Month: July 2011

Zachary came over the other day and met Thunder! Thunder fell asleep on his lap while we watched Chicken Little on TV!

I finally got the courage to try my skateboard again. Mommy took me out one cool evening while Daddy was away on business. We played on the sidewalk for an hour and a half. I am finally able to push along with one foot. Not far, but I am doing it! Mommy taught me how to kick up the board like a real professional. I am hang so much fun and my board is getting “experience marks” or “scratches” like the real pros!

We were glad to see Daddy after two fun weeks. We packed up and headed south to Asheville to visit Grandma Jo and Grandpa Howie. I was excited to get back to my “fort”. I found a ton of HUGE mushrooms and stabbed them with sticks.

We watched a cricket get stuck in a spiders web and the spider come out and kill it. I thought it was pretty awesome.

I found a “toe biter” or water bug in the lake. I also caught a few fish.

Happy 4th of July. Finally not afraid of sparklers.

Mom took us on a few long walks around the lake. We stopped and looking in all the tiny rivers and nooks and crannies.

The beach was a must stop. Mom had us take off our shoes just in case…

Good thing she did! A few moments after the shoes were off we were completely soaked from lake water. We played with a few other kids that were at the beach.

Aunt Kim and Cousins Anna and Ian also came into town to visit. It was a full house! We went out to dinner at Brixx Pizza and I drew a bunch of animals. Mommy drew the lizard.

I found lots of nature and animals. This caterpillar was neat looking. I also found cicada exoskeletons.

One day we went whitewater rafting down the Tuckaseegee River. I hated it at first but then really got into it. I tried to paddle but wasn’t much help. It was a fun and long day on the river. It was great that Daddy had not gone back to Florida quite yet and was able to go with us!

We also went out to Linville Caves and explored underground.

I thought this looked like a dragons mouth.

At Grandfather Mountain playing under the boulders.

Waiting for our lunch. I liked the buzzer.

Up up up we go! We are heading up to that peak behind us!

At the visitors canter. OTTERS!

This is the former mascot of Grandfather Mountain.

They have bears, deer and many more animals on the top of the mountain. I liked the habitats. You could barely tell they were caged in!

Heading out on the mile high suspension bridge.

What a view!

One mile up and the bridge is swaying slightly.

Cousin Ian getting a bit too close to the edge.

I hiked out to the top part with Mommy while Emmerson stayed back with Grandma Jo.

Enjoying playing on some of the rocks.

Grandma Jo made beignets a few times and then pancakes one day. She made me a meerkat pancake.

We went to the Nature Center and the Otter cage was all complete. Last time it was closed for a remodel. These two were really playful today.

Being silly. Little did I know there was a goat charging up behind me that wanted to be on this rock!

The goat that stole my rock! I got to the log just in time. Aunt Kim and Anna liked the goats… maybe a little too much! 🙂 haha

Being baby somethings.

Tractor fun. I remembered this from last visit and kept asking Mommy where it was located.

We went to Ribfest after the Nature Center. Ribfest was anticlimactic. Mommy got us a few ride tickets and we had fun. The food was just not that good.

The next day we went out to Pisgah Forest and visited Sliding Rock. I did NOT want to slide but had fun playing in the river below.

I caught TWO salamanders.

I would have stayed and dug in the rocks all day.

What a great vacation. I can’t believe we have been gone for 6 weeks. Daddy drove home a week ago and we got to fly home! I was so excited for the plane ride!

Watching our plane get ready for the flight.

So excited!!!

I got a bit wiggly because I couldn’t contain my excitement.

On the plane and ready for take off. I got the window the first 30 minutes and Emmerson had it the remainder of the trip.

Learning to use ear buds and watching Dino Squad on the iPad. What a way to travel!

Home at last!

After we dropped Daddy at the airport I got to stay up late and catch lightning bugs. It was light outside until after 9pm!

Nomake came over a lot when we visited. She is so much fun to play with.

One day Grandma Susie let me use a KNIFE! I made a broccoli forest.

I even helped wash dishes, voluntarily.

We discoverd frogs in Nomake’s yard and soon we had about 50 of them!

One day we drove to Columbus to visit Aunt Norma, Cousin Ann, John and Marren. Their neighborhood has swans! The swans have for cygnets. They were so cute.

This is one of the eggs that didn’t hatch. It weight about a pound!

Blowing bubbles at the swans. Uncle Matt got blasted with the bubbles! Sorry!

We took another trip up to Lake Erie. I loved playing on the beach and collecting more rocks.

Someone had built this huge tee-pee.

I wanted to go inside but it stunk of dead fish.

Up next was Celebrate Poland. I love the small town events. They have a strawberry festival and a fireman’s parade. We posed for a few pictures.

With Uncle Matt waiting for the parade to start.

The fire trucks are LOUD!

They throw candy and I tried to get as much as possible. I kept running down the street trying to get more. I only ended up eating about 6 pieces and then Mommy threw it all out! It was the catching and gathering that was more fun I guess.

After the parade we did some fireworks in the driveway while we waited for the town fireworks to go off at 9pm. At about 8:50 I decided I wanted to go to the fireworks instead of watch from the porch. Mommy, Emmerson, Uncle Matt and I loaded into the car and zipped down to town. We pulled in a half blocked off rode and parked right by a firetruck. The fireworks were set off about 100 yards away! It was awesome. I hated the noise but got over it quickly as always.

The next day we did Chalk It Up Poland. I wanted a cobra snake in the grass for my drawing. I colored in a lot of the picture.

Then I got a tattoo on my arm of my toy cobra snake.

We played in the bounce houses.

We rode ponies. Then stuck around for Nomake to sing in the Poland Idol. It was a great day out.

After Uncle Matt went back to California we visited Riverside Gardens for Great Granny’s 93rd birthday.

Apparently they put this sign up a little too late!

Happy 93rd Great Granny!

When we got home Mommy worked on cleaning the inside of the pop-up and Emmerson and I played in the backyard. We opted to paint the back of the garage with mud! It washed off and it was a fun game.

We made “lemur scat”.

We built forts in the yard and played outside from sunup to sun down daily.

I helped Mommy put the state stickers on the pop-up.

I even tried to do some of the school work with my eyes closed!

Our last day we had a kazoo concert on the front porch. What a great trip to Ohio, as always.