Pictures, April

Whew! Here's a yoooge picture dump from our trip to Savannah and the Okefenokee Swamp, and some other assorted pictures.

In a few days, I'll try to upload our pictures from the farm tours this weekend. We have some cute videos as well...

We camped for several nights at Stephen H. Foster State Park on the edge of the Okefenokee Swamp. Our next door neighbors at the campground had an adorable 4 1/2 year old girl named Claire, and Sadie and Claire became fast friends. You'll see some pictures a little further down of Sadie and Claire. Unfortunately, my camera battery crapped out on my trip and it took some time before I could locate my charger and find a place to charge it up. So, I missed some great photo opportunities, but I think we ended up with some good pictures anyway.

We rented a small motorboat one day and set out into the swamp. We thought we would canoe, but canoes are tippy, and we have a three year old, so there you go. We figured we needed one person to steer the boat and one person to keep the child IN the boat. Fortunately, the frequency of alligator sightings kept Sadie motivated to stay put.

Because a freak cold snap had just passed through the Southeast, the alligators were desperately trying to warm up in the sun. It was a beautiful, warm, sunny day.

The family we met on our trip, the Brownyards, decided to go out boating with us. At one point, our motor went on the blink, and they had to tow us back to the Visitor's Center to get a new boat. I'm grateful that they turned around and noticed that we were no longer behind them, as we only had one paddle in our boat and there were alligators around us.

Check out these big guys!









Lots of beautiful lilypads....

We pulled over to visit an island in the middle of the swamp. This is the view that greeted us. A family had settled here for a couple of hundred years and squatted on the land. Eventually, the US government paid them to vacate their home.

The family maintained their own graveyard on this island...



Here is Sadie, with her friend Claire, walking on the trails on the island.


A metal structure of some kind, left behind.

We spent three nights in Savannah. Beautiful city! Here is River St.



This is Ft. Pulaski on Tybee Island. This is an old Civil War fort, with many tunnels to explore.
This was a mockup of the old officer's quarters.
Sadie enjoyed peeking through the windows and checking out the tunnels...

After we returned home, we took Sadie to Twyla's house for an Easter Egg hunt...
Sadie tried to get ALL of the eggs...


We followed up our week with a trip- yes, another trip- to the Museum of Life and Science.



Checking out the new cow...








I still have more to come! I will be uploading some of my phone pictures from our trip, as well as our pictures from the Farm Tours this year...

Pictures, part 1

So, we are woefully behind on posting our pictures... I meant to have them all online by Monday, but have just been so busy. I have so many that I am dividing them into two entries. I am going to post pictures from March today, and then, by this weekend, I hope to have up our pictures from our vacation in Charleston/Okefenokee Swamp.

Sadie changes so quickly these days that it's difficult for me to keep up. Our little tomboy has suddenly taken to dresses, and refuses to wear pants to school. She's also really transfixed by older boys. At the playground recently, she approached a boy of about 6, and asked "What's your name? Is today your birthday?". I'm not sure if that's the three year old equivalent of "What's your sign, baby?", but after much flirting on her part, I managed to distract her. You have to watch out for those wild 6 year old boys!

She enjoys playing board games- we now have Candyland, Chutes and Ladders, and Cherry-O's. However, she believes that the rules only apply to us... ;-)

Here are some random, only halfway assorted pictures...

We took a nice, spring hike in Eno River State Park. Sadie loves hiking, especially when she gets to be the "doggie helper". We usually take a sheet and a picnic lunch. This trail is awesome, as it has this really scary hanging bridge and an old, abandoned log cabin.

The Eno was raging full, after many recent rains...
If you blow up the picture, you can see the scary hanging, swinging, BOUNCING bridge.


Here's the awesome abandoned old cabin. You can actually go inside and see the raw timber log walls.



Yikes!



This thing bounces when you cross it. Inevitably, children want to jump up and down.
Sadie pets a doggie.


The non-scary end of the hanging bridge.


Gee, these pictures of me in my hiking clothes are just SO attractive. ;-)
Here are just some random pictures of Sadie playing with her toys...






Dad came for a visit in March. Sadie is really becoming attached to her "Pee-Paw".

Ah, the silly faces...





She likes the old "spoon on the nose" trick. Check out that egregiously messy kitchen counter! This is what the house looks like the day before Sadie's weekly sleepover with Mee-Maw. We end up spending half of our "date" night trying to restore the house to an acceptable level of chaos. Making it clean these days is just beyond our grasp.
Sadie just finished her first swimming class, and we plan to enroll her in the next two segments this summer. The child has no fear, though, and will jump right off the side of the pool. She has learned to hold her nose while underwater.




Sadie and Malcolm.
Malcolm...

Redmond dries Sadie off after her swimming class.
Here is Malcolm with his mother, Peggy. We usually have a playdate after her swimming class.
Some pictures from a recent visit to "The Waz-eum" of Life and Science. Pee-Paw came along.




More to come... I have a slew of pictures from our vacation, some of Easter Sunday, and we're doing the annual farm tours this weekend, so we should have some pictures of wee baby animals.

Also, Mom and I are heading to Honolulu in a couple of weeks for my MLA (Medical Librarian Association) conference, so I should hopefully have some pictures of the scenery on Oahu. These pictures will NOT include myself in a swimsuit. ;-)