Thursday night at the Gardens

So anyone who is likely reading this knows that I'm in love with our local Botanical Garden. In fact, after going to the Garden in Hot Springs, I'm wondering if I might be in love with all Gardens. Having no ability to grow anything myself (save the occasional weed . . . and mildew), I guess I'm drawn to all those spaces. And just being outside is wonderful!

I had seen that the Gardens are open late on Tuesdays and Thursdays all through August and September AND you could bring your dog! So Flash, thinking this might just be the best day of his life, joined us for a picnic supper and playing in the garden tonight. It was great fun. If anyone else wants to go, I don't think this will be our last "cocktails and dog tails" event. Let us know!

This just summarizes Caroline right now. Happy to romp around.

Catherine and Daddy enjoying the picnic. I'd love to tell you that was a carrot in her mouth. But it's a cheeto. A baked one, but a cheeto, none the less.

Just thankful Caro put down her milk long enough to let Daddy take this.

Not quite tall enough to be Bert

Gig em!

There was a dulcimer group providing music and they were awesome! This lady let Catherine play with these little puppets that "tap danced" to the music. She thought it was so fun!

Daddy and Caro dancing to the bluegrass tunes

Caroline just about to convince to me to adopt one of these adorable pups. She would just giggle when they licked her. It was like double the cute with the dog and the kid. WE DON'T NEED ANOTHER DOG. Just reminding myself.

Here is how Caroline would look with her head on the body of a small white dog.

And here's how Flash would look

First day 2013

Here are a few pics of Catherine's first day of school! She was so excited to go back to her sweet little preschool this year and I think she's going to have an awesome year!

Awkward family photos

So they weren't really too awkward. Except that Caroline was miserable. But we arranged a loosely color-coordinated scheme and took some family pictures with Russell's family on our lake trip. Here are a few highlights.

Summer's over??

School might be starting next week, but don't tell Catherine summer's over! She might have a different opinion.

Road Trippin'

Well, we finally did it. We braved our first road trip as a family of four. Our family has been gracious enough to come to us repeatedly and we've had to do very little traveling since the kiddos arrived. Except for jumping in a plane to see David and Liz tie the knot, we have scarcely left town.

Soooo . . . as we had anticipated, the journey out to Arkansas was not to highlight of our trip. Whoever said that "getting there is half the fun" must have either had a miserable trip with no fun at all or wasn't traveling with a teething 17-month-old . . . with a cold . . . and an aversion to being restrained. In spite of our best efforts, which I must say were valiant, our car trip wasn't terribly fun. We did stop halfway there and run around the best place we could easily find. Yes, that would be the Home Depot. And that was apparently super fun to the little ones. But the rest of the trip, not so much. Anyway, eventually we arrived. I'll go ahead and skip to the end - the journey home wasn't really better. Maybe a tad. But not much.

It was wonderful and refreshing to enjoy the great outdoors, but moreso, to enjoy family. We did go to some pretty cool places, but the people we were with made the trip. Ah, and help with the babies, help with dishes and cooking, help with everything . . . so wonderful. I got four consecutive unhurried showers.

Here are a few highlights. Pardon the photo onslaught. And try to remember that we took 600 pictures. There, now this doesn't seem like soooo many. Right?

Most of the photos were just from hanging out around the lakehouse, which was as much fun as anything we did!

 

And then there was the fake mustache affair . . .

Canoeing with Daddy and Grandpa

Jam session

Cuddles with Daddy

Feeding the Koi at Garvan Gardens (This place was so fantastic!!)

Peacocks at the Gardens. Not even our future vet could get them riled up enough to spread their feathers. Guess we aren't too intimidating.

At the Gardens, with Caroline sporting her favorite "hold me" pose.

Catherine LOVED that we went to Lake Catherine. Got in the water but we didn't last long!

Coldest day at the lake . . . it was 70 and overcast. August??? Seriously!

Aunt Allison was such a good sport. I don't think this was Caroline's idea of a good time.

We went to a restaurant called "Fisherman's Wharf" the last evening we were there. Got some super yummy seafood, but the best part was the basket of crackers they brought your table, asking you to go feed the ducks in the river. The girls thought that was awesome. They have lots of practice giving food they don't want to Flash. Caroline enjoyed this way more than sitting in her high chair and eating her food. (Not interested in food or being restrained, as I mentioned...)

What a wonderful trip with excellent company. Between this trip and getting to see my mom the week before, we are super sad to say goodbye to family for a few months. It's never too long (hehe, they want to see the babies!), but we sure miss them all.

Let's do this again sometime, eh? Yes, it was definitely worth the drive. Are y'all interested in Lake Guntersville, perchance, though?

Nana's visit

Nana squeezed in one more trip to Alabama before she heads back to school for the fall and we had so much fun with her!

We enjoyed a trip to the new splash pad in town, Catherine's gymnastics class and buying the girls new shoes (one of Nana's very favorite activities), and a trip to Birmingham's McWane Science Center.

The girls were sure sad to see her go, but Russell and I might have been even sadder! (Hey, this lady helps clean the kitchen and put babies to bed!)

It was 78 degrees. Kiddos were shivering within 15 minutes. Too chilly for the splash pad in August? Weird summer!

Warming up

Good thing there's a park right next door. The cool morning was perfect for sliding and swinging!

Catherine chose to have her nails done over going out to lunch (we only had time for one more thing before we had to take Nana back to the airport). Catherine LOVES to go out to eat. So I guess she must really love pretty feet.

An over-tired, attention-lacking game of CandyLand

The water table at McWane

I look kinda funny in this mirror!

Nana has mad bubble skills!

The girls were fascinated by the aquarium area on the first floor of the science center. Considering we were thinking of going to the aquarium in Chattanooga instead, this was the perfect compromise! (And probably a much better place for a 16 month old whose idea of a good time is just running around and touching stuff!)