Hiking with Gammy

I think I have mentioned before that hiking in the Jacksonville Woodlands is one of our favorite family activities. There is so much to explore, and tons of different trails you can hike. One weekend we decided to take Gammy along with us to experience the beauty. We picked up a woodland guide to the wild flowers growing in the area. It was so much fun to spot flowers and try to figure out which one they were. The coolest flower we found was the endangered Fritillaria. They can mostly be found in and around Jacksonville. Grant had so much fun looking at and "melling" the flowers. He would lean over and blow out through his nose and say he was smelling them. So cute!

Mothers Day

Mothers Day...a long time ago :) We got to spend the weekend in Florence. It was a wonderful weekend with family. Grant got to spend time with GG and Gammy. They were excited to spend Mothers Day with him. We also got in some good trampoline time.

Yurting

As has become our yearly tradition, we went to Brookings and stayed in a yurt. Last year we had a bunch of friends come with us. This year circumstances made it so that it was just our little family that went. We had so much fun just the three of us! Grant was SO excited to go camping. When we got there he helped Daddy unload the truck. He kept running back and forth from the truck with one thing at a time and saying "more, more, more"! He was super excited for everything we did...way into it. He loved building a fire with Daddy, playing in the yurt with Mommy, and hunting for the "polar bear" that was scratching on the side of the yurt. Of course we took a ton of pictures...so here you go:

We took a hike on Saturday. Grant discovered that he really likes "noculars". We hiked out to a point. It was beautiful!! Pretty windy and cold...but what can you expect when you go camping in April right?

Grant had a lot of fun playing at the beach. We took a picnic down there, and the squirrels loved us.

Happy Easter!

This is definitely the year of Grant learning new words! "Easter" is now in his vocabulary. Trying to be a good mom, I really worked at teaching him the real reason for Easter. I searched tons of sites on teaching your kids the real meaning of Easter, but he is just too young to sit still long enough to even listen to anything I say! My mom made a beautiful interactive wall hanging when we were young that walks kids through the story of Easter. It is called "The Road To Calvary". She handed it down to me, and I talked about it with Grant this year. I don't know if he really comprehended anything that I told him, but at least we did it and started a tradition that we can continue next year!

Showing off the final day on "The Road To Calvary"

Aside from my attempts at teaching biblical significance, we had a wonderful Easter weekend. On Saturday we went to Tiller for an Easter brunch and anniversary celebration for Paul's grandparents. In the past few years, the great-grandchildren population at Tiller has hugely increased!!! We thought it would be fun to have an egg hunt for all the kids. Grant learned very quickly why an "eggy hunt" was super fun!

All the great-grandkids before the hunt...a good attempt, but could not get everyone to look!

Can we get started already?!

And he's off!

Where are those eggs?!

It didn't take long for him to discover what was hidden inside the eggs!

But he was soon distracted by the slide :)

Four Generations of Caswell men in Tiller

On Sunday morning we woke Grant up and told him that he had to find his Easter basket. He found it quickly, and made quick work of the fun inside. We went to our own church for the Easter service. This is the first time I have ever been to our home church on a major holiday! We are always out of town...side note :)



After church Grant found another Easter basket from our neighbors, Don and Trudy! Then we went over to Grandma and Poppin's house for another eggy hunt, yet another Easter basket, and yummy dinner. It was a fun filled weekend!




On Monday morning when Grant woke up, the first thing he did was run down the hall into the living room yelling "Easter!" He was ready for another round. Is it any wonder?!

Just Bein' a Boy

I am absolutely loving the stage that Grant is in right now. He is 22 months old, and such a boy! I laugh every day about something he does or says. His new thing is saying "no thanks" when he isn't really being asked with that as an option. For example...I told him that he could either get his jammies on first or pick up his toys and then get his jammies on...he said "no thanks". I tried so hard not to laugh. It is so sweet that he is being polite about it, but we have some work ahead of us teaching him what he can and cannot say "no" to. Here are some fun pictures of my boy being a boy!

Just had to share...

Paul went to wake Grant up one morning and found this... All of his bed things in one place. Grant likes to sleep with multiple blankies, binkies, and characters (that's what he calls them...his characters). I can just imagine him in the middle of night waking up and making sure that all of his things are all piled together underneath him. Then, when it is time to get out of bed, he has to hand everything over one by one to get out of the crib with him. Sometimes I have so many characters and blankies in my arms that I can hardly get him out of the crib! He is such a funny boy, and I love enjoying all the crazy things he does.

Don't we have fun?!

Boy do we know how to have fun! Last weekend we went to Florence with our friends, Brett and Andrea. We were planning on going on this really great hike up Sweet Creek, but heard that it was supposed to rain the whole time we were there. So...we decided to go anyway! And when I say it rained...I mean it poured almost the entire hike! We were soaked to the bone. Grant was quite a trooper. He rode in the pack all the way to the falls and back. It was a fun hike with memories made.

This isn't from the hike, but I thought it was too cute. We were driving home from Florence with Grant packed in on all sides as usual. The sun was getting in his eyes, so he wanted Mommy's glasses.