Fun in North Carolina

These past few weeks have been very full and busy for our family, and I've been a bad blogger because of it! We were in Greenville, SC last week, visiting my family for a few days. We had not seen them since early in the summer, so we were glad to be able to spend a few days with them. One of our favorite days there was last Saturday, when we went to North Carolina for part of the day. Mom, Nora, Drew, and I went to a little farm - Lyda Farm - to get some produce and see the animals while the men golfed. Drew had fun looking through the bins of squash and pumpkins. He loves letters right now, and he enjoys spelling out the words he sees (although he starts at the wrong end).

Drew does not like to pose well, so Aunt Nora had to help him.

They had a wide variety of squash and gourds displayed beautifully!

Drew liked the different farm equipment around the farm.

They also had apples, and they gave us each one.

Drew loves apples, but he always wants me to cut them into slices for him. I was surprised at how well he ate his apple!

They also had some animals that we could look at - goats, turkeys, and chickens.

This goat was interested in Drew's apple!

Aunt Nora helped Drew share his apple with the goat.

Drew loved running between the bins. This is what he wants to do, no matter where we go right now, and it is not my favorite new habit! I'm afraid I'm going to lose him!

We had a lot of fun at the farm!

After we finished at the farm, we met the men and my sister-in-law, Katie, for barbecue at a little place in Flat Rock, NC called "Hubba Hubba." It was so good and was the perfect way to end our time in North Carolina!

Westview Orchard

Jim had a day off one day last week, and we decided to take a trip to the apple orchard. We started by walking through the little petting farm. Drew enjoyed looking at the donkey, but he was a little nervous to pet it. Jim tried to help him warm up to the animals. Here they are by the goats.

We bought some pellets and fed the goats.

Drew did a great job feeding the goats!

We also enjoyed the play area. They had some great tractor pedal cars.

Drew loved sitting on the tractor, but he had trouble making it go.

He really liked climbing on the wooden vehicles, too. He especially liked this big train!

A big ship with a slide.

Another big tractor.

We ended our afternoon with doughnuts and cider. Yum!

I made this layout about our afternoon at the orchard. I made it for my challenge at Let's Scrap this week. You can see the challenge here. There is one more day to finish the challenge if anyone wants to play along!

Some Scrapping

I have a few recent scrapbook pages to share today. This first one is about the trip Drew and I took with my parents to the dairy farm this summer. We had a fun time looking at the cows and eating ice cream! Drew loved looking at the tractors and other machinery. This page is about the Tiger game we went to in August. We had lots of fun watching the Tigers win!

This last page is about Drew playing Corn Hole in our yard. He loves to play this game!

All these pages were made using sketches from Let's Scrap.

Sweet Grilled Pork Chops

My mom and I were grocery shopping together when she was here visiting a year or two ago, and she was amazed at the low price of pork here, compared to what it costs in South Carolina. I had never really noticed, because I never really bought pork. A few months ago, I noticed that pork chops were on sale, and I decided to break up our normal rotation of chicken and beef and buy some pork. My next job was deciding on a way to cook them. I found this recipe on the Tasty Kitchen site, and I decided to try it. We really liked it, and Jim asks me to make this often now. Sweet Grilled Pork Chops
4 whole, thinly sliced, boneless pork chops
1/4 cup olive oil
2 T honey
2 T soy sauce
1 T Cajun seasoning
1/4 cup BBQ sauce
Combine pork chops, olive oil, honey, and soy sauce in a plastic bag. Marinate for at least 2 hours. Remove pork chops from bag and discard marinade. Season with Cajun seasoning.
Grill pork chops over medium heat until cooked through, 15-20 minutes. flipping every 3 to 4 minutes. A few minutes before removing pork chops, coat both sides with BBQ sauce.
These are very good and easy, and we've grilled them outside on our grill and inside on our grill pan. I usually just cook 2 or 3 pork chops at a time, so I half the marinade recipe, and I find that to be plenty.
When I made the pork chops this week, I tried this new potato recipe as a side dish. It is similar this potato recipe on my mom's blog. Both are good and faster than regular baked potatoes.