Sweet Berry Farms 2009

I skipped out early from my photography course today to take some photos of something I love more than downtown Austin. ;) (We were learning about architectural photography and we were sent out on a scavenger hunt. I figured I would scavenge something I enjoy more than buildings.) It seems like forever since we've had a relaxing Saturday with nothing to do. It was so fun and last minute we decided to go pick the berries after hearing they were at their peak. Peak, indeed, it was a lot of fun and the berries were amazing. Rob's parents were even able to join us. It was a great Saturday for the Smith's!

We started the adventure with some painting. Suzy opted to paint her hands, rather than her face. She appropriately chose strawberries. It was a lot of fun.
I tried to get a fun shot of her holding her hand out towards me. No such luck. She is, after all, three years old.
Next, it was off to the berry patches.
A little advertising. ;) We love this place.

Suzy and Pawpop were excellent berry pickers.

We filled our basket with super yummy berries.

Grammy entertained Andy with some O's while the rest of us picked the berries.

After the basket was full, Suzy and Pawpop went off to feed the goats. Such a highlight for the wee ones. See you in the fall, Mr. Goat.
The highlight for Pawpop was the home made strawberry ice cream.
Yum!

Wish you could have been there!

Oh, and for my photo assignment, I was supposed to shoot something red.... This sure beats a stop sign in my book!

I 70 Blue Bonnets

As I have promised my very tolerant husband, here are the last of the blue bonnet pictures. He actually drove an hour out of our way home from camping for me to have the chance at this patch. We didn't even really know where it was. Only that Noel had said it was a good patch "on I-70". Oh, he loves me so. The patch did not disappoint. Thanks again, Noel.


It was truly an amazing patch that I'm sure we will be visiting again next year.
This is one of my favorite photos. On first look, it appears that Suzy is whacking Andy in the face. However, the truth is vastly different. I was trying to get Andy to smile, so I was peek-a-booing him with the camera. Suzy was trying to be helpful and join in the game. She would close her own eyes, and cover his eyes with her hand. Then yell, "Peek-a-boo!" and remover her hand and open her eyes. It was cute.


Suzy is more interested in running around the flowers at this age, then sitting in them. Luckily, she weighs hardly anything and thus doesn't disturb the flowers too much.



Andy's first year in the Blue Bonnets. Such a sweet little guy.


Whereas Suzy would rather run in the Blue Bonnets, Andy just wants to eat them. Typical.

Camping at Lost Pines

Last weekend, we loaded up the kids and headed to a campground with some friends from church. It was supposed to be a big group. But, with the cold weather and burn ban on campfires, it ended up being just three families. It was nice, however, to get to know the other two families a little better and we had a great time. I'm not sure we will be doing it again extremely soon, but I'm glad we did it this time!

Our campsite.

Suzy took naps in the tent. But we were wimps. We rented an R.... V... for the cold and attempt to keep sanity with a three year old and eight month old who wants to crawl around and put EVERYTHING in his mouth.
It was comfy.
The park was really pretty.
Suzy got in LOTS of Daddy time. It was really great.



She liked reading stories in the tent.




Rob's dad came out and joined us for the afternoon on Saturday. It was a lot of fun and I enjoyed a hike where the men carried the babies!
Pete's mom loved dogwoods. So, we took this photo in honor of her.


We saw a lot of beautiful wildflowers on our hike.







Suzy loves to give me flowers. Such a sweet little girl.

Some sobering statistics

So, I have a nice little, sporty convertible EOS. I love my car. It's my "I can't have another baby so I will have a fun car - car." I think I got viably pregnant within a month of owning this beautiful car. ;) Well, now that Andy is so big, it is physically impossible to get him in and out of this vehicle. So, I'm driving our old "beater car". The "Exploder". It's actually not a bad car and I don't mind it at all. But, it drives Rob nuts that his children are riding around in a not so reliable vehicle on a daily basis. So, minivan shopping we have been....

Then, it occured to me that Andy will be forward facing soon anyhow so why worry about a new car at this point? Seriously, he's over 20 lbs at this point. He's also more stable than many one year olds. I could probably turn him around as early as next month. We didn't even HAVE car seats when I was his age. I was on the floorboard of the car and slept to the hum of the road beneath. I can remember being stacked two and even three high in the back of my step-mom's Trans Am. Ah, the days...

But, something told me to just check around and find out where "they" came up with that recommendation of one year and 20 lbs....

Here's what I found. (http://babyproducts.about.com/od/carseats/qt/rear_facing.htm)

If you watch the video clips at the bottom, it's pretty freaky how much safer that rear-facing really is. So, I guess for the next few months, you will see me either in that old Exploder, or a new van.....

It's just so unlike me to follow the rules so closely.... ;) But, he's my baby...