Back With A Vengeance

It's been a long time since our last entry...over a week, Blogger is reminding us. The reason? We ended up unexpectedly spending last week in North Carolina, after Eli's great-grandma Smith passed away. We bought tickets, packed, and flew out from Colorado in under 12 hours, so it's amazing that we remembered anything essential. As it turns out, we remembered everything we needed, with one exception: the camera cord. So our camera had accumulated 445 photos on it by the time the wheels on the plane touched down in Colorado late (late) (LATE) last night. And you all know what that means...it's time for an epic make-up entry.

Last Friday evening, before we flew to NC, we went for a family walk. The weather was chilly but nice, and Eli was glad to get out of the house and run free.
Even hyper toddlers need rides sometimes.
Our new game is to spin Eli around while he's on our shoulders. He loves this. This is the result.
Eli decided to make a foray down into a ditch to get a closer look at the grass. And rocks. He loves rocks. Lately, he likes to taste each of them, just to see if it's any good. We have to tell him every time....rocks are yucky. And every new rock, he tries anyway, just to make sure.
Sunday morning at 3:45 (which was really 2:45, given the time change), we woke up and headed for the airport and our 6:00 flight. Here, Eli shows off his snack. On the way to NC, we miraculously got Eli seats on both flights without paying for them. That's pretty much the holy grail of flying with a toddler. But it seems that we used up all our toddler travel karma, because the trip back was less miraculous. But more on that later.

In Atlanta, Eli watched the planes go by with his trusty blue plane.
This is the first time Eli had been to NC when he was able to walk, and he took full advantage. We spent lots of time at this little playground at Christmount, the retreat center where Eli's gram lives.

The first morning we were there, he got decked out in his dinosaur pjs and his bug hat and his hiking shoes and some kind of tupperware bucket, and we set out for our playground adventures.

This slide was perfect for Eli...not too steep, and easily climbed.
The park has a yellow Jeep that Eli liked to pretend to drive.
Maybe I should paint the seats in MY yellow Jeep blue?
Hiking in your pjs. What more do you want?
We took this trail up a huge mountain only to find out that it was a dead end. Christmount could do with more signage.
On Tuesday, we drove to Walnut Cove for Great-Grandma Smith's funeral. It was a great day of remembering, seeing family and friends, and of course, showing off Eli. I'm very glad we decided to make the trip...I think we did Grandma Smith justice.
Eli and his mama eating southern food out on the front porch. This house used to be Eli's great-great-grandparents' house, and now belongs to loyal blog reader Aunt Allie. See that chocolate cake on the plate? That's ALL Eli was interested in eating.
The aforementioned Aunt Allie, taking Eli on a quest to find horses in the pasture.
Eli and his cousin (are they second cousins? I always forget how to count such things....) had a good time playing together. Murdoch is just over a year old.
We love this shot of Eli. Even though his head is out of the picture, it captures his skip-walk perfectly.
Walking around in the yard.
Murdoch is smaller and tippier, but somehow always ended up with the stuff. Here, he has commandeered the ball. Sneaky. Eli looks pretty offended.
Being sweet.
Murdoch had his eye on Eli's milk. His parents tried to give him water, but he wasn't having it.
And Murdoch eventually prevailed.
Here's Eli getting that vaguely dazed look he gets when he's starting to wear out. We had a great day in Walnut Cove, and then headed back up the mountain.
The next day was the last warm day, so we took Eli down to the creek. It wasn't nearly warm enough to wade yet, but Eli still was fascinated by all the rocks in there. It's like a buffet.
Running across the playground.
Finding the yellow Jeep, of course.
There's one of those shoe-cleaner things, in the shape of a porcupine or something, by Eli's gram's door. He's petting it.


Eli and mama in a rare still moment.Somehow he ended up on this stump. He was kind of funny about it. He just stood there, stuck.
Are you guys seriously not going to get me down?

Peace baby.
Probably eating a rock.

There's that faraway, naptime-is-approaching look.
Here, dad was pretending to drop Eli from his shoulders onto the ground.
Friday morning, we went to the Early Girl Eatery in Asheville for a good, hippiefied, southern breakfast. We pretty much ordered one of everything. They had cool toys for Eli to play with.
Making a sweet face for the camera. And wonder of all wonders--he actually ate some eggs.
This was one of the last pictures we took, on the flight from Asheville to Atlanta. That flight, which was delayed about two hours, turned out to be easily the best part of the day.
As you can see, there was no miraculous free seat for Eli this time. He rode, squirmily, on our laps to Atlanta. In Atlanta, we got stuck for about another 4 hours, ended up catching a flight out on standby, and got into Denver at about midnight. Eli slept the whole way in Jessa's arms, and today she can barely move, she's so sore. But we made it!Next time, hopefully our travel karma will be good again.

It was good to see everyone in NC, and it's good to be back home. If you've made it this far, you're a loyal reader! We'll try not to go another week between posts.