Weekend at the River

Taylor's grandma, Naynie, turned 90 on May 4th, so her entire family suprised her at his aunt and uncle's river house in Cotter, Arkansas! We decided to break up the drive and spend the night in Memphis on the way there and the way back, and it was the best decision! Carter did great on the car rides, but started melting down at the 3.5/4 hour mark of each leg, and we were oh-so-grateful to be pulling into our destinations each time that started!

Carter discovered the glass elevator at the hotel immediately and was fascinated by it!

Watching cars and trucks on a cold, rainy day in Memphis

Naynie's great grandkids getting to know each other :)

Sweet, patient Tristan putting up with Carter following him everywhere

Austin and his mom and dad flew in all the way from Rome!

Playing with Aunt Sue (Naynie's sister), who Carter called Naynie... or "TWO Naynies!" whenever the sisters were next to each other.

Checking out the fish in the river with Tonka

Snacking with his Naynie and G.P. (Taylor's dad)

Playing with his Gigi :)

Dancing for Naynie.

Birthday hugs for sweet Naynie

His new pose in most pictures, as he grabs for the phone or camera and says "Watch Carter??"

So this restaurant was AWESOME for kids- they encourage coloring on the walls. This seemed like a great idea at the time... but the next day at breakfast, he immediately grabbed a crayon and proceeded to throw a fit when we wouldn't let him color on that restaurant's clean white walls. We may have created a monster :)

Watching for "big boats" on the Mississippi ("Miss-y-issy Reever" as Carter calls it)

Playing with the hotel safe-- that never worked again after this...

Easter!

Although it was cold and rainy most of the weekend, Carter still hunted for eggs in the mud or inside the house- and it took him about 2 seconds to realize that some eggs had candy in them.
And then he would walk up to anyone he could find asking for "Mo egggggs???" "Mo cho-cat??" and being the wonderful, doting grandparents that they are, my parents never turned down a request!
Luckily I only put 1 or 2 chocolate chips in each egg and didn't start that until Easter Sunday... because we had quite the sugar crash at the end of the day and were ready to put those eggs away until next year!

We were lucky enough to have Carter's great grandma and great aunt spend Easter with us too, and he loved all the extra attention. He even wore his suit and tie for a few minutes for them :)