Beautiful Saturday and an almost-fall hike.

We have been busy bees at our house. The weather turned into hints of glorious fall, and we had to get out for an outdoor day a few weekends ago. Shepard thought the whole idea of a picnic, a playground, and hiking by the river with "castle walls" was pretty awesome. Mommy and Daddy really loved the 75 degree, low humidity day. Mommy loved carrying the little hiker somewhat less. Amazing how he can be "tired" and still have plenty of energy when the playground comes in view.

PICNIC! (or pic-a-nic as he says)

Climber.

Look at the little fishies down there.

Castle walls! (Really, ruins from an old canal)

Super Eagle-Eye Daddy spotted a green tree snake for us. Shepard got to pet it.

Exploring.

A trip to Gigi and Pops' house

We did a mini-cation in July. It's almost hard to remember now. It rained a lot. Shepard didn't really notice. He was as happy as can be. We did have one nice day at Stone Mountain that little man is STILL talking about...he loved the cable car up the mountain! And, he got to ride a BIG TRAIN for the first time.

Here are some highlights...(click on photo to view larger)

Shepard got to play with Alina. They have learned the art of "cheeeeeese!"

Reconnecting with my old roommate, Sara. (Alina's mommy)

New friends are always fun to laugh with.

(Stone Mountain train) Here it comes!

Ready to ride the rails!!

 

The gang's all here.

Train whistles are VERY LOUD.

 

With the engineer.

Cable car. Ride to the top of the mountain and see "broccoli trees" below.

On top of Stone Mountain

Group shot. Downtown Atlanta in the background.

 

Making "Pops" look super-tall

 

It's a beautiful butterfly.

Ready to ride to the top.

Mom on Stone Mountain.

Holding on to the little climbing monkey.

Catching butterflies.

Oooh. I found a sandbox! Fun anywhere.

Carving on Stone Mountain and site of the Laser Show.

We found this awesome toy at a Charlotte park when we got home.

 

Darby Acres Farm

The sun finally came out for five minutes in March, so we made sure to GO OUTSIDE. We found the cutest place in Charlotte called Darby Acres farm. I thought Shepard would be fascinated by all the animals...he wasn't.
What he loved more than anything were ALL THE TRACTORS that he could climb on, plus a little stash of tricycles, big wheels, etc. I mean, there were BABY GOATS, y'all, and I couldn't tear him away from the plastic big wheel. He had fun anyway. There are lots more animals, but I was sticking with him...so didn't capture all of them on video.
This is an insanely long video, but it's fine. One day I'll be cherishing every second of video I took to remember the glimmer in his eyes, his voice and expressions.

Yee haw.

SNOMG!

The video really does all the heavy lifting for me this time. Just watch and enjoy Shepard watching and enjoying his first real snow...followed by a few pictures of him in snow when he was much smaller (sigh). Sorry for the delay. I have had numerous technical difficulties getting this one saved and published (???). It's has taken about a week and a half to get it worked out. Oh well. ENJOY!

Whoa. What's going on, Mom? January 2011

 

Don't worry, I was only sitting here like this long enough for Mommy to snap three pictures.

Eating my hand at the Cracker Barrel, Bristol, TN: December 2010

It's a Snow Gang Sign.

Snug as a bug in a snowstorm. December 2010

Wee baby bunnies!

Our backyard has some visitors! Jerod and Tux (the dog) discovered some wee little bunnies yesterday. There are four. We've seen what are probably their Mama and Daddy this week as well. Talk about CUTE. Daddy and Shepard left some carrots for Mama tonight. Shepard sampled a carrot as well. According to Jerod's research, they are about two weeks old.