and I just feel like that bears mentioning because they made us feel so welcome on their farm. One of the women working at the farm went out of our way to offer the boys huge Honeycrisp apples to munch on to give them energy for all of the activities on the farm and they definitely needed the energy boost because there was so much to do! They ran all over the place and loved playing with trucks on the big sand pile, sliding down a tube slide, meandering through a corn maze, playing around in a corn pit and bouncing along on the tractor ride.

It was warmer than we anticipated on Friday with temperatures eclipsing 80 degrees but fall came through for us by the end of the weekend!

Saturday

Our Saturday plans centered around a wedding Ryan and I had on the agenda in the late afternoon so we figured sticking close to home in the morning was a decent idea. We went on a long family walk and took the boys fishing before heading home for Rhett’s nap. We had one of the boys’ favorite babysitters arrive around 2 p.m. so we could make the drive to Salisbury, North Carolina to celebrate the wedding of my second cousin, Evan and his long-time girlfriend, Gabbie!

(Dress: Line & Dot via RueLaLa — also available on Revolve in a rust color and cream. Loved wearing this one because it was so flowy and there was no need for a strapless bra. / Heels  — These were shockingly comfortable for 3.5-inch heels. I loved the square toe!) 

The wedding took place outside on Gabbie’s family’s farm and it was lovely! It had an intimate feel even though we were surrounded by expansive views of beautiful farmland. The couples’ vows were incredibly thoughtful and heartfelt and had more than a few of us tearing up.

During the cocktail hour, Gabbie’s sister approached me with an assignment that I thought was so cool! She handed me an iPod touch and asked me to film various moments throughout the remainder of the wedding as part of a wedding video project. Five guests were given iPod touches and the videos filmed are going to be used to create a wedding video for Gabbie and Evan through the company Wedit. Maybe I’ve been out of the wedding scene for too long but I had never heard of this concept and I thought it was so creative and such a neat way to capture a wedding from various guests’ perspectives. I was in charge of helping document Evan’s side of the family’s footage and we had a lot of fun passing the camera around all night!

We dug into barbeque for dinner and had a great time dancing until it was time to say goodbye and make the drive back to Charlotte. Gabbie and Evan’s wedding was wonderful and only solidified in our minds the fact that we need to plan a family reunion ASAP. The last time we got everyone together at the same time was four years ago during our big trip to the Outer Banks!

Sunday

Sunday was the first day that really felt like fall in our area. We awoke to temperatures in the mid-4os and it felt nice to bundle up a bit and enjoy a walk in the crisp air.

(Flannel Top / Cropped Sweatshirt: Audrey 3+1 — a thredUP find! / Leggings: Lululemon / Shoes: Adidas)

We made our way to our favorite Greenway in Huntersville and walked to a little duck pond near Birkdale Village. Chase loved biking along the greenway while Rhett and Ryder rode in the stroller and we made more than a few little pit stops to check out butterflies, bugs, turtles, geese and ducks.

We arrived home around lunchtime and lucked out when Rhett and Ryder took naps at the same time. Ryan put some of our summer stuff up in our garage storage while they slept and Chase and I read a few chapters of Harry Potter. We’re almost at the end — I think we have 40ish pages left — and it’s been such a wonderful experience reading this book with him. I love hearing his predictions and cannot wait to watch the movie together when we’re done!

Eventually everyone was awake and we hung out around the house for the rest of the evening. Ryan grilled out and I made us a batch of homemade cinnamon ice cream with Biscoff cookies.

It was fabulous and I’m not embarrassed to admit it’s already all gone. Clearly we were all a fan of this one!

After dinner and dessert, we did the whole bed time routine before Ryan and I headed to bed ourselves to read until we could no longer keep our eyes open.

And now I’m ready to get this Monday rockin’! I hope you all had a great weekend and thanks so much for stopping by the blog today!