September: road races and barn cats

The kids and I spent the last weekend of September together at my friend Regina's farm.

Cort shows off his toothy grin - look at those choppers!

 Then we visited with our old Kentucky neighbors, the Justices. There's Cory, Cort and Michael.

 The kids played hide-and-seek freeze tag. Apparently, the rules have changed since I was a kid because I never heard a "ready or not, here I come" and I couldn't figure out who was it because no one hid very well. But here Hayes was "it" and chasing somebody.

 I wish I had the edited version of these photos ... Hayes was driving this kids jeep and had this look on her face like she was about to die!

 Then the jeep reared up and dumped her so Cort crawled in while Anthony cracked up.

 Cory and Cort were next but there was lots of screaming and not like I'm-having-fun screaming either. So I put the ki-bosh on further jeep activity for Cort.

 Jimmy took the ramp in it and it was hysterical.

 We found lots of woolly worms but doesn't look like it's going to be a harsh winter at all! No stripes.

 Anthony catches air in the jeep and I almost lost my life just to get the action shot!

 Afterwards, the kids found kittens in Regina's barn and no one was interested in spending time with Unitsi anymore!

So long, summer

This is really how they slept on the car ride back.

Riverbanks Zoo

Great MawMaw always has to take the kids to Riverbanks Zoo when they're around. So this was our last outing before our summer together was over. 

 Cort has a conversation with a baby Galapagos tortoise.

 The giraffe exhibit was my favorite part of the trip.

 Except that Hayes was in a mood

 She wasn't going to give me a smile even for a baby giraffe.

 We always have to visit the statue of Happy the tiger. Happy was the zoo's first tiger ... in fact, I think the zoo happened just because of Happy. She was down at the Exxon car wash for years and my grandmother always took me to see her when I came over on weekends.

 Hard to see this caiman but this is what snapped Hayes out of her mood ... just show her a reptile!

 The zoo wore us out apparently!

What we do on rainy days

It rained and rained and rained for days and days and days the week we moved back to SC in July. So we made art!

 And Hayes made herself the project ...

 Then it was time to wash off in a mud puddle

 All clean!

Visiting Palace Malice exhibit in Aiken - July

Right after moving to Columbia in July, the kids and I took in the Palace Malice exhibit in Aiken. Palace Malice is Aiken-based Dogwood Stables' partnership horse and my friend, Charlie Pigg, is part owner. This is the saddle cloth from PM's Belmont Stakes win. 

 Then there was tree climbing!

 I love this picture of Hayes!

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):