We're off to Ellijay today to hang with some family but Lindsay wanted to send a shout out to her blogger bud TATUM in Myrtle Beach. This is her "tourist shirt" we bought this summer on our trip. Next time we get that way Lindsay and Tatum should have a play date!
My neice Melinda is moving from Orlando to Denver! Her and her twin brother Ed are driving her there this weekend. They made a stop in Atlanta last night and these are pics of Lindsay and I meeting them off I-75 this morning for breakfast. I can't believe MELINDA the beach girl, the girl who says ATLANTA is TOO COLD, is moving to DENVER! Seriously? Well, I'm very proud of her because it's a huge decision to pack up and move to a state you barely know. I know this because I did it in 1991 when I moved to Atlanta and I was younger than she is now. I hope your new adventure brings you much happiness and enriches your life as much as mine did for me! I can't wait to come visit you out there!!!
Melinda helps Lindsay practice her walking!
Lindsay woke up with a 101.8 fever this morning but it's from her MMR shot (according to the doctor on the phone this morning) so we couldn't miss an opportunity to see Melinda and Ed while they were passing through. Denver is NOT an 8 hour car ride.
This is Elmer. He is Melinda's dog and let me tell you he LOVES to walk himself!
Well, we tried to get a picture of everyone looking at the camera. Not gonna happen. It was pretty interesting that while we were outside eating (Sonic serves breakfast, did ya'll know that? And is doggie friendly!) several people approached us with the "oh my goodness, what a cute...DOG". Elmer STOLE the show from Lindsay. One group of people that were walking by (they were training for the 3 Day Breast Cancer walk) stopped and goo'd over the dog for like ten minutes. They didn't even NOTICE Lindsay. This cracked me up because trust me my kid gets attention where ever she goes. I was like "yeah, she's 15 months" and then I heard "cute dog" and I was like Holy Moly...they're talking about the dog!!!!!!!!! Even Melinda and I had a laugh together over that. She was like "HEY, didn't you see we have a BABY here too". I thought how funny is that. Lindsay got upstaged by Elmer. I have to say he is a SWEET boy and such a good dog. Too bad his breed has such a bad rap because Melinda has to be careful where she takes him. People are typically afraid of this type dog. Anyway, it certainly made me chuckle and Lindsay didn't seem to care that she wasn't the center of attention today (for once).
I LOVE my COUSIN ED!
I love my baby neice! We're ten years apart. I was 10 when they were born and these were my practice kids. Little did I know I wouldn't have one of my own for another 25 years. GOOD GRIEF I'm aging myself. I owe them a Happy Birthday Shout Out too as Melinda & Ed turned 27 on September 24! Their sister Mary turned 26 on August 18 too! I missed all those birthdays on the blog. Sorry guys!
Go Speed Racer!! Publix provides way too many photo ops for us!
Me and my cool nephew! Not a bad self photo! Melinda is going to set up a blog to keep us informed of her new life in Denver. It should be interesting. I think she should title it Beach babe moves to the land of BLIZZARDS! Once her blog is set I'll post her link.
We still aren't walking alone but with this contraption Lindsay can walk for MILES!
We figure it won't be long before she's really walking on her own. I'm hoping by Halloween for sure!
Here is our neighbor Megan getting in on the action with Lindsay
Watch out MAX...I'll run you down!
This pic is a little blurry but look how much fun she's having!
Daddy catching some memories on the camcorder!
Hey YOU! What'cha looking at!?
This past Sunday we went to Ellijay to do some Apple Picking with our good friends. It was definitely some good "fall fun" but the weather turned "Summer" on us again this past weekend and although we had a great time it was HOT! The above photo is Lindsay with her BFF Graison and Graison's big sister Caylin! Thank you Caylin for pulling the girls in the wagon most of the day for us!!!!!!
Check out Caylin here. She wouldn't get any closer to that ol' stuffed bear. Too funny!
Caylin takes a ride with Lindsay!
Meet Bessie the cow. The kids all got to milk her and she was a very sweet girl.
Graison & Lindsay being silly!
Lindsay got the hang of it here. She was so funny.
