Because I Wouldn't Let Him Play in the Street and 1 Million Bean Pickup (7QT)

It's that time again (where I publish this with Friday's date so in the future it looked like I had my act together when really I posted this on Monday).

--- 1 ---

Have you seen the Reasons My Son Is Crying website?  Sometimes as a parent I have to step back and realize that my child's crying is completely out of my control and that this little being in my care is, as my sister puts it, "irrational and uncivilized".  

So, I'm considering the following as my submission to ReasonsMySonIsCrying.com...

I wouldn't let him play in the street.  #meanmom

...because I didn't capture a picture to go along with this:

This weekend I heard my son crying and I walked into the kitchen and asked my husband "what happened?".  His reply was, 

"he wanted some watermelon, so I gave him some."  "And that's why he's crying?"  "Yep."  

--- 2 ---

We have been showing our grill a lot of love on the weekends.  I had hung the diapers out on the line while The Hubs was making a particularly good batch of BBQ and I asked him to help me keep an eye on the weather, because according to the forecast we were supposed to get thunderstorms in a few hours.  Thirty mins later...

The Hubs rescuing his thermometer.  Diapers...soaked.

--- 3 ---

Our Georgia weather is just wacky with drastic changes in temperature and thunderstorms hitting at any moment.  So inside entertainment is a must.  I thought giving him something to put in his pots and pans would be fun.

It's all fun and games until Momma is cleaning up a million beans off of the floor.

--- 4 ---

The new slide from Grandma and Grandpa has not yet ceased to entertain.

--- 5 ---

I trekked the Little Man and myself out to the Farmer's Market (just too far to justify going every week), and purchased some peaches, blackberries, and tomatoes.  The market is in the downtown area near a mom-of-a-friend-owned candy shop, so we dropped in to say hello.  Our friend happened to be there and he gave Matthan some Smarties because those are his son's favorite.  We also ruined our dinner with their homemade ice-cream and blackberries (that they get from the market), YUM!!

--- 6 ---

And because the e-mail gods are against me preventing me from getting other photos that I had planned to share, go see this post:

Six Years and Several Frisbees Later

--- 7 ---

Or this post:

Splashing and Hiking at Angel Falls

For more Quick Takes, visit Conversion Diary!

 

Six Years and Several Frisbees Later

Click on picture to go see more wedding pictures

When we picked our date to get married (July 5th), part of the reasoning was that we'd get fireworks every year to remind us that something special was coming up.  Ergo, we'd never forget our anniversary.

Due to the willingness of my in-laws to hang with Little Man all weekend, The Hubs and I were able to head back to place where it all began.

{pretty}

Who knew that when we met ten years ago at UGA in Athens, GA that we'd be here now with 4 years of dating and 6 years of marriage behind us?  Well, according to The Hubs, he did.  Athens will always feel like home to us.  And so we left home to head home for the weekend.

After eating some pretty sub-par Chinese food (because we forget EVERY YEAR that most places close on the 4th) we headed out to watch some fireworks.  We sat in our camping love seat (because we are that cute), and just... sat.  It's amazing what a luxury sitting is when you realize you don't have to chase a kid.  So we sat, and listened to a couple of military bands play, and people watched.  

Then we ran into some old friends and hung out with them and their family the rest of the evening and watched some pretty awesome fireworks, and reminisced about our rehearsal dinner that included fireworks off of River Street in Savannah (because, hello, free entertainment for our wedding guests).

 {happy}

Seriously, sitting, such a luxury.

We spent the next day making up for our lack of foodie indulging by eating at some of our favorite places (Big City Bread, Utage, etc).  We also went to play disc golf on the course that we've played many times in college.  I won, for the record; a very rare occurrence, hence the reason that I'm bragging.

On the way back we stopped at The Yarn House because it looked interesting.  Some older ladies had turned a historic house into a yarn and accessories shop.  I have an affinity for yarn items and homemade things... and so does The Hubs.  He had placed his order with me a long time ago, saying that should I ever want to make him something, he would love a pair of socks.  So, an hour, a couple pets of their long-haired bunny, several supplies, and a tour from one of the owners later, we left with (most) of what I need to make The Hubs socks.  After watching several youtube videos on how to make socks...I've determined that he will receive said socks as a 10th anniversary gift because that is how long it will take for me to make them.

{funny}

Does this picture look familiar to you?  Where have we seen this scenario before?  Oh, right. 

See the white frisbee wedged into the tree branch? 

We had just spent what seemed like a good 15 mins or so searching for that particular disc before finding it and moving on to this hole.  Then he threw it, and there wasn't the usual thunk! sound reassuring us that what had gone up had come down, and we just looked at each other, and knew that the search began again.  See picture above.  We did finally get it down after throwing several large sticks at it.  On the plus side: the frisbee was white instead of green (so easier to find), we were shaded, and I was not six months pregnant out in the blazing sun with swollen, sunburned legs from the previous days crazy kayaking adventure.

{real}

We managed to only snap a couple pictures from the weekend because we were just enjoying our time in all of our old places.  We went to mass at the Catholic Center and saw our old priest friend, ate at several great restaurants, went downtown to see a jazz band, and went to the Botanical Gardens where we saw a couple deer while hiking to "our rock".

While I did stay off of my phone pretty much the whole weekend, I glanced at Facebook while waiting somewhere and found The Hubs' following post.  He's often a man of few words when it comes to feelings (he's more a buy flowers than a give a compliment guy), but every now and then he does something like this and doesn't tell me and then I find it and it makes me swoon.

So after six years (of marriage) and several frisbees later... yeah... I'd say there's still... 

Go check out the ladies at Like Mother, Like Daughter for more Pretty, Happy, Funny, Real posts.

Splashing and Hiking at Angel Falls

A week ago, only two days after completing my day hike on the Tallulah Gorge Floor Trail with a bunch of teenagers, we headed out as a family to hike Angel Falls trail near Lake Rabun (maybe because I'm a glutton for punishment or maybe I felt a little guilty that I got to go on the Tallulah Trip and The Hubs didn't.)  I sucked it up and without one complaint (eckhmm) went hiking with the boys.

Group shot in front of Panther Falls

Quick Review of the trail (if you don't care, keep scrolling):  The trail to the two waterfalls is a couple miles or more one way depending on which source you check.  It is a moderate hike with some flatter path mixed in with some short but very steep parts.  Some of the steep parts are very narrow with barely enough room for one person, and only some of it has guide rails (metal rope?).  So it would be very difficult to help a small child on part of the path.  

We hiked to Panther Falls and took a couple pictures before continuing straight on to Angel Falls.  Unfortunately, the trees were so overgrown that we could only see the bottom of Angel Falls.  The falls went up much further than I was able to capture in pictures or video.  We might have to go back in the winter when we could more likely see all the way to the top.

The bottom of Angel Falls

(he was right)

We stopped to play in the water of Panther Falls on the way back down.

Not sure about the cold water

Matthan was a little hesitant but loves playing in the water.  He could have thrown rocks all day.  He was really funny about squatting down himself to pick up the rocks so he "made" us do it, which is why we didn't let him do it all day.

Getting Daddy to pick up rock after rock

Matthan-Daddy Love

Throwing more rocks

Matthan took a branch to the face somewhere along the hike which just barely missed his eye.  Daddy put some cold water on it quickly and you could barely see it after a little while.  He was a trooper.

"More rocks, more rocks!!"

A couple of sources said that you can swim in Panther falls, but unless your definition of swimming is flailing like a beached whale in 3 inch deep water, then just be prepared for a little wading.