Out and About with 奶奶

I believe that my last post finishes our story for now. I don't intend to revisit it any time soon, as it took a lot out of me emotionally to write it. I hope you enjoyed reading it, or at least got something out of it (since I'm sure some of you wept through most of it) that will be meaningful in your own lives. I'm done.

On another note...

Bill's mother came up from Columbia, SC for Labor Day weekend. We had a great time and took her all over the High Country.

Sam calls her 奶奶, which is pronounced "Nai Nai." It means paternal grandmother in Mandarin. I love hearing him say it.

We went down to the river to play one of the days she was here. We met Elijah and his mommy and daddy (Trish and Brian) down in Todd and spent the afternoon with them. Sam had a blast picking up river rocks and throwing them back into the river with Elijah. Brian would find the biggest ones he thought Sam and Elijah could hold and hand them over.

Apparently I had something important to say. Elijah looks very intent on hearing me. Brian seems to be investigating these larvae that he kept finding on the rocks to some sort of flying insect that lives on the river. I think they were too small for the boys to see them though.

Picking out just the right rocks.

I'm not positive, but it sort of looks like they're going to throw the rocks at the dogs. That never happened. There were lots of folks out with the dogs, tubes and canoes having fun.

"Kabloosh!"

Everyone's got a rock to show someone else, including Nai Nai.

Three generations on a log.

We also had a chance to go trout fishing again. We caught four for our dinner and re-created the last experience we had with my parents and cousins. Bill smoked them with our own apple wood and I put some sea salt, fresh basil leaves, lemon juice and olive oil on them. They were very tasty.

Here we are fishing.

Nai Nai caught a fish, so Sam needed to help get it in the net.

We actually started the day at the Farmer's Market and went from there to Daniel Boone Gardens. Here Sam is at the wishing well with his Nai Nai - throwing rocks, of course!


We also saw some flowers at the garden.


On Labor Day morning, we found these doves roosting in our driveway. They don't seem to be afraid of us. Sam got really close, but he was too timid to reach out and touch it.