This month they returned and despite the blazing sun and an unusually warm weather, the kids had a great time. The first half of the trip was spent on getting a tour of the ranch and stopping at various “stations” for little educational talks. The kids learned about planting seeds, the ecological value of worms, how to milk a cow, and various animals tracks & scat. Of course, the scat was a HUGE hit with all the 5-year-olds.

After lunch it was playtime and the kids rolled in a “corn house” (like a ball pit but full of corn kernels), bounced on a massive pillow sort of trampoline, and explored “tiny town.” At the end of the day I joined the kids on the bouncing pillow and got a serious workout (as well as giant blisters on my feet).

Here are the kids in the “corn pit”:

Here is Trey and one of his best friends swimming in the corn:

I haven’t seen Trey have so much fun in a long, long time. Wow. In fact, afterwards he spent the rest of the afternoon making his own clues to put in eggs so that we could go on hunts of our own.

Nice work, Heidi!

Here is our 2012 Easter Sunday photo. Heidi is wearing my late grandmother’s hat. Trey was wearing my old cowboy boots and had my dad wore as a kid. I’m wearing my dad’s beard from the 80s.

Trey invited his good friend Suri and her sister to the event. They had a great time too. I was proud of Trey when he won the raffle and got a VeggieTales DVD. He already had the movies on it so he gave it to Suri.

Here are some of my latest Instagram photos of Trey running around being awesome.

Check out my latest Instagram images…

This past week I was perusing the Toys listings and saw “Aquaraiders $75″ listed. Just that day, Trey had mentioned to me that there was another Lego underwater series (the current one is “Atlantis”) that was called Aqua Raiders. I checked the ad out and thought they were selling one set for that price. Then I realized they were selling the entire collection for that price! Too good to be true, right?

Nope, I called the number and it was a nice lady whose college-aged son was getting rid of his old toys. He had the entire collection in near mint condition and only wanted $75! Trey and I jumped in the car and went and got it right away. I looked online and the rare collection goes for almost $800! Holy moly! JACKPOT!

Trey has had a blast on his spring break working on assembling it all.

After about an hour of wandering around the park, we got back in the car and headed home so that Trey could see his mommy. He was dying to tell her all about the LEGOs he played with in Richmond.

Turns out it is allowed, with a couple guidelines:

• The kid has to be at least 5
• The flight has to be non-stop
• They have to arrive by 7pm
• The designated adult has to be there to pick him up with the plane lands (a given)
• You have to pay an extra $50-$100 (we went with AirTran which only charged $50)

After talking it over as a family we decided that Trey could do it. It was just a 1½ hr flight to Richmond and we’d put him on the plane and my parents would get him off. He was quite excited about doing this big trip on his own as you can see in the video below where he discusses the flight with his best buddy:

The flights both went very well and I received glowing compliments from the flight attendants about his personality and behavior.  When we asked him what he did to occupy the time in the air he said he just looked out the window and talked to Curious George.

Oh, and on more cool little detail. There was a mixup when the flight landed in Richmond and my parents were outside security instead of at the plane’s gate. The attendants had to wait until the next flight had boarded before they could take Trey to my parents. So to keep him occupied, they let him do the boarding calls over the intercom. I wish I could have been there to hear his little voice saying “Zone 2, you may now board the plane. Zone 2.”

For now, here’s a clip of Trey and his friends at school:

Here is Trey in his new BATMAN LEGO jacket. I got this deal at KOHL’s for $6. Originally this was a jacket/jogging pant set that sold for $48. Apparently the pants got lost, so to clear the rack, the price went down to $9 and I had 30% off coupon on top of that. The jacket is a bit big, but it will be perfect for next year. I hope that you found the two new long-sleeved shirts that I got at KOHL’S for about $2 each (after my 30% off coupon). I believe they are 100% cotton, so you’ll have to wash and dry them to see the true size.

This photo shows one of several “LEGO stations” that Trey created in our house (this one in Philip’s room). Philip never bothered it at all, so Trey could add to it and come back later for more play.

