Things I'm Thankful For

Thanksgiving week was a great time here, with Hunter's whole family visiting for 4 whole days.

Carter enjoyed playing outside on an unsually warm Thanksgiving day. His uncles even taught him how to catch the frisbee.

Grandma Tabony pushes Arden on the swings at the nearby playground. It was nice to get enough time with the folks to see the kids really warm up and show some love to them.

Uncle Sawyer helped Carter go "faster and higher" on the swings. Carter really likes the swings now. Sawyer began to be worried about the amount of wear and tear on his arm before Carter relented.

The Tabony Brothers Three pose for a picture. Notice that Sawyer's the only one really looking at the camera. This is seconds before Freeman and I chucked him into the leaves. We'd raked up a great pile and spent awhile catapulting ourselves into it. Then Freeman picked me up and tossed me, and it was so funny being thrown by someone... I hadn't had it happen to me for 15 or 20 years. We eventually even did it to Grandma and Grandpa, though with less trickery.

Carter contemplates autumn in the front yard.

Carter couldn't really jump into the leaf pile, he'd just fall into the side. So to give him the full experience, we pulled a bench off the front porch. I just love this shot, with Sawyer mimicing him in the background.

It took a few tries to get this picture to happen. But the one I have after it with Freeman face down in the leaves but holding the Frisbee up to show it was a clean catch is the real prize.

Freeman's lovely wife Kate got to visit our home for the first time. I think she really liked being around the kids too! Unfortunately, she got sick and had to spend a big part of Saturday in bed. Hopefully it wasn't the turkey... the bird is supposed to be nice and pink in the middle, right?

Whoops, that's the last of the pictures so I have to end with that lame joke. Ouch. Mom, please don't comment below attempting to warn the denziens of the interwebs that they shouldn't eat pink turkey. Or green ham.

Anyway, the biggest thing we had to be thankful for this Thanksgiving? Time together with family. Nothing beats that. Love to all!

Another Crazy Week

We've been so crazy this past month with our little field trips here there and everywhere! I had tried to set up a trip to the mountains to celebrate Cierra's birthday, but since we ended up doing a vet clinic visit that week, our mountain trip was pushed to this past week. It was a quick trip, just 2 nights stayed in a friend's condo who was generous enough to lend us the keys. Fortunately the full day we had in the mountains was just beautiful, much warmer weather than the average for this time of year. (We were reminded of that the next morning when we awoke in a near-freezing cloud.)

Above is Carter in front of Grandfather Mountain's Mile - High Bridge which Carter walked across all by himself, no fear! That's more than some of the adults there could do! FYI, the mile high refers to height above sea level. The bridge is just 80 feet off the ground. Just in case you are thinking I'm trying to make him do crazy things.


Hey look, Bears! They're a lot hairier than Grandpa Baer. Grandfather Mountain has its own small zoo. Carter's favorite was the otter, but it was funny to listen to him tell the bears to take a swim in their little pool. He tries to tell Arden what to do too, with similar success.

Even though it was cold the next day, we still took a little hike. Carter is turning into a happy little hiker, even though we do have to plan extra time to let him jump off every rock he finds.

On the way back, just for some road rest time, we stopped at a mini-golf place for Carter's first game ever. No need to keep score, Carter beat me on most of the holes by picking up his ball and placing it in the hole. A hole in zero... why didn't I think of that?

Playing around on our back deck on a pleasant fall day. Carter loves throwing sticks off it!

Arden loves swinging! This picture makes her legs look funny, kind of like Popeye's arms. She hasn't been eating spinach, but she's been going to town on the broccoli. Correlation?

Sibling bath! These two like each other so much, its easier to bathe them together than seperately. Arden is getting so good at sitting up, I don't have to keep a hand on her the whole time anymore.

We spent a few hours watching a friends' kids this Saturday. Their two girls make great play companions for our kids!

Carter and Riley shared a cute ride to the playground in this stroller. She's giving him a nice smile, but Carter's too busy reading the Elmo book.

Tired of sick and sick of tired

Wow, thought Carter, this blog post is going to be cornier than usual!

The family took an outing to a pick your pumpkin patch at Red Wolf Farms a week ago, and Carter had fun running around in the pumpkins and powering through the corn maze. Not pictured: me. I probably looked pretty terrible because I survived on my morning coffee until 2 in the afternoon. By the time we got out of there and found somewhere to eat I was ravenous and had a headache.

This pic is from after our big Halloween party, which turned out to be a lot of fun. Carter was too scared to put on his Elmo costume, so he got to dress up as a horse during the party. Once everybody was gone, he got braver and lent me his horse hat.

Arden dressed up as a pumpkin for Halloween. Our longtime readers may remember Carter in this outfit 2 years ago. Just one of the benefits of having your kids' birthdays closer together than sardines in the can.

We've had so much going on! For Cierra's birthday, we took a jaunt down to the shore for a couple of days in Myrtle Beach, SC. There was a clinic on the NC side of the strand that Cierra had wanted to tour for a couple of years and finally set something up with the owner. What a great excuse to go to the beach! The locals pointed us to a great seafood restaurant off the beaten trail for our farewell lunch. Above, Carter contemplates his fork. He had the shrimp platter, and when the chef came out to ask him personally how his food was, he had this look of revulsion on his face. Seconds later, out came a partially chewed shrimp by way of an answer. The chef took it well, and we quickly figured out that it wasn't the shrimp but the cocktail sauce that caused the rejection.

Sibling bath after a sandy day at the beach!

We also took the time to make a quick visit to Wilmington, NC. We wandered through Airlie Gardens and took a look at one of the biggest oaks in the Carolinas. 500 years old and it's only about halfway through its expected life span. Kind of blows your mind.

The gardens were really beautiful. We never got to actually admire this fountain because Carter discovered a different path at this point and took off.

... And here he is on the beach. Carter is really good at throwing sand, playing with his own shadow, and wandering off. But if he had to pick one thing, it would be sandcastle destruction. Daddy's sandcastles, stranger's sandcastles... his leveling skills are only matched by the ocean itself.

Cierra's been a little stir crazy on the weekends lately. Here are some pictures of a different fall festival we went to at some point. I lose track.

Carter loved the hay bale maze. Kids were jumping from bale to bale and flying all around and through the chaos Carter strolled calmly, like a Western hero through a storm of bullets. Just out of frame... me chewing my fingernails off.

And referring to the title... yes, we've all been sick again. Cierra and the kids went through a horrible sore throat and runny nose sickness that we've started to recover from. So far I've been spared the full experience, but Arden did remove her finger from her mouth and jam it directly into my eye and eyelid, giving me instant pinkeye and a nice stye. It's been far from a pretty picture around here lately, so that's good reason to look back at the past few weeks and see us looking a little better.