Rhododendron Festival 2009

Warning: this post does not feature any pictures of Ben or Izzie. But it does have Morley.

After our visit in Oklahoma, Grandma came back with us to Tennessee. The journey was blessedly uneventful. No cancellations, reroutes or breakdowns. We even had a nice free snack at the USO while we were waiting.

Then, since we had Grandma at our disposal, we drove up to Roan Mountain during the Rhododendron Festival - just Colin and myself. (And Morley.) I had been waiting expectantly for the rhododendrons to bloom again. Last year - the first summer that I had "the good camera" - I was in Canada and missed it. Yes, I even marked it on my calendar.

The first thing we noticed as we approached the gardens was that it was very, very misty/cloudy. The second thing was that the lookout was already crowded with photographers. I was too shy to shoulder my way in so I surreptitiously took this picture and then we walked around with Morley for a while.

He posed nicely for me.

Look, I'm in a picture! My eyes may or may not be open though.


Since it was so foggy the panoramic views I was hoping to capture were not an option, but I did get some interesting close-ups.







Then we went back by the lookout and all the photographers were gone... but it was still foggy. There are mountains hiding somewhere out there in all the grey.

I took my favorite shot of the day on the way to the parking lot.

Still more...

Throwing some beach balls around in Grandma's living room.
There's a ball coming, but where is it?

Gotta work on that eye-hand coordination.

A snuggle with Grandpa after baths.

One afternoon we went out in the yard to fly a kite. It took us a number of tries, but we finally got it to stay up.

Look really hard and you'll see it - a tiny green speck.

That wraps up the pictures from Oklahoma! Stay tuned as I desperately try to catch up with my posting before Izzie and Ben's birthdays. (Yeah, probably not going to happen.)

More from OK

Here are more of my favorite pictures from Oklahoma.

Playing with waterguns and a waterball in the backyard...




Izzie couldn't pull the trigger without aiming the gun at her face - and I wasn't the only one who found it funny!

Ben was absolutely mad with power when he discovered he could squeeze water out of the ball and into our laps.
He looks innocent here.

Ah, but now he realizes we're hot and tired and are going to sit there and take it.

Still happy in this picture, but not so much when the water got on him...

Oklahoma Parks

With children, it seems you (and they) are always on the lookout for parks. Grandma had a couple good ones in mind so one day we went to Grandma Ann and Patsy's school and tried out the equipment there. Another day we went to this park near Johnie and Nancy's.

Izzie with her shoes off. If she changes clothes as much as a teenager as she does now we are never going to get anywhere on time. Around the house these days she is constantly taking clothes off and putting new ones on. On the plus side she can almost dress herself - she always gets her Crocs on the proper feet, and 90% of the time she can get her underwear on and off without assistance. (At first she kept putting both her feet into one hole and getting very frustrated when she couldn't pull them up!)

Izzie in the plastic bubble.

Ben conquering the monkey bars. Why is it that these things are so scary now? They weren't that scary when I was the one climbing all over them!

After some hard playing Izzie enjoys a snuggle with Grandma.

Chickens and Cows

One of the highlights of the Oklahoma trip was going to Johnie and Nancy's and feeding Buckethead and the chickens. Buckethead, if you are wondering, is a cow.
Both the kids fed the chickens, and Ben very carefully gathered some eggs.

Buckethead was pretty frisky - he certainly had more energy than any of us in the heat!

Nancy had snacks and sidewalk chalk for the kids to play with. She always has some little surprise that the kids just love. Unforunately I'm still trying to wean Izzie off her habit of eating markers, crayons and chalk.

Later on in the evening Izzie, who will try on anyone's shoes, discovered a pair of boots in the garage - and that provided the rest of the fun for the evening!


Who knew a pair of rubber boots could be so much fun?

And here's our little Cinderella getting her own shoes put back on when the fun had to come to an end.

Oklahoma!

Not long after Julee's visit we left for Oklahoma. We, being Nat and the kids. And yes, I did feel a little guilty going off to have fun with Colin's family while he stayed behind and worked...

The day after we arrived we had a cookout at Patsy and Wingo's. Ben was quite taken with both Shadow and Josie. This one is Shadow, I believe.

