Snappy

 On the way down the stairs in the morning, I spotted our neighbor's kids in our driveway.  I didn't think too much of it at first, but they were all staring at the ground which was odd.  I looked closer and there was a giant turtle on the driveway.

We all went out to take a look at the visitor.  The kids named him Snappy the turtle, because he would snap anytime someone got too close or touched him.  He looked pretty fierce with those sharp claws.

We were obviously making Snappy nervous, because he had an accident on the driveway, thus the big wet spot.  That caused a chorus of 'EWWWWW, GROSSS' from all the kids.

We eventually went in to eat breakfast, and when we came back out, Snappy was on the move!  Surprisingly, he didn't move super slow as we had expected!  It seems that he lives (or lived) in the landscaping in the front of our house.

Snappy thought he had hidden himself in the greenery of our day lillies, but these detectives tracked him down.  They took turns putting day lilly leaves in front of him to get him to snap at it.

We had to run a few errands, and when we got home, Snappy was nowhere to be found!  We sent out search parties, but he hasn't been located yet!

Super Saturday

We were up bright and early because Linda and Leland wanted to get an early start on their drive home, so we decided to check out the farmer's market.  The boys' favorite treats at the farmer's market are honey sticks for both boys, and Karsten loves Kombucha.

We made a quick stop in our favorite olive oil store to get a few oils and vinegars to use for salads this summer.  Delish - can't wait to have persian lime olive oil with pomegranete vinegar!  As you can imagine, an olive oil and vinegar store has a lot of breakable bottles that are super appealing for little boys to touch.  So, this is the perfect store for the boys to get to watch a short video.

After a morning at the farmer's market and a week with Grandma and Papa, Liam was worn out and fell asleep on the way home!

Scott's getting really good at smoking pig booty (our kid friendly way of saying pork butt) and ribs, but he was up for a new challenge.  While we were at Coscto, he spied a whole salmon and we decided to give it a try.  After marinating in a brine for a few hours, it smoked for a little over an hour and it was amazing!

We also tackled a project today - a fire pit for the backyard.  We have this muddy area that can't grow grass because of all the shade from the trees, so we had this brainstorm.

He's getting so good at giving good smiles when I ask - let's hope we have good smiles when we have family pictures soon!

Liam was a good helper for Scott, he was very interested in all of the steps Scott was taking before he started laying the bricks!

As excited as they were to help, the boys lost interest in the project after a while. They kept a close eye on Scott while they were hunting for worms or playing.

 
Oh my, standing on that tower of rocks was not a good idea for Karsten!  I may have asked him quickly to get down!

The boys put all of their worms and rolly pollys on the bottom shelf of this little bench.  We tried to convince them the worms should go in the garden, but no luck, they couldn't be convinced.

I can't stop taking photos of him now that these smiles are so easy to get!

The boys were thrilled to collect sticks and check out the completed fire pit!

The last step is to to make a surface surrounding the fire pit using flat rocks.  This part became more complicated when the boys discovered lots of rolly pollys under the rocks and wanted to rescue all of them.

I'm not sure how many of those rolly pollys were 'rescued' by being crammed into Liam's tiny hand.  He was so diligent about gathering up the rolly pollys and grasping them tightly in his hand to 'keep them safe'.  It was pretty cute!

We ended the day with smoked salmon, smoked zuchinni ribbons and rasberry white chocolate mini bundt cakes.  A delicious end to the day and a great start to the holiday weekend!

Powell Gardens

We've never visited Powell Gardens before, although I've always heard great things about how beautiful it is.  At the auction for Karsten's school, we purchased two tickets, and the long Memorial Day weekend was the perfect time to check it out and see their dinosaur exhibit! 

We got a map from the visitors center and set out to find the dinosaurs scattered throughout the gardens.

Along the way we saw so many beautiful gardens and this lake.  It was a hot day, but the breeze off the lake was perfect.  We stayed here and watched the ducks for a while.

Look - it's a Stegasaurus Liam!

Karsten was our official guide for the day - Liam thought the guide job looked like fun and wanted to give it a try. Boy, did that cause some drama.  I wish we had planned ahead and gotten TWO maps!

Further along the shore of the lake, we found another dinosaur!

The gardens were beautiful everywhere you looked!

I loved how they had flowering plants growing out of the brick walls!

There was this beautiful chapel on the park property.  As we got closer, we could see how beautiful and big the chapel was.  It would be a beautiful place for a wedding!

The path to the chapel was wooded, so we had a water break and cooled off for a few minutes.

We weren't sure if we'd be able to go inside the chapel, so when we got over there, it was a pleasant surprise to see people going in and out the doors.

Karsten was very cuious and wanted to go in as soon as we got there.

Aren't these plants beautiful?  There were several succulents around the waterfall that were beautiful!

I failed at getting a picture of the boys inside the chapel.  I need to learn how to account for all of the light behind them so they don't turn into shadows like this.

This peaceful fountain was right outside the chapel.

After a quick rest in the AC of the chapel, we were off to find the big dinosaur at the top of the hill.  The boys were excited and lead the way.

We got out family photo taken with the family of dinos.

When we were on our way to find the next dinosaur, we found an unexpected attraction - a long black snake.  If you look closely, you can see him slightly left of center in this photo.  When we asked the boys what their favorite part of the day was, it was seeing this big guy.

The wooded trail was beautiful with a little waterfall and even some statues closeby.

Karsten was seeing if he could mimic the pose of this dino.

I didn't capture the dino in this photo, but I got this cutie's sometime elusive smile.

Karsten liked to blaze the trail for us.

 We found the last dino tucked away in a wooded area.

There were so many beautiful flowers along the way, and many that were about to bloom.  I bet in another week, the visitors would see a different group of flowers than we saw.

I just love lillies - they're always beautiful!

If you look in the background, you'll see the dino we were having our photo taken with.

We were all getting hot and tired, so it was time to head back to the visitor center.

Liam was very curious about what was at the bottom of the bridge.  I was very nervous he was going to fall in!

They had fun exploring and hunting for dinos at Powell Gardens.

After a hot afternoon, what's better than ice cream to cool off.