poppa's visit.

"HI POPPA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

 words can't even express how thankful i am to have such an amazing dad who made a 7 hour trip just to spend a few days with us! we had such a great time in swamp land :) Audrey had such a great time playing with her Poppa and showing off all of her new tricks -- like clapping for herself when she finishes a task and dancing (my new favorites!). there were a few times when i went to take her from Poppa (the horror) and she clung to him for dear life and refused to come to me, which has never happened before! what can i say? she is Poppa's girl, after all :)

play time in her new dress from GG :)

"sharing" her rattle (aka shoving in his face), how sweet!

one of  my favorite things that we did was tour the swamp and all of my favorite places! Aunt Becky, you will be jealous to know that your brother ate at the infamous Hog-n-Bones! i realized that from an outsiders perspective, when someone (me) says they "live in the swamp" one might assume that this is a boggy, algae covered, stinky, slimy type of swamp. it's actually one of the most beautiful places i've ever seen! years ago when i first visited Will in his hometown, his dad asked me how i liked the landscape on my drive down. i said that it was beautiful and that i especially loved the trees surrounded by little ponds everywhere. he said, "oh, you mean the swamp?" to my surprise, their "swamp" wasn't the type of swamp i had pictured when Will told me where he lived.

what i thought swamp land would look like

what our swamp actually looks like

everything you see in the above picture is actually on water! pretty amazing, right? so amazing that we have one of these:

oh yes! the Okefenokee Swamp Park (or as Will calls it, the Redneck Zoo). it was too hot and humid to do the boat tour and see everything, but we did manage to have a first hand encounter with the boss of the swamp food chain:

this picture was taken about 15 feet from OUR PARKING SPOT! the beauty of the swamp park is that most of the wildlife is not contained in a cage. alligators, primarily, roam about the park unrestricted so there is a chance that as you are getting out of your vehicle after parking, you may stumble (literally) across one of these guys! on the way out, my dad was debating walking down closer to the water but he wanted to make sure that our little friend from earlier wasn't lurking in the bushes, waiting to make a snack out of his leg. right as he decided it was clear to continue, this little guy lurched out!

eeek!

aside from the parking lot encounters, we had a great time!

the walkway back into the heart of the swamp

my favorite! :)

possibly checking out Poppa's bald spot ;)

open marsh

new growth after the big fire last summer

the long road back to town

since Audrey is back to taking two 2-hour naps during the day, we did spend a lot of time at the house. it was really nice to talk and catch up while Audrey slept. my amazing dad also gifted us with two much needed baby gates and even installed them for us :) i didn't know how Audrey would react to them (i've seen some babies freak out and others don't even notice) when the magically appeared after her nap -- well, she did notice them and LOVES them! um hello, mom - something new to hold on to and jump up and down and dance and shake and it makes noise and ohmygosh what's not to love?

Audrey also loves.....LAUNDRY BASKETS! we currently have one in front of the TV stand, which most of the time effectively blocks her from playing around the Wii, DVD player, etc. and if she does feel the need to go after those things, is most of the time distracted by the laundry basket and then wants to play in it more than mess with electronics :)

ahh!
sooooo close to taking her first steps!

we also dined at a few of our favorite local places such as the much anticipated Hog-n-Bones, Fujis, and our gourmet dining selction - Ruby Tuesday! Audrey was treated to a plate of spaghetti squash, which she loved!

Dad, we were sad to see you go, but Audrey will always smile because of you:

so...thanks for that ;) LOVE YOU!