Izzie liked the dogs too.

And the porch swing.


Even if she has to share it with Grandpa and Ben.

After dinner we went for a ride in the jeeps though the back pasture to see the cows. A few pesky horseflies kept getting in and we realized Izzie knew how to say bug! Here's Grandma Ann, halfway through the ride indicating that we should be using the radio to communicate. Duh...

On the way back up to the house we saw some people stopped on the side of the road and went to investigate. It turns out there was a turtle stuck in the tar on the road and they were trying to get it out. It took considerable effort but Wingo managed to finally free it. Then I convinced Izzie and Ben to go into the field of flowers (it was so pretty!) so I could take a picture - even though they were hot and tired.


So this is what I got...


Then Ben perked up for about a minute. And both he and Izzie slept well that night!

Word Game

What good is a blog if we can't show off how brilliant our children are, right?

Covered Bridge Festival Part Two

After the funnel cakes were devoured it was time for the ice cream social! One of the local grocery stores provided free ice cream in little plastic cups.

Then we took in some gospel music and danced in the street. Maybe Julee will post a video of Ben and Sam dancing... hint, hint.

It must have been during Julee's visit that Izzie's stroller obsession began.

The kids had fun in a ball pit, but the hit of the day was this little obstacle course. I'm not sure if they were supposed to go through it multiple times. The guy running it didn't specify and since there weren't any other kids waiting in line we just kept sending them through!


Ben had so much fun I took the kids back by myself after Julee and family left and when Colin was working.

I think Jonathan had just as much fun getting rides and kisses from his daddy!

2009 Covered Bridge Festival Part One

The week Julee and Chris were here also happened to be the week of the Covered Bridge Festival. We had to wait for our funnel cakes - not because there was a line, but because we were so early the food vendors were just setting up. We must have had the first funnel cakes of the festival - with extra powdered sugar!





Finger-licking good!

Jonathan making do with what he had available.

At this point the funnel cake is gone - Ben is eating the leftover powdered sugar.

This was taken two seconds after Chris asked why we didn't just lick the plate...

Hands-On-Museum with Julee!

While Julee was visiting we all went to the Hands-On-Museum. We used our membership (the Christmas present that keeps on giving), Sam and Jonathan were free, and for some reason they didn't ask Chris & Julee to pay so we had a great outing at no cost! That membership has filled a lot of hours for us.
Here's Izzie managing the busy phone lines at the bank.

And checking to see if she's forgotten anything on her list...

Another favorite was the slide from the main level to the lower level. Once the kids got into it there was no stopping them! I waited at the top, Julee waited at the bottom and Chris ran them up the stairs. After we got kicked out of the museum (closing time) we decided in the interest of self-preservation to stop for some Chick-Fil-A. We said we were just buying for the children, and they certainly ate their fair share, but as Chris pointed out there are times when you have to put on your own oxygen mask before you can help anyone else. And boy, that was a tasty oxygen mask!

Izzie and the Potty

For a while Izzie has liked to sit on the potty, but usually for all of 5 seconds. Recently, though, she peed in it for the first time, and it doesn't look like there will be any turning back! (I hope... please...)

She is very excited any time she goes on it - and the rest of us are suitably excited too. One time when she started peeing we began cheering her on... and the next thing we knew she was standing up cheering, clapping and bouncing with excitement... before she had actually finished going!

Today when I was standing at the stove cooking lunch I turned around and there she stood holding the (full) potty liner. She had taken her diaper off by herself, sat down and peed and then managed to get it out to the kitchen without spilling anything! (And without me noticing. I'm obviously not a very attentive mother.)

Izzie is also very taken with the idea of wearing underwear. She likes the layered look - a pair of underwear casually worn over a pair of pajamas - in fact why limit yourself to one pair? Sometimes she will demand that I help her put on some underwear, then a few minutes later she'll take it off and be back with a different pair. All of this underwear belongs to Ben of course, and he's been a very good sport. If her interest in things potty keeps up we might even buy her some for herself.
And here's the little monkey wearing a smile behind her thumb.

Sneaky Sweets

One day while Izzie and Daddy were napping Ben and I snuck out to the store and enjoyed a treat on a blanket under our tree.