Another Lake Season Comes to an End

This summer might mark the most times we've frequented the lake since we've lived in Dothan. If there was ever a weekend with no plans, plans were made to travel north.
It turned out to be a very eventful lake season as far as Canon is concerned. He has had many firsts in the last few months.
He skiied for the first time . . .

. . . and hated every minute of it.
He tubed for the first time, and loved it. During this ride, he fell asleep.

This was also his first summer with cousin Xan.

Finally, Canon was a part of his first illegal act - riding in a boat without a life jacket.

Hopefully there won't be too many more of those kinds of incidents, but we'll love him anyway.

Baby Drag Racing, and Other Fun Things Kids Do

It's becoming a Fall tradition that friends drop by our house early on Saturday afternoons and stay through the evening to watch as much football as possible. In years past, I would have enjoyed the games, eaten way too much (I still actually do that), talked a lot, and stayed pretty relaxed the entire day. How the times have changed! This Fall, it was all about the babies, and they loved every minute of it.
Our neighbor, Kelly, recently turned two years old, and for his birthday, he got a motorized John Deer Gator. This toy soon became the envy of every child who ever came to play on our street, and most days there is a lot of biting, hitting, yelling, and pushing to be the one who gets the driver's seat. You can imagine our amazement, then, when this particular Saturday, we got four kids not only just to sit in the Gator but also to be fairly happy about it.

Kelly and Canon are more aggressive toward one another than the others, so we were especially happy to get this photo.

And, of course, we have to have one of Canon with his first girlfriend, Ava.

As usual, we eventually had to put the Gator away just to keep the peace, but that is when the real fun started. Baby Drag Racing! I'm not exactly sure how it started because I came upon the scene long after it began. What I do know is that it kept these toddlers happily occupied for longer than any other activity we have found since.
Baby Drag Racing goes a lot like this:

Line three cars at the top of a slight hill, count backwards from three, and let them roll. Luke, being the oldest and definitely most advanced of all the babies, could do the countdown by himself with no mistakes. Canon, the next in line, had the tone right for each number, but they all sounded like "uh" or "ooh."
It was so much fun watching them roll. The adults definitely had more fun than the kids. Sometimes the cars would be set up at a slight angle, and two cars would collide. Occasionally, a child would hit the grass at the end of the sidewalk going too fast, then fall over forward on his face. Because it didn't hurt, it was hilarious! I'll just have to show you . . .

Good night!

Monkey See, Monkey Run

Our friend, Sam Dean, is very involved with a camp for children living with cancer. It's called Camp Smile-A-Mile, Camp SAM for short. (He's still hoping one day that someone will admit they named it after him!). Every February, we attend the Camp SAM Red Nose Ball to raise money for the camp and for cancer research. This year, we added to our events schedule by running in the Monkey See, Monkey Run 5K in Birmingham with several of our friends. Here is at least most of the crowd.

This is Matt and Sally Register, Sae and Leslie Evans, Sam and Alicia Dean, and JD and Laura Powell.
I was shocked when Barry agreed to make it a family event. He usually shies away from those kind of things. This time, he not only agreed to take Canon along with us, but also to push him in the stroller! He must want something . . .
This is, I think, the fourth picture ever taken of the three of us.

Barry, Canon, and I finished somewhere between 28 and 30 minutes. Sam's mom says it was about 28:30, but Barry thinks he saw some time after 29 when we crossed the finish line. Neither of us really cared, of course. I was just proud that we finished and, of course, that we helped raise money for kids with cancer. Sam would like me to include here that no matter what time we finished, it was still behind him!
After we finished, we hung out with friends . . .

. . . watched the other racers cross the finish line . . .

. . . and reloaded with some post-race carbs. This is Canon choking on the banana that I gave him. I promise that I didn't just let him choke while I found a camera and snapped the shot. I didn't even notice that I got one of him choking until I looked at them later. It makes for a pretty hilarious picture though.


When everyone finished, we went to Cracker Barrell and had the typical I'm-feeling-really-good-about-myself-for-helping-kids-and-burning-calories-so-I'm-going-to-stuff-my-face-with-extra-grease-and-carbohydrates-to-celebrate-how-great-I-am-today post-race meal. It was delicious . . . and totally deserved!