- Sarah

The Richmond area got 1-2 inches of snow this morning. (Trey measured the snow in our yard.) It snowed off and on for several hours, but the roads stayed clear. Tomorrow will be cold, but by Thursday it will be in the 70s!

We were able to go to the gym, eat out for lunch, and then go to the huge KROGER that has cheese samples. As soon as we got back home, Trey went right back to adding details to his LEGO castle. He had a great day – hope you did, too.

Its easy access and proximity to Gatlingburg and the Sugarlands Visitor Center are the main reasons for its popularity. However, you can’t dismiss the fact that the reward at the end of the short hike is a gorgeous water fall.

We had our little party, just the three of us, in a cabin we had for a few days in Gatlinburg on the edge of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. It was peaceful and secluded at the top of a hill with a beautiful view of the mountains. You wouldn’t even know that you were in Gatlinburg – not a kitchy sign in sight.

And I’ve got to give a shout out to the folks at CabinsUSAGatlinburg.com through which we rented the cabin. Hands down the best cabin rental service in the Gatlinburg/Pigeon Forge area in the Smokies. They made they process quick & easy and even gave us coupons to local attractions (which we took advantage of and saved some $$$). The cabin was clean and even better than we expected from the cabin profile online. Oh, and it was stocked with TONS of firewood which made Heidi very, very happy having a roaring fire every night.

Trey was quite excited to get to the aquarium after seeing a couple hours worth of art over at the Hunter. He was fascinated by the scuba divers that did a presentation while in the tank. Trey does a pretty hilarious re-enactment of their talk that includes the microphone cut outs & hisses when they take breaths.

In addition to seeing both the fresh water and salt water aquarium buildings, we walked across the street to see a 3D IMAX movie. When Heidi and I visited the IMAX in college we saw a very cheesy 3D dinosaur movie. The best thing about it was keeping the 3D glasses and taking silly photos with them on (see below).

The film was Under the Sea 3D and was really good. It seems my favorite 3D movies have been documentaries (see Werner Herzog’s The Cave of Forgotten Dreams) – the 3D helps convey a much better sense of what being in an actual space is like. The crisp images and depth of field in Under the Sea was amazing. Even Jim Carrey’s narration was good – I was dreading that a bit when I saw his name in the opening credits.

Our original Chattanooga plans were to visit Rock City and Ruby Falls. However, cold weather and ridiculous prices kept us away. Instead we spent the day at the Hunter Museum of American Art and Tennessee Aquarium. It was definitely the right decision; the experience was both educational and fun.

The art museum’s current exhibition was of Great Depression era documentary photographer Dorothea Lange’s images. It was very moving to see her beautiful, heart-wrenching work from nearly a century ago. We were also able to see two of her most iconic images: Migrant Mother and White Angel Breadline. The collection also featured works by several other FSA-era photographers.

Trey was very fond of the Louise Nevelson Cascades – Perpendiculars XXVII piece. In his own form of performance art he asked that I photograph Heidi holding him horizontally hanging in front of Nevelson’s rigid, upright sculpture (see below).

Another one of our favorite pieces in the museum’s permanent collection was Paul Jenkins’ Phenomena Royal Violet Visitation. A single photo can’t do its size and vibrance justice. It’s also just a fun one to pose in front of for photos.

Finally, a commendation to the museum for its fantastic children’s activity book. By far the best one I’ve ever seen – so impressive looking that you almost don’t want your kid to write in it for fear of ruining the work of art. I hope they’ve won some awards for that little journal/workbook.

Trey hadn’t been swimming since the summer so he was really excited to get into the (hot) water.

Here are a few Instagram photos as well as a video clip. You’ll quickly realize how steamy it was in there.

Here’s a video of Trey trying to get Rosco to run through the tunnel of the fort he built in the living room. He was using a doggie treat as bait.

Here are Trey and Heidi drawing together on his IKEA dry erase/chalkboard easel.

