Our Little Helper (with a few other pics mixed in)

Looking through pictures from this week, I have a lot of Lewis helping us. May he continue to be a sweet, willing helper:

Helping dump the compost (which is blurry)

I was inside doing dishes, watching Lewis carry the compost bucket out with Kevin. Before I could grab the camera and get outside, they were already back to the pile to dump it. He definitely likes to help with that, and he's also good about putting things into the recycling bin when we ask him to (and he likes to help Kevin move recycling from the 'house' bin into the 'curbside' bin, which I've posted pictures of before).

 Doing a 10-foot long alphabet train puzzle

Not necessarily help-related, but I'm throwing it in here anyway. He's really into puzzles the past few weeks and is getting very good at them! There are some 12-piece ones that he has mastered, and he's getting better with the 24-piece ones (he's matching colors and trying the pieces different ways--still gets frustrated at times). This looooong train one is in alphabetical order, so we roughly lay out the pieces in order across the room and he puts them all together (after some trial/error). Then he usually takes his Thomas ride-on toy and rides on top of the completed puzzle, yelling chooooo chooooo!

 Helping make Peter more comfortable and cozy for naptime. :)

Poor Peter... He'll do this to Hattie, too, but she's generally not as tolerant (as we all know).

 Swimming with Dada

Again, not help-related. Though it could be said he was helping Kevin keep cool--he poured cold hose water on Kevin's head and down his back a few times. :)

 Helping make the water dirty--haha.

He got his dump trunk from the garden (covered in dirt) and put it in the pool. And his 2 lawn chairs, his dirty shoes (over and over again), etc. Oh well. :)

 Helping wash all the Waycross dust off of Dada's car

Pretty soon, he might just be able to help with some DIY projects. :)

He's really taken to this toy I found at Goodwill. 'Drill!' 'Screwdriver!' As he gets older, he can try to copy patterns from cards that came with it. For now, he just likes to drive the bolts in.

'Twas a Dirty Day Out on the Farm

Tonya and Carlton and Lewis and I met out at Henry's Ark the other day, and, boy, did the boys get dirty! They found the mud and the puddles and the dirt pile and the poop--I don't think Lewis has ever been that dirty. I tried to give him a baby wipes bath before nap, but that just didn't cut it (I had to squeeze in a real bath). We had a great time, dirt (and poo) and all. :)

We spent most of our time near where the zebras were:

 

Feeding them carrots 

Hello. :)

When we weren't feeding them, the boys were climbing this dirt pile and rolling back down:

 

Carlton, mid-roll :)

 Tonya spotted this bunny (and another) hanging out in the bushes

 

Finding muddy puddles on the way into see the chickens and peacocks 

 Hi, goat!

 Lew couldn't pass up the puppy dog with its paws crossed. :)

Our visit wouldn't be complete without sitting on the tractor. :)

What a fun (and hot, sweaty, and dirty) day!

More Summer Fun

These might be the most random sampling of pictures,which is what the past few weeks have felt like. We've been busy! Kevin had to take a last-minute business trip last week (and has had to work a lot since then), so we're all pretty upside-down. On top of that, we've had out-of-town plans each of the past four weekends (I think), and that's kind of catching up to us.

Dada Forklift!

Er, I should say The-one-and-only-time-Kevin-offered-to-make-his-legs-into-a-forklift. :) His legs were super sore the next day--he'd lift up Lewis from the ground with his legs and then pop him into the air and into his (Kevin's ) arms. Lewis loved it, of course, and has luckily (for Kevin) forgotten about it. :)

The garden continues to do well:

Finally picked the broccoli, a few days too late.

Lewis had fun carrying it around and smacking things with it, though. :) Someone said that I might get some more sprouts from where I cut, so we'll see--the plant is pretty big, so if it doesn't look like it's doing much soon, I'll probably pull it to regain that corner of the bed.

Peas, round three

I picked some for dinner a few weeks ago and Kevin's parents' picked some last weekend (when Kevin and I went up to camp), so this is the third bunch we've picked. They're very good--we eat them in the pod, sauteed in butter, salt, and pepper. Yum. There are enough ready again for a salad this week! 

I love this of Carlton and Lewis at the splash park. :)

We ran into another mom/toddler boy from our hospital's mom group that day, too, so that was a nice surprise!

We headed up to my parents' house Saturday/Sunday for a visit/concert/Father's Day.

Checking out Gramma's garden

Mom took Lewis to the pool and the playground on Saturday afternoon--it sounded like they had a great time. (Dad had to go down to Waycross for a meeting.) AND Mom got Lew to sleep in the big boy bed at their house (a twin) without much resistance at all, so Kevin and I are hopeful it will go well whenever we get around to doing it (we are still putting it off...). :)

Parents' Night Out

We had fun going out for dinner and drinks (and shuffleboard!) with Tony and Kendra on Saturday. It's always nice to have an evening out without distractions (aka our sweet, darling children). :) I think they were going to a movie after we parted ways, and Kevin and I went to see Tom Petty play at Deer Creek (great show!).

So that's what we've been up to!

Cabin Work Weekend at Waycross

Kevin and I just spent another weekend at Waycross, trying to help get some cabins finished. They are building them to be able to house more campers for one of the busiest weeks of the summer, so they need to be done by July. We were able to get a lot accomplished, but there's still a lot to do. Hopefully another crew can put in a weekend (or two) between now and then--they're going to be awesome when they're finished!

