Aldridge Gardens - August 20th

Lane, Gigi, Papa Rock and I decided to go out to Aldridge gardens one day for lunch. We had a picnic then fed the ducks and turtles. I knew Lane would love that part, but I did not realize how much he would enjoy everything else - especially the statues! As we walked past the first statue, Lane began to scream and point. So, I let him out of the stroller and he ran over to the turtle and bunny! He was amazed! He had never seen anything like those statues before.

Hi turtle!

It's a bunny rabbit!

It's not everyday you get to ride a bunny!

It looks like he is crying, but he was really squealing with excitement!

Checking out the little waterfall.

Piggy-back ride through the lake trail.

McWane Center - Aug 14th

Once the "summer" was over and I was no longer watching sweet Jackson and Carson, Lane and I decided to do EVERYTHING in Birmingham. For over a week we left the house everyday. Our first day by ourselves we went to the McWane Center with Gigi and Papa Rock. The McWane center is an awesome hands-on museum and was much bigger than I realized! The main floor was mostly for bigger kids, but there was one area for his age. Some of his favorite parts of this area was the submarine, sandbox, water table, and an area he could climb up tunnels to different landings (kind-of like a big McDonald's playground).

Driving the submarine.

The McWane Center had two water tables. Lane preferred the much smaller table. Here are two pictures of him splashing! He started out fairly calm...

Then he went nuts! This particular table had a piece of glass separating the two sides. I had to move to the opposite side to take some pictures...He had a blast!

The top floor was perfect for Lane's age. This floor was the "Itty Bitty Magic City." It had huge foam blocks, a dress up areas, putt-putt golf, a coal mine, a grocery store, and all sorts of trucks and cars to climb. It was awesome! You can see foam blocks in the picture. Lane loved crawling through the tunnels and over the cubes!

Driving is serious business.

Playing with Gigi in the delivery truck.

The bottom floor has a tiny but fantastic aquarium. Lane loved seeing all the fish and the huge eel! Seriously, look at that eel! It was a beast!

A summer with 3 little boys!

This summer I kept to little boys Jackson (4 years old) and Carson (almost 2) , as well as, Lane obviously. They had such a great time playing together.

Jackson

Carson

Silly little bucket heads! The big boys had such a great time playing with the buckets. Lane enjoyed that they were distracted, which allowed him to steal a sippy cup without being detected!


Lane loved sitting at their big boy table to eat snack! He would get so excited when I let him sit here instead of the highchair. He also liked to climb on top of the table whenever I turned my head for a second!
As I mention, he is a fantastic climber! Here he has climbed up to see if he can eat the rest of Jackson and Carson's lunch. He really wanted their sandwiches.

Before Lane, I would never have noticed windowsills. These, however, are great windows. They are a perfect spot to sit and play peek-a-boo! It also doubles as a road or parking garage.

Before this summer, Lane really did not have many toy cars or trucks. He fell in love with all of Jackson and Carson's. Here he is driving the bus under the table.

Intense. Touch my bus and I will take you down. ;D

Lane discovered a slinky!

One of our last fun outings of the summer was a trip to the zoo. I forgot to take pictures while we were at the zoo, but here is an after shot. I would call it a successful zoo trip! Sweet babies!!


Ok, I won't lie. I just about cried when I realized that my BABY was big enough to play outside in the cul-de-sac with the big boys. It just seemed way to soon for him to be out pushing toys around. He even fell and got his first skinned knee and hand. He did not cry at all! He just growled at the push toy like it was its fault he fell down! Crazy boy!

Dance!

4th of July week

We had a great 4th of July week. We were able to see fireworks several times. The first opportunity was on July 1st at our church. Every year, on the Wed before the 4th our church celebrates with an amazing worship service followed by a fireworks show. Highlands goes all out. Chris and I enjoy this show more than the city's fireworks. I forgot my real camera that night, so I took this pic with my phone. Lane loved the fireworks. He would bounce on his knees and clap!

Later that week, we cooked out with my parents for my birthday. After dinner we went out Chelsea for another great fireworks show. Here are a couple pics of Lane waiting for the show to start.

Piggy Back ride with Papa Rock

Playing with Daddy.

Finally, here are a couple of pictures of Lane enjoying the fireworks show.
He started the show sprawled out on the blanket. He is so stinking adorable!

Family Beach Trip - day three and four

On the last day at the beach, I realized that I had not taken many pictures of Lane on the beach playing. That was my goal! So, here are some of my favorites. Since Lane enjoyed his kiddie pool on the first beach trip, we brought it along this time. He did enjoy it, but he did not stay in it nearly as much as he did with Gigi and Papa Rock around.

He spend a good portion of the day out in the ocean! He loved it! He would have preferred that we put him down. :)

Cooling off with a bottle of water.

Playing in the sand!

stomping on the waves!

Superbaby!!

He loved sitting in the ocean and splashing.

We discovered Lane Loves long walk by the beach..or long wagon rides by the beach. ;)

Daddy got a great workout too!

The next morning, we got packed up and out of the condo. Then we headed out to the outlet malls. After a couple of hours of shopping we headed home. This was a beautiful sunset on our way home! It was such a wonderful, relaxing trip! We can't wait to go back again!!

Family Beach Trip - day two

This is the beautiful view we woke up to. :-)

Lane playing before we headed down to the beach.

Lane LOVES the pool. The pool at the condo had a beach entrance so he could crawl around and splash in the shallow water.

He also loved swimming. If we held him under his tummy, he moved his arms and legs like he was swimming. He would even try to push our hands off him. He was ready to swim all by himself!!



That night we went to dinner at The Backporch. It was great. They have a playground on the beach which helped pass the time as we waited for our table.

Peek-a-boo!


Here's a close up. What a sweet boy!

Look at those eyes!

After a while of playing on the playground, we decided to go have a mini-photo shoot by the water.

sprawling out in the sand


sweet grin