Cole's Story Hour

Missed Moments: Boys will be boys

Little Boy Fun

Big Boy Fun

Missed Moments: Summer Evenings

Our first summer in this house was busy in spending our time between work, helping Oma, and trying to make our new house a home.
Cole made sure we made some time for fun as much as was possible. One of his favorites over the summer was helping to water the few plants we had around. I hope that he will carry his 'helpful' spirit with him for many years!

Missed Moments: Saturdays in June

We spent our weekends in Carlinville following Oma's diagnosis this summer.
These days were sad ones.
However, they were also full of all that is good.

Cole and I often spent our mornings outside to burn some energy and soak up some life.  
Our evenings were spent with Oma & Opa; playing, talking, and enjoying eachother.

Everything was shadowed by how ill we watched Oma become.
But, looking back - those days were really wonderful.
We had everything we needed.

Missed Moments: Rocky Top, Tennessee

Our annual vacation with the Hoods led us to Gatlinburg, Tennessee in the Smoky Mountains. Grandma Hood/Gigi is so generous and thoughtful to provide us this time each year. This was our only 'get-away' this summer so we appreciated and enjoyed it that much more!

It's a long drive to Tennessee, so we broke our trip down into two legs.  The first led us to Goreville to spend the night with Cole's two uncle-friends!  (and Grandpa & Grandma too!)

 Day two of our travels were spent resting, watching movies, and being silly.  (and cautious driving on Daddy's part!)

 Arrival found a wonderful house tucked in a nice resort area...full of..."amenities!"

 Cole quickly latched onto his cousin, Peyton.  They had so much fun together!

 The time we spent there was really HOT!  But we got ourselves out and into the heat early to catch some of the sights and shopping.

The skylift was a must....

And, despite my fear of Cole (or me) falling out and to our death...the view was totally amazing and worth the clenching up that my body was doing with anxiety!

We came back 'down' to earth and tried to keep cool while shopping and walking a bit more.

We had lunch at a little seafood restaurant (because even in the landlocked mountains, we were on vacation!)

The boys had fun...whatever they were doing, they were together and enjoying it.  That's what cousins are for, after all!

Thanks to Gigi for this wonderful get-away filled with family, fun, and love!