State Park

We went to our State Park today to feed the fish (although the fish didn't want our fish food) and see the animals. They have a great 'working' farm there. They have pigs, sheep, donkeys, (many) goats, chickens, roosters, ponys and ducks. All of these animals, with the exception of the pigs, are out in the field and you can walk up to them and pet and feed them as much as you want. Sometimes they are more interested in you then you are in them (the goats can be aggressive when they know you have food for them).

We were greeted by this beauty - it had it's feathers like this the entire time we were there....Brad said he thinks this is a sign of aggression. It did kind of shake it's booty at me when I got to close, but never tried to attack.
It's definitely spring - as there were tons of babies (goats, donkeys and lambs). Here is mama and her two babies, they didn't move while we were there, but some of the other babies were very active and playing. David wasn't so sure about feeding the animals - as I said before, they can be aggressive and definitley could knock a 3 year old over. So he started with this sheep behind a fence to work up his courage:
Then we saw my two favorite animals in the entire place...I was able to pick each of these up and they are no bigger than our kitty...the farmhand said they were about 4 weeks old:
David became more and more brave and finally fed a donkey and several other goats, including this one:


We had a great time visiting the Park. This afternoon we are having some friends over and will grill out and let David and their boys play.

I hope you had a great Memorial Day.

Botanical Gardens

David and I went to the Botanical Gardens with a friend of mine, Emily, yesterday after work. It was kind of overcast, but we got some good pictures. David ran so hard that his face was red pretty much the whole time. The last time we went there we were with Brad, Pa Pop and S. and he kept reminding me of that - and that was 8 months ago! I had our old (non DSLR) Canon, but Emily had her SLR and she took some pictures of David - so I might post some of hers later, since they are probably a little better quality.
David touching lambs ear:
In the Tropical Gardens:Mischevious David:

Snow & Feet

The other day during bath time I put some extra body wash in the bathtub which resulted in extra bubbles for David to play with. He started covering all of his toys - specifically his cars with the soap and said it looked like snow. Until 2008 the boy had never seen snow before and this year alone it's snowed in Alabama twice (highly unusual) and we saw snow in Gatlinburg in February. So since he's seen it 3 times he knew what he was talking about. I got my camera out to take some pics of the snow covered toys and here is one...he was very proud of his snow covered toys.....
THEN, he begged me to take a picture of his foot - so I did and I've posted it for all to see. I didn't focus on his foot because his face is so much cuter....but at least the foot is in the picture. He'd be happy.

Fasher como

Yesterday on the way home from school David was saying “fasher como” over and over again. I kept asking him to say it slower so I could try to understand what he was saying. I originally thought maybe his teacher taught him a word in a different language….since como means something in spanish. He was so proud that he had learned this new word or phrase and wanted me so badly to repeat it after him. I’m not sure what made me think about this, but about 20 minutes into the ride and after he had stopped saying it I asked him if what he was saying was “flush the commode”. He said YES and got very excited that I finally understood him. So I guess as a 3 year old flush the commode does kinda sound like fasher como.
Last night each time he went potty I reminded him to flush the commode. I think he liked the idea that he taught me something new.
There’s nothing better than learning from your child – especially when he’s three. I love it!

Happy Mother's Day

Even though I'm a day or two late I want to wish a Happy Mother's Day to any of my friends/family who read this....I know there is at least one of you out there! :)
My Mother's Day was fantastic and started with Brad cooking me pancakes (my favorite) after letting me sleep until the wonderful hour of 9 am. We took David to this really great park about 20 minutes from here then came home and tried to feed the fish in our lake. It stormed badly the night before so they weren't eating. We threw rocks instead. I'm not sure who has more fun doing that (me or David).
We went to church service on Sunday night and I was so encouraged by it....I encourage you to listen to the sermon - you can download it to your ipod....here is the file: http://http://www.brookhills.com/media/files_audio/080511.mp3
If that doesn't work, then just go to www.brookhills.org and download the file there (May 11th).

Basketball

This weekend we went to a little friend's 2nd birthday party across town. We don't get to hang with these friends very often (K & J), but when we do we have a good time. David had the best time playing basketball in their backyard. We've played at the YMCA a few times but the basket they have for the kids is still too tall for him. Check out the second picture - his little feet are just barely off the ground. He's got good form....or so I like to think! :) David continues to tell us that he's going to play basketball at our alma matter.