Here’s a video clip of a king snake eating a rat. Be sure to listen closely to the boys’ commentary.

Having just been released from the hospital and with who knows how much medication in his system, he wasn’t very responsive during the short time we had with him. You’ll notice in the video below that he seems pretty distant and tired.

Back in Macon, Trey recently asked me if Peepaw was dead yet. I replied with “No, did you think he was?” Trey replied with an observation that was impressive for his age, “No, but he’s really old and misses Grammaw. I think he wants to go to heaven.”

The big question is: who looks better?

…and yes, I get bonus points for the shag rug in my portrait.

Heidi’s best friend from high school came with her husband and son who is Trey’s age. Between the two of them, the Randall’s gang of boys, and all the other kids, there was plenty of entertainment.

We had a small scale fireworks show (that still amazed the boys) and by the time the ball dropped all of the kids had passed from exhaustion at various locations throughout the house. Trey managed to hold out the longest but our little Superman finally crashed on the couch.

Being the day before the holiday the park closed early so our self-guided tour was a bit rushed. We still got to walk out on the boardwalks to an island in Lake Maggiore and spot a pretty large alligator hanging out in the sun. On the walk back we spot a gopher tortoise lumbering about. Trey had just asked me about a sign telling visitors to not bother the endangered reptiles and I told him we probably wouldn’t see one since they are so rare. Seconds later… tada!

Trey got to sail with me and his granddad and then later he and Heidi took Kenny’s kayak out for a spin as well (video below). Trey’s newborn cousin also joined us but he stayed on solid ground for the afternoon simply enjoying the fine Florida weather.

Trey’s favorite toys right now are Legos. Combine that with Star Wars and you’ve got something he can hardly contain himself over. He got quite a few Lego sets at Christmas and they were by far his favorite gifts.

Our friends Dr. & Mrs. Davis sent him a Christmas card with $10 in it and he had $5 he had already saved over the last couple months. I had a Barnes & Noble coupon for $10 off so I took him there and he bought a big $25 Star Wars Lego set he’d been eyeing for some time (and that I had previously said was out of our price range).

We came home and I helped him put it together. Then next morning, before we headed off on a 6-hour road trip he had me dismantle it all. He spent four hours of the trip putting it together on his own in the back seat.

Forget buying a car TV for my kid! I just hand him an pile of Lego bricks and he’s content for hours!

We gave Trey the job of handing out the gifts – a job he does with great excitement. He was always either jumping over himself to help Peepaw and Philip unwrap their gifts or getting a head of things and looking for the next gift.

Their teacher ended with a devotional where each kid pulled a figure from a nativity set and talked about its role in the Christmas story. It was neat to see how the kids enjoyed having their turn in the spotlight and how seriously they took the task. Nice touch.

We also got to spent a lot of time with Atticus, the newest addition to the clan. Trey felt really special getting to hold the fragile little dude in his lap.

As usual, when the whole gang is around you have to document it with the annual group photos. Here they are:

Last month Trey and I passed it again and she’s still there! Her bra and wig have been updated but she’s still there staring off into the sunset.

I was still recovering from my knee surgery just 10 days prior but I managed pretty well. Between that slowing me down and some confusion on my part of the time change to CST, we ran a little short on time. We only made it to Debord Falls, the first of the two falls. It was still a lovely walk on a crisp Fall day and the two of us had a good time.

A little factoid about the park’s name. It isn’t that they ever found a frozen head there. It’s simply that the mountain peak in the center tends to show frost in the winter and old timers thought it looked like a frozen head.

For a mere $5 you get a chilly 45-minute boat ride. Then there’s cheap hot dogs, hot cocoa, popcorn, and boiled peanuts. Plus free photos with Santa. This year Trey wasn’t as apprehensive about seeing the bearded man.

Once we made our way past the sculptures to the shoreline, he immediately forgot about them and focused all his energy/attention on playing in the water.

* photos & video from November 2011