Mountain getaway

Back at the end of May my grandmother invited us to come join her and Grandpa in Hiawassee for a weekend getaway while they were there on vacation.  We stayed at a beautiful little resort right on the lake.  Every morning Amelia would run to the windows and say "pretty water". 

Unfortunately as we were unloading the car the cloth bag with my camera accidentally dropped out of the trunk onto the pavement.  My UV filter was shattered and the camera wouldn't take pictures- I was devastated!  Here we were in such a beautiful spot for a few days and no camera.  So we picked up the ancient film throw-away type camera.  It was so weird- I'm so used to my incredible digital camera.  Well I finally took the pictures and got them developed- obviously they are not as good as I like but at least they captured the fun we had :)  (Oh, we had a protection plan on my digital camera-which ended up being not repairable so they just gave me a brand new one!)

Our first full day we ventured down to Anna Ruby Fall and to Helen-a quaint Bavarian town with lots of interesting shops;  we ate our lunch at a restaurant that was built right on the edge of a babbling creek.  The weather was perfect- absolutely gorgeous!

Thomas family at Anna Ruby Falls

Now whenever we talk about anything related to water (water table, pool, swimming, lake, etc), Amelia calls it a waterfall :)

Amelia's new ride- we bought an awesome new hiking backpack from some friends at church;  this one is definitely made for bigger toddlers;  Amelia was getting to big for the other one so now we can use that one for Luke when he starts sitting up good

After lunch and walking around through some shops in Helen we headed over to Cleveland, GA to the Cabbage Patch Hospital.  Amelia was in complete AWE of all the baby dolls.  She kept wanting to pick all of them up- which is allowed but these are the handmade, hand stitched ones that are like $200! 

Luckily they have some much cheaper ones at the end and we let her pick out one (with help- I steered her toward the ones that had dark hair and blue eyes like she does)

The next day we took a boat ride- I think Amelia was more excited about this than anything!  We had walked around the boats docks in the morning and all she kept talking about was riding the boat.  She loved it!  She was great- didn't have any problems with her life vest until the very end which is understandable.

Great Grandma and Amelia

We had to put a life-vest on Luke too . . .poor little guy was NOT a fan.  Needless to say he didn't actually stay in the life vest the whole time.  It was the smallest one they had and it swallowed him up!

While the kids were napping Dan did some exploring on a kayak

The next morning we headed out to the little public beach that was nearby

Amelia LOVED playing at the edge of the water even though the water was really cold;  Luke on the other hand had a rough time- so Mommy spent the whole time trying to figure out why our easy going little guy was so fussy

This was such a fun getaway- we are definitely looking into going back and doing some camping in the area for our vacation later this summer :)

Bath time fun

Luke LOVES bath time!  Dan is usually busy taking care of Amelia's bath time and bed time routine so it's nice to have some one-on-one time with my sweet baby boy!

At just 4 months old- he is almost too big for the little bathtub (check out how his head sticks up past the end of it)

 flashback- sweet Amelia around the same age

any time you pour water on his head he kicks his legs like crazy and the water sloshes out all over the counter and mirror

bath hair- not much but he does have a few long hairs on top- blond in color!

Amelia- at about the same age as Luke

Jumperoo!

Luke's first experience in the jumperoo . . .

Amelia 'helping' Luke jump

look at those eyebrows!  I love it!

Now he will smile and really move his feet around to make himself move.  He loves sitting up and being able to look all around- he usually enjoys watching Amelia run around.

Mother's Day

This year we took the kids to a local pottery place and made a fun plate with both of their handprints. It was a little crazy though- the hand printing part didn't come until the end.  First we had to paint the plate with 3 coats and then figure out what design we were going to do.  Dan was great- he kept walking around with Amelia and Luke so I could furiously paint away.  At the end we got both kids hand prints on the plate.  I can't wait to pick it up.

Mother's Day morning I was getting ready for church and was told to get back in bed for breakfast.  I was so surprised . . . both kids were still sleeping so I had a nice quiet breakfast in bed!  While feeding Luke at church I did the call ahead seating for Olive Garden and the timing worked out perfect.  By the time church was over, we picked up the kids, and got to Olive Garden they were calling our name!

Only down side to the day . . . I had outfits picked out for me and the kids that coordinated- so we could take some fun pictures out by our swing like we have done the past couple of years.  Well first off- it was raining . . . like ALL day.  After Luke's morning feeding he spit up ALL over his outfit.  Somehow Amelia messed up her cute dress- can't remember if it was at lunch or what.  So we ended up with a completely mismatched outfits for our picture- but hey, I wouldn't trade these two kiddos for anything!

A sweet moment I will always treasure- Amelia said "happy mudders day mommy!"

Flashback:

1st Mother's Day- 2010

Mother's Day-2011

Just hanging out

Finally captured it- the pouty lip!

although usually it sticks out much more and his eyes well up with tears- I just can't resist his little pouty face

the serious face

Amelia kissing Luke- poor little guy she practically lays on him!

Amelia brought Luke her baby doll

I LOVE this crazy girl and sweet baby boy!

Surprise! Happy Birthday Grandma!

Mischievous little Amelia wanted to surprise Grandma for her birthday.  So she got her Mommy and Grandpa in on the logistics and pulled off an awesome surprise.  When Grandma got home from work- the house was all decorated with streamers and things.  Grandma got home a bit earlier than we expected so we didn't get to yell surprise when she walked in the door but she was definitely still very surprised to see us!

We stayed for a couple of days and had so much fun with Grandma and Grandpa.  On Grandma's birthday, we all went to the zoo!  Amelia LOVED it!  She still talks about seeing the tigers and giraffes.  The St. Louis Zoo is free but it cost $15 to park!  So we all packed into into one car- Grandma volunteered to ride in between the kids on the way there.

It was a hot day- luckily we did get to see most of the animals we were hoping to see

Rockin' her "sun gasses" (the funny way she says sunglasses)

Luke seemed to enjoy all the sights but not the heat- I didn't notice until I uploaded it on my computer how he had his little fist up to his face like "oh man"

We planned it out so we could visit the penguin exhibit towards the end- it's nice and cold in there and give you a chance to cool off from the heat!

I love hippos- Amelia didn't really notice them (look in the back of the picture) because it was afternoon and very hot and they were not moving at all!  The fish however were all over the place and Amelia was captivated by them!

last animal to see on our way out- the elephants!

After seeing a group of elephants we kept walking and were surprised to find this just around the corner:  a sweet baby elephant

if pictures came with sound- you'd hear squeals of laughter!

probably good thing pictures don't come with sound . . .

Amelia was definitely Grandma's girl for the weekend!

Grandma isn't crazy about this picture- but I just love their big smiles! :)

Amelia sound asleep in the car on the way home- what a fun weekend!

Happy Birthday Grandma!  We love you very much and hope our surprise made your birthday special!