Simon and Blake feeding baby goats.
Simon posing in front of one of the camels. It was so sunny and bright that day!
Simon and Blake hatching out of a dinosaur egg.
Riding the train was so much fun! The engineer tooted the horn inside the tunnel. Simon loved it, but poor Blake (who had a bad ear infection) did not. Blake was such a sport to hang out with us all day!
Waiting for the train to come past again. We rode it twice, but Simon and Blake just couldn't get enough. 
Riding down to the pond in a cool 4-wheeler!! It's not that far to walk, but the deer ticks were everywhere so we rode down to the pond to limit everyone's exposure to ticks.
All the guys down on the dock, getting ready to catch some fish! 
Simon and Emma watching a Baby Einstein video together.
The Reece family, about to be gobbled up by a big grouper at the Georgia Aquarium. 
Kissin cousins.
Of course we had to eat at the Varsity. I think Emma got to taste an FO, but skipped the chili dog. Smart girl.
Simon likes to collect snails when he sees them. While Chris was feeding Emma, he collected about seven, including a couple of really big ones! He can also spot the babies, some of which are about the size of a piece of cracked pepper. I don't know how he does it - he's very focused on his target! 
Ray and Laurie kindly invited us to be their guests at the final day of practice at the 2008 Masters Tournament in Augusta. We had such a great time!! Here we are at the leader board. The last day of practice is a great day to go, because the players are all very relaxed and it's sort of just a big party. It was pretty amazing to see some golf legends walk right on past (see Jack Nicklaus, Gary Player, and Arnold Palmer below). It is also amazing how focused they are when playing such a technical, detailed game with thousands of people watching their every move. 
The practice rounds end with a Par 3 tournament where the golfers have family members, usually children, caddy for them. Here is Gary Player being caddied by, I believe, his granddaughter.
The azaleas and dogwoods at Augusta National really are amazing. Every color you can imagine, all impeccably groomed. And if you look closely you can see the secret of their perfection - a massive HVAC system underground that pipes air, either warm or cool, to speed or slow their blooming (depending on the weather that year), so they are perfect for the Masters. And they certainly are perfect!
Well, we had all these plastic eggs laying around...
Easter Sunday. 
Simon's favorite part of baseball games is all the sweets. M&M's, cotton candy, lemonade, and ice cream!! One of the games we went to this spring was Georgia Tech vs. Duke. Simon knows that Georgia Tech's team is called the Yellowjackets - when we walked up and saw the Duke players (the Blue Devils), wearing blue, warming up, Simon said "Mommy, are those the Bluejackets?" We also got to go down and talk to some of the Tech players at the end of one game. Simon thought that was pretty cool.
Simon crossing a set of wobbling hanging posts on the playground at Piedmont Park... I didn't think he would make it all the way across, but he did!
Climbin' Simon made it to the top without any help. 
Simon's birthday was on a Wednesday this year. Thinking back, I believe he had a total of four separate celebrations, including an intimate dinner with mommy and daddy the night of his birthday. When we asked Simon what he wanted to eat for dinner on his birthday, he said "macaroni and cheese" - naturally - so we decided to go to the OK Cafe, where they serve what is possibly the best mac and cheese on the planet. They also have good corn muffins, which is the other thing you see on his plate.
When Simon finished his birthday dinner (like that took any arm twisting), our waitress brought him a huge slice of chocolate cake. Yum!
Another birthday celebration, this time with Lolly and Pop. He also had a party with his class at school, and another one with his birthday buddy Ethan Polk and all of their friends - but believe it or not we don't have pictures of those. Probably b/c we were running around entertaining a mob of 2- and 3-year olds both times. Overall Simon had a great birthday and we are very proud of our big boy.
Simon wanted a big boy bike for his birthday. Daddy was thrilled of course, and Simon got one. Simon rides like mommy, however... slow and very cautious. Daddy is thinking that Simon won't be quite the mountain biking partner that he originally thought...
While purging his room of stuff that a 3 year old no longer needs, I came across a bunch of receiving blankets including this one that he was swaddled in at the hospital when he was born. I wanted to see if it still fit. Simon didn't really care about the blanket, he was curious to try his hand at the nose suction bulb (which we found in the drawer along with the receiving blankets).
He didn't stay swaddled for long. And didn't get anything out with the nose suction bulb either, thank goodness. 
We waited to transition Simon from his crib to a big boy bed because his bedroom is not on the same floor as ours. We didn't want any middle of the night walking around, so we waited as long as we could. But then we figured we couldn't let him continue to sleep in a crib as a 3 year old, so got him a new bed right before his birthday. He was very happy to help dismantle the crib and assemble his new bed.
Simon and daddy tubing down Howelson Hill. It was cccccccccold that night!Jeb skiing and Christy snowboarding
Downtown watching some Winter Festival games, including races where horses pull little kids on skis or grown men on shovels, and the fastest ones win prizes... and faces full of snow.
Snowshoeing at Fish Creek Falls with our friends Jon and Christy Ziglar.
Daddy and Simon having fun sledding together.
Watch your back - Simon packs a mean snowball!
I have an idea... I will go down on my tummy, without a sled!
Wheeee!!
Ouch! Probably not the ending that Simon was expecting.
Our last day was relatively warm (maybe 25 degrees??) so Simon and our friend Cass Bowers decided to play outside before we headed for the airport.
Saddle up Pardner, our plane is here.
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