First Fire of the Season

After a hectic week of visiting and travel, we returned home today to weather cool enough for the first fire. I had one large log, which was just enough to split for a good long fire. Nice.

Labor Day Fireworks

Jami covered most of the weekend in pictures, so here's a video of the highlights from Knoxville's Boomsday. Enjoy!

Sunday in the Smokies

We enjoyed a nice picnic and a short hike in the mountains...

Garden Update/Jami's Request

It's Broccoli!

And Tomatoes!

And, per Jami's request, more photos from the weekend in Athens (see her blog for details).

Joy, Rapture!

The first blooms on the tomato plants. We can almost taste 'em already!

The expanded garden, l-r: tomatoes, tomatoes, tomatoes, cucumbers, broccoli, zucchini, jalapenos and room for okra.

Abbott on the Move

We had a great Mother's Day weekend with almost all the kids visiting; only Ryan was missing (and was missed). We were thankful for Jami and Jack's safety after the hit and run (see Jami's blog), and enjoyed a little rain, a little sun and a lot of fun. Of course Jack's going as fast as can be, but we'll devote this video to Abbott, who has been getting his feet under him for a few weeks now. He started out the weekend with some tentative steps, but by Sunday, was cruising pretty good trying to keep up with Jack. Here's some progress...

Nashville Weekend

A nice visit with Kelly, Abbott and briefly, Ryan. We went to Centennial Park for Earth Day festivities Saturday, then stayed inside and visited during the rainy Sunday. K & R prepared a delicious lunch of roast beef, spinach and sun-dried tomato risotto and roasted zucchini and Abbott entertained:

If there's music, this boy's dancin'!

A little horesback riding makes for a good laugh...

We discovered Brenda's sideline business:

And he's just cute, that's all there is to it...

more, please...

Dogwood Winter

Ketchup!

We've been spending way too much time on Facebook, and not nearly enough time blogging, so we have some ketchuping to do. So how about a few videos?

First, here's Abbott sadly/happily enjoying what few toys he has. This was before his birthday, where Christmas arrived again, except Santa's entire bag was just for him.

He's almost ready to take off and run, and when he does, look out, Kel & Ryan!

And here's Jack helping me plant grass. This is one of his favorite things to do; it keeps him busy all day.

Peek-A-Boo!

Jack entertains Abbott...