Trip to the Smokies

We got to spend a weekend near Gatlinburg with Nana, Pop, Parker, Rachel and Abigail. 

Unfortunately, Josiah got a stomach bug for most of Saturday. He was a trooper though. Micah wasn't 100% either. Thankfully, the cabin was a few feet away from a lovely creek. All Micah wanted all day was for Daddy to take him outside to play. So if you can't leave the house, it's convenient to have a creek in the backyard.

We still got lots of snuggle time and iPod time. Grandkids on the lap + technology = Pop bliss.

The creek

Nana got some good lap time too. It was so fun to see Abigail's personality more on this trip. She's the cutest and was so sweet to wave to people when they came in the room.

By Sunday, Josiah was feeling much better (after a 4-hour nap on Saturday!), so our family went on a hike in Smokey Mountain National Park. It's always nice when you see green everywhere on your GPS.

After several conversations trying to convince Josiah that you hardly ever see bears out in the wild, we passed by one running away from picture-taking tourists as we were driving to the hike. Pretty cool, but it blew our argument out of the water. We also encountered a deer near our car at the end of the hike. It was quite majestic to see one not more than 20 feet away, staring me in the eyes. Micah was with me, and he was very still and stared at him too.

Hiking. Jonathan refuses to use a carrier. 

We spotted a snail, and Josiah pointed out his slime trail.

End of the hike by the waterfall. The boys were both did fine one the hike and in the creeks, but the waterfall scared them.

Family picture. Not too bad. 

Cute Hat, Cute Boy

 

Josiah's First Sparkler

We had a pretty low-key Fourth of July. We played in the baby pool, and our sweet neighbors invited us over to enjoy their fireworks and homemade strawberry ice cream. The boys got to see ice cream churned and play with pop rocks. Our neighbors' daughter won a prize pack of fireworks, so we got quite a show in our front yard!

 

With Nana and Pop at Tweetsie

Missed this one in the Tweetsie pictures, and it was too cute not to post.

"Helping" Mom Make Biscuits

 

Micah's 2-Year Stats

Weight: 29 lbs. 6 oz. (80 percentile)

Length: 36.25 inches (90 percentile)

Head: 49.8 cm (85 percentile)

So it appears we have a linebacker on our hands, or a a future post player...

Museums With Friends

We got a lovely, unexpected call from friends from our med-school days, Jamie and Caron, asking if we wanted to meet them at the Schiele Museum in Gastonia. We had no plans, and we missed these precious friends! What a great opportunity!

The museum was a natural history museum, and I'm not sure I'd make the trek there again, but the company couldn't be beat. The kids romped around while we caught up on life. 

This past week, we trekked to Winston-Salem to visit our buddies Tonya and Mattie. We went to SciWorks, and it was a GREAT museum, that I would recommend. Lots of interactive, educational exhibits for kids and some outdoor fun as well. Above, Micah is "fishing" and below, Mattie and Josiah are doing a full-body teeter totter. 

 

Josiah in the BodyWorks section, getting eaten by a giant! Ah! 

Did I mention that our Catawba Science Center membership got us into all these museums because they participated in the reciprocal membership program? Hurray!

Creek Hiking

What's better than creek hiking on a hot summer day? The first two pictures are from our local science center courtyard, so it's not a real creek, but an exhibit to show the dynamics of water flow. Nonetheless, we love hanging out here.

These pictures are from a local state park that does children's programs during the summer. I saw an advertisement for it, and since most of the programs were about animals I thought Josiah would enjoy it. It was a little bit a drive, so I wasn't sure if it would be worth it, but we had a blast!

This particular program was on creatures you find in the creek, and they mentioned that you should be prepared to get wet. Sure enough, we trekked into the water with a very knowledgeable park ranger and lifted stones and used nets to find crayfish, water striders, and bug larvae. We put them in a plastic tube and looking glass to examine them together. It educational and just plain fun. How often does this generation of kids get to walk around in a creek?

Even Micah got into it, lifting rocks and throwing them in the water. Josiah was so brave and adventurous. As we were about to go in the water, he turned to me and said "I don't know if I can do this!" But he didn't miss a beat after that, asking if we could keep going and even wanting to walk in the "currents" (not real currents, but a faster-moving part). Who is this child?

Ironically, the one incident came when Mama got my first wasp sting...inside the air-conditioned visitor's center! Forget slipping into the water or meeting a copperhead - the visitor's center is where danger looms!

Pool Time

We broke out a new baby pool for this summer, and both the boys had a blast! Micah took a little bit of time to warm up, but that may have the water needing to warm up.

Last year, we would hook up the Little Tikes slide to the pool. Well this year: upgrade! I wasn't sure it would work, but doing the big slide into the pool was AWESOME. The first time Josiah went down he shocked even himself at the speed. I just about died laughing because, despite the fact I had wet down the slide to make it faster, I had no idea he was going to fly like that! Micah liked it, but only wanted to go down with my hand or Josiah pushing him (which he liked!). 

New sprinkler from Uncle Parker and Aunt Rachel. Great idea for a second child birthday gift!
Below Josiah is playing T-ball with the ball sprinkler and a pool noodle! Gotta love boy-creativity!