Mama likes it when Eli helps out in the garden. He's a great gardener when he remembers not to eat the woodchips.

Most of all, though, we LOVE to visit Grandaddy and all of our friends in Pilot Mountain. Eli wants to send a special shout-out to his new buddy Landon who brought Eli a whole bunch of cool toys and books. Now there are lots of fun toys at Grandaddy's house. Thanks Landon!

The parish picnic!


Hanging out with Beth and Daddy.

Summer is a fun time around here. Here are some pictures of the fun things Eli gets to do.

The zoo!
The baby panda, Mei Lan is only a few days older than Eli. She's a good bit bigger, though.

Yesterday was a great day starting with the zoo, then errands around town (the craft store, hooray!) and ending with a trip to the "beach" in Decatur Square where they blocked of several roads in the middle of town and dumped a bunch of sand for us to play in. There was live music and games and... did I mention sand? This was Eli's first encounter with the gritty stuff and I have to admit, I was a little worred, especially since we are going to the beach in a few weeks. A beach trip sans sand sounds pretty miserable. He, of course, loved it. He loved it on his toes, he loved it on his hands. He loved chewing on a shovel. He even decided it didn't taste too bad.

Thanks to Erin Miller for this great picture.

Look out you carnivores, this is not for the faint of heart...
ELI LOVES TOFU!!

The best part of the whole weekend, though, was Monday afternoon when Eli went swimming for the first time at Grumpy and Grandmere's. The pool was nice and warm and the weather was perfect!
We didn't know what to expect for his first time in the pool, but we should have known... he loved it. He's like a little duck in his floatie, even trying to kick and splash. We floated around and splashed and played for nearly an hour before cooking up some (veggie) burgers and having dinner. Looks like we know where we'll be spending most of our summer afternoons!

On Sunday we went to play at the Millers' house. We were having so much fun we didn't get the camera out. Eli played with Baikal in her water play table and he ate some dirt. A good day all around. Since Memorial Day is the official start of the summer, Daddy and Eli celebrated by donning their Hawaiian shirts and fishin' hats.

Last weekend was really fun! We did all sorts of new and fun things. I will say, after 8 1/2 months, you'd think we'd be better at taking pitcures of things OTHER than just Eli, like other people, the scenery, whatever. Sadly (or not!), you just get shots of the stinker.
We went to see our friends Maurice and Vicky get married on Saturday. Maurice and Vicki helped us build our screened porch a few years ago, so they have a special place in our hearts-- We LOVE the screened porch!
Eli got all dressed up in his baby formals: "Thank Heaven for Little Boys" in blue linen with a starched white collar. He looked a little prissy but altogether cute, of course!