Visiting...

Garet had a conference for the week, so Colin and I traveled on the train to Charlotte!  We got to hang out with my parents - and we had so much fun! 

We got to see some other family and friends too.  One afternoon, my aunt came by with my cousin (? she's my cousins daughter... 2nd cousin?) Maya.  Colin loved Maya!  She got a lot of his big hugs - and he crawled up in her lap for stories.

We spent some time messing up Grandmama and Papaws bed.  Colin just fell into the pillows and then just laid like this...

... waiting for his picture to be taken =)
This sweet scene...

... quickly turned to this...

He was saying "noooo"  (his favorite word now, by the way).  He wanted down.  I wanted a hug. 

Garet drove down with Suzi after his conference and surprised me!  He got there the night before my birthday... so I got to spend my whole birthday with him!  We got some pictures before dinner:

Here is me with Garet...

... and here is what was going on at our feet...

Just keep smiling =)

We got to hang out at a nice park near my parents.  Colin loved the slide!

He made a couple friends there.  And he climbed this chain ladder thing!

It surprised me that he could do it by himself!  Don't worry, my mom was right there to the right.  And I snapped this and then ran over in case he fell.  But he didn't.  And I got a picture of it =)

We always manage to get super dirty when we are outside at Grandmama and Papaw's house.  I just let Colin go.  Why not.  He has so much fun, and we can always change clothes.  This afternoon, however, he was so wet and dirty that we just stripped before we went inside. 

Love that he still has on his shoes =)

I posted over on Beane A Day about how Colin loves his smoothies!  My mom let him throw in the blueberries, strawberries, and the banana.  Then he got to push the button to blend it.

We had such a great time!  It always goes by so fast. 
We decided to travel early Monday morning to get back here.  So, we were home by 8 and had the whole day to play!  While in Charlotte, my mom got Colin a cute little backpack.  Today we went to the library, so Colin carried his books in it.  Here he is looking so grown up!

Thanks for a great week mom and dad!! 

Good bye 20's...

Well, 20's, it's been fun.  There have been good times and bad, laughs and tears, many moves, many new friends, we've been through a lot. 
I met my husband! 

(with G with his friends/roommates)

And I graduated from college:

The day after I turned 22, Garet and I moved to St John, USVI - this was the night of my birthday... we had our HUGE duffle bags packed for our new adventure:

Living the island life was awesome!  We were hoping we would have "perma-tan", didn't we 22?

I married my best friend, we had our perfect wedding outside at Lake Lure, NC

As my 20's rolled on, we made a crazy, but great, decision to move to Alabama, so we said "bye" to our cute little house in Wilmington...

We started going to an awesome church (which we still miss!) and we made some really good friends (which me miss too!)  We really settled in and loved living in Huntsville with sweet Suzi!

During my 20's, God blessed us with a baby!  After struggling with infertility, we were soaking up every bit of the pregnancy!

28 - you were the best year (after the year I met Garet, of course!), this year brought us our sweet angel, Colin!

What a gift from God!

And then I met you, 29.  The last year of my 20's.  We had many good times, and some bad times, but overall everything seemed to work out. 

So, 20's, it was fun while it lasted, but it's time for me to say good bye.  I am moving on.  Can't wait to see what the next year holds for us... be good to me 30!
 =)

What a day...

After our train ride yesterday morning, we got to hang out with my parents for a bit.  It was nice to already be in Charlotte by 10 in the morning!  After Colin had his nap, my aunt and uncle came by, and then my sister in law and niece came!  Since Kailey does hair... and Colin's hair was getting out of control... we decided to have it shaped up. 

I was soooo nervous that all those precious curls would get chopped off!  But I trusted Kailey - and she did awesome!  At almost 2 years old, Colin has now had his first haircut.  Here he is before:

We kept telling him that he was getting a haircut, so he started pulling on it.

We put the cape on, and he immediately wanted it off.  So, I had to hang on to his legs so that he wouldn't try to pull on the cape.  He did awesome!  He sat still and let Kailey do her thing!  (For those interested, I did well too.  I was nervous, but it went really well)

Doesn't he look so excited?!

(and don't worry Kay - I have a baggie of the hair =) )

And here is the after of my sweet boy!

While Kailey was cutting Colin's hair, I was holding the cape on, and my mom was snapping pictures, my dad and Morgan got some bonding time.  Here is Morgan with her Papaw!

After the hair cut, we got to play!  Colin is learning how to share.  He is in a big "NO" phase.  Everything is "no" and "no" can also really mean yes.  So... when Morgan wanted to play with Colin's car, I had to remind him how we share.

