And now... Grandpa and Jaja!

I think I have done the last five posts with exclamation points in the title, but that is exactly how we feel about having family visit us and getting out to explore this beautiful area! Dad and Mom arrived the same afternoon that Rachel and kids left for Gainesville (and had about an hour to say hello and good-bye), and then we got to enjoy a long weekend with them, their first time to visit since the initial move in February.

The first afternoon, as soon as Mattias was up from his nap, we drove up to an overlook along the Blue Ridge Parkway, Waterrock Knob (about 20 miles northeast of Sylva). Hard to believe we've lived here six months and this was our first time to drive along the Parkway. It was a beautiful late afternoon, with a mix of clouds and sun, and this overlook has a nice visitor center (which just closed when we arrived at 5 pm), a short, steep hike up to another overlook, and a large open area with picnic tables.

Both of the boys walked all the way up and down along the steep trail - and absolutely loved it!! Timo didn't want to turn around, and Mattias practically ran down, squealing with happiness and "down, down" all the way. I think we've got some good little hikers in the family.

Sorry, Timo, we have to turn around and go back down now!

Back down at the overlook, we had a hilarious series of "is it raining or not?!" for our picnic supper, but eventually the sun came out and dried us off and we got to eat our picnic and play a little bit of frisbee.

Classic brotherhood moment.

The next morning we went blueberry picking (of course! get it while the getting is good!) and then toured campus.

The boys must have remembered Abram and Adah Joy, because they finally worked up the courage to run closer to the fountain this morning.

Timo got to show Grandpa and Jaja his newest passion, his "quiet time" activity in the afternoon. He gathers all the Legos and cars and other toys and creates a huge town.

We also had fun just being together at home, visiting the library and taking short walks around town. On Saturday Grandpa and Timo weeded together in the yard for an hour quite happily, to Timo's great delight (he loves to work in the yard). Thank you for coming, Mom and Dad! And next time we will be sure to do some more hiking/tubing/waterfall visit!

"Hiking" down the driveway back to the car, since our driveway was very rutted after the previous night's thunderstorm