When we got there Friday evening, there were two additional guests waiting for us in the retreat house:

A bat 

A toad

The toad was taken outside, but we lost track of the bat. An attempt was made to open all of the doors and get it to fly out, but it swooped through more of the house than we anticipated (and, to be honest, most of us dropped to the ground, screaming), so we lost sight of where it ended up. :)

This was where the cabins were as we started work on Saturday morning (there are two of them):

 

Roofing begins

We had 2 people on the ground and 2 people on the roof for each side. The ground people pre-drilled the holes, and the roof people received the sheet metal and screwed it in place. 

Roofing ends

We got a pretty good rhythm going and were able to complete both cabin roofs by lunchtime!

After lunch, Kevin, Adie, Will, and I moved onto the fascia (the vertical sheet metal on the front and back of the cabin): 

Will (up on the ladder) hung the sheets and measured the next sheets for us. 

Kevin was the Saw Man!

Cutting the metal was pretty nasty--there were sparks flying, and my ears were ringing through dinner (we should have had ear plugs). But again, we came up with a good system and finished the front and back of one cabin Saturday between lunch and dinner. It was mentally exhausting because we had to remember the heights of each side, draw the angle, etc. And the sheet metal had one side with a flange and one side without, so we always had to make sure we were orienting it in the correct way. There were 2 times I drew out the cuts for Kevin to make, he cut them, and we handed them to Will, only to find I'd drawn them totally opposite of what they should have been. 

We also found that cutting on the back side of the sheet metal was better than the front side (less bumpy), but that meant adding another dimension of difficulty for us on the ground because we had to flip them in our minds. The back of the cabin drops off pretty far, so I switched to ladder-holding duty for Will, and Adie and Kevin knocked out measuring and cutting the back side very quickly. By the end of the day, my brain and body were totally wiped!

Speaking of being wiped out: 

Beautiful Baby (and blond?) Gordon

Ben and Gordon came out for dinner and evening fun, and then they all headed back home. Gordon's giggles were the sweetest!

Sunday we all dragged ourselves to breakfast and then dragged ourselves to get back to work. It took us a while, but eventually we hit a good groove. Kevin and I ended up helping Zella (Adie's mom) put in the frames in the wall that will eventually support the screen walls. (The plus signs below.) She and another worker had done the ones on the right side of the door on Saturday, and she and Kevin and I did the ones on the left side of the door on Sunday. 

Slowly getting there!

The majority of lumber has been milled from Waycross trees, so it was all very heavy and dense. I 'tapped' my shin with one of the posts and have a pretty good bruise today!

Others in our group framed one of the cabin's decks, built staircases for both decks, laid the decks themselves, and put up soffit on one of the cabins.

Thanks so much to Sharon, Jim, and Scott for watching Lewis for us for the weekend. :) We really appreciate it.

Outdoor Life and A Surprise Visit from Gramma and Papaw Carter

Checking out the creek at the park last weekend with Kevin:

And off he goes! :)

SMILE!

Eating dinner. :)

One day earlier this week, my mom called and asked what we were up to that day. Dad had been out hiking the AT, and they were passing through Louisville on their way home. Lewis and I met them at a playground to play for a bit and went to lunch, and then they continued on their way. It was a fun, quick visit.

Trying on his new Lightning McQueen helmet from Gramma. 

Whee!

Dad was getting around pretty well for hiking 85 miles over 5 days! He is a beast.

Trying out the big boy swing

Kevin said Lewis wanted to try out the big kid swings at the park last weekend, too. His dismount isn't the most graceful and we don't push him super high, but he seems to like them.

Day Out with Thomas

Yesterday morning we met up with Keith, Maggie, and Colin and headed down to the Kentucky Railway Museum for Day Out with Thomas. It was a fun event--Thomas was there, of course, to take us on a train ride, and they had miniature golf, balloon animals (er, trains), face painting, a tent full of train tables, and a miniature train you could ride.

Thomas, Lewis, and Dada

I think Lewis was pretty excited when he saw Thomas--he pointed to him and said his name (Thomaaaaas!!). 

 Thomas with Kevin, Lewis, Keith, and Colin

Kevin took Lewis on the first miniature train ride, and Lewis seemed to like it. If you'll recall, he has been terrified to ride a carousel and a similar miniature train in the past. When Colin decided he wanted to ride it, we hesitantly tried to put Lewis on solo, too...I was saying please don't stand up, please don't stand up, etc., but I'm happy to say that he sat in his train car the whole time! I think he was glad to have Colin there--I saw Lewis look back a few times at Colin, and he seemed reassured to have him sitting behind him.

1st time around with Kevin 

2nd time around, riding solo

Here comes Thomas, back to the station! 

As the miniature train rides were wrapping up, Thomas arrived back, so he headed over to the boarding area:

All aboard! 

Mama and Lewis on the train

Lewis seemed semi-interested in the train ride, at least on the way out. On the way back, he was kind of fidgety and wanting to walk around. It was just around a 20 minutes round-trip, I think.

Our last stop was to meet Sir Topham Hatt:

Checking out his big shoes 

Sir Topham Hatt

It seems Lew has just started noticing Sir Topham Hatt and saying his name the past few weeks, so I'm glad he knew who he was in time to meet him!

It was a fun morning and great to see Maggie, Keith, and Colin. The museum itself is just under an hour from us, so we might go back sometime to check out other exhibits. They have special events for Halloween, Christmas, etc. and other cartoon character days (like Dinosaur Train, which we haven't seen yet).