Happy Halloween... from our little monster!

Random happenings

1.  Eli decided the other day that he was tired of waiting for me to push him on his trike.  And just like that he started pedaling.

Cupcakes for Noah

One of the best parts about living in Georgia is being close to friends from college who live in the Atlanta area.

Two of these friends happen to be married to each other.  And they happen to be some of the funniest people I know.

Back in August, when we celebrated Noah's birthday, Brian and Laine drove up to Athens with two of their five kiddos and some cupcake mix.  We enjoyed each other's company and then enjoyed some cupcakes in Noah's honor.

Eli wanted to be front and center for the cupcake making process...

Austen wanted in on the action as did Cameron, but she was sleeping peacefully upstairs in Eli's crib.  Poor Cam-dog!

Eli and I put on the sprinkles as the finishing touch...

Thanks Bennetts!

Under the Sea

Life continues to be busy.  Really busy.   I'm trying to get a handle on it but that is whole different blog post.

My parents came to town last weekend and we had a wonderful time doing nothing in particular.

While my dad was at a meeting in Atlanta, my mom and I took Eli to the Georgia Aquarium.  The timing was perfect... it was a weekday morning and there was hardly any crowd at all.  Eli could run and point and yell 'Ma-MAA' to his heart's content.  

It is a magical place.  I took lots of pictures but this is the only one that comes close to capturing the experience.

Last but not least...

Life has been distracting me lately... the beginning of the VB season, the start of various activities I have signed up for in an effort to get 'plugged' in in Athens, and a few free lance projects have all been the focus of my time.

Sorry, blog-world, for letting you fall by the way side!

Here are a few pics from the end of my journey with Eli to St. Louis.  We stopped in Nashville over night on the way to and from the Lou, both times staying with good friends who I hadn't seen in a while.  The Roper clan is getting the short end of the stick... I didn't really get my camera out that first night and as a result have no pictures to document the fun we had a Pei-Wei or the torture their poor dog endured at the hands of Eli.

I did a little better documenting at our stop at the Emerys on our way home.
Eli had such fun playing with the Emery kiddos and was pretty sad when we had to leave to finish our trek.

After trying on these sweet shades, Eli agreed to let Claire take him for a little spin around the driveway.  He loved every minute of it even though he looks like he is holding on for dear life in this pic!

Eli got his ring-around-the-rosie schwerve on several times on our trip... but it was load of fun playing it on the air mattress with Claire and Ben!

Thanks for your hospitality, Emerys!  Love you!

St. Louis, Part 5 - The Butterfly House

On our last morning in St. Louis, we met a group of friends at the Butterfly House.  It was a beautiful morning and a great way to run off a little of Eli's energy before getting in the car for the first half of our journey home.

Eli decided to check out the educational video before heading into see the real butterflies.

There were also some other insects on display... and Onalee decided to get up close and personal with them!  Nothing like being surrounded by a few hundred roaches!

Butterflies are EVERYWHERE when you walk into the conservatory.  I wanted to stop every few steps to take pictures of them but Eli was in the crazy man mode and demanded most of my attention.  I did manage to snap a few...

Eli as a butterfly during a rare moment when he wasn't running all over the place.

After leaving the Butterfly House, we headed to the playground next door and I got to spend a little time with Luke.  What a cutie!

Eli, of course, had a blast on the playground equipment.  

Here is the whole gang of kiddos!

Our play time eventually came to an end and we had to say our goodbyes.  The Snyders had been gracious enough to host us all week long and Eli repaid this generosity with lots of hugs for Nicole before we left.

Eli and Elise had become like brother and sister while we were there... to the point that we had to separate them at breakfast on our last morning because they couldn't keep their hands off each other!  But they were all hugs before we left... well, at least until the hug caused them both to fall over and bang heads.  But it was a super cute moment before that happened!

 

St. Louis, Part 4 - Hanging with the Wilmots

I so wish I would have taken more pictures of our morning with Kelli and the Wilmot kiddos.  We had such fun with them... but this is the only pic I really have to show for it.  And Piper didn't even make it in the frame!

Thanks for having us over!  

Watch me grow... 21 months!