To the mountains!

We had a little family getaway to celebrate our friend Mike's 40th birthday. This was likely the first trip to the mountains that Shepard will remember. He was very excited about seeing the mountains, the tunnels, the icicles and the leftover snow.

What fun.

Learning about the art of snowball fighting

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.

 

Holiday Wrap-up, Part One

We were blessed with a glorious two weeks off. Based on several doctor's opinions, we also chose to get Shepard's tonsils out. Ugh.

He wanted to nap in the den on the floor...sweet little thing.

 

Bless his little heart, he most likely caught some kind of "bug" at the same time as the surgery. Without going through a play-by-play, we had a full eight days of Christmas that involved forced medicine (every trick known to man or beast), begging him to eat/drink, a late-night/early-morning trip to the children's ER in Charlotte, begging him to eat or drink some more, fevers, worry, prayer...and Christmas gifts.

That about sums up our vacation.

Nap close-up

We were able to get down to Greenville for the Jones family Christmas, and seeing Grandma, the cousins and the gang did seem to cheer him up.

I think I have some pretty sweet videos of the kiddos opening gifts, but my video camera is currently MIA.

Grandma cuddles

He got some amazing gifts and seems to still like all of them. He hasn't quite taken to the Mr. Potato Head like I thought he would, but perhaps he just needs more eye and funny mouth options.

We were at Grandma's for Christmas morning, so his mommy-and-daddy gifts were ready. By this point, he had "gotten" the idea of ripping open the paper, and was ready to unwrap everything he saw.

He ate a cake pop! We were just excited he ate something.

"My own computer!"

Christmas morning cartoons

"My school bus!"

"Let's have a picnic!" (I was hoping that the plastic food would awaken his hunger...)

Chutes and Ladders!

All this present-opening has made me sleepy.

Shepard's Ocean ~by Shepard

Last week was so much fun. Mommy and Daddy put everything we owned in the car and we drove a long way. Somewhere, we picked up Grandma. There were lots of people at lunch when we stopped to pick up Grandma. I had trouble concentrating on eating because I was so excited to see my cousins and my Grandma. I'm not sure how they expect me to sit still when there are things to explore and I wasn't hungry anyway. And I didn't want to get back in the car because I was afraid something might fall on me. Mommy assured me I was safe. But that beach towel was making faces at me.

Gigi showed me the card game.

(Mommy says if you click on the pictures you can see them better.)

We got to a new house (with STAIRS!!!) and Gigi and Pops were there too! There were lots of fun things at the house to play with. Something called vertical blinds, a tree inside, stairs! and a special hiding place behind Pops' bed. Sometimes I like to go there and make a shoo-wee.
 

Daddy rubbed "ocean lotion" all over me and on my face and my ears and I wore my special water clothes and Dora diaper and went to the ocean. I love the white waves except when they hit me in the face and the water tasted bad. Mommy and Daddy and Grandma and Gigi all took turns helping me jump the waves. I didn't like going in the part where my feet couldn't touch.

Gig's lap was a good place to rest.

We ate food on the beach. I was unsure about my yogurt.

 Being at the ocean makes you sleepy. A few times I took my nap out there so I could get more energy to run around more. It takes a lot of energy when you wake up before 6 am. I couldn't understand why no one felt like playing with me so early. There was so much to do!

Apparently, I fell asleep and someone took a picture. I blame Mommy.

We went to a place called Savannah. I walked forever holding Grandma and Gigi's hands. But then I was really tired of walking and just wanted to run free. I pretty much feel that way all the time, but it seems to upset the tall people. They don't like for me to run free. They say things about moving cars and falling in the river. We didn't stay very long in Savannah. That's good because I needed another nap. I did get to see a trolley and have ice cream. I like Savannah. Ding ding!! That's what the trolley says.

Minnie Mouse lives in Savannah.

 I got a lot of practice going up and down the stairs and even learned how to go down stairs on my bottom. I also tried the swimming pool, but I might like the ocean better. The best part about the pool was throwing in Mommy's "boats" and watching them float. (Mommy's note: "boats" were my black flip flops. I wear a size 8.5. I wouldn't classify that size as a boat and chose not to take his comment personally.)

Mommy is very pale. She says it's ok because she won't look like a baked potato when she's 50.

Gigi and Pops made sure their patch of sand didn't go anywhere.

Daddy. My favorite.

Grandma showed me how to play with my cool sand toys.

We ate at the Boathouse and there was a giant forklift that moved entire boats. It was fun to watch. The french fries were also good.

We walked down the pier near the Boathouse and saw big birds and a giant alligator in the water.

We went on walks at our new house and saw bunny rabbits, alligators and lots of birds. The bunny rabbit almost let me pet him.  I also saw a turtle.


 

Daddy is looking for alligators.

BUNNY!

Alligator.

It was the best week ever.