Appomattox Courthouse

For Labor Day, we did a short day trip to Appomattox Courthouse.  It was an absolutely beautiful drive down, so it was worth it for that alone.  

Here are the boys in front of the courthouse.

This is the room where Lee and Grant met and signed the formal surrender.  

It really was a beautiful little area; very peaceful.  It is always so amazing to visit these historical areas and think of the things that happened there.  

Grayson was trying to get a closer look at the various rooms. 

Here is the hill where Lee and Grant met.

Grayson was being a little poser for the camera, so we took advantage and had a mini photo shoot.

Alabama Part 2

I know it's been quite a while, but I am finally getting caught up on the blog.  Better late then never right?

The rest of our trip in Alabama was a lot of fun.  Grayson continued to get more adventurous in his explorations of my parents house.  I looked over and he was climbing on the back of his walker.

Grayson's love of the dishwasher increased and he was always very 'helpful' to my mother whenever she had the dishwasher open.  He would pull out anything he could get his hands on.

We also got the chance to go visit my best friend Angela at her house and play for a while.  She had a tunnel that her kids liked to play with and Grayson really liked it.  He didn't come out of it for a while, he just kept crawling back and forth with a huge grin on his face.

He also really loved her stairs.  It was the first time he had tried stairs so I was interested to see how he would do.  He picked it up really fast and had a great time.

Then later in the week we got to go to the craft fair.  I used to go all the time with my mom when I was growing up.  I haven't been in years and I was so excited to be able to go back.  My friend Angela and her little boy came with me and my mom and we had a really great time.

Emmett and Grayson became buddies.  It was pretty cute.

My mom collects magnets for all the states that she visits, needless to say, she has a substantial magnet collection.  Grayson quite enjoyed playing with the magnets. 

He got this cute wooden bus at the craft fair we went to.

My mom and I made some pizza one night and I had to take a picture of our masterpiece.

I was talking to my mom while she was doing her hair one morning and of course Grayson had to come and explore my parents bathroom.  He really, really liked their shower.  

Grayson is a seasoned traveler now and he is such a great guy when we drive.  When we stopped for lunch, he had to try his hand at the wheel.

He was an excellent driver.  We had a really good time and the drive back to Virginia safely.  It was so fun to visit my family, but Grayson and I were very excited to see Trevor again.

Southern Adventures

Trevor has started a two week short class that will be every day for two hours, in addition to his regular semester load.  Needless to say, he has been very busy and suggested that Grayson and I go down to Alabama for the two weeks to visit my family.  We have been quite enjoying our stay, but still missing Trevor of course.  I'm so grateful for technology, however, which allows us to call and/or video chat every day.

We have been really busy since we got to Alabama.  Grayson was a champion traveler on the way down and the drive went very smoothly.  We visited my sister Decia and her family on Wednesday.  Her older kids were very upset that school had started and they would be missing most of the fun.  We were still there when they got back from school though, so that made up for it some.  I even went with my sister to pick them up while my mom stayed with the little guys at Decia's house.  My nephew Trevor got in the car and said, "Who's that sitting in the front?"  I thought it was really funny.  

My niece Mary Beth was nice enough to share her favorite toy, her kitty.

While we were visiting my sister and her family, we went to Five Guys for lunch and got some dessert from a local cupcake place.  Then we went to a really cool park near their house.  The floor of the playground area was gated and covered in this springy, cushioned material, so Grayson was able to crawl around.  Although, when I actually put him down, I don't think he liked the material very much he wouldn't really go far.  All that being said, he had a fun time, it was such a great park!!  

He couldn't decide how he felt about the slides.  He seemed kind of indifferent.

Grayson really loved this tunnel.  He would crawl through it so quickly and then I would help him out the other side.

Outside the playground area, there were some beautiful gardens and some really fun rock and animal statues.  Grayon really liked to play on the various statues.  We even saw a really big praying mantis in some of the grass, it was really cool.

The first thing he did when I showed him the frog statue was give it a great big kiss.

It was so fun to see everyone.  When the older kids got home from school, the kids all had to take turns holding Grayson.  My oldest niece got her guinea pig out and let Grayson pet her.  He would just poke her at first, but then he started trying to grab her ears, so we had to give the poor guinea pig some space.  

The next day, we went to my sister Sarah's house to visit her and her family.  Grayson always gets so excited to see his cousins.  He loves being around little kids.  My nephew David is the youngest of my sisters' kids and he was really sweet playing with Grayson.  He shared his toys and kept patting Grayson on the head.  It was really cute.

Grayson kept trying to 'climb' on David, it was too funny.  David wasn't sure how he felt about it.

We of course had to go visit one of my favorite stores while we were there, the Unclaimed Baggage Center.  It's so fun, you never know what you're going to find.  

Today Sarah and her family and my older sister Dawn came over for lunch.  My sweet niece Emma was Grayson's buddy and was playing with him a lot and giving him toys.  She kept making silly faces and making him laugh.  Of course Grayson wanted to hug her and 'climb' on her.  He accidentally toppled her over, which made me laugh.  

Grayson and David playing with Legos together. 

My cute niece Anna was a good help and helped Grayson practice walking while he held her hands.

My dad was giving Grayson a lesson on manly things like tools and such.  He was very fascinated by the needle nose pliers, much to my chagrin.  Grayson really liked exploring all of my dad's equipment.