Gabriel took his mommy to Kennesaw Mountain today. We took the bus to the upper parking lot, and Gabriel climbed all the way to the summit from there. He ate lunch, and then we started back down to the parking lot, where we caught the bus back down. [That's the city of Atlanta at the horizon behind us, by the way.] We had a great time!
Gabriel seems to be attached at the hip to his mommy. Here's evidence. Today's other photo is of the ring we made from the amethyst Chip got at the pumpkin patch:
Yesterday, Gabriel had a fun, full day. We started by driving Daddy to work and coming home for a nap. We got up to join some of the other moms and babies - about 10 moms and 12 kids - from MOMS Club at Sweetwater Pumpkin Patch, took Daddy for his haircut, went home for another nap (Mommy too!), picked Daddy up from work, and went to the Atlanta Botanical Garden to see the scarecrows.
They had a great program set up for us at the pumpkin patch. The kids stuffed a scarecrow (while Gabriel and a girl his age played on a baby-sized playset), then we all went for a hayride to the pumpkin patch. When we got there, Gabriel got to pick out a little pumpkin. After he made his choice, he wandered off for a minute and came back with his pants around his ankles - he's very good at wriggling out of his overalls. Everyone thought it was hilarious, and a bunch of people took pictures. We walked over to see the goats, pigs, and rabbit. Gabriel fed the goats and laughed when they licked his hand. After we fed the animals, we walked back and played ball until it was our turn to mine for gemstones. We found an amethyst, a Mexican lace agate, and a crazy lace agate. Finally, we went for a hike. On the hike, we saw beaver dams, beaver slides, and tree damage from beavers. As we neared a bend, Gabriel pointed and there was a teepee. Chief Pumskin left a note that we was out hunting and that he left us arrowheads, so Gabriel got to bring home an arrowhead, along with his pumpkin and gemstones. It was lots of fun.
At the Botanical Garden, we had a lot of fun, because there was a great bluegrass band (with some PG-13 lyrics), and a lot of really neat scarecrows, including one from one of our favorite Georgian artists, Howard Finster, apparantly the day before he died.
An aside: up until about 2 1/2 minutes ago, we thought that Finster was an odd choice for us to be such big fans. We'd only ever seen a small exhibition (recently expanded) at the High Museum and one original piece that Patty tried unsuccessfully to buy at a thrift shop. As we Googled his name, we found that Michael Stipe and David Byrne, two of the musicians we admire most, are also big fans. We're not sure how David Byrne found out about him, but Michael Stipe's a Georgian, so that's not too surprising. Anyway, this guy is fascinating (and reminds Patty of her great-grandpa). Check out his home page.
All of the pictures from our super happy fun day can be found here.
After work, we took Chip to Ben Hill Strickland Park. These two photos were taken as he crawled through a tube. He enjoyed the slide for the first time - previously, he hasn't enjoyed slides too much. Although there was some graffiti there, as you can see in the photos, it is a very nice park that has two playgrounds and a lake with walking paths around it.
During dinner, he signed for more food. We've been trying to teach him this one for about 8 months now, so it's good that he's finally using it. It's his first really useful sign, but he also has signs for dog (any animal, actually), trees, and airplanes. Mostly, he just points. :-)
We finally checked out the Silver Comet Trail today. We parked at the Florence Road trailhead and went as far to the west as Paulding County - over 2.5 miles round-trip (it's possible we walked some of it). In the photo above, we are standing near the first foot of trail, which was completed on 9 July 1998.
It was a great jog, and the weather was perfect for it. Today was the first day that it was cool enough, and we almost had to bundle up! It seems that Georgia has missed the in-between weather. It went from the 80s to the 60s literally overnight. Anyway, the weather was comfortable enough for Gabriel, who fell asleep - when else? - in the last couple minutes of the jog.
Since Chip was asleep, we took the opportunity to sit on a bench and enjoy the fresh fall air. When he woke up, we went to Moe's, Starbucks, and Home Depot and didn't get home until a few hours later.
