autumn glory.

don't you just love autumn? the smell of crisp, {relatively} clean air; the gorgeous fall foliage; the cool, just-right temperatures; and let's be real because this is me talking here, the breaking out of cute fall clothes and shoes after a summer of wearing nothing but loose-fitting clothes and flip flops? *sigh* it's one of my favorite times of year.

to celebrate the season, last weekend, we went on a weekend getaway to beautiful deep creek lake in garrett county, maryland for their autumn glory festival. we joined our friends, ben, gabe, and liam and much, much fun was had by all. (as you will soon see by the no less that gajillion pictures i will be posting over a few days. apologies in advance.)

i tell ya, i think all we were all a bit skeptical at first, because in most equations, 8 adults + 4 two-year old boys + 2 dogs + 1 small cottage = scary, scary disaster, but in reality, the weekend was a smashing success. :)

we were greeted by the cutest little goody bags, put together by the sweet sandra:

how cute is that ghost?!

and choi boy was beyond thrilled at the prospect of spending an entire weekend with his buddies:

okay, seriously, how cute is that hug?!

after the kiddos went to bed, the parents caught up with each other and got some laughs and major WTHs out of finding this book in the cabin's library:

still not sure what it was about, but it sure had us giggling (in a this-is-so-bizarre-and-actually-a-book?? kinda way)! ;)

the next morning, we headed to town for the festival and parade. as we were driving in, we got a sneek peak at some of the parade floats and attractions...and a certain two year-old may or may not have been shrieking at the top of his lungs upon seeing such coolness:




the town itself was, in a word, charming. these are terrible pictures, but here is a glimpse into the adorableness of oakland.


i felt like we were transported back in time...or at least to stars hollow (gilmore girls fans, holla!). :)

we got the boys nestled into their cozy strollers (as demonstrated by sweet liam),

and walked around to take everything in.

of course, one cannot take in the sights on an empty stomach, so we opted for some light (haha!) festival food snacks:


corn dogs, funnel cake, fried oreos? yes, please!

after loading up on fried carbs and sugar, we walked over to the local volunteer fire department where the firefighters were so kind and let our gang of 2 year-olds take over their fire truck.

they. were. in. heaven.



and there were no less than 5 cameras going off simultaneously.


even piper got in on the action and auditioned for the role of firehouse dog. she turned it down, though. something about having to run a lot and keep up with the action. ;)

we walked around some more and found a tiny little playground that was precariously placed at the edge of a creek/lake finger thingy (um, hello, time to break out the toddler leash...just kidding, i don't have one. yet. still not judging, though if you do!). the mommas and daddies were a wee bit nervous (or at least i was and now i'm projecting my nervousness on them, too), but the boys thought the park was totally rad. but, at that point, they had been sitting in their strollers for over an hour, and i'm pretty sure they would have thought anything that involved being set free was totally rad. ;)

they played,




the giant bumblebee was obviously a big hit!

and climbed,

and let out their energy until it was time for the main attraction...

the parade!!!



gabe and choi boy had such fun watching from their daddies' shoulders and hollered and cheered and screamed and danced for the entire duration of the parade.

the daddies might have cheered a little, too.

;)

meanwhile, piper made herself comfy on the ground and nearly fell asleep.

see? not good firehouse dog material. at all.

we saw everything from baton twirlers,


to fun floats,



(LOVE operation christmas child!)

to bands,


to horses,


and tractors,

and everything else in between, including too many pretty pageant title holders to count! ;)

but to the boys and their pure hearts, the prettiest girls there were their mommas.


ha! i couldn't even type that with a straight face! although, i will say, gabe's momma is quite lovely! :)

it was such good, old-fashioned hometown fun and there was so much thought and love and care put into the parade and the entire festival. we got to talk to a few locals and they were so proud of their town and thanked us for coming and insisted we come back again soon.

and i sure hope we do! :)