Jan 2011 Snow event

Can you see how many cardinals are in this picture? Petey loves snow but this was his first experience with it freezing and crunching under his feet. Wasn't too sure. But after a few steps he was bounding down the driveway and eating up the snow. Our little garden dude has an extra hat today :-)

Jan 7 sunrise before walk

Sunrise over Lake Allatoona We had to pause before our morning walk to capture this beautiful sunrise. We are so lucky where we live to see the most beautiful sunrises and sunsets. Great way to start and end the day

Happy New Year bowler

First thing Emerson does when he comes to our house these days is gather up ALL of the balls he can carry at once. He has 5 of them here.

We got him a little bowling game for Christmas and our house has become the perfect bowling alley for practice. He is really good too and shouts a very very enthusiastic, YAH! when he knocks them down.

See the blue ball there right in front of the pin to the right? And check out that form in the backround just waiting for the YAY! moment.

check out the video below where his aim is just a little off... or some would say right on.

Best present ever

I got the best present ever from Emerson on his Birthday. We were playing on the floor with his balloons and he came over all by himself and gave me a hug and a kiss.

It was a REALLY special moment.

Riding the train

So you need to read this post from the bottom up. We took the Blueridge train to its destination which is a town that straddles Tennessee and Georgia. Lots of great scenary along the way and since the train is only going 10-15 miles per hour you have plenty of time to enjoy it. Each of the cars is an original and refurbished. I think the one we were in was from the 1930's

This is a fish trap built by Native Americans that lived in the area. It is many hundreds of years old.

You can read all about the history of the train and its cars as well as the sights along the way in this little pamphlet that now belongs to Emerson's library. ;-)

Ah isn't he cute. Emerson's favorite game on this ride was to go between Bry and Kim's outstretched arms that kept him in our little 4 spot place on the train. He had a blast doing that.

So I guess I will just post this backwards. Kim, Bry and Emerson joined us in the mountains for a couple of days and I thought Emerson might like a ride on the Blueridge train.... maybe next year :-), but he did LOVE the little $1 train that was perfect 2 yr old hand size to play with. It is quite a lazy 10-15 mile an hour ride to the nearby towns of Mckaysville, GA and Copperhill, TN. Pretty scenary but a very slow way to go. Very relaxing actually.

Ft. Mountain part 2

There is a great little hike out to an outlook where you can see the valley and Chattsworth. Trouble for Petey is it involves lots of metal grate stairs. Or maybe I should say trouble for Wood because Petey will eagerly dance up to the stairs and then stop and no amount of encouraging will get him to put his little paws on those steps. He eagerly jumps into Wood's arms to be carried both down and then back up. We got him on one stair at the bottom but I think that is because it was mostly covered in leaves.

And here is the tower. I didn't get a very good shot of the rock wall but it is mostly a piled up bunch of rocks about 2 to 3 feet high about 200 to 300 ft away from this tower and kind of encircling it.... where it can.