Garden

Okay, so this year my garden isn't exactly what I was hoping for. We live on what used to be a mountain, so there's only about 6 inches of clay before we start hitting some serious unmovable rock. I know I'll have to get all of my tomatoes and peppers in the ground eventually, but for now they are in pots.

In addition to the tomatoes and peppers, I have an eggplant plant, Italian parsley, basil, cilantro, rosemary, lavender, chives, fennel, blueberries and strawberries. I think fennel tastes and smells horrible, but I bought it because apparently butterflies like to eat it and it's a host bush for them, so hopefully we'll start seeing a bunch of caterpillars on it.

We just started getting some small white flowers on the strawberry plants (see below), but don't yet have any fruit. The blueberries have lots of un-ripe berries and the grape vine is covered with grapes that are about 1/4 the size of a pin head. I've kept telling David that he can't pick anything without asking...he's already excited about everything, so I hope to have some fruit/veggies getting ripe pretty soon.I know irises aren't edible, but they are beautiful right now and I had to post this picture - they make great cut flowers right now.

Pictures from Durhamtown

Here are a few pictures of our trip to Durhamtown, as promised.

Brad had so much fun in a nasty mud puddle, he only stopped riding this time because he couldn't see (check out his goggles)....David and I were in the other kart at the time, but I so badly wanted to go play too! Maybe next time:
R & L rode their dirt bikes most of the weekend, here is a picture of R and just below is a picture of his daughter and our niece, S. She is so cute out there riding on her dirt bike. She got braver and braver each day.
In this picture David is watching S, R and L ride around the Pee-Wee track. R & L rode on the big track too, but had a lot of fun on the Pee-Wee track with S too. David is a bit dirty in this picture and I thought about trying to Photoshop it but realized that would take away from the reality of just how dirty we all got!

Durhamtown Plantation

We took a few days off work last week to take the go-karts to Durhamtown with Brad's family. We had an incredible time. The cabin wasn't quite the Hilton, but it was better than some hotels I've stayed in. We had a sink, a small fridge, a bathroom and a couple of beds. We cooked all of our food over our gas grill or cook top, and of course had smores every night.

We went out a couple hours a day and still didn't hit all the trails. Brad's brother and sister-in-law ride dirt bikes, so we watched them and some other friends on the MX track. I don't even know how to ride a bike, but I wish I did, they all looked like they were having so much fun. A little 4 year old boy we got to know was riding his little dirt bike like a champ. Not sure David is ready for 2 wheels, so we are thinking about getting him a 50cc 4-wheeler for his birthday. The little boy kept asking David if he would be his best friend - kids are so stinking cute!

On our first day S and I went for a ride and R & L were leading us. S was asking to go through some mud....so we hit a pretty big mud pit going rather fast, but we got stuck. Not only did we get stuck, but the literal wave of mud that flew over us made us both hold our breath for fear of drowning. It was pretty yuck. S and I got out and she was just squealing and kept saying over and over "That was awesome". Of course her nice white and red gear is now brown and red! R & L came back and he pulled us out with his 4-wheeler after I dug about 8 inches of Georgia red clay mud around from the front tire.

On our last day there the girls went out for a ride (some of the moms hung with their kids the entire time and didn't ride at all). L had her 4-wheeler and the other 4 of us ladies rode in our two karts. L wanted to go on the extreme mud trail...so we did. The mud puddles weren't deep enough to get stuck in, but they were wet enough to get drenched. One of the girls is a germophobe, so I was worried about her hating the ride (and being drenched in stinky mud), but she was a trooper. One of the karts had a bit of engine trouble and L got stuck but between the 5 of us we got her un-stuck. We towed the other kart out of the trail until the engine dried out and then went on more trails. We were gone for about 2 hours...and had a great time. Next time, hopefully we'll do a girls-only ride more than once.

Apparently, the go-karts were the hit of the weekend.

Right across from the cabin was a small track for bicycles. David loved running around out there all day long and even driving his battery powered 4-wheeler down there. He rode that thing around like he was big stuff. He'd stand up and point his elbows out like he was really going fast. It was so cute. I'm anxious to see how he'll handle a real 4-wheeler!
The weekend was great and we've already talked about our next trip over with the family and their friends.

I'll post some pictures later, they are still on my camera.