Safari Greg, Swimming, & Meditation

Yesterday we went to the Green Hills Library to see Safari Greg.  We saw him last year at the downtown library with Jen and Chase.  The show was a little different but still really entertaining for the kids.  Unfortunately it was insanely crowded and Missy and Heather couldn't really get their kids into the room and left before we got to catch up.  Luckily the boys and I got there early and got to sit in the very front.

Some of the animals that Safari Greg brought along this time were a milk snake, bearded lizard, and boa constrictor.

Carter even got to touch the 10 foot long boa!!!  (Rylan had no desire to do it.)

Today Jen invited us to go swimming at her neighborhood pool.

Before going to the pool, we stopped by Target this morning to get Rylan a new swim vest.  He never wore his one from last year and it is officially too small.  We got the only type Target had which is slightly different and harder to get on (you have to pull it over your head instead of stepping into it).  It was really hard to get on but we did it.  However, that didn't mean Rylan wanted to use it!  Rylan has not been interested in getting in the water at all this year (this was only our third time to a pool this summer though).  Finally, during the last hour we were there, I convinced Rylan to go on the long ledge along one of the sides.  And as he warmed up to the water, he pretended to swim back and forth on the ledge as he kicked his feet and walked on his hands.  And I was able to convince him to blow bubbles too.  I'm just happy he had his whole body in finally!

Carter wanted another floatation layer out of his vest so he's down 2 layers for the year so far (I think there are either 2 or 3 left).  He did fine though.  Maybe by the end of summer he won't need any assistance.  I probably should enroll him in actually lessons some time!

We ran errands after naps today.  As we were getting to the car, I noticed Carter doing this ...

I was so lost!  I had to ask him, "Where'd you learn that???"  He reminded me that when we were at Airlie Gardens with mom, they had a frog sculpture exhibit and one of the frogs was doing that (he had asked what the frog was doing when we saw it and I had it explained it to him).  Funny little man!

Mountain Trip - Day 3

The boys slept great every night in the cabin.  They were up early, as expected, but did a pretty good job hanging out with us in our room until we started hearing other people up downstairs (watching cartoons on Brian's phone helped!).

After eating breakfast and packing lunches, we all headed over to Tweetsie Railroad.  I'd never been hear before but it seems to be a place a lot of people my age visited when they were young.  Here's a little description of the place:

Tweetsie Railroad is a family oriented railroad and Wild West theme park located between Boone and Blowing Rock, North Carolina, United States.  It opened in 1957 and evolved into one of the nation's first theme parks. In addition to a 3-mile (4.8 km) ride aboard an authentic steam locomotive, the park features amusement rides and other attractions geared towards families with children.

We planned the dates of our trip around "Day Out with Thomas" when Thomas the Train would be at Tweetsie.  We bought tickets ahead of time for the 9:30 am ride so we got to the park pretty early.  We had been really lucky with the rain the past couple of days but it ended up being drizzly on Friday morning.  However it was a perfect temperature, we had raincoats, and the rain kept the number of other visitors low so it worked out great for us!

A group kid shoot ... Carter, Fin, Lainey, and Rylan.  (Fin and Lainey are Johnny and Anakah's kids.)

While we waited for our boarding time, we checked out some of the things on Main Street, including the jail.

Here comes Thomas!  Our kids like Thomas enough, but they only have a few Thomas trains and never watch any Thomas shows.  They are a little past the train phase right now - we haven't used our train table for trains in a very long time.  However, they still think Thomas is cool and were excited to see him!

The whistle was a little loud :)

Carter picked the golden car to get on.  Ever since he got a gold participation trophy for soccer in the spring, "golden" (not yellow!) has been his favorite color.

Anakah took a family photo for us (Fin, Johnny, and Lainey were behind us).

The kids enjoyed riding the train.  It did a small loop in the forest surrounded the park (took about 20 minutes with the little Fort Boone show).

I guess this show is usually a little more involved with a train robbery and Indian attack, but since they expected more little kids to be on the train with Thomas being at the park, the show was very tame and silly.

After our ride, we got a quick picture with Thomas before heading up to some rides in the Country Fair area.

We had to stop to watch the next train leaving.

It was neat watching all the steam coming from the engine.

Our first ride was the Turnpike Cruisers.

Carter rode with Brian and Rylan rode with me, though he was not happy about it (he REALLY wanted to ride with Brian).

The adult controlled the pedals and the child got to steer.  Our ride was hilarious!  Rylan was crying huge crocodile tears as he drove us!

We survived and Rylan was very happy to have Brian next to him on the Carousel.

The Planes & Helicopters ride was next.  We put some of our kids together for this one.  Rylan and Lainey are too cute together!  (Lainey is about 9 months younger than Rylan.)

Carter got a plane to himself.

Fin and Henry rode one of the helicopters together.

Rylan was so happy (a big improvement from the cars!).

Carter (otherwise known as Mr. Competitive - sorry kid, you get that from me!) was just concerned that his airplane was the highest (the kids could control going up and down).

Next, the Ferris Wheel!  Rylan had no interest on riding it and Carter chose Brian to go with him.  I don't blame Rylan - that thing was moving!  It was crazy fast!!!

I think Anakah agreed!

Johnny and Fin also rode it.

Carter did fine though and seemed to really like the ride!

We decided to take a break from the rides after that and went to the Tweetsie Palace Saloon where they had a bunch of Thomas toys set up.  The kids also got to get tattoos!

Then we rode the rather nerve-wracking Chair Lift to Miner's Mountain.

It wasn't so bad except Rylan refused to let me touch him.  He started squirming as soon as I tried to put a hand on him to hold him and I was scared he'd fall doing this so I just had to trust him and be ready.  It was a little scary though!

Once we got up the hill we rode a really weird train ride called Mouse Mine Train.

What was odd was this blacklit "mine" with lots of mice we went into and stopped in for a few minutes.

After that we headed over to the Deer Park which is a mini-zoo.  There were deer, emus, llamas, horses, pigs, goats, and turtles.

Then it was time for lunch so we went down to another Thomas area where they had Sir Topham Hatt.

All the other kids were starting to get tired and their parents decided it was time to leave before anyone got too cranky so it was just our family the rest of the afternoon.

We rode some horses ...

And some rides ...

And even got some ice cream.

But when Rylan FELL ASLEEP on chair lift on the way down the mountain, we decided it was time to head out!

We drove around for about 30 minutes on the Blue Ridge Parkway so both boys could get a little nap and then headed back to the cabin.

The cabin came with some cornhole boards which provided some entertainment.

We didn't have much of a driveway to play in, but the house had a decent little backyard and firepit.

This is the view off the small front porch.

The living room had the same view.

Each family took one night to make dinner for everyone, and Friday night was our night.  We made an assortment of Mexican food which worked out really well.  After dinner, we had cupcakes to celebrate Brian's birthday (we didn't get around to having them the day before on his actual birthday).

After a little more playing, the kids were off to bed and we got a little adult conversation time before we all followed!