Will's first celebrity encounter

This past weekend we visited Tweetsie Railroad, an amusement park in Blowing Rock, for the Day Out with Thomas event. That's right, Will got to meet the real live "Nomas"--he was beside himself, which I tried to capture on video but didn't do too well (he outran me). We got there right as the park opened, and Thomas was out of sight, so we got to watch Will's reaction (and the reactions of about 100 other kids) as he rolled into view. It was fun--lots of jumping and screaming. We went on a short train ride with Thomas, and then spent the rest of the morning in the park. I was afraid Will might be too young, but he really enjoyed all the activities--they had stations set up where he could get a (temporary) tatoo, color Thomas pictures, and play with Thomas train sets all over the park.

The funniest part of the whole day, however, was watching Will with his souvenir--we let him pick out one thing from the gift shop and he chose a rolling backpack. I figured it would be a hit because he likes to play with our rolling luggage, but I had no idea how much he would love this thing. He rolled it all around the park, insisted on taking it into Chick-fil-A with him for lunch, and then rolled it all around Blowing Rock. Too funny.

A Weekend in Asheville

This post is about last weekend--this weekend is going to be a lot less active. For the Memorial Day weekend, we drove over to Asheville and spent 2 nights there. We stopped at Chimney Rock Park and had a picnic, hiked one short trail to Hickory Nut Falls, and took the easy way (elevator) to the top of the Chimney--it's nice to have a toddler as an excuse not to do the tough trails!

We took some time to stroll through downtown Asheville, which has some really fun and funky shops and restaurants. The majority of our time, however, was spent at the Biltmore Estate. It is huge, land-wise, and reminded me a little bit of Callaway Gardens (minus the butterfly center, plus a giant house and some mountains). We toured the house, winery, and the farm (which is by far the best part of the estate for kids--I spent most of my time telling John we should come back without Will). Will did enjoy the farm animals and wood-working and blacksmith demonstrations, and he slept through the winery tour and tasting, thank goodness. We had a little bit of time left on Monday morning before leaving for home, so we rented some bikes and took a short trail back to the formal gardens and main house. I am in worse shape than I thought, and John and I ended up pushing the bikes up the last hill to the house. Will was not happy due to the slow pace of pushing (as opposed to cruising) and kept yelling "go! go!," which did not help. But the ride was worth it--the gardens were beautiful.

I think this concludes our exciting weekends in May--no big plans this weekend. We went to K&W Cafeteria (a Winston-Salem original) for lunch today. It reminded me so much of going to Morrison's with Grandmama and Granddaddy, back when I thought that the Jello cup was the best dessert ever (especially if they had lime Jello). So I got a Jello cup for Will, and he didn't like it!!! He spit it out and went back to eating his broccoli, as I pondered whether or not he inherited any genes from me. :-)

Catching Up

I'm way behind on uploading pictures, so these are pictures from the weekend before last. John found out he had the weekend off at the last minute, so we didn't make any big plans--had lunch at Prissy Polly's in Kernersville, a popular BBQ spot we wanted to try. We also stopped by the Greek Festival for lunch on Sunday--the food was yummy and Will loved it. Also, Will and I checked off another of my "Things to Do" by visiting Bethabara Park last week.

We also found out some very sad news--one of my classmates from Junior Honors, Hugh, was killed in a car accident over the Memorial Day weekend in Gainesville. He was a great guy and he will be missed a lot. Please keep his family in your prayers.

It IS spring, right??

We are freezing our tooshes off up here, so we aborted our original plans to go to the Biltmore Estate this past weekend and stuck close to home (and the fireplace). We did venture out to the Triad Children's Show, which is a sort of fair with lots of booths by kid-oriented businesses, some shows by local gymnasts and choirs, and other fun stuff. Will loved petting the animals at the petting-zoo booth and playing at the booths of the different play-gyms in town (and even got to see his Gymboree teacher there, although he played shy). On Sunday, we went to a Winston-Salem Warthogs baseball game. We made it through about 4 innings before John and I got tired of trying to keep Will from climbing all over the bleachers. He had a great time, though--check out the pictures and the video of him cheering for the team.

In other news, Will sustained head injuries number 2 and 3 (of ones that have drawn blood) this week. One at daycare on the back of his scalp, and one at home next to his eye. He's starting to make me nervous--I'm afraid he's going to be a little accident-prone. The injuries never seem to bother him, though; he saves his tears for really awful things (like when he doesn't get what he wants!).

Cakes and Elephants and Tulips, oh my!

John and I celebrated our 5 year anniversary this weekend. We went to Midtown Cafe for breakfast, and ended up sitting next to a couple celebrating their 40th anniversary, surrounded with their children and granddaughters (who Will flirted with a little bit). We went to the North Carolina Zoo in Asheboro on Sunday; we'd been waiting for pretty weather but gave up and went anyway--it wasn't too wet, just overcast. Will really enjoyed the zoo, but threw a category 5 tantrum when we left because he wanted to ride the bus (which we'd ridden back to the parking lot) again--"more bus! more bus!" he screamed. I wish I'd taken a video of that to show him when he's older, but I was too busy being mortified.

And finally, the sun peeked out yesterday afternoon, so Will and I went to the Bicentennial Garden in Greensboro--I've passed by it a few times on the way to the shopping center there but never stopped. I'm glad we did, it was beautiful--check out the pictures!

Up close with Big Tobacco...

John, Will, and I visited the Reynolda House Museum of American Art yesterday for their Community Day Festival. They had lots of fun activities and free admission. We toured the exhibit of African American art from the American Folk Art Museum--and saw some beautiful quilts (which Will was dying to touch--I think he was making the museum officials nervous). And we got to tour Reynolda House, the estate of RJ Reynolds--again, with lots of "no touch" stuff that Will really, really wanted to touch (he was especially enthralled with the guest bathroom and pointed out the "potty" specifically; now if he would only use the one we have at home!).