Girls' Weekend

I was so blessed this weekend to have my college buddies Megan and Susan come in town for the weekend. We were all in InterVarsity together, and they were in our wedding. Susan, of course, ended up marrying my cousin, so I get to see her much more often. Megan lives in Nashville, so it was a real treat to have her in town.
Saturday morning we had banana sour cream pancakes and fresh pineapple. Then we headed to Pepper Place, our local farmer's market. I think we're sampling pepper jelly here.

There are lots of dogs at Pepper Place!

We picked up some fresh veggies at the farmer's market and headed home, so Josiah could get a nap. While he slept, we grilled the veggies and made yummy pita sandwiches with grilled zucchini and onions, fresh tomatoes and basil, and pepper jack cheese. Yum! And we grilled peaches and ate blackberries too.
After lunch we headed to Homewood. Josiah patiently endured us looking through endless froo-froo stores, so we took him to Soho Sweets and Homewood Park afterward.

The whole gang. Josiah loved all the extra attention, and I enjoyed the extra hands!
Meg's holding the picture-taker's balloon and Josiah wanted a piece. You probably can't tell by the picture, but Susan is almost 20 weeks pregnant! They find out the gender next week!

Looking at the water "fall" - uh oh!

Sunday morning we met up with Kristen and her girls for lunch. You've seen Kristen, Kate and Lexi on the blog before, but we rarely get the whole group together. Kate actaully took this picture - so talented!

And Lexi took this one.

Josiah and the girls had lots of fun playing together.

They're really sweet on him.

Breaking Out the Baby Pool

Summer is here! Time to break out the baby pool.

He was hesitant at first, probably because the water was so cold. By the end he really liked it and asked about it all day long. "Poo? Poo?"
Can't remember what he was doing here, but I think I'd just shown him how to blow bubbles.

It was fun, but a pain to set up! I'm leaving it inflated in the basement!

Catawba Science Center

When we were in Hickory, Josiah and I stopped by the Catawba Science Center and had a great morning. I didn't think I'd be able to get him past this first part, the creative/inventive section. Why would we leave cars?

But eventually we went on to the physics part, which involved dropping balls and watching them fly or roll down chutes. Very fun.

I didn't know if he'd catch on to this exhibit. It was a virtual reality thing. You stood in front of a blue screen, and it displayed a set of drums around you. When you "hit" the drums it played your sounds. Josiah ended up thinking it was very entertaining and banged on the drums.

Then we went to the swamp life exhibit, and they had some really neat animals: raccoons, owls, skunk, alligator, etc. They had an opossum too, and it was terrible, just lying there are playin' dead with its claws and whiskers and teeth. Yuck.

They also had a bobcat! Josiah kept meowing at it.

Then because I'm a mean big sister, I took this picture to torture Parker. He's already seen it on Facebook and was completely mortified that I let his nephew get that close to a snake. In case you didn't know, Parker loathes snakes. Almost as much as I loathe opossums.
Even though the snake was safely behind the glass, a certain Harry Potter scenario kept running through my mind and making me a touch anxious.

All of the creatures were pretty familiar wildlife to Southerners until..
a Burmese python?


I gasped when I saw it. It was huge, and they said it was only half its expected size. Turns out Burmese pythons are becoming more common in the US as people have been buying them as exotic pets and then releasing them into the wild. In New Orleans, so many escaped due to Katrina that they're starting to overcome alligators as the top predator in the swamps.
Seriously, Josiah must have looked like the perfect little snack to him.

Then we moved on to the aquarium part. Josiah loved looking at the fish. There was also a neat section where you could pet stingrays (with their stingers removed). Mama did it, but Josiah said, "Na Na." They also had lots of turtles and some small sharks.

Nemo!

He did work up the courage to touch this sea urchin.

Josiah's First Trip to Beach

Was very traumatic.

My grandmother lives 20 minutes from the beach, so we thought it would be a good opportunity to let the boy feel the sand under his toes. First of all, we did take him right at his bedtime. Second, he seemed very upset that we took off his shoes.

We thought seashells might make things better. He liked them, but it didn't make redeem the torture we were putting him through.

So, so pitiful

Nothing was really helping, but it was better when he wasn't standing in the sand.

We did manage to get a decent family picture, despite a miserable little boy.

We don't know what made him so upset: the shoe removal, the sand, the loud waves, moving water, tiredness...hopefully he won't always be that unhappy at the beach!

Down on the Farm

Jonathan took Josiah exploring in the corn field behind my grandma's house, and it made for some really cute pictures.

Love those eyelashes.

Playing with the sandy soil was so much fun, he cried when we left the field.

Daddy found a bug for him.

Bugs rock!

Checking out the field with Pop.

To Grandmother's House We Went

We made our way over to my grandma's house on the Carolina's coast. I could kick myself repeatedly for not getting a picture of her while we there, but here's what I got.
Aunt Jean brought over some toys from her house for Josiah to play with.

This is how everyone feels after a meal at Grandma's, even if we are a bit more tidy about it.

Still adorable, even when covered in strawberry juice and mac and cheese.

So kissable

This is Jonathan with Uncle Spencer and Aunt Letha's dog, Moo-shoo. She likes to "eat air." Jonathan would blow on her and she would lick lick lick to scoop up the breeze.

This is my cousin Gayle's dog Zoey. She was just the right size for Josiah.

"Hi! Arf!"

Taking her for a walk

Getting some help from Nana.