Caylin pretending to drink some Moonshine! They had a "moonshine museum" here as well. Unfortunately there was no "tasting room".
Hillcrest Orchards has a pretty large petting zoo. There were all kinds of fun loving animals there. The goats were OVERLY friendly and this one was desperately trying to eat Mike's shirt. Lindsay wasn't afraid of them though so that was cool.
Ok...so it's not a real pony but she liked it. Oh and the real pony rides were 5 bucks and she had just as much fun on this one. So we skipped the real deal for this time. She's too little I think anyway. We'll save that for when she's bigger. However you'll see some pics of Caylin & Graison riding the ponies here later.
"I'll hug him and love him and squeeze him and call him George!"
I couldn't resist this photo. I'm such a sucker for baby pigs. I would LOVE to have one as a pet IF I had a place for one OUTSIDE. 
G on the tractor. Doesn't she look like such a big girl here? Little Miss has her second birthday coming up in November! I watched this angel come into the world and I can hardly believe that was two years already!
Speaking of coming into the world...we got to see this too. SOOOO COOL. I was hoping another one would hatch while we were there. There was a pretty good crack in one of the other eggs but we had to move on. Caylin was amazed to see this too. 
Daddy and Lindsay on the BIG SLIDE. Lindsay is LOVING slides right now. She's getting very brave on them now. She probably would have gone down by herself if I would have let her.
Now you can see why I didn't. It's was TALL.
Miss Caylin looking like a pro!
Mommy & Linds. We bought her an apple sippy cup and she just loved it. She also got it filled with STRAIGHT apple cider. Not watered down. She CHUGGED it. I really didn't think she'd drink it all as we do not really give her juice. Fooled me. She drained it mighty quick!
Later we went down the road to an orchard called BJ REECE for some better pick your own. (Kim this is where we went with you guys that time) They have a nice view from their orchard as well. Here are Mike and Lindsay finding us some Golden Delicious!
An apple just Lindsay's size!
Graison and Caylin getting a taste...sorry Missy...didn't mean to cut you out.
My attempts at being artistic...
Graison's daddy Anthony climbing up higher to find the GOOD STASH!
Loading up Lindsay in her new ride!
Nothing cuter than a baby in a backpack!
She totally loves it!
Off we go!
We started at the Visitor center and hiked up the East Ridge Trail (one mile up to Falls over look) here are some flowers that we don't know the name of...anyone?
This is Kudzu and I had no idea Kudzu had flowers. Mike had me smell this and it's the most overwhelming GRAPE smell you've ever known. It smelled SO good!
Almost to the top and taking a break for a family photo!
What a happy girl. She loved hiking with us. I love this pic of her!
A little closer to the top we found someone to take our picture so we didn't have to do another self portrait shot. Ha!Ha!
We finally made it to the top. It took us a little over an hour to hike that mile. It was very steep. Little did I know I was starting to come down with the flu bug. I thought I was just being wimpy needing to stop and rest. I was really bummed out that it seemed so hard for me. I want to go back next month and do it again when the leaves are changing.
Once at the top we stopped in at the Lodge and checked out the gift shop and had dinner. The restaurant was not very good. I highly recommend bringing your own picnic. We will next time. Here are Mike and Lindsay as we head to find the route back down to the Visitor center.
For the trip down we decided to take the 425 step stair case. SO glad we didn't come up this way. It seems like it would have been much harder on the legs than the trail.
Photo of the staircase built pretty recently I believe. This staircase takes you to the base of the Falls and then it's trail hike back down to the Visitor Center.
Mike had me take a pic of this sign. He was happy to know that prisoners were used in the building of the staircase. A good use of our tax dollars at work!
Me going down the stairs. If you're afraid of heights I recommend taking the trail back down. The stairs are made of metal and they are open so you can see beneath you as you are going down. It seriously freaked me out a couple of times. I had to stop looking down as it was starting to make me queasy and that was NOT the flu bug coming on. UGH!
WOOHOO...made it!
Base of the Falls...
Boy, take a look at her...you'd think she actually walked those stairs wouldn't ya?
