The Rock Ranch 2010

Back the 1st weekend in October some of my family invited Jeff, Rhyan and I to join them in an outing to the Rock Ranch. The Rock Ranch is a huge ranch owned by Truett Cathy (founder of Chick-fil-a) and is about 1.5 hours away in Columbus, GA. We checked out the website and to be honest, we werent sure if there would be enough for Rhyan to do. We debated on if we should go or not all the way up until that very morning... when I said "lets just go... if we dont like it, we'll come home". Honestly, one concern was that Rhyan's nap would be messed up and we all know how it can be for a toddler to miss a nap... but we risked it anyways. And boy, am i GLAD we did!

When we first got there we found out it was "cowboy" day at the ranch. All of the workers were dressed like cowboys and some were riding around on horses, holding up wagon rides and train rides! It was pretty funny! As I was getting us all paid up, Jeff and Rhyan went to check out the pumpkin patch.

We met up with the family (we all drove separate) and went first to the big bouncy "pillow". Rhyan loved it! And it wore me out!!!

Then, on to the big tunnel slide. Again, lots of fun!

About that time, Rhyan thought it was time to check out "Tiny Town". It is Truett Cathy's "baby" according to the workers and it is reported that he spent over $100,000 on it. When you get to the street, you can see why. Each building has its own air conditioning and electricity, but it's all "tiny". Child size. This was TONS of fun for the kids. We spent about an hour in there!

Some of the old fogies... i mean... family.... enjoying the rocking chairs

Rhyan loved the firehouse and stuffed dalmation (it was bigger than she is!)

It became clear pretty quickly that a rocking chair might be on Santa's list this year :-)

Rhyan and Queen Lydia resting a bit in the "play house" (where the theater was)

Unfortunately the Ford family was misbehaving and found ourselves in the pokey. Sad.

After getting out of jail, we figured it might be best to head to the church to repent and hear a good sermon by pastor Luke. This cracks me up :-)

The view of Tiny Town from the entrance. There was SO much thought put into it! AMAZING!

On to the pets. Here, we saw a hog. Looks about ready for eating, to me!

Tracy's family and Jeff and I are huge Survivor buffs so she and I were cracking up to watch the kids (and Jeff) work hard to make it through this maze... it reminded us so much of our favorite show!

Then, onto the corn cannons. Here, Bobby, Marsha and Jeff are dueling it out!

And the winner is... JEFF! lol

Rhyan was a little bored w/ the corn cannon thing so Lindy took her to visit the goats. That girl loves animals... ALL animals!

Sweet pic of Marsha and Rhyan!

Then we headed to Mr Cathy's "barn" where he keeps all of his collectible cars. Can i first off say that this "barn" was nicer than most homes?! haha. I took a couple of pics of some of the cool cars. There were TONS in there and a movie theater upstairs showing none other than cowboys movies.

Rhyan and her chauffeur for the day!

The cousins

Ethan and Rhyan

The grounds are so beautiful, and so vast!

Lindy and I are the picture taking queens (and everyone else enjoys all the pics we take as we pose them, repose them, take one, two, three shots, then repose them... sure... everyone LOVES it! NOT!) Anyhoo, we loved this spot for some pics.

But apparently kids dont know how to pose properly. And for some reason, Ethan was having a mental block on how to hold a baby. Meanwhile, Rhyan's like "WHAT?!"

On to the pumpkin cannon. We were so excited for this all day and made sure we watched the schedule and didnt miss it. Well, they shot off 3 pumpkins, all at different distances. Cool? I guess. Jeff said he thought it was a let down. Idk really what we expected?

Had to check out the process for making "pig skins". bbq are my favorite!

WEIRD, huh? They start off that little flat piece of pig skin and almost immediately fluff up in the grease. Kinda yuck. But something tells me I'll keep eating them.

The Cain Clan who invited us on this little trip. THANKS!!!!

