Fifteen

This little guy turned 15! He is mostly blind and deaf, falls a lot with his terrible arthritis, snores like a freight train, and is generally pretty ornery, but he’s still going strong! Happy birthday Bruno!

The Smokies!

Grandpa and I have had to cancel two trips to take Aiden and Court to the Smoky Mountains this year. Well, third time is the charm! Finally, we went this past weekend which turned out to be peak leaf weekend and it was just magnificent. As the Grinch says, my heart grew two sizes…this trip. There is not much better than hiking in those fall colors with my family. It was a quick trip and there was a lot of driving (and traffic with all those leaf lookers) but we had a grand ole National Park time. We saw a total of 5 weddings happening outside – that’s how gorgeous this weekend was! Not pictured below is the boys’ 3rd favorite part of the trip – the cabin we rented complete with a hot tub and arcade games!

Hiking the Appalachian Trail to Max Patch. I have always wanted to hike a portion of the Appalachian Trail – bucket list item checked and I didn’t even know it was coming!

This Grandpa is just the best. I can’t say enough…

At the summit

The next day, we got to hike a teeny tiny portion of the trail again on the way to Clingman’s Dome.

This flying saucer looking guy is the lookout at Clingman’s Dome.

At the top, it would be clear for about 10 seconds.

And then the clouds would roll right in.

At a gorgeous spot on the Blue Ridge Parkway on the way home.

Last quick hike!

I cannot say thank you to Grandpa enough – really for EVERYTHING these days as he is truly holding this family together in more ways than he will ever know – but also because he persevered on this trip with us. The 30 minute wait in the Wendy’s drive-through line at 830pm on Friday night was a low point but he stuck through it with me and directed us the whole way. Thanks a million Grandpa. And thanks to Grandma for letting us steal him away for the weekend too! Love you guys!

New skills

Since we are still trying to lay pretty low due to coronavirus (other than baseball), we have been trying our hand at roller blading. Grandma and Grandpa Wolford gave them roller blades for Christmas but after a 10 minute trial in which they discovered that wheels on your feet are hard to control, they stopped trying. Not really sure what started them back up on the roller blade wagon, but they are addicted…and covered in bandaids.

Field trip!

Last Wednesday, the boys had a half day of school. It was also the same exact day that there is a Revolutionary War memorial celebration at Kings Mountain (like 40 minutes away). So Grandpa organized a field trip for The Williams Academy for kids who live here. We had a mile hike through the leaves where they pointed out different historical tidbits about the battle of Kid ings Mountain. Then, volunteers who ride on horseback from Virginia dress up and recount the stories from the battle. Well done Grandpa!!

The blanks they fired were so loud, I literally screamed a little.

Invisalign

One week ago, this happened to Aiden’s mouth. New age braces! He’s such a trooper! This cool as a cucumber kid handled it like a pro. No milkshake diet for days. No tears or whining. Mature beyond his years sometimes…and then he makes yet another fart joke.

Baseball continues

Baseball has been super fun this fall. Not as competitive as spring ball and more focused on letting kids play new positions and learning without so much focus on winning. Their team is sometimes reminiscent of the Bad News Bears but the antics from the coaching staff (5 members deep, one of whom is Scott) always keep me laughing.

Happy birthday to Kayson!

Cousin Kayson turned 3 on September 30th. Although we don’t see him as much as we’d like, he’s at a super fun age and says some pretty awesome kid bits. Aiden and Court fight over his attention (shocker) but Kayson eats up their attention as well. Gotta love cousins!

Aiden and Court were so excited to give Kayson his first bike – a strider. He knew just what to do, although was a little cautious at first. He’ll be flying around in no time. Happy birthday Kayson!

Virtual school continues

Not sure what project this was but Court swears his teacher wanted him to do this.

Reptile updates

When I last posted, Court’s bearded dragon had passed on. So, of course, now he has a new bearded dragon. This one’s name is Tambo. But, for some reason, the name “Spike” has stuck in my brain and I call him “Spike” about once a day, Court gets sad for about 10 minutes, and then life carries on. Sheesh, Mom of the year, I know.

Let me just say, Tambo is the fastest animal on land. I know people may say that the cheetah is in fact the fastest animal. However, Spike (dang it!) Tambo is actually the fastest. So much for bearded dragons being the “lazy reptile.” He’ll likely escape by next week.

And the other update on Williams family reptiles is that Blue, Aiden’s leopard gecko turned 1 on Oct 1st (a completely arbitrary birthdate made up by Aiden in order for him to celebrate).

Happy birthday good buddy. To celebrate, Aiden put a matchbox car into his cage for him to “play” with during the day. Kinda looked like he was riding on it for a bit. Either way, that car spent the night in clorox.