Ben's Happy Feet

Recently Ben has grown to love the video Happy Feet which features a tapdancing penguin named Mumble. He'll often ask to watch the video by exclaiming, "Dance! Dance!" (This is usually followed by lots of foot stomping, arm waving, pirouettes and falling down.) When I took this video there wasn't actually any music playing... he was just stomping around our living room having a grand time. If you listen closely you can hear his "tapdancing" - but not all the tapping is his - some of the beats are part of the music.

Rhododendron Gardens on Roan Mountain

While Colin's family was visiting we took a short trip to Roan Mountain to see the rhododendron gardens. Unfortunately we were a little too early to see the flowers in full bloom, so I convinced Colin to go back a week later.

As you can see from these photos of the first trip, the scenery is still pretty green.

Ben had a great time running along the paths, and getting a little help when he got tired.

This was taken on the path to see the remains of the Cloudland Hotel, where people (especially people who suffered from hayfever) used to come to be invigorated by the cool climate. These days there is really nothing to see except a couple of rocks and a sign explaining what used to be there.

These photos are from the second trip.

Ben in the backpack. ("Backpack" was Ben's first two-syllable word!) He actually loves it, though he doesn't look too impressed in this photo.

Steering Daddy by his ears usually perks Ben up a bit.

And for those times he wants down, we can just put him on the leash!

One of Ben's new talents - sticking out his tongue on command. We couldn't get him to smile for the picture until he did this... but we missed the smiling picture anyway.

This is what we came to see!