Hiking by the Lake

Our first full day in Arkansas visiting Dustin's sister and her family, we headed out to enjoy a walk by the lake with beautiful fall colors and giant spiders.

Action shot: jumping off the log

Say, "Cheese!"

Stacking rocks

Throwing rocks

Holding hands

So cute!

Transportation!

If you talk to Elijah about our recent trip to Arkansas, he will happily rattle on and on about going on a train, bus, and airplane.

He likes to talk about the "light [rail] train" and how the people got on and off. He'll list off who rode with him.

There has been lots of talk of "airplane up high sky" and airports.

He was an expert traveler!

The other night, we spend 45+ minutes reading the same three transportation books (I confess his attention span for it is longer than mine). He liked transportation before our trip, but it has risen to a whole new level post trip!

Lounging Around

One of the Class

Elijah loves participating in first grade! Today we went on an invertebrate nature walk to complement our study of bugs. Elijah liked looking for the bugs that were "hiding."

Looking at winged termites

More bug searching

aCopying the big kids

In art, we are studying different drawing techniques. This week and last we focused on pointillism. Notice all the dots in Elijah's drawing--must imitate what the first graders are doing!

Undiluted Juice!

Juice (even diluted) is a very, very rare treat in our house. He thought Jamba Juice was pretty amazing and was not deceived by the watered-down version placed in his sippy cup.

New Vocabulary and a Beach Trip

This morning for an hour, we had an impressive thunderstorm followed by rain. So Elijah and I enjoyed the weather change and Elijah learned the words "thunder" and "rain," which will probably rapidly leave his vocabulary since who knows when he'll experience them again.

Our brief storm did not deter us from our beach plans.

Elijah was excited to go!

Sand, water, bucket, and shovel--perfect for scooping and pouring!

Elijah likes his ocean water contained in a bucket, so here he is begging a sweet friend for help.

Setting off in search of someone to get him water

Look--friends actually lured him close to the ocean waves! But then the waves would come and he would yell at them.

More buckets and water--friends brought bigger ones!