Grandparents and State Parks

Well, well, well. Spring sprung and now summer is in charge. However we thought we should do a quick update on our spring activities. Sorry for the delay, but after we broke two cameras we needed some time to get our act together. Everything is back on track now, at least that is what we hope. As the title of this post notes, we'll be covering two big events here - a visit from Nana Taffy and Grandpa Jay and a trip to Lake Cumberland State Park.


As usual, spring was beautiful here in Kentucky. We had a ton of rain and it really helped all the local flowers. As you can see in the picture here, our garden produced some wonderful tulips. We are still amazed that our "maintaining" approach to gardening still produces living things. In any case, here Callie holds the flowers she wanted to give to Nana Taffy.



One of the best things about the nicer weather is that Callie has had the opportunity to develop her love of playground equipment, especially the slides. Callie loved showing off the local playground to her grandparents. She led Grandpa Jay all over the place from stairs to slides. And as with most things these days, she didn't want any help. Here you can see how Grandpa maintains a respectful distance so that she can embrace her independence.




Callie has no fear when it comes to even the biggest slides on the playground. Without any hesitation she sits at the top, gives a big smile, and pushes off. She is definitely a hands in the air and enjoy the ride kind of gal. This is something that makes her mother very proud and her father a little nervous. Surprise, surprise.





We were fortunate that this visit coincided with Callie's baptism at First Presbyterian Church here in Lexington. It was great because not only did Jay and Taffy get to be a part of the day, but also our neighbor Chris Chrisman presented Callie on behalf of the session. Callie behaved very well during the service and was extremely pleased to be the center of attention for a few minutes.




The following weekend was the first weekend of May, and here we made both a good decision and something of a rookie mistake. The good part was we took action on a resolution to get to know Kentucky better by visiting some state parks. In this particular case, Lake Cumberland was a great choice. The rookie mistake was we planned a trip on the Derby weekend. We still got to watch a great race in our room, but you don't want to make plans like that on Kentucky's biggest day of the year.


Among its offerings, Lake Cumberland has some great hiking trails. And even though it rained most of the weekend, we managed to get out and enjoy all that nature had to offer. Callie wanted to make sure that we enjoyed that nature in silence, which is why she clamped her hand over her dad's mouth in this picture. Or she was trying to feed him a Cheerio. Sometimes it's tough to tell.



There were a lot of things Callie enjoyed about this trip. One was the indoor pool, but we don't have any good pictures of that. Another was picking up rocks and exploring around the area. She was a pretty happy camper, and probably the only unfortunate part for her was the playground was too muddy to take advantage of.


One of the coolest things about Lake Cumberland was the lodge/restaurant that looked over the entire lake. The food left a little to be desired, but the view was absolutely gorgeous. We also enjoyed the fact that Callie ate for free. And she enjoyed the big fireplace with all of the fishes mounted over it.




We can't wait to put another couple of state parks under our belts by the end of the year. It is pretty impressive how beautiful Kentucky really is. There are so many great places to visit. (Hint, hint, for anyone reading this who has not come to visit us yet.)

Okay, there's the first installment of several posts to get us back on track.