Two days of fun: miniature golf & Wakoola

Now on our list is going to play miniature golf so we hit a really cool place near my friend Bernadette's. Thing is it's a little dangerous playing mini-golf with kids who don't realize just how far that ball can fly when you hit it  .... and it was a little crowded that night. 

 Then I had some wonky thing happen with my brakes so Bernadette's husband Larry let me borrow his Jeep to get to work. It was a little cool that morning .... and then it started to pour! Once we got to work, all of us looked like we'd been put in the spin cycle and then dried with a high speed blower. We laughed and said,"That was the most miserable car ride EVER!"

 But Baton Bob made up for it in the afternoon. This guy has all sorts of glittery outfits and conducts his own one-man parade in Buckhead in afternoon traffic. We saw him and beeped and hollered and he blew us kisses.

 The next day we hit our favorite spot: Wakoola water garden store.

 Enough said!

 But somebody's not paying attention!

 "Hayes, I LOVE Wakoola!"

 I think these are marsh marigolds.

 Looking for bullfrog tadpoles.

 I want a backyard that looks like this:

 And a house that looks like this (only a lot smaller):

Miscellaneous summer shots

Here are my very cool kids from one night when I promised them pie at Waffle House! They treat the convertible like an amusement park ride, sticking their hands up and hollering with glee!

 Hayes took this of her brother one day:

 Cort with his pig, "Pigatron." He fell in love with that pig.

 No one can resist the mini donkeys though.

 Hayes camped out in this pony's stall every time we went to the horse rescue.

 The kids completed their summer reading list and made the Wall of Champions at the library! Here's Cort:

 Then it was time to catch lightning bugs! Ah, summer fun.

 The lightning bugs were too fast but Cort caught a toad and then ...

 It peed on him so Hayes demonstrated how you hold a toad so you don't get peed on while Cort was disgusted.

 I saw Hayes had sorted all the gems we got from gold panning. How smart is she?!

Panning for gold

Another thing on our list of fun was to go gold panning up near Dahlonega. My dad took me when I was about 12 on a vacation up to North Carolina and I thought the kids would get a kick out of it.

I got a $30 bucket of rocks. Hmm. I wasn't real keen on this concept ...

Get the rocks ...

 Wash the rocks ...

 Then I was immediately met with OOOOO and LOOK!

 Hayes was thrilled with finding her birthstone amethyst.

 Our loot comprised emeralds, rubies, garnets, a tiger eye and lots of pyrite, but no gold.

 On the way home, I whipped into this country store because I wanted the kids to see the shelves and shelves of every imaginable kind of jelly (aside from dandelion and prickly pear, ahem) and Hayes found a gallon bag of banana peppers for $3.50. So she was once again thrilled for the day!

 Cort found and carried the watermelon.

Butterflies and wild animals!

After Saturday swimming (Hayes has a job as my teaching assistant for American Red Cross swim lessons), we drove to Callaway Gardens for the butterfly house.

 This is Cort's reflection in the door.

 There was a Ruin-All-the-Fun-Butterfly-Police in the house so we couldn't touch and hold them like we did last year. Cort found this one hanging by the door and talked to it.

 Then one gave him a kiss!

 And another!

 So we decided to go back up the road and visit the Wild Animal Safari where there are NO Butterfly Police.

 Hayes was in charge of pictures since I was doing the driving.

 And here is one reason you do NOT drive your own car through the safari!

 Oh, hello!

 Hayes gave this a big wet pat on the nose. Ick!

 Hello, Tatanka.

 What a gob!

 I think they were having fun ... !

 This looks like Hayes and this water buffalo were having a stare off about who was going to give in first.

 Little baby tatanka ... doing yoga?

 As we drove over the dam, I was more enthralled with the hundreds of turtles and huge snapping turtles in the lake!!

 Here came Hayes' favorite part: where she fed the zebra. Zebra are notorious biters. Since she's horse savvy, she just took a chance.

 "I petted a zebra!"

 Cort seemed pretty happy with it too.

 A goodbye pat on the nose.

 Rhino didn't want to be disturbed but we hollered "bye!"