Myles & Ollie Pick Apples

We went to Mercier Orchards in Blue Ridge, GA for some apple picking! 

You're encouraged to munch as you go & then drop bitten apples or cores onto the ground. 

What's more "kid friendly" than that?

tractor!!!!!

Myles & Ollie Hike Joyce Kilmer Memorial Forest

Took our first big family hike to the Joyce Kilmer Memorial Forest as suggested by Uncle Charley (who is very familiar with this area.) It was beautiful! Lush canopied trees, babbling brooks and lots of green.

The SmithAldridges Arrive in North Carolina, Y'all!

We made it! We are now in the Murphy, NC mountains on approx. 30 acres of (mainly) forested land. There is a small 3 bedroom cabin with a great 65ft. porch, a creek, a pond & lots of area to explore! And bugs. Lots of bugs to entertain Myles!

Like this ginormous praying mantis

And this katydid

Look at his cute little face!

Outdoorsy

Looking for dragonflies on the pond (it's easy, they are everywhere)

pond snack

Little boy, Big chair

Life on a pond

We got Myles a kid fishing pole for the pond. It has "Iron Man" on it. Myles has no clue who superheroes are, that kinda thing, but when he sees their stern faces, he thinks they are all rude. So, whenever he wants to fish, he says, "I need my rude guy fishing pole. Where is rude guy?" We have since taught him that they aren't rude, they're serious. So, he'll say "Captain America is very serious. Superman is so serious." 

Rude fishing.

Property hike

Found this baby caterpillar in our car. Now Myles' friend.

Bridge over the Creek

Life in the South requires rain boots!

Papa & Ollie, waiting for BBQ

A BIG HUGE THANK YOU to Papa & GG for letting us stay in their mountain home while we determine our next move. And a super duper special THANK YOU to Papa for taking the time to help us move, chasing Clayton for over an hour in a field somewhere in OK, loading up & driving & then unloading that big noisy truck, getting us set up & being the best Dad & Papa in the whole world! We love you!!!

Memphis BBQ and a Trip to Urgent Care

Memphis! First stop, Mud Island Riverwalk. I lived in Memphis from 1980 - 1983 and Mud Island is my most vivid Memphis landmark. It was cool to take Myles & Ollie. The Mud Island Riverwalk is a 2,000 foot to scale exact replica of the Mississippi River flowing 

from Illinois to the Gulf of Mexico.

http://www.mudisland.com/c-14-riverwalk.aspx

 Later, we planned to meet friends for some yummy Memphis BBQ. Almost out the door, I heard a thud, a deafening pause and then horrible crying as Myles tumbled from the hotel bed & hit his head on the pointy dresser handle on his way down (unsure if it's jerkier to mention he wasn't alone during this accident since it leaves Greg somewhat under the bus, no? Either way, those are the facts, ma'am.)  So, instead of BBQ, we left for our first trip to Urgent Care where Myles was very brave as the doctor glued his head wound shut. His comforting tactic of choice? Me singing Led Zeppelin's "D'yer Maker" to him during the gluing procedure. So, the doctor and nurse had to endure that as well. (As I type this entry, it is currently November 16th…and that glue is still around. It has grown out with his hair though, so it's just a big clump of glue that now gets caught on stuff [shirts with buttons, brushes, Ollie's hands] and Myles will respond to each catch with, "Oww, my glue.") We DID get our Memphis BBQ though. After all, we left poor Papa in charge of Ollie and two crazy dogs as we left for Urgent Care, so he deserved some BBQ pork! 

Post-gluing. All smiles.

Like most nutty toddlers, Myles recovered from his injuries quickly as seen by his behavior the following morning.

 After leaving Memphis, we had our last picnic stop before making it to our new home in North Carolina. 

There was an owl at the park. This made Myles beyond excited.

 Road trips are fun. Ya see stuff, ya do stuff, ya eat crap along the way. 

All good man, all good.

Next Stop, MURPHY, NC!

We're Just Trying to Get to Memphis, Y'all!

So, Texas is huge. However, when you take the 40 & you stop in Amarillo for the night, you get through that state pretty quickly. If you would like to use my TX waffle as a map, Amarillo is in that "waffle wall" of sorts that separates the top left square from the syrup-filled right square. You're welcome.

Back in the beginning of August, Myles took it upon himself to identify our backyard hummingbirds (with Greg's assistance.) Within 2 weeks, he was naming every hummingbird found in North America & Mexico. By his 3rd bday, he could name every hummingbird, star throat, owl, woodpecker, finch, hawk, pigeon & quite a few others that I'd never even heard of, found in North America. His reference book of choice (or rather, that we already had in our possession) is the Smithsonian Book of Birds of North America; however, it is too large for the car, so Myles' favorite activity while on our road trip was to look at his laminated bird identification cards (as well as butterfly cards) we picked up in Sequoia & at The Grand Canyon. I realize that's a lot of backstory just to show the following picture aptly captioned...

Myles looking at one of his bird cards.

 Again, you're welcome.

It is hard to plan for a 7 day road trip with a toddler & a baby. I thought I was being such a clever & prepared Pinterest Mommy by making a "car activity box" (smart) as well as a "hotel activity bag" (unnecessary) to bring in every night. The kids could not have cared less about that activity bag b/c they were too busy enjoying every new hotel room. They did a lot of this (I share this with you as you will need this information in the next entry):

It looked like this:

I don't even remember where this was. But obviously we stopped at a park.
Just trying to get to Memphis, y'all...

Next stop (how'd you guess?) Memphis!

Or, the stop on the trip where we learn to be careful what we wish for. Memphis.

Next Stop, Albuquerque, NM…and Later, The Worst Picnic Ever.

After leaving The Grand Canyon, we stopped for the night in Albuquerque, NM.

Myles woke to approx. 20 hot air balloons floating outside the hotel window (at various distances, of course.) They were so pretty & kinda mesmerizing.

Papa & his boys look at hot air balloons.

For the entire cross country trek, Clayton rode shotgun with Papa 

in the moving truck, like so:

But every now and again, Papa would come across a stowaway or two! ;-)

 When traveling across the country, sometimes a decent bathroom is tricky to find in a timely manner. One should be prepared by traveling with a potty. Trust me.

When ya gotta go, well, you know the rest.

Greg & I thought it would be fun to stop for picnics during this road trip. We thought the town of Tucumcari, NM would be great for this (in that it was lunch time & Tucumcari was where we were & according to the map, it had a park.)  It was 111 degrees. And Tucumcari is the SADDEST town I've ever visited. Ever. Greg & I are dumb. But we picnic'd anyway and now have a "saddest town picnic" story to add to this blog. 

sad picnic.

Myles learned how to walk Tupelo on leash all by himself on the road trip! 

Next stop, Amarillo, TX...