Overall, we had a BLAST. Rhyan completely missed her nap but was great! She slept all of 45 min on the way home but still did fine that evening. If you've never been, you should definitley go. We plan to! OH, btw, we also went on a hay ride, rode weird bike's and they also have a corn maze and cow train that we didnt do. If you havent gotten the idea yet, there is TONS to do there... for $12 a person! What a deal :-)

Fall Fun: Corn Dawgs

What a great treat Corn Dawgs in Loganville was for us this year! We had considered going but we werent sure if there would be enough to warrant taking Rhyan to... boy, were we wrong! Tracy called and assured us that there was TONS for toddlers and she was dead on. This was the best $10 per person (kids get in free) that we have spent this year!

The 1st thing you see when you drive up is this HUGE hill with 3 slides going down... a "shorter one" (which is what we took Rhyan on), an underground tunnel one and a slightly longer one on the other side. I think i was addicted from my first slide! You'll have to click to enlarge this pic of the two of us... her face is PRICELESS!

Going down with Grammy

The boys trying to get the ring on the hook

Back safely from our bumpy cow train ride...

Our little family

She's born country girl... ready to man the tractor!

Rhyan's very favorite thing was the baby zip line. She smiled ear to ear the whole time!

The "Flying Pig" was a big hit, as well, although she scared me to death when she stood up and looked over the edge... while it was in motion!

Ride that duck, cowgirl!

Mommie and I racing ducks... except her water didnt work. So i won. Hey, a win's a win!

Rhyan checking out the ducks in the pond at the end of the game

In the hay tunnel... she walked through that thing probably 5 times... my back was killing me!

Then, on to the petting zoo area. She loved the rabbit!

But wasnt so sure about the guinnea pigs. haha!

They had an awesome "corn pit" (like a sand box, but w/ corn)... but Rhyan wasnt a fan. She didnt cry, but she couldnt stand it to be stuck between her toes. She inspected them, cleaned them, and then.....

...Sat like this the whole rest of the time... she would NOT let her feet touch the corn!

After the corn pit, we grabbed some dinner and then checked out the pumpkin patch. Here, Rhyan and Daddy are picking out a pumpkin.

And Daddy helped her find one just her size. But that just wouldnt do. She liked the big ones!

We found this interesting "swing" and had some fun on it.

We took a few pictures at the cardboard cut outs, but the sun was straight in our eyes and there are NO good ones because we're all squinting. Finally, Rhyan, Mommie, Jeff and I headed over to the baby hay maze while Jonathan and Mama attempted the adult corn maze. Rhyan loved it!

Doesnt she look so country, chewing on straw :-)

About 5 minutes after this picture was taken, i got a phone call from Mama who was "lost" in the maze and couldnt find Jonathan. About 2 minutes later we saw her come out the entrance while Jonathan finished alone. HA!

We really all had a blast. What a great treat! And a great way to enjoy this beautiful Fall!

Wordless Wednesday: Some Favorites

Fall Fun: Gwinnett County Fair!

ATTENTION: I will be doing my best to catch up on some things from this year. So be ready for several posts in the next week or so. Check back often!

We have had a BLAST so far this fall. There have been three big events we've gone to, each deserving of their own posts. I'll try to catch up by starting with the first: The Gwinnett County Fair. Oh, the carnies! the food! the rides! the 4-H petting zoo! the gideons who give me 8 bibles... i love you all!

This year, my Mom and Mommie (grandmother) wanted to go to see how the baby did. I know she's not a "baby" anymore, but somehow thats become almost like a name for her. hehe. So, they met us up there. We had already gone through the petting zoo (which was the HIGHLIGHT of the evening for Rhyan!) but they hung out with us the rest of the evening. I'll try to caption the pics and let them tell the story of the fun times!

We started out in the barn where Rhyan had fun checking out the oxen and cows... "mmmmm"

Then, to the petting zoo. she loved the baby chicks!

That little goat wanted to nibble her finger.... she didnt mind :-)

Beautiful blue eyes loved the ducks. Quack Quack!

This little fella about chewed her hand! "Owww" she said! No more petting him!

On to the carousel! She seemed to really enjoy it...

Rhyan and Grandmother... after grandmother had saved her from the roller coaster that scared her half to death (she wasnt on it, just standing beside it when it started up! i've never seen her run so fast!!!)

