Getting settled...

Here are some random things that we have done since we've been here in Greensboro (that I haven't blogged about yet...):

- I woke up to this note a couple weeks ago:

"We are having a picnic breakfast =) (somewhere on Greenway)"

Garet and I have a system... I wake up with Colin every morning, and G gives him a bath and puts him to bed every night (that he is home), except Sundays.  On Sundays we switch.  It is working great for us!  So, on this Sunday morning, I came out of our room to complete silence... and then I saw this note on the top of the stairs!  How cute is that?!

- While cooking dinner one night, I turned around to see Colin riding a horse the paper towels!

He was obviously pretty proud of himself.  Oh and right after I took this, I went back to cooking, then noticed Colin trying to reach for the paper towels that are on the counter, "Peas, peas" [please, please], so I turned back around and the milk that is in that cup in the picture... was all over the floor.  At least he was wanting to clean it up.  But do you see how much milk is in there?!  It was a mess!

- We've gotten all of the pictures hung.  I think.  And one day I had a little helper...

He loves the step stool!  And me... yeah, I'm pretty sure he just wanted to hug me, not just stand on the stool. 
- We get snuggles.  Here is Garet and Colin after waking up one morning:

- Suzi gets snuggles too.

Colin was helping with laundry and I told him that the big towel was Suzi's (we use it when her feet are dirty before she comes inside).  So... he put it on her.  I think Suzi has just gotten used to Colin loving on her... sweet dog!

- Colin has been arranging..

It's no secret that I am not a big fan of Garet's shoes... but how cute are Colin's?!  =)
Colin lined these up together on the couch.
- Spin, spin, spin

Colin dragged this up from downstairs, and then quietly spun around and around while I made dinner =)

- We go on short trips...

Like a visit to the firestation!  After dinner, we went to Garet's office, and the fire department is right next to the office... so we went over to say hello.  They were sooooo nice!  And they let Colin climb up in the trucks!  Then they were leaving with one of the trucks, so they cut on the lights and waved to Colin on their way out!

Colin was speechless =)
He even got a (sticker) badge!  He loved it!

- We prepare for bath time (WARNING: nudity)

When I get Colin ready for his bath, we go in his room and undress and get his diaper off.  Then I let him run down the hall to the bathtub.  He loves it!  This night, he got a little distracted by his "tuck" [truck].

We are really enjoying where we live! 

Painting...

I had a 16x20 canvas that was left over from another project, so I got Colin to paint it!  First I taped off his name, then I sat him down with blue, green and white paint.  He did soooo well painting!  And he had so much fun - he was so serious about his painting too!

Garet came downstairs during the process and snapped a picture of us! 

It turned out so cute!  In fact, I think I may buy a couple smaller canvas and just get Colin to finger paint them (without putting anything on them).  I love when you look up close how you can see his little finger outlines! 

Trees...

We had some tree guys come out and trim the top of a HUGE tree in our front yard and then they cut down another tree in the front.  Colin loves trucks, so he was in heaven when they came rolling down our driveway!

Can you see him on his little tip toes?  =)

And don't mind him being half in pajamas and half in an outfit.  We were just too excited about the truck being here!

We put a chair next to the window so that he could have a front row seat.  Poor tree guys had no idea that they were going to be on complete display to our sweet boy!

We had no clue how long it would take... we thought a couple hours at the most.  Boy were we wrong!  I think it took them about 7 hours!  It gave me plenty of time to clean the house!  And I tried to move the front row seat, but Colin was not quite done with it...

He was so interested!  And during his nap, we had his noise maker going and Garet's iPhone with the white noise app going!  I was very thankful he was able to sleep through all the noise! 

And Colin got to see the truck up close!  He was a happy boy!

Horsing around...

One of Garet's volunteers works at a therapeutic horseback riding stable - he told Garet to bring Colin and me out one day... so yesterday we went out there!  I actully did my senior exit project on therapeutic horseback riding.  It is such a great benefit to those that are disabled.  And the horses they use are sooo sweet! 

Colin was so excited to see the horses!  He even wore his cowboy boots (which I am pretty sure every single person there commented about!) 

I am a huge horse person - so I love that Colin seems comfortable and interested in them!  The stalls had large enough space between the slats so we could peek through at all the horses...

There weren't any lessons going on while we were there, but they did have a horse out that they were grooming.  It was such a nice place!  We got to see a guy demonstrating how to ride to a class from UNCG.  It was a speech therapy class and there were probably about 10 people there watching.

Right outside the office was this old wagon... it isn't in use, but Colin enjoyed sitting in it =)

We got a tour of the area on a golf cart - which was a hit with Colin! 

We had a lot of fun! 

The Greenway...

We live right next to an awesome walking trail called The Greenway.  We probably take advantage of this almost once a day - whether it be walking it, running it, or biking it.  From our neighborhood, you cross a bridge to get there...

There are a couple bridges, and one car bridge that you go under (Colin loves that part!)  There is exercise equipment on the side of the trail the whole way.  Along the way there are also a couple playgrounds... yesterday we took advantage of one of those!

There were lots of trucks that Colin loved to play with.  He had a blast!  And we had Suzi... she probably didn't have quite as much fun (it was pretty hot... and the walk there took about 20 minutes), but she loves being with us when we are out and about.

