Morrow Mountain

We spent the day with my parents at Morrow Mountain.  Now, it's not the Rockies (Bryan considers all mountains small hills when compared to his beloved Rockies) but it is definitely a mountain, and better yet, it is only an hour-ish away from us!

So the plan was to go to the early worship experience at church, then meet my parents at their house and go picnicking and trail-walking together.

Which was a great plan, in theory.

What really happened, though, was that Bryan woke up sick, and I slept in too late to get everyone showered and dressed and fed and packed and in the car with enough time to get to church by myself.  I did eventually get all that done, but left the driveway at 9:19, with church starting at 9:30, and a 25 minute travel time from door to door.  Oops.

Soooo.  For the first time EVER, we got to my parents' house early, and I made promises to myself about catching the 6pm service.

We pulled up to their townhouse with cheers from the backseat ringing out- "PapaGagaPapaGagaPapaGaga!!!!!!!" The boys SO love their Papa and Gaga.  They always look forward to spending time with them, and that's not just because there is always candy waiting in the candy dish on the coffee table.

I got to sit with a cup of coffee (heaven!) while they ran up and down the stairs about 37 times, jumped on the beds, and unrolled all the toilet paper in all 3 bathrooms.  Then we packed everyone up before they wore out their welcome and made it to the mountain.

The pictures best describe our day...but in short, the weather was Carolina-spring-gorgeous, the boys were inquisitive and happy, and Gaga and Papa rock.

 Pinecones!  So- the pine cone story.  Gavin picked up a pine branch with a cone attached to it and would NOT put it down (of course, my camera had died by this point, so I don't have a photo of him with it).  Anyway, he loved this branch.  And at one point, he and Chase were standing on a little foot bridge, throwing sticks into the water...and Chase just leans over, breaks Guy's precious branch, and tosses it into the water!  Gavin doesn't argue, he just gets really, really sad.  He even had tears running down his face- and that silent, pathetic cry.  He hung his head and kind of wandered down the path without his stick.  It was the.saddest.thing.evAR.  Don't worry, though.  We found another stick and it was just as good, if not better.

 Picnicking:

 Chase chose to kick leaves around the trees instead of eating.

 Mouth full of orange:

 Leaf-kicking (Ian joins in on Chase's game):

 Duck-beak with Pringles (yes, I taught him how to do this):

 Papa's lil' Guy:

 Yes, I am fully aware that he needs a haircut and he looks like a shaggy dog.  But he's so close to being able to tuck it behind his ears, and it really is awesome when it is combed and clean and his little ringlets are bouncing all over the place!

 I swear, these glasses don't look as huge in person as they do on camera:

 Isn't this a gem?  Chase doesn't want a diaper change, and is determined NOT to let me do anything about it.  Look at my face.  Doesn't that scream "compassionate mother"?  No?  Huh.  (Thanks to Ian for capturing this magical moment!)

How about this?  You go ahead and be potty trained now, and we won't have to do this little song and dance number 10 times a day!?  Mmm-kay?

 Box turtle!  This was moments before Chase almost stepped on the poor thing. 

 Ian speaks fluent tortoise.

 Love these shots of my parents holding hands with the boys :)

 Going across the many foot bridges was one of the best parts- Papa showed Chase and Guy how to stomp all the way over them with really fast feet.  Love the giggles that that produced.

Oh- and look!  Guy has his pinecone branch in his hand!!

 Don't worry.  Chase didn't hit Gaga with this giant branch.

 Friends again:

 Throwing stuff into the wah-warghrghrgh.  (Chase and Gavin have adopted a German accent when they say 'water'- it's hard to type.)

 Ooh!  A wild turkey feather!

Sadly, there are no pictures of the giant swarm of termites we found devouring a tree (cool!)

Awesome day.  We need to do this, like all the time.  I love that the boys are big enough to walk and explore on their own (well, with minimal redirection onto the trail).  Next time maybe Bryan can join us, instead of being selfishly barfy at home.  (love you, honey!  missed you!)