Little Guy working on his car book |
Our first morning there, we had breakfast at Maggie Valley Restaurant, my grandfather's favorite (I think that's only because he can still manage to drive there seeing as how it's like 100 yards or so from their house) Little Guy had pancakes:
Followed by some souvenir shopping:
Little Guy's gem necklace |
Playing Happy Gilmore style! |
Nice backdrop for mini golf eh? |
Behind the store is a huge field of corn. There was a little break in the fence, so I took Little Guy over to show him what corn looks like while it's growing. He wasn't that interested because he doesn't really like corn all that much. Perhaps I should have told him that's also where popcorn comes from! I've always heard that corn should be "knee high by fourth of July", so I'm a little confused as to whose knee they were referring to, a giant? Exhibit A below:
It's bigger than Little Guy, and this picture was taken the 3rd week of June! As you can see in the picture he thought the camera was going to steal his soul. He gets like that A LOT, like, it's sooo incredibly hard to get a decent shot of him on the first try.
After our little break, we went on a little waterfall hike at Soco Falls. I love taking him there. This year it was easier to get Little Guy down the rocky trail since he's a little bigger, and can do most of the climbing on his own. I took a picture of him in the same exact spot as last year and you can really see how long his legs have gotten! He's growing up so fast these days!
Soco Falls 2011/2012 |
Soco Falls 2012 |
The view from near the bottom |
He was so proud to hike down to the falls |
Little Guy learned what it's like to care for a pet (or 20). My grandfather has a huge koi pond. Since he doesn't get around so well anymore, Little Guy got to feed them everyday. He thought it was so cool!
Papa's Koi Pond |
And we saw a bear:
And a spider:
Made some wishes:
Saw lots of flowers:
And chased a robin:
We did a few activities during our downtime to avoid the whole "I'm bored" syndrome. Who knew a stack of red Solo cups could keep a child occupied for almost an hour?? I kid you not, Little Guy loved stacking the cups and knocking them down and stacking them again. He did this several days while we were there! He hasn't touched them ONCE since we've been home, but at least it did the trick while we were on vacation!
Stacking 'em up... |
turns out you need 21 cups for a huge tower, so his head is the 21st cup! |
knocking 'em down! |
all ready for our hunt! |
Little Guy also decided to serenade us with his fantastic ability to "play" the organ. I was a little older than he when I started piano lessons... hmm. Maybe a piano player in our future?? He really seemed interested in gently playing this time rather than banging on the keys. Of course he had to push all the buttons, making it his goal to make them all light up!
Well, that's it for the first half of our adventures! Coming up: a surprise train ride, a trip to the Tennessee Museum of Aviation, the Bush's Beans factory, Pigeon Forge, Little Guy's FIRST LOOSE TOOTH! and Tallulah Falls.
Wow! Sounds like an awesome trip to me! You guys sure crammed in a lot of stuff!
ReplyDeleteJen, you make the littlest wonders of the world a great adventure for DJ. Maybe your Mom did that too. Cool!!
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