North Carolina Vacation

I'm always sad that we live so far away from Emily's family, but it's a great relief to have some family relatively close. It helps to get away from all the hustle and bustle of our daily lives. Since my parents are the closest around, we tend to see them every other month or so. It's great to have a father that taught me how to work on vehicles and homes. I have saved A LOT of money by doing things myself, rather then paying someone to do them. This trip was no exception. Emily and I just bought a Durango from my brother Dan. Since the back brakes were getting close to needing a change, we decided to do that while we visited for a few days.





As you can see, Scott was a very interested little man. He was very helpful finding the lug nuts and handing them to me.

I've noticed lately that he loves to push objects. Whenever we go for a walk around our neighborhood, he always wants to push the stroller. Since there was no stroller around at the time, he found a lawn mower that my dad fixed for a member of our church.



After changing the brakes on the Durango, everyone was a little thirsty. Since all the water bottles were about 25 feet away, we decided to go for the hose that was about 5 feet away. I think Scott thought it was more fun anyways.





Time to clean up!



And another drink of water, to ensure we don't get dehydrated.



Scott also helped Grandpa feed the birds.......and also any other critters that might be on the ground where Scott "helped" fill the bird feeder.





Since it was so hot while we visited, we changed the brakes in the garage. There was lots of brake dust and debris. Scott was more than willing to help clean up as well.




Since before we were married, Emily and I wanted to plant trees for each one of our children. It's a great idea, but since Emily and I haven't settled down yet, we had no where to plant them. My parents agreed to let us plant some trees for our kids. At first, it was really easy to dig holes.




This is one cute little boy.



This is Scott's tree. His tree is a Fuji Apple. As you can see in the second picture, Scott didn't really want to be in the picture. He just wanted his yellow ball that was just outside of the shot.





After digging a hole for the forth time, I was pretty tired. Now that Grandpa is retired he's great at directing the younger labor on how to dig a hole.



Just kidding Grandpa.



This is Kylie's tree. She got a Gala apple tree. By the time we got all the trees planted, the sun was down in her eyes, but she's still SOOOOOOOOO cute. I just want to give her so many kisses!




Emily and I found out that my parents have taken their other grandkids to a local animal farm. It stated out pretty nice, with animals I would imagine that would be at an animal farm, but then the animals started getting more wild and exotic.

Pigs

Ducks

Horses

Deer (buck)


Camel - This thing was making the CRAZIEST noises. I swore it was going to hack a huge luggie on me. The noises sounded like they were coming from a deep chasm. Echoing and swooshing around before coming up through the neck and out the mouth. NASTY BREATH too.

Buffalo - I never knew buffalo's had such long tongues. Apparently, Emily didn't either. While she was giving them some bread, they licked her hand pretty good. She thought it was pretty gross, and I think I'm going to agree with her on this one.

I tried to give Kylie a try at feeding the HUGE elk that came up to the fence. I handed her the bread and she tried to eat it herself! After some cat like reflexes, we got her to feed the elk. She wasn't very happy to share her bread with the animals.


Scott had a blast riding in the back of the Durango with Grandpa. It was nice because we could all ride in the SUV with the windows down and hatch up and take in all the views and animals.

So there was also this sweet cable bridge that crossed over this ravine. Of course that sign off to the right says no horseplay....HA! Yeah right. It was too tempting not to bounce on this bridge. To my surprise, Scott LOVED this thing. He wanted to run back and forth on this thing until we finally had to pick him up and take him back to the SUV. He thought that was ok, since he got to sit in the back with Grandpa again.
Awww, Kylie and Grandpa are so cute together.

Kylie really didn't know what to do with the goats, but we found out that the goats didn't like when you turned on that hose right there. I guess the bread wasn't worth sticking around. (No, no one sprayed them).



They also had other animals like a bear, cows, alligators, these ostrich looking things (they were mean), dogs, peacocks and other birds, turtles and more.

After we got home, we all just enjoyed the rest of the night together. It was a long, but good day.