Dillard House - More Pictures

Believe it or not, I have more pictures to post from our trip. In fact, I have so many, that I decided to create collages, otherwise it would take me many more posts to finish our trip diary.

Here are some more views from around Dillard House:
I had to post this picture separately. Dillard House has a famous Southern restaurant. They serve food "family style" which means they bring EVERYTHING on the menu to the table. It is a little different from the Texas-style Southern food that I am used to eating at my in-laws house. But it was still great. The only disappointment for me was that they did not have mac-n-cheese :( I am a huge mac-n-cheese fan! :) (By the way Krystal, I do not remember if I ever told you, we LOVE your mac-n-cheese recipe, I make it all the time!)
There are stables and a petting zoo at the Dillard House. Daniel was not so sure about the animals. He was curious and would stay calm as long as one of us was holding him.
We came across this absolutely gorgeous waterfall that you can drive under! It was so beautiful! Click on the collage to see the pictures larger. The sky blew out in some of the pictures but you still can see water in some of them.
We rented a canoe. We bought a Body Glove for Daniel, he looked so funny in it with the huge body and skinny butt! He was a little nervous about all that water in the beginning but soon started trying to move around the boat, which was not OK with us since canoes are so tippy. So to keep him still, we fed him a whole banana, part of an apple and he ate almost the entire contents of his Snack Trap! That did the trick. I know you are getting tired of reading the same words over and over again, but it was absolutely, incredibly beautiful!
The last installment of our trip pictures to follow shortly...

Artistic Attempts - Flowers

WARNING - Lots of pictures!

I have been trying to learn photography and flowers are my latest project. I got really excited when I saw many different flowers at the Dillard House, here are some of my more successful attempts of photographing flowers.

Dillard House - Our room and on the way to dinner

The Dillard House in Dillard, Georgia has been open as a restaurant and hotel for almost 100 years. Many famous people, including a few presidents have stayed there in the past.

Our room was HUGE, Daniel had plenty of room to run around:
There were rocking chairs on the balcony out back, Daniel really enjoyed them:

View from our back balcony:

View from our front door:
On the way to dinner, Daniel was not sure about all the animals at the Dillard House. He wanted to look at them as long as Stephen or I were holding him :)

On the way to Dillard, Georgia

We really wanted to get away for the long weekend. Stephen and I went on our last vacation when I was about 3 months pregnant with Daniel, so it has been almost 2 years. We needed to get away! I really wanted to go to the beach, but all the decent places that still had openings were ridiculously expensive.

Stephen, on the other hand, prefers mountains to the beach and somebody told us about a resort in the mountains only about 2 hours away from Atlanta. I was not too excited but decided that something is better than nothing and that a weekend away with my boys would be great no matter where we went. I loved it! I want to go back! It is so incredibly beautiful! If you guys ever have an opportunity to come to the Dillard, GA/Highlands, NC/Gatlinburg, TN area we highly recommend it! So breathtakingly, incredibly beautiful! But enough talking, here are pictures!

On the way we stopped at a little trading post at Tallulah Falls. Here are the views from there:

They had this chair on the porch, Daniel really seemed to enjoy it:

It was getting close to lunch, so we gave Daniel his Snack Trap to postpone feeding him for a little while. Here is what we saw after a few minutes. If you enlarge this picture, you will see his face, chest, and car sear covered in crumbs. Even after falling asleep he did not let go of his Snack Trap. Funny boy! :)

My Mother's Day in Pictures...

First thing in the morning, I got a beautiful card hand-delivered by this charming boy:

If you enlarge the picture, you can see "Mom" written on the envelope, that made me tear up :)

After a quick breakfast, we decided to head to the Atlanta Zoo. We went to the Petting Zoo first - Daniel was not too sure about the goats. He found the perfect hiding spot though:

He did come out a little bit, but still would not touch any animals.

Here I am in my super preggy dress. I love making myself looking even more pregnant than I am :) Anybody can relate? Or am I just crazy?

Daniel was fascinated by the giant pandas. This one was taking a nap

And this one too :)

And than my camera died :( I was not happy with myself! Nevertheless, we had a wonderful time seeing all the different animals. Daniel was so funny, when he would see an animal, he would point at it and then look up at one of us and make sure that we saw it too. We went ahead and got a year membership. We think Daniel is at the point where he can gain a lot from going to the Zoo often.

I loved my First Mother's day last year, it was so special, but Daniel was only 2 months old and really too young to participate (although he did give me a card). This year was so much more fun, Daniel is getting to be so interactive and fun, he even "signed" the card for me. Maybe next year he can draw me a picture! And next year I will be the mother of two, which will make the Mother's Day that much more special!!!

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!!!

As crazy as it sounds I am going to celebrate my second Mother's Day as a mother while being pregnant with our #2. Woo-Hoo. I never thought about it , but this is my second pregnancy in two years! Two years ago I was not even pregnant with Daniel!

I want to wish my Mother, grandmothers, Stephen's Mother and Grandmothers, our aunts and cousins a Happy Mother's day! May your day be filled with many pleasant surprises!

My Mother and I (Mom is 25 and I am 14 months old)

Mom and I (I am about 13 months old)

My Grandma Inna and I (about 2 years old)

My Grandma Inna, my Aunt Marina, and I

And here is the first picture of Daniel and I upon arriving from the hospital (Daniel is 3 days old)

I am still here

Just wanted to let everybody know that everything is going fine here. This pregnancy is kicking my tushie :) I am constantly hungry and sleepy! I am at 11 weeks right now, and I am hoping that once I am done with my first trimester, I will feel more up to doing stuff, including updating this blog.

We are still taking pictures of our family, though and I did update our picture archive this past weekend. So, if you want to see some new pictures (including the Easter pics) please click here.

Favorite Foto Friday - My little musician