And he did well after that.  Here is Colin and Morgan reading together.

 Morgan is so adorable!  She has so much to say now! 

Then my cousins Carla and Robin came, with Robin's daughters: Zoe, Maya, and Ava!  It was so great to see everyone!  Ava got her first haircut too!  She is about 5 months older than Colin... here they are taking turns in the car:

Before dinner, all the kids were playing... it was so fun to have the little ones running around and playing.  They all did really well together. 

I was so tired by the time I went to bed!  What a day!  But we had so much fun!

Choo Choo...

Colin and I went on a train ride this morning!  Garet has a conference this week, so we came to Charlotte... on a train!  This way Garet and Suzi can meet us here at the end of the week, and we will only have one car here.

So, we were at the train station in Greensboro at 7:30 this morning.  Colin was a great help with the bags!

He could see some of the trains outside and was very excited!

There was a group of people sitting behind us that kept "awwwww"-ing at Colin.  In fact, they then asked if they could take his picture.  Then they asked if they could take a picture with him.  We got one too =)

A little after 8, we walked up to prepare to board out train!  We said "see you later" to Daddy, and grabbed all of our stuff, then got to stand outside and wait for our train to get there.

Here it comes!

Colin was so excited!  He was smiling so big!  I kept telling him that we were going to get on that train!
Once we were on the train and it started going, he was so interested in looking out the window!  (luckily it wasn't too full, so we each got a seat)

The trip took 1.5 hours.  After the first 15 minutes, I already had his pen and paper pulled out to give him something to do.  I was a little worried that he was going to get bored.  We had books and a snack to keep us busy too.  Colin did soooo well!  We were about 15 minutes from Charlotte and Colin started to get restless.  In this next picture he was either: A. playing peek-a-boo with the poor teenager behind us (who, by the way, wasn't paying him any attention) or B. licking the window.  I'm pretty sure it was B.

He was starting to let out little screams and laughing really big.  On a quiet train.  So I was thankful it was only a 1.5 hour trip =)  This was us attempting to get a picture together - Colin was already saying "see" to see the picture..

 Overall, the train was a hit!  Colin did awesome!  And it was a great way to get to my parents house.  Now we are waiting for him to get up from his nap and we get to visit with family! 

Sweet faces...

As I mentioned over on Beane A Day, I almost forgot to take a picture today!  Garet and Colin went out after dinner, so when they got home... before bath and bed... I snapped a few pictures...

Colin had fun with water and so his shirt was soaked... so we got rid of it.  And then everytime I snapped a picture Colin wanted to see it, so we made it a game.  Garet would give an order, I would snap the picture, then we would all look at it and laugh =)

Say AHHHH!

Stick out your tongue!

 Touch your hair!

Give kisses!  

(I'm pretty sure Colin thought he was kissing in that picture)

SMILE!

What a fun child we have!!

Fun visit...

My parents came to visit for a night!  It was so much fun!  They got here on Tuesday around lunch, Colin showed them the house (which they've seen, but we had boxes everywhere!) and he showed them how he likes to play outside!

We got out more sidewalk chalk and now our sidewalk is a wonderful masterpiece!
My parents brought a truck that they had at their house... Colin loves to play with it there, but we have blocks that fit with it, so they brought it to us.  Colin loves it just as much here =)  I think he was showing Grandmama what all the buttons do...

Then, Grandmama showed him how to draw with the chalk on the seat!

On Wednesday we all went to the Natural Science Center!  I mentioned it over on Beane A Day... we had so much fun.  There was a whole section geared towards 5 and under, and Colin had a blast!  We could have just stayed in that part and he would have been happy!  There was also a boat when we first walked in, so G and I posed for the camera...

Colin is drawn to water!  We took off his shirt so he wouldn't be soaked!

And Grandmama put on a puppet show!

There was a big dinosaur section...

... they didn't really faze Colin at all.
Then we went outside to see all the animals!  There was an area with goats, sheep and chickens where you could walk inside and pet them!

Colin, again, wasn't scared at all!  He went right up to them to pet them.  Then he pointed to each of them =)

It was a lot of fun seeing Colin's reaction to each animal.  Here is Papaw with Colin... they are pretending to be a turtle!

There were lots of animals to see!  They even had tigers!  And this was the closest I think I've ever been to them!  One of the tigers kept walking right next to the window! 

It was a busy morning, but I think we all had a blast!  There was a reptile/bug house that we walked through too.  I didn't get many pictures in there, there were lots of bugs and snakes... here is the building:

It was the one didicated to Davis Kelly.

They left yesterday afternoon.  We had so much fun having them here!  Can't wait for the next visit!