Mimi and Pop Pop Visit

Can that be right?? Have I really not posted since Christmas?! (Alright, alright...no need to yell YES GG!!) It is true. Sorry. To make up for it, I will now have an onslaught on posts coming out over the next week or so, so get ready. Our lives have been a whirlwind from the end of May til the end of June. I can now get all my ducks in a row and share what's been going on with us, starting with my parents visit in May.

My mother has been to NC for visits a few times since we moved here, but this was the first time that Daddy has been able to come with her. We LOVED having Pop Pop join us, and I think we hooked him for another trip in the future!!

The first stop on the trip was of course Cracker Barrel!! We headed there for breakfast before we spent the day at Tweetsie.

Once at Tweetsie, we explored the park for the first time this season with Mimi and Pop Pop. We were able to hit every area pretty thoroughly!

Teepee for one?

Fake horse photo-op. Couldn't pass that up! (Got a funny one of mom on the horse alone, cause Jonah was over it and ditched her, but I'll leave out the loner shot! haha)

Next on the itinerary was taking a ride on Tweetsie. Some of Jonah's friends don't care too much about this part of the park, but it's kind of a must for us. Jonah even got to pose with the enigeer this time.

 

Some silly pictures were taken and then we took the people mover up to the rides. The people mover proved to be a bit of a challenge for Mimi and Pop Pop. They were out of practice trying to wrangle a kid AND all there stuff at the same time. Everyone survived though!! (Zoom in for Jonah's joyous face.)

 

Riding rides....

And Pop Pop introduced Jonah to arcade games. His very first Whack-a-Mole!!

 Last stop was the petting zoo. It's more of a feeding zoo than anything, but it's still fun.

We did a few other things while Mimi and Pop Pop visited, but it was definitely more laid back than our day at Tweetsie!

Skipping rocks at Trout Lake...(sorry so far away...but it's a cute moment)

Reading with Mimi...

And having lunch at a Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives in Charlotte called Dish.

We still have a lot of things that we didn't get to this trip, so we will just have to patiently wait for the next one!

Smith Family Christmas 2012

If December 24th was Christmas for the Reed's, then that means that December 25th was Christmas for the Smith-Jacksons!! The two households do many things differently, but we look forward to all of the nuances that each home holds.

At the Smiths, the stockings get opened first, since Santa filled them and leaves them out on the couch for easy reaching. There is always a box of sugary cereal for each person, young and old. Jonah wasted no time in wanting to dig into his Lucky Charms. ("Mama, did you know this cereal has smarshmellows in it!")

Moments later, Cuz Noah got up and the boys compared their loot. Light up dolphin and whale toys, books, and pens with stamps! Santa also brought a special toy for each of them and their individual interests. An Angry Birds track for Noah and a new train, Rheneas, for Jonah. (Noah's love of Angry Birds has rubbed off on Jonah more than his love for trains has rubbed off on Noah, for sure!)

After breakfast we got into the task of opening the presents under the tree! We usually go from oldest to youngest, but with two 3-year-olds, we went youngest to oldest this year. (Thanks Pop Ro for giving up your spot!) Again, whenever it wasn't Jonah's turn to open a gift, he tried to be where the action was with someone else. Notice him hovering over Cuz Noah and over Auntie Bec.

Jonah got sweet gifts from his Texas cousins. All of them were train themed of course! He loved this wooden train that he got to decorate himself. He and Pop Ro spent quite a while painting and decorating it together. It was like 2 gifts in one!!

The two star gifts were by far Rusty and Owen. Jonah asked our elf Starry, to relay his request for Rusty the train to Santa, over and over again. Well, Santa came through (in the form of Cuz Noah, Auntie Bec and Uncle Kc)! He refers to Rusty as his favorite train an has not been without him since. Owen is a big incliner with a bunch of tracks beside. As soon as he was set up, we lost Jonah for the day.

After naps were had by many, we got a family picture before our traditional crab dinner. (Mmmm) I think the picture turned out pretty well, with two squirrelly little boys! ( I love that they are rockin fedoras, yet have bare feet.)

Reed Family Christmas 2012

On the 24th, we celebrated Christmas with the Reed's. This year, G.G. came a day early so Jonah (and we) got to have extra time with her. Those few extra hours made a world of difference and it felt like we got to spend some real time together because of it. I hope that becomes a new tradition :) We did have breakfast first thing that morning, but had to quickly move onto presents. Again...we do have a three year old, and he could read his name on the packages.

Here he is reading the letters J-O-N-A-H and realizing the present is for him.

 

It was a Very Thomas Christmas this year, and Jonah's face lit up every time he saw the face of that little train. And he saw it over and over again. After he got a Thomas book, he took a little break to have Daddy read it immediately.

 

 

Jonah also got Family season passes to Tweetsie Railroad (see past post for more on Tweetsie!) from Mimi, Pop Pop, Nana, Papa, and GG, for next summer. He has no idea what these pieces of paper symbolize, but he will be SO excited when summer comes!

When Jonah had to actually let another another person open a present, he came right along side them to help with the task.

 

 

Jonah got a Thomas bat and ball set, so after the presents were done Daddy and he headed outside to try them out. Jonah looks like he  has his mama's skills!!

 

 

 We tried to get a family photo to mark the day as a family. With a three year old. Just before naptime. This is what we got. (I actually kind of love them.)

 

 

After Christmas dinner, we took a drive to Cindy Lane to look at the Christmas lights. Jonah loved all the displays and kept asking to get out of the car. I'm thinking that next year we will be walking it, with hot cocoa in hand!

Cute Cousin Moments

Easily one of the best parts of being in Fresno is the amount of time that Jonah and his Cuz Noah get to spend together. Just about everyday they got to play and explore together. Even when it wasn't a holiday or when we weren't taking a family field trip, they found things to do together.

As is our tradition, Nana got the boys matching "jambos" to wear. At first they weren't really into posing, but after the promise of treats they snapped to it! Ahhh, just look at that love!

 

 

A couple of three year old boys have a ton of energy, so a trip to the park needed to happen. They pushed each other, figuratively and literally at times, to do the big boy things like the big slides.

 

 

They both found the tree interesting, with all of it's lights and ornaments. (Don't worry, breakable ones were up top!) I personally love the picture where it looks like Jonah is explaining something to Noah. What could they be talking about??

 

 

Mimi's Visit (Flashback!!)

Remember October? Ah..it was a great month. Let's revisit it shall we? (I am soooo overdue with another blog, but cannot write anything more recent until I post about Mom's trip!)

Back in October, Mimi visited us to spend a little time with Jonah and see the FABULOUS colors that come along with the fall season here. We hung out at the house and played, drove the Blue Ridge Parkway and went to the Boone Heritage Festival. It was a whole lot of southern Fall fun!

We filled one of our days to the brim because of the beautiful weather! First we headed to an overlook above our town. It is such a neat view and our small town feels even smaller. At that same park, Jonah climbed on his "favorite rock". He was pretty proud of himself.
 

Next we headed to the farmers market and the Heritage Festival. Jonah stopped to show a bunny one of his choo-choos, and then we continued on our way.

The festival is held at the same location that the Horn in the West production is performed every summer, so it looks like a little township set up around the outdoor theater. There were all sorts of things going on including musicians having a jam session and story tellers. There were also old cabins to be explored.

 

 

 

Here is Jonah inside a little cabin shed. He even got Mimi to join him!

 

 

There was a great example of fall colors across the street, so we took a few pics before we drove onto the parkway.

 

It was a bit hazy on the parkway that day, but it didn't hide the grand scope of it.

Oh how we LOVE it when Mimi comes to visit!!