There was a huge sandbox, which I'm sure is really gross and germy but Colin loves it.  Don't worry we washed our hands really well when we left =) Just look at all the trucks he had to play with! 

I was trying to coax him into playing on the actual playground, but he wasn't interested at all!

Eventually he went down the slide a few times, but by then it was time to be heading home. 
We love being so close to this trail! 

Bubbles...

Friday afternoon we went down the road to play.  I brought the bubbles, and Colin was super excited about it!

He loved running through them!  He still doesn't quite get how to blow them himself - he puts his lips directly on the wand, but he loves to try =)

We started the morning by going to the gym - Colin has so much fun in the nursery!  Then we wen to the grocery store, then it was home for lunch and a nap.  Then we grabbed Daddy and Suzi and headed to this field for bubbles!

It was really hot, so it was nice that this was pretty shady! 

Suzi was just happy to be included =)

When you hold your arms out to Colin he will run full force to you!  I love this!!  Garet was able to get the whole action shot...

LOVE HIM!!

And Suzi couldn't be left out, of course.  Colin ran to give her a kiss =)

July 4th...

We had a fun day today celebrating the 4th of July!  We went downtown to a festival!

There were a few stages set up with singing.  Colin enjoyed dancing =)  And there was a station where kids could play on little drums... Colin and I sat in to bang on some drums... and there were some water sprouts that we got to go under!

Colin loved getting wet!  And, we did too - it was super hot!   There were also a lot of different people that had set up booths.  It is always neat to see all the local things that are made.  Colin enjoyed pushing his stroller around...

The last things we saw were the big trucks!  First up - the fire truck!!  Colin was in awe!

Then we got to see the garbage truck!  Whenever the garbage truck goes by the house, Colin has to go out to wave (and most of the time they beep for him!)  So he was really excited to "drive" this one!

We had a great time! 

And on the way home, I looked in the backseat at Colin... and this is what I saw:

He had put his sunglasses on his head!  =)  I LOVE THIS CHILD!  How stinkin' cute?!  He must see Garet and me wear ours like this, so he did it. 
Oh - this makes me want to go wake him up and give him a big kiss!  What a sweet boy!

Vacation...

Get ready for picture overload!  =)

We were in our house for exactly a week and then we set out on vacation to the Chesapeake Bay with Garet's family!  We stayed in an awesome house right on the water.

It was huge!  And there was a private tennis court, pool, and a big field where you can play baseball.  Here is the view from the screened back porch.

We brought a few toys for Colin to play with... and Garet remembered to bring his bike!  He loves this thing! 

Garet set up the badminten net and there were some games played there.  Colin tried to get in on it... but he grabbed the volleyball instead...

One morning we had a tennis tournament at 8 in the morning.  For some of us, we were up anyway (Colin likes to wake up at 5:30), but for others... they had to set the alarm!  It was a lot of fun watching the games.  I think the winners of the whole thing were Garet's mom, Kay and his nephew, Jay.  

Colin absoultely loves the water!  I bought him a life vest... but it was too big.  So, we didn't keep it on him.  He would want to just jump in - and that scares me to death!  So, we set up a little sprinkler area off to the side of the pool.  This way, he got to play in the water without giving me a heart attack =)

Don't worry, he got to get in the pool at least once a day.  We just had to hold him.  But he had a blast!  He also had plenty of attention!  I think this was when the wind blew and got Kim and Jay wet... see the "sprinkler"? 

Like I mentioned... Colin and I were up at 5:30 each morning.  So, I got to see the sunrise.  And boy was it beautiful!

This house had boats and canoes, and fun stuff to play on the water with.  Garet and I actually canoed across the Bay.  Colin really liked to play in the canoe too!  He is so busy!

We had perfect weather the whole time we were there (that is, until the MAJOR storm the night before we left!  Talk about scary!)  The pool was so nice to have!  The last full day we were there, it was so muggy that you almost had to stay in the pool!  It was great!

We found a little life vest at the house for Colin.  It was a tad big, but it at least made us feel better about him at the pool.  We never let him go even with it on though.  He loved to stand on the side and jump in... "one, two, three, jump!"  And he LOVED when Garet would throw him up in the air!  Oh that smile just melts my heart!!

On Thursday, we all had a boat race!  Garet recruited some of the kids to help him mark the water where you had to race the boats to.

It was so fun because everyone came out and cheered on the people racing!  We did brackets (like they do in basketball).  Two at a time would race out and then come back.  Once it was down to 3, they all raced together.  Mary Kay was the winner! 

We had soooo much fun!  The last night we were there (as I previously mentioned) we had a huge storm!  I woke up at midnight to loud thunder and lightening - the water was flooding up to the steps of the house, the floats were flying all over the place, the umbrellas at the pool were breaking... it was really scary!  We hadn't watched news or anything, so we had no idea what was going on (and durning the storm the satellite was out, so I couldn't see the news then either - and the internet was down). 

When we left the next morning, we thought we were going to have a 6.5 hour drive home... but it took us 10 hours!!  TEN!  It was terrible.  The storm hit such a big area that there was no power so a lot of people were on the roads.  But Colin was awesome!  He was happy or napping the whole way home!  What an angel!