Otter Creek

"Great" Nanny, Nana, and cousins Andrea, Kylie, Olivia, and Jake joined Emerson on a family adventure to Otter Creek. After lunch... a creek walk made for fun afternoon.

Fun at the Lake

We all enjoyed a relaxing weekend at Smith Mountain Lake.

Driving the boat was a hit. Emerson even pulled his daddy wake boarding.
Relaxing with Uncle Ralph.
One in blue - one in red.


Cousin Lincoln is such a water baby. He spend hours dumping large cups of water on himself and would then lay down in the baby pool face first.

A few more years and Emerson and Daddy Tom will be fighting over who gets to drive the sea doo.

THE END!

A trip to the Orchard

There is nothing like fresh peaches from Morris Orchard. We (Nana, "Great" Nanny, Emerson and I) enjoyed feeding the friendly goats and Donkey and watching the rabbits. Emerson was a good little farm boy. His "Great" Grandaddy would have been proud of him.

Emerson with his "Great" Nanny.

Emerson found a little friend to play with. A puppy might be on his Christmas list this year?
Ahhh - the BIG tractor.
This is much bigger than daddy's tractor.

"Tur-tle"

Emerson was fascinated when he discovered a box turtle or "tur-tle" as he pronounces it, in our driveway.

His was not interested in touching the turtle, but he was extremely determined to step on it. It is a good thing that turtles have hard shells. 

Hanging with my buddy Bryce

One afternoon Emerson's buddy Bryce and Ursula's buddy Kelly stopped by for a quick visit.

There were a few hugs...
and a quick game of soccer.
Bryce come again soon. Love, Emerson

Beach Vacation

A family vacation to the beach in July was a welcomed get-a-way. We were looking for a quiet family beach where we could stay close enough to the beach that we could manage the multiple trips to and from the beach with Emerson. We were happy to discover Topsail Island in North Carolina. We did however discuss that taking an infant to the beach like we did last year was surprisingly easier. This year was full of sand, sunscreen, juice boxes, the challenge of nap time, and did I say sand. Relaxing on the beach is a thing of the past. We also discovered that Emerson is friendly guy and enjoyed meeting lots of people on the beach and trying on their flip-flops.

The first day on the beach.




At first Emerson wasn't so sure about having sand on his hands, but that quickly changed. Once he was brave enough, he was ready to explore on his own.


He loved the water hose. That seemed to be more impressive than the ocean.

We introduced Emerson to juice boxes... of course he loved them.
Ahhhh - sleeping on the beach. This only happened twice all week. It took a lot of effort and dragging the pack-n-play out to the beach, but those couple of hours of sleeping were worth it.

Emerson enjoyed being a big boy and sitting in his chair like mama and daddy.

The ocean was fun...
and so was the baby pool (on the beach).
More juice.
Daddy and Emerson dug some holes in the sand. Emerson discovered how much fun sand can be...


and how good it taste.

I slipped in a little time for reading.
Some of Emerson's older girlfriends that he made earlier in the week, dug him a large hole in the sand. They called it his swimming pool. He helped them use the shovel and loved playing in the hole once they finished it.




It was fun watching Emerson trying to chase his shadow while dragging the shovel behind him.

Trying on daddy's hat.
After a long day on the beach - it was bath time.
On our last day we enjoyed the evening on the beach with Emerson.

A little girl let Emerson try to fly her kite. It wasn't very successful.


It was a great week!