Carter's Swim Lessons

Carter has finished and passed his level one swim lessons. Yeah!!!!!! He took level one last summer and was set to take them a second time last summer when he refused to keep going. We let him make that choice last year and were a little apprehensive about this year. This year has been a completely different story. He has been excited to be there every night and just since last week when we were allowed to watch to this week he has made huge improvements. Here is some of the action at his last lesson.

Enjoying our Mountains...

We've been back for a couple of weeks now and have been making it a point to remind ourselves why we love where we live. Hiking around Price Lake.

Hiking the Boone Fork Trail

























Playing at Papa's.


















Fishing and canoeing at Papa's

Climbing along the parkway.

Another Hiatt Road Trip

Right after school we took off for our Summer road trip. We drove down to Kingsport and spent the night with Amy's folks before hitting one of the bigger driving days to Belleville, Illinois just outside of St. Louis where Amy's Godparents live. Next it was off to Mizzou to spend some time visiting with Russ's aunts, uncles, and cousins.





















Amy and kids with Aunt Elaine and Uncle Wayne






Lunch with cousins, aunts, and uncles in downtown Kansas City.











Down on the farm in Kansas

























Next it was off to Colorado and Utah to visit more family and friends.


A typical morning on the road with the Hiatts somewhere across Kansas, quickly followed by the picture below.


















A hike to Rainbow Lake above Frisco, Colorado.

















Hiking with our friend Hannah and her son Kai above the Reudi Resevoir and the Frying Pan River.
















Our morning in Arches National Park on the way to Grandma Coates' house.










Grandma Coates and Chooch.

























Our train ride on the Front Runner from Ogden to Salt Lake City.














Nana and Carter in front of the Front Runner. Carter and Nanna also had an exciting day out at the movies to go see Kung Fu Panda.

















Hill Air Force Base Aircraft Museum.









Uncle Ryan and Chooch on our hike up Malan's Peak overlooking Ogden.






















Our hike up Mt. Royal in Frisco the second time.

























The kids with cousins Ethan and Ellie at the Denver Childrens Museum.


























Carter and Gracen at the Great Arch the gateway home for us.

A Flashback to Easter and Spring Break

Nana and Uncle Ryan flew out to Raleigh where we met them along with Aunt Kristi and Uncle Kevin. We rented a beach house in Wilmington for the weekend. It was a gorgeous place on the intercoastal waterway side of theWrighteville Beach. It had its own personal dock which was rather convenient for using Kevin and Kristi's new sea kayak. We had a fun Easter with some great seafood dinners out. Then we all headed back home. Nana and Uncle Ryan came up to Boone for a few days before having to head back home. All in all a very relaxing week.

Discovering the Power of NO!!!!

Gracen has recently expanded her working vocabulary by a single albeit impressively powerful word. It is surprising the number of practical places she has applied it. Brother touching your favorite baby stroller??? NO!!!! Gets moms and dads attention and they get him to leave it alone. Pesky Daddy trying to get you to cram down one more good for you bite of veggies??? No No No!!! gets Mom's attention and she gets Dad to leave you alone. Of course there are times when it doesn't work but the times when it does are so much more memorable and do a wonderful job of reinforcing the use of the new word. Being at a primarily single word vocabulary does have some limitations. Like when you want to do something. But then Mom and Dad are pretty good at interpretting the subtleties of the less than emphatic no, or maybe we just force the issue for good measure from time to time. The NO is not to be outdown with the other latest discovery of the ability to produce an ear piercing scream from deep down in the diaphragm. I think this discovery came initially from a squeal of delight that got her to experiment with her capabilities. No she can punctuate her NO with shrieks determined to get Mom or Dad's attention. Ah the learning curve of toddlers :)

January Milestones...

Yes Gracen is growing up right before our eyes. She now stands regularly and decided finally this weekend to start putting together steps. See links below. She has also started spoon feeding herself yogurt after Amy gave her the starter spoon. She is so proud of herself when she dips that in and brings it to her mouth. I think she thinks she's just like the rest of us.

Carter is tearing it up on his new bike at the Greenway. His confidence grows with each ride and it is almost impossible to keep up with him just walking anymore. We had a nice mild week of weather but now we're dropping back into the basement of winter again. I guess the bike will have to wait for a while. Otherwise we're just having fun in Boone.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SyBJVwEVVUA (Gracen Feeding herself)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2cALxGPAT5I (Gracen Walking)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AHZcurkRPKs (Carter on the bike)

Christmas and New Year

Christmas Day and the day after were spent in Kingsport. The rest of the clan came in on the afternoon of the 26th just in time for a nice dinner and another round of presents for the kids. After a day back at home to regroup and repack, we headed up to Russ's Dad's on Friday. Carter hung out with Papa at work, unloaded a truck with a fork lift, and then proceeded to milk his Papa for McD's dinner, chocolate milk, cupcakes, and colored marshmallows from the grocery store. Papa loved it. Saturday Kristi and the other hero in Carter's life, Kevin drove up from Raleigh. We had a birthday present swap for all of the December baby's Connie, Kevin, and Carter and then of course our Christmas present swap. We spent a cold rainy Sunday after Church shopping. Then Monday we had a nice hike to the Cascades waterfall before coming back for the eating festivities. Later we got out Kristi and Kevin's WII game system and played that most of the evening. New Years Day we headed out late morning trying to beat the snow storm forcast for Boone which we successfully did.


http://picasaweb.google.com/hiattra/Christmas