A Grand Weekend

Over the course of Friday through Sunday, we saw all the grandchildren.

We started Friday with a midday visit to Nate & Beth & Parker Rose.

Saturday, we attended Finnley's soccer game with Gabe & Becky & Reese.

Sunday morning, we drove to Athens and visited with BenAnnaMax.

At the cabin with Stan and Cathy

We went to Morganton, GA Saturday to spend the day and night with our friends Stan Kreimer and Cathy Clements, as we have done for the past three years. We were joined this year by Harry Housen and Mary Jim Evans, friends of Stan and Cathy and now of us, as well. After the traditional stop at Mercier's Orchard, we headed up to the cabin, "up" being the operative word for the last mile or so of the drive, culminating in a very steep climb to the ridgeline where the cabin is located. We sat around watching Georgia have its way with Vanderbilt, punctuating the game with a brisk walk at half-time. After working our way through a host of junk foods, we enjoyed a dinner of chili and talk, and talk, and talk. We hung around Sunday morning talking some more and enjoying the view, hiked a while, then finished the visit with more chili. Here are a few pictures.

Early light.

Stan

Cathy

The view in front of the house.

Mike, Ron, Mary Jim, Harry, Cathy, Stan

Another view from the ridgeline

iPhone video of Reese

Photographing pottery

I used a photo-cube to take these pictures of some pottery I have made.  The color is a little off, but the pieces are shown without anything to distract from them.

No, it's not spousal abuse, honest.

And I didn't run into a door, either.  But I had a little oral surgery Friday afternoon that showed up as a small bruise Saturday afternoon and a somewhat larger one this morning.

Finnley and Reese at Fernbank

We picked up Finnley and Reese Saturday morning and headed to Fernbank Museum for an outing.  We all had a great time and stayed longer than we thought the kids would last -- they were troopers throughout.

Finnley and a friend in front of the museum.

Finnley and MeMike experiment with mixing the colors of shadows.

Finnley enjoyed the many hands-on science exhibits.

Reese liked the hands-on part, too.

Who is contemplating whom?

Enjoying the mirrored doors on one of many elevator rides.

It's clear that Reese is signing, "More," but more what is not so clear.

Reese in model mode.

Back at our house, Finnley continued the science theme.

Reese continued to pose.

Norcross Art Fest

We picked up Finnley and Reese for a trip to the park.  As it happened, the Norcross Art Fest was under way at Thrasher Park.

Finnley gathered his courage for a photo op with Clifford the Big Red Dog.

Mike and Finnley took a ride on a small train.

Finnley got hungry and we stopped for a corndog.

Reese watched the corndog for a while, then admired the sand bottle Finnley made for his mother.

Back to the playground, Finnley found one slide to be a hair-raising experience.

And Reese's big eyes took it all in.

Then we came back to our house for just a few minutes for Finnley to work with clay.

Ardrian's birthday party

After soccer and some more cooking, we headed to Lawrenceville for Adrian's second birthday party.  The birthday boy was in fine fettle

and so was Max.

With a fresh haircut from his mother, Adrian was handsome as ever.

Max had a great time with both his parents.

Adrian's Thomas the Train cake was a hit with him and his parents.