Happy 4th and Goodbye to Kelty

On Independence Day the jauberry gang decided to celebrate our independence from those tea drinking, fish n chips loving British (man! I love tea and fish n chips, maybe they were not so bad.....hmmmmm) by taking a hike to Hidden Falls in GTNP. We brought our trusty Kelty child carrier/backpack, not knowing this would be our last adventure together, but more about that later. Oscar loves the outdoors and he also loves to collect things such as sticks and rocks. When I let him down, while Chris went to get the camera, Oscar was very happy to see that the park has an abundant amount of rocks and sticks just begging to be collected. After Chris came back and we convinced Oscar to choose two rocks to take on the journey, we were off again to Hidden Falls. Three miles later, about 1/10 of a mile from the falls, we stopped and had a snack of grapes, banana, tomatoes, cheerios, and honey grahams, what a feast! I would not have been surprised if Chris had pushed me into the falls since I was told last hike he did not want to eat "rabbit food" and wanted me to pack chocolate cookies for him on hiking trips. Thank goodness he found some double chocolate brownie "health bar" in his backpack. After snack time, we made it to Hidden Falls where Oscar was mesmerized by the falls, and then booked it down the mountain so we could get home in time for dinner. What a great day, also I am just noticing that my son was wearing festive colors accidentally, good job Oscar!

On a sad note, this was to be the last trip with our trusted Kelty child carrier as we traded her in for a better, newer model for free. You were a great pack and we will always think of you fondly and your early nineties colors! Bye Kelty! Hello Sherpani!

Outside! Outside! Outside!

Saying Oscar loves being outside would be not even be touching the surface of this summer's obsession with outdoors, and let's not even talk about swinging at the park. On a recent trip to Mike Yokel Park, by our house, we pushed him on the swings for a solid half hour at least and he threw a fit when we dared to let another kid have a turn. He plays all day outside at school and then at home, luckily he will still come inside for one thing......... food.

Lawn Mowing with Daddy

Like so many parents, Chris and I wanted to have children so eventually we would not have to do chores around the house like dishes, vacuuming, cleaning toilets, and mowing the lawn. It is never too early for your children to start "earning their keep" so we have Oscar training to mow the lawn with a Color Roller Tara' bought him on our recent Louisiana trip. We are hoping that by the time he is 2 or 3 he will have had extensive "color rolling" training and will be able to mow the lawn all by himself while Chris and I supervise from the comfort of our decks.