Mountain Bound...

Sawyer & I are mountain-bound with my family for 4 days starting tomorrow and I am so excited.

a picture from last year's trip

You'll notice I said "Sawyer & I" not "Josh, Sawyer and I", Mr. Planning Director has to be home for his first town council meeting, so he won't be making the trip with us sadly.

However, me and the Bug will have a great time because we are not only just going to see all the beautiful colors of fall and celebrate Big Mark turning 52, but also going to Emerald Mountain too.

What is Emerald Mountain you ask? (or probably ask, because I had certainly never heard of it until recently either) It used to be a very popular Wizard of Oz themed amusement park located in Beech Mountain, North Carolina. It closed in 1980 but in 1990 they started developing the park into a community that still incorporated parts of the original park gardens, only updated.

Now, they open once a year to the public during "Autumn at Oz" when families can come and walk the yellow-brick road, take pictures with the horse of many colors and enjoy theatrical performances.

old Land of Oz clock tower
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the cast
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the MUCH scarier version of the cast from the 80s
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I am being that mom and dressing little Sawbug up like a lion :) for our day in Oz

I am hoping that 1) Sawyer tolerates the costume and 2) that there are no flying monkeys or munchkins (they totally freak me out)...