Life with Toddlers

Not much explanation needed here. Sometimes there's glee, sometimes there's pouting.

More Trains

The other thing that they have at the railroad museum is a model train area. Jack was absolutely enthralled, and he made several laps around it chasing Thomas the Tank engine! All of the other little boys were similarly engaged. Needless to say, he was pretty tuckered out for the car ride home.

Lily didn't really care too much for the model trains, but she did like to roam around. She even managed to find the one muddy spot.

Train Ride

Cindy had a great idea, and so we took the kids to the New Hope Valley Railway. It was perfect weather. First we got to see the steam engine getting re-fueled, played a little on the caboose, then we boarded the open cars. We expected to have to sit on Jack to get him to stay in the car, and he was true to form in the station. But when the train started moving, he got really serious and sat very still, primarily in Mama's lap. Lily just loved the soothing motion of the train and almost went to sleep.

Here's some links to some videos of the train:

Video 1
Video 2
Video 3
Video 4
Video 5

Messy, sleepy pirates (from GA)

Miscellaneous pics of the crew whilst we were in GA.

At the Grocery store in GA

Yes, I know these are not in chronological order. That's sort of how our life is these days...out of order.

When Cindy first moved into the apartement

Long story short: we made a calculated decision to have Paul go off to Tennessee to earn some money right after we moved. When the apartment wasn't ready on time, the move was delayed, and Paul wasn't there to help. Cindy was stuck with 2 babies, 2 dogs, and 5 cats to manage while the movers packed the apartment absolutely full. I mean full. A million thanks to Adrian, Wilma, Jane, and Bill for helping us out so that we could make some sort of paths through the mess.

Some of these are sort of blurry. I assume that's from Cindy being so worn out from the move! That's Mom's bed on the couch behind Lily.

Tyner Family Reunion

Images from the Apartment

Jack just loves to feed the geese. He often talks in his sleep, and we hear him say "Feed the geese!" many times over. Lily knows about 6 words, and one of them is "Geee!"

We love to take walks and see the pond with the birds. (Avoiding the goose poop is another story...) One time, the geese met us on the path rather than in the water. This was highly scary to the Jack (the geese are almost as tall as him). The geese are also aggressive in their panhandling. Jack stood up in the wagon and was somewhat calmer, but unbeknownst to him, a goose snuck around behind and stole the entire piece of bread he was holding! Jack got slightly nipped in the process and was wailing at the top of his voice! He still tells the geese "No bite Jack Rabbit!"

Most of the birds are Canadian Geese. The redfaced ones are Muscovy Ducks. They aren't native, but "feral colonies exist near parks or other bodies of water in almost every state." There is one other goose that hangs out with the flock that I can't identify. It sort of looks like the Greater White Fronted Goose, but not quite. Also the range for the GWFG is wrong.

Two Muscovy ducks, one white duck and one Canada goose who has an injured wing are sort of permanent residents here. I call it the rest home for waterfowl. One goose has no right foot, but it seems to get along ok. We actually saw the white duck chasing other geese away from the one footed goose, almost like the duck was protecting the larger goose! The other geese didn't mess with the duck!

Lily and Kin - May 2008

Jack and Cousins - May 2008