Fun in the Snow

Thanks to Hurricane Sandy we got some unseasonal snow fall.  The temperature this morning was 30, but weather.com said it felt like 16.  We can attest to that fact!  This is really Morgan's first time playing in the snow, and we wondered what she would think, but really thought she would love it!  And she proved us right.

 She had so many layers of clothes on it was a little hard to walk around, but she mostly just wanted to sit and play in it anyways...oh, and eat it.

 The view from our house

 Mommy has to wear Daddy's coat with 2 zippers so she can leave the belly out

 Morgan's first snowman

 Dad looks cold

I think if you look closely there is snotty ice under her nose.

Halloween Part I

Usually one night of Halloween is enough for me, but Boone seems to offer many activities that we just couldn't pass up.  On Saturday the Branch President and his wife hosted a Halloween party on their farm.  It was the perfect setting with a big barn, bales of hay, camp fire, and lots of people and kids all dressed up.  

Hopefully I will never be this huge pregnant at Halloween again, so I figured it may be my only chance to dress up the belly.  So I decided to go as a fish bowl, Morgan as a fish, and Nate as a fisherman.  I thought my idea was pretty clever.  And I was pretty excited for Morgan's costume since it is my first homemade costume as a mommy and actually involved a little bit of sewing.

 My baby really looks like a little girl now!

 Morgan didn't know what to think at first, but once people started putting stuff in her bucket she got pretty excited and ran from car to car for trunk-or-treat.

 For those who have asked, here you go - the pregnant picture in all it's glory!  Yikes!

Morgan's first day of (insert big gulp here) Preschool!  She pretty much likes to lay low in the morning, so she wasn't happy to get dressed, but really enjoyed her day!  Needless to say, she enjoyed it a lot more than mom.

Blurry - but a much happier moment

Visit from Granny and Papa & Morgan's 2nd Bday!

This past weekend my parents drove into town to celebrate Morgan's second birthday with us.  We sure were looking forward to their visit, and really enjoyed spending time with them and showing them the beauty of fall in the High Country.

 Morgan mostly enjoyed riding on Papa's scooter chair.  Now the word "ride" has a completely different meaning for her.  (I think Papa enjoyed it just a little bit)

This picture is one of my favorites from the weekend.  We took it in the town of Blowing Rock.  There is a beautiful pond with a sidewalk around it where we like to go to visit the ducks.  It was beautiful in all of its autumn glory.

On Friday we celebrated Morgan's birthday!  I can't believe my little girl is 2 already!  It is strange to me to hold my "baby" and feel another baby kicking her!  She got to enjoy some time at the pool with her Dad, played with her new toys, and even got to talk to her Grandma and Grandpa Powell on the computer.  We kept the day pretty low key, and really enjoyed it that way!

 Mom was super excited for this gift.  Morgan has really enjoyed playing with a little wooden doll and crib at the library, to the extent that we haven't been to the library in a few weeks because she screams to leave this "bay-bay."  So I did some research online, found out that the doll is manufactured by Melissa and Doug, and I also found a little wooden nursery set with a cute stroller, changing table, and crib made by Plan Toys.  Morgan loves taking care of her little baby now!  (And I'm pretty impressed by the furniture set as well!)  She also plays with her new Little Pet Shop bee and bear with the furniture.  It's the perfect size for her little hands.

(Don't you love how often she is wearing this hat in her pictures)

Granny made her birthday cake - and Morgan didn't eat any of it!


I love my little Morgan more and more everyday.  She has the sweetest personality that just draws people to her, and she is quickly becoming one of my best friends!  She really has progressed a lot in her speech and uses a lot more words.  Next week she will start a preschool 2 days a week where they work a lot on speech therapy.  More about this later.

Her 2 year stats:  35 inches long!  (about 75th percentile) 25 lbs 6 oz (about 15th percentile)  She's definitely had a little growth spurt lately!

 She loves playing outside with "My Dada"

 Learning more about wooly worms

 

Elk Knob State Park

Fall here in Boone, NC is amazing!  Fall has always been my favorite season, and this may be the best place on earth to really enjoy it.  The temperatures have been in the 50s and 60s everyday, and everywhere the leaves are bright yellow, red, and orange.  It is beautiful.  

So on Sunday evening we drove just a few minutes away to Elk Knob State Park.  The hike is 1.9 miles each way, and we got there late, so we decided just to hike a little ways and enjoy the scenery.

 The colors aren't nearly as good in a picture as they are in person

 Morgan loved the walk, especially the rock pathway.  She's a little geologist.

 Another owwie.  Seems like those little knees just can't heal lately.  And she's learned to kiss them herself.

 When we came back down and got back to the car, Morgan decided she didn't want to leave.  She turned around, headed back to the trail, waved us good-bye, and threw us a kiss.  Off she went.  She got about 20 feet or so before Nate went after her!  Little stinker!

And this was the result of making Morgan leave.  And it did not stop until we were almost home 15 minutes later.  The worst tantrum yet.  :-(

The North Carolina Zoological Park

While Nate was on Fall Break, we decided to do a little early celebrating for Morgan's birthday and take her to the zoo which is about 2.5 hours away, in Asheboro, NC.  I had been to this zoo when I was a little-itty-bitty kid (can't believe right now that I was ever little) but couldn't remember it at all.  This zoo was amazing, maybe not San Diego, but beautiful, and earns its name of Zoological Park.  

The park was divided into two continents, Africa and North America.  I was impressed with the job they have done on creating habitats that seem native.  Instead of seeing animals in cages, you walk along a path and over the fence or down the hill or on the other side of some rocks you see the animals.  

We bought the combo pass for the day which included a Dinosaur 4-D show (which neither Morgan nor I went to), a Dinosaur exhibit with lifesize animatronic dinosaurs, the giraffe deck, and the carousel.  We were in for a treat!

First we tried the dinosaur exhibit.  Morgan liked seeing the dinosaurs, but when they moved and started making noise it was just a little too much.  Both Nate and I thought it was really cool, and I"m not even all that into dinosaurs.  They were out in the woods and you walked along a gravel path.

 You can see how large they are compared to the trees!

Morgan likes pretty much anything with tires and a steering wheel.

Next we went to the giraffe deck, which turned out to be my favorite part of the day.  I thought we would just get to walk up on a deck with a better view of the giraffes, but there was actually a zookeeper there with a bag of leaves.  Some of the giraffes would come right over to the deck, and we got to feed them.  Morgan didn't think much of this at first, but after she saw Mom do it a few times, she tried too, and then couldn't get enough of it.  We were there for a while feeding the giraffes.

 Pretty excited that the leaf isn't in her hand anymore!

 Had to go back for more!

We had a lot of fun the rest of the day, but this was really the highlight.  Morgan rode the carousel 3 times, skipped nap time, and totally zonked out as soon as we got in the car that evening.  Here are some more highlights from the day.

 The only creature bigger than me right now!

 Trees, trees, trees everywhere!  If I had to live in a zoo I might choose this one

 Too cool

 The lion queen - this reminded us a lot of the Stone Table in the Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe.  She actually rolled over while we watched her sleep, then stared at us, and walked away.

Kitty "mow" as Morgan says

Oh, one more thing that we didn't get pictures of.  A baby gorilla was born in August, and we actually saw the mom nursing her baby.  It was a really cool experience for me to see nature work that easily.  And also to see other people appreciate it.  I think it's "taboo" for women to breatfeed, and there's a lot of controversy over nursing in public, but for this animal, it was just life, and people oohed and aahed.  If it's important for a baby gorilla, isn't it important for little human babies as well?  Just saying!