Two Christmas Trees, Three Hikes and Sweater Weather

We are majorly lucking out with fall weather in Charlotte. My absolute favorite outside temperatures fall under what I refer to as “sweater weather” temperatures, meaning it’s chilly enough to warrant a sweatshirt and light jacket in the morning but by the time the afternoon rolls around and the sun heats things up, a sweater will suffice. The past few days of sweater weather are giving me life right now and our family practically lived outside all weekend.

Christmas Trees Are Up!

On Friday the big highlight of the day occurred in the late morning when we ventured out to a local Christmas tree lot to pick up a tree for in our family room. Chase and Ryder thought the lot functioned as a the perfect hide-and-go seek arena so we were there for quite a while, looking for the perfect tree and playing with the boys.

(My pom beanie is one of the Target finds I mentioned in my Friday post! Love it so much — it’s fleece-lined and not at all itchy — and on sale for $10.50 for Cyber Monday today! It comes in a bunch of colors, too!) 

We ended up picking the biggest tree we’ve ever had in our house and I love how full it looks decorated with all of our ornaments and faux holly branches.

Our artificial tree is also looking rather festive!

A few years ago, Ryan talked me into two Christmas trees and now there’s no turning back. I love that we have one real tree that’s a little fancier (I still need to learn how to do that whole ribbon-tucked-into-the-branches thing) and one artificial tree that’s packed with all of our family memory ornaments. Seeing ornaments like the one we gave to my grandma to tell her she was going to be a great grandma for the first time (I got it back when she passed away a month before Chase was born), the ornament my aunt gave us that is painted with Sadie’s face and the watermelon ornament my mom gave me the year I had Chase because I ate my bodyweight in watermelon when I was pregnant with him always make me smile. You simply can’t beat nostalgic ornaments!

So Many Hikes

We took full advantage of the not-too-chilly and perfectly sunny fall weather all weekend long and headed out on three different family hikes.

Thankfully our boys and Sadie all seem to genuinely love walking trails and spending hours outside. Our setup right now looks like Rhett in the baby carrier, Chase on foot and Ryder in and out of our hiking backpack depending on when he wants to walk and when his little toddler legs need a break.

(When I snapped the above pic, Ryder said, “Mom, you see me?” He definitely didn’t want to be left out!) 

Each hike took us on a different trail which kept the boys engaged and interested every time. Man oh man I love family hikes!!

Fishing + Dinner at Birkdale

Our outside fun continued through the weekend with two different fishing adventures. A week or so ago, one of the moms from Chase’s preschool told me about a local pond where you are almost guaranteed to catch a catfish. Since Chase has been dying to catch a catfish and a bass, I suggested the spot to our crew on Saturday afternoon and we headed out with our go-to bait of hotdogs.

After about 30 minutes, we had some major success!

Catfish totally creep me out (something about their whiskers and the fact that they grunt — ugh!) but Creature Man Chase was all in and so psyched to reel in his first catfish!

I’m 99 percent sure we would not have left that pond without some major tears had we not caught a catfish so it was a win all around. After our afternoon of fishing, we made our way to Birkdale Village where we met up with my father-in-law for Chipotle outside by the large Christmas tree.

We ended the evening with ice cream from Kilwin’s which is always a hit! Their marshmallow s’mores ice cream is so darn good.

And now it’s time for me to log off the computer and transition back into mom mode. The week ahead should be a good, slightly crazy one which is the norm around here these days. I hope you all have a great week and I hope to see ya back here again soon!