After Church

Our church days are REALLY long, so Elijah is always somewhat relieved to get back to his own toys and books - without the temptation of other little children's faces to pinch and poke. Usually, he runs to check out his bookshelf first...

...then helps Momma unpack the church bags... ...makes a mess...
...puts away the hymnal (or at least moves it)...
...checks out his toys...
...and heads upstairs to help Daddy.

If you have to buy little boy knee socks, you'll have to go to Strasburg.

Wheelbarrow!

Grammie and Grampa had this great idea for hauling Elijah around. They just threw a bunch of blankets and toys in the wheelbarrow. ELIJAH LOVES IT!!! Now, he points out and says(!!!) wheelbarrow when we see one in his books. That is so amazing to me. When Elijah and I were last at their house, Elijah walked all the way around the house, went to the garage door, banged on it until I figured out he wanted in, walked right up to the wheelbarrow, threw his shovel in, and stood there saying "please, please." Although not as fun as Daddy's rides, he had a great time being wheeled down to the park by me. He is so fun!

Bicentennial Mall Picnic

On one of our last decent days this year, Elijah and I met Aunt Laura and Grammie at Bicentennial Mall for a picnic. We ate by the amphitheatre, giving Elijah the exciting task of climbing up and down each of the steps. He loved it.


Look at this big boy - he can eat a sandwich all by himself!


It is so fun to be able to be outside with Elijah. He likes nothing better.

Grandpa Comes to Town - Day Two

After breakfast, Dad, Elijah, and I headed downtown for some exploring. We started at Fort Negley, then walked across the pedestrian bridge over the Cumberland River.




Elijah fell asleep during our walk to the main library, but Dad and I still enjoyed walking around in there. Dad and this woman collided while coming around a corner; the woman was not pleased, to put it mildly. Thankfully, we avoided any other potential fights and made it past the homeless congregates back outside. Dad treated us to pizza for lunch - mmmmm!
We stopped at a local nursery on our way home so Dad could purchase some animal bombs. After Dad rescued Elijah's ball from the tree, we set off bombs in some of the larger, fresher holes in the yard. When all the bombs were gone I spotted this hole as large as my thigh close to the house. When I peeked in, I saw a little mole nose (or something like it)! The hole was so ridiculously wide and deep that we could not think of what had made it. Last week, I saw an ENORMOUS groundhog across the field. (I have never before seen a groundhog; I have no standard by which to compare the size of our groundhog. Nevertheless, this guy was ENORMOUS.) Now we know who to blame for the larger holes. If we had an older child and a gun, I suppose we could take care of this problem....
To ensure a balanced diet for the day, we all met Eric at Pie in the Sky for dinner. They have just opened shop off of West End and were anxious to please us. They even gave Elijah a hunk of pizza dough with which to play while we waited for our food. Elijah was so good - he sat through the whole meal with us without complaining! A first! (This made more impressive by the fact that it was a long meal; I can eat a lot of pizza.)
We are so glad Grandpa came to visit! It was great fun! Come again soon!

Grandpa Comes to Town - Day One

My Dad came for a very quick, whirlwind of a trip. I think he was only here for a little over 24 hours, but we really packed a lot in during his visit. Elijah was THRILLED to have a playmate, especially after Dad fed him "Caakaa"s.

We went exploring outside,
and threw rocks off the bridge into the creek (a continued favorite pastime).
Dad taught Elijah to climb up and down little hills,
pick flowers for Momma,
and climb up HUGE hills. Elijah was really proud of himself.
Oooh, someone else to help me haul around my sticks!
...to be continued...

Honeysuckle Hill Farm

We went to Honeysuckle Hill Farm with our friends Glen, Laura, Nadine, and Abiel to help celebrate my favorite season. They had so many fun things for children (way more than just a corn maze) that we have decided to definitely go back next year.
Elijah has learned to take delight in pumpkins and jackets and running. Daddy and Elijah in the helicopter swingset.
Everyone took turns on the see-saw. When we couldn't find Nadine we would look on either the see-saw or in the corn maze.
Horse tire swings:
(Almost) doing it by himself!
Elijah, of course, tasted the handlebar. Yuck!
One of the highlights was seeing all the animals. Elijah was even able to pet the horse.
Nadine and Laura about to slide down the extremely fast tube slide:
I'm serious about it being fast. They have this really long mat to catch you at the end because you just can't stop!
Elijah and Daddy at the top of the tube slides. Elijah decided he didn't really like these, probably because I screamed the whole way down.
They also had a huge sandbox circumscribed by a tricycle track. Elijah loved playing with the dump trucks. We found sand in Elijah's shoes and Abiel's ears.


This hay maze was a little too scary for Elijah. This did not prevent us from shoving him in there though.

Chickens, rabbits, a horse, a dog, a goat....

You were allowed to "pick" a little pumpkin from this huge field to take home. When Elijah saw all the baby-size pumpkins he went a little crazy. He just ran around touching all the pumpkins, picking one up, running, picking up a different pumpkin - and squealing the whole time. Abiel and Elijah both tasted the pumpkins from the field.

Our family shots from the day:

Hooray for orange pumpkins, yellow mums, changing leaves, jacket weather, and fun friends!