Tweetsie

Tucked into the mountains, just minutes from our house, is a family amusement park called Tweetsie Railroad. It is an old west themed park with a huge engine as one of the main attractions. We live so close to it in fact, that all day long we can here Tweetsie's whistle as it chuggs along and can see puffs of smoke from our living room window as it winds through the hills. As close as we are, we had yet to visit Tweetsie because it can be quite an expensive venture. That all changed last weekend when in less than two days we received free passes to the park from a sweet lady I barely know AND our cousins the Custers called to ask if we wanted to join them for the day when they made the drive from Greensboro. Yes!! At 10 o' clock on Saturday we made the 4 minute drive to the park.

Here is the engine that we hear and see all the time. They keep it really shiny and clean, despite the coal bits floating in the air. See, the engineer is cleaning it at the station.

 

 

The very first thing we did was ride the engine. Here are the Custers and a very excited Jonah! It wound through the beautiful mountains and made a couple of stops so actors could act out wild west skits.

 

 

After that we headed up the hill on the chair lift to the little kids ride area. Jonah loved the chairlift and you couldn't beat the view, going up or back down.

 

 

The kids area had rides for Jonah and Wade's ages, a theater to see skits and musicals, and a petting zoo. The boys took advantage of just about everything and warmed up to each other too.

 

After lunch we headed over to the petting zoo where the boys got to feed goats, pigs, deer, and llamas. Well, not so much the llama. He was weird and giving everyone the stink eye. There was a baby goat that got out of his pen that Jonah got to really bond with.

 

Hopefully we can save up and get a season pass for next year. There was so much to do and we are so close that it seems like a shame not to. Hopefully this has tempted all of the Cousins to come and visit us in North Carolina next summer too!

Day at Claytons Beach

Even though we were on vacation for a week on an island, we only spent one day at the beach! It was ridiculously hot the first few days and, as you'll see, not everyone thought the beach was all it was cracked up to be!! (Thanks again to KC for some of the photos.)

My very own personal cutie-patootie.

The beach at Claytons, a bar and grill on the water where we got fish tacos and pina coladas for lunch.

If you remember from our vaca earlier in the summer to Kiawah Island, Jonah was not a fan of the ocean. Playing in the sand was great, but the waves...not so much. Well, I'm not sure what changed since May, but he was all about the water this trip. With Mom, with Dad, or alone he spent a majority of the time in the water.

 

 

 

 

Most everyone spent some time in the water, even Cuz Noah went in with his Mama a bit begrudgingly. The Texas Smiths were pro's.

 

This was really Noah's happy place that day. Everyone else could have the sand and water.

A big attraction for the kids, Lord only knows why, was a lovely puddle near our tent. We'll refer to it as a "tide pool" instead of the hot, bird bath that it really was. Auntie Bec was a good sport and accompanied the kids. Thanks Bec!

 

We tried to get a picture of all 4 cousins at the shore. It's a pretty accurate account of how they felt about it. 

Texas Outings

To fill the days in Texas with 4 toddlers, we took a couple of family outings to Sea Turtle Inc on the island of South Padre and to the Sea Life Nature Center just over the bridge. All of our kiddos are nature lovers, so both places were really great for them to explore.

Sea Turtle Inc. was a turtle rescue center. They had all sorts of sweet little injured turtles that they either rehabilitated and released or that would spend the rest of their days there. Not a fancy place, but it definitely served a purpose and the kids loved it. 

The kids were all so inquisitive and checked things out with rapt attention.

 

I think the turtle in the tank was trying to get to Cuz Noah's Squirt doll.

Silly posing in the turtle cutouts!

 

Andrew and Jonah looking out into the wild blue yonder.

 

The Sea Life Nature Center was a small aquarium that highlighted local creatures from hermit crabs to turtles to rabbits. It was an eclectic mix of things but super kid friendly and the worker there took a number of the animals out for the kids to touch. (Not a lot of pics because of the "no flash" rule. Thanks to KC for some of them.)

 

 

 

 

Texas Photo Shoot

Last week we returned from a week long mini-reunion with Andrew's side of the family. All of the Smiths and the Jacksons landed in the great state of Texas for a week of being together. The "Texas Smiths" live in Texas now (hence the nickname), but we (now dubbed the "Carolina Smiths") traveled from North Carolina and the Jacksons traveled from California. It had been 14 months since we had all seen each other, and when you have 4 kiddos in the mix a lot changes in the course of 14 months!! It was so, so great to be with each other and for the 4 cousins to get some much needed face to face playtime. We started our week off with a photo shoot on one of the local beaches where we were staying in South Padre. We got some awesome photos, in a beautiful setting, to mark the moment.

Here we all are, as one big crew.

The trunk of this fabulous family tree, Nana and Papa.

Our little trio.

 

 

The Jackson family giving some squishy, kissy face.

The Texas Smiths were able to get some maternity pictures since Baby Jed will be joining their family in September! (It's not even my belly picture, but how cute!!)

The cousins tromped around the sand until it was time for all of their close-ups.

 

 

Nana and Papa with their precious grand kids, and Jonah hamming it up with Cuz Hunter in a close up!

 

It was a great way to start the week to come.