Little Carpenter

We spent part of this weekend in Fayetteville with Nana and Grandpa (Brian's parents). Grandpa and Papa (Brian's grandfather) were busy working on a new storage building when we arrived. Isaac got out of the truck and immediately went to help. He even brought his own hammer. He wanted to do everything that Grandpa and Papa were doing. Here he is checking to make sure they got all the nails on the eaves secured in place.

Then he inspected some of the wood for the other parts of the building.

Mr. Horse seemed to have a loose handle, so he hammered it while bouncing up and down with no hands. He then scared Nana to death when he fell off the other side. Don't worry Nana, I'm a tough boy!!

Then finally he pitched in by supervising the assembly of the new yard vacuum. This box looks good!!

It's a Hat! (part 2)

For some reason, Isaac has become very interested in hats. He started a couple weeks ago with the Ravioli bowl incident, and it's continued ever since. According to Isaac, everything can be a hat! For instance, last night Elmo wore the kitchen towel as a hat...later, the hotwheels airplane wore a cup as a hat, and tonight daddy got involved. Here they are, two peas in a pod, wearing their stylish bucket hats!!

Ray's Splash Park

Monday we took the day off from work and school to hang out a little longer with the family. We ventured to Ray's Splash Park in Charlotte for the morning, and then headed to Ikea for lunch. Isaac absolutely loves the water and loves to swim. Here he is hanging out with Opa in the pool.

Here he is marching through the shallow water splashing everyone. He thinks he's big stuff!!

Toward the end of our visit he found the cool water fountains. I think he would have played with these all day. Guess we'll have to keep a close eye on him near the fountains at the mall now!!

Cousin Madeline just shook her head as if to say "boys are so immature." She knows already that Isaac is a crazy boy!! I really think at this point all she was thinking about was the 10 Ikea meatballs she was planning to eat for lunch!

The Lazy 5 Ranch

We were looking for a weekend adventure, and why do the regular old state zoo when you can do the drive-thru zoo where you can pet and feed the animals! That's right folks, our weekend adventure took us to the one and only drive-thru zoo in NC...the Lazy 5 Ranch just outside Mooresville, NC. Oma, Opa, Aunta, Uncle Mark & Madeline all joined us on our trip. We started off with a horse drawn wagon ride through the park. They gave us buckets of feed and the animals came right up to the wagon to eat.

Buffalo breath is horribly bad!

Isaac feeding the llamas

Isaac feeding the giraffes - the fence is 9ft tall to give you an idea how tall they are!

Our friend the cow proved to be the most excited to see us. His tongue was unbelievably long!

Madeline found out just how long when he licked her right across the forehead...

talk about a cowlick!!
After the wagon ride, we moved on to visit the birds and the petting zoo area. They had peacocks, goats, horses, prairie dogs and even kangaroos to see.

After eating the special lunch that Oma packed for us, we decided we'd take one more ride through the zoo in my truck. For those of you who know me at all, you know that I am very particular about my truck. I got a lot of amazed looks from the group when I said "pile in, we're going. If it get's scratched it gets scratched." I think they thought I'd lost my mind. But even Opa (from whom I got my obsessiveness over my truck from) hopped right in. Oma rode shotgun in the cab while Opa, Brian, Isaac, Aunta, Uncle Mark and Madeline rode in the bed of the truck for the next part of our adventure. The kids (young and old) loved it!!

This part made Oma a little nervous, but Watusi Cattle (at least at the Lazy 5 Ranch) are very well mannered and even tilted their horns as they passed by the side mirrors so they didn't knock them off.

It was a great day of fun with the family and all the animals. We all highly recommend visiting the Lazy 5 Ranch!!

Halloween Fun

Who doesn't love Halloween?? The costumes, the candy, the parties, the fun!! Isaac got his first real taste of Halloween this year. It all started Friday with a costume parade and party at school. He really enjoyed his green frosting cupcake!!

On Saturday (Halloween) morning, Nana and Grandpa came to town for the day to take Isaac to Hill Ridge Farms (a local farm with pumpkins, hayrides, a train, and a cool slide). Unfortunately, the weatherman got the forecast completely wrong for Saturday and it rained all morning. But not too worry, Mommy always has a back-up plan...so off to Marbles Museum in downtown Raleigh for the day!! Isaac loves the Marbles Museum and had an absolute blast. He got the opportunity to show off his green monster costume in the costume parade and then got to try on a bunch of other outfits as well!!

Green Monsters are too fast for Daddy and Nana

Isaac the Ballerina

Isaac the Firefighter

After a busy day at Marbles, we made time for a quick nap for the little green monster. During nap time, the rain finally stopped and the sun came out to make for a hot, humid October afternoon. Humid and 75 just doesn't seem like fall weather to me!! But at least Halloween wouldn't be rained out!

Aunt Rhonda stopped by to show off her lobster pot outfit.

Then it was off to trick-or-treat in the Historic District of Wake Forest. Someone was getting a little impatient with all the waiting!!

Isaac's first trick-or treat

Daddy and Isaac

We had so much fun trick-or-treating with Isaac this year! It still amazes me every day how fast he grows. We've come a long way in what seems like the blink of an eye from our little jalapeno pepper to our silly green monster!!

Halloween 2008

Halloween 2009