After getting a bite to eat (pinto's and cornbread, watch out!), Rhyan decided it was time to get her teeth whitened at the exhibit! I think you're a little young for that, missy!

Rhyan and Daddy checking out our dream jeep. Anybody got about 30k we can have?!

Finally, after a long evening of playing hard at the fair, she took a moment to make a few phone calls to let everyone else know how great it was and that they should come, too!

Laser Show at Stone Mountain

In early October, our Sunday School class took a class fellowship to Stone Mountain to see the laser show. It was our first fun fall outing for the year and it turned out to be a bit chilly! But we had a blast, nonetheless! Rhyan loved all of the room she had to run around and be silly. There were a few times we turned around and she was gone! Thankfully, we had a lot of friends who were all helping keep up with her! (we're wonderful parents, i swear!).

We ate there on blankets and then just hang around and chatted and played and had fun until the laser show started. I'll admit, it felt like FOREVER that we waited, but then somehow I think it felt so long because we were chasing a toddler :-) Anyways, here are a few cute pics from the evening!

Rhyan: 17 months

Alert the presses: Rhyan is 17 months old! Its weird, because clearly I am not aging... funny how she keeps getting older while i stay young :-)
I feel like my monthly updates are Random, so i'll try to be more concise? For whoever cares...

TEETHING: Rhyan's two top canines came on in this past month. She drools like a faucet and is on occasion more cranky than normal, but i guess that's to be expected. All in all, she teethes quite well.

NAPPING: Rhyan continues to adjust to her one nap a day schedule. She typically eats lunch around 12, although if she shows a good bit of tiredness prior to then, we'll go ahead and feed her a little early. She goes down for her nap right after lunch, typically around 12:15-12:30 and sleeps anywhere from 3pm-4pm, depending on how tired she is, i guess :-) Regardless of when she wakes up, we dont get her up until 3:30 to allow her some "rest time" after waking.

EATING: Rhyan eats like a lumberjack. Seriously! But this month, with teething, she has not eaten quite as well. She also got an ear infection at the end of the month which affected her eating. She will eat most anything. She, this month, would not eat chili or spaghetti. On a typical day, she might eat:

• Breakfast: 3/4 of a grands biscuit, a piece of link sausage, an egg and some fruit
• Lunch: a whole PB&J, yogurt and a fruit
• Snack: raisins and cherio's
• Dinner: 1/2 chicken breast, 2 veggies, a fruit and a bread

MILESTONES: Rhyan can now correctly place 6 of her 9 shapes in the shape sorter (w/o help)
She is using a fork and can on occasion actually poke something with it. She tries to use a spoon but only does well with this if it is a sticky food (oatmeal) and if you load it for her. She signs "please" when she wants something, without being prompted (i do still prompt her sometimes if she's not asking w/ a "please", but my point is she uses it correctly most times on her own). She also correctly asks to be "done", "down", "up", and "nigh-nigh". She can point to and say "bird" and thinks every animal is a cow and says "mmmmmm". She "nay"'s at the horses in her books and snorts at pig pics. She can correctly point to in a book a: balloon, ball, hat, horse, pig, cow, kitty cat, sun, green cucumber, red tomato, bear, a kids toes, eyes, hair, etc... The list goes on and on. The child is obsessed with books and brings them to us any chance she gets for us to read to her. She will NOT let me put her to bed w/o reading "goodnight moon" first :-) She can now point to her own ears in addition to her toes, eyes, hair, teeth, tongue, nose, eye.
Rhyan now fake burps, fake coughs, fake yawns and tries to fake sneezing. She finds herself to be quite funny. She has figured out how to stomp her foot and walk on her tippy toes.

FOLLOWING DIRECTION: Rhyan "helps" clean up more and more each week. Just today i asked her to help clean up and she pushed her "walker" back to its correct spot and her vacuum as well. She does not always, but usually comes to me when i ask, as long as i get her to look me in the eye first. Typically, she is very obedient.

OTHER: Rhyan loves to shower with mommy, play outside (She's venturing out on the grass, now!!!), dance, tries to sing along with her toys and LOVES being chased!
What a doll.