Birthday Boy!!!

Good gracious, my sweet Jacob Scott is ONE!  I can't believe it!  I've received some impatient remarks for not posting cake pictures yet, so I'll have to tell all about one-year Jake when I post his stats after his well visit next week.  So, without further ado...here's Jake's birthday.

 It was an all hands on deck effort to make his birthday special.

 Jake's cake and our cake.

 Bella and Marco, Aunt Amy, and Grandma all came to the party.  We even got to Skype with Grandma and Grandpa Bucky and Uncle Greg.

I'm 1!!! (Actually he's quite a chatter box.  He loves to point to everything and talk about it, but when trying to get a "one" picture, it sure worked to my advantage)

 Jake actually seemed to know what was going on while he was opening his presents.  He was not happy when a gift was taken away, even if it was to make room for a new one.

 How many people does it take to blow out a "1" candle?

Jake started slowly and systematically, eating each M&M one at a time around the perimeter.

Then he went all-in (and John thought it was hilarious)

 I love his French facial hair

 Jake had a blast and loved his cake.

 He ate almost the whole thing!

And after his bath, he went back for seconds!  I think this is my favorite picture ever.

Denver Downs - Red Neck Disney

Denver Downs is one of my favorite fall destinations.  It's in Anderson, close to Clemson and just a mile or so from where Buck works.  The amount of fun we have there convinces me we were made to live on a farm...well, maybe one that someone else cares for.  It's like Disney for red necks. 

 It was a little chilly, and John was well prepared.  By the time we got there, though, most of this was not necessary, still I had to snap this hilarious shot.

 I grew several gray hairs stepping away for this shot, but Jake loved the horse swing.  Oops, mother of the year forgot to bring sock for him.

 John found a different route "through" the hay maze.

 It took a while for her to muster the courage, but she was so proud of herself for making the jump.

 Jake sure got dirty, but had a blast everywhere we put him down.  There aren't many pictures of Eve because Buck mostly tried to keep up with John and Eve, while I was with Jake and Ellie most of the time (with the camera).

This is the pumpkin patch.  It was very picked over by this point, but still a beautiful area.

 PIGLETS!!!!  They were so cute!

 And baby goats.  I think they were 2 weeks old.  One lifted its head toward the sun with its eyes closed and a "grin".  So cute!

 They have corn boxes instead of sand boxes.  We'll be finding corn for weeks.

 We went with our friends the Powells.  Fortunately they had some gloves to keep Jake's feet warm.  We cracked up because it looks like he has chicken feet...but they were warm.

 The corn maze was also fun.  Probably a good thing we had maps.

 Ellie's special prize from the corn maze was a mini bottle (empty).  I told you it's like red neck Disney!  She was so thrilled.

 Probably the most fun part is swinging on the hay bales.

 

I think we could play there every day and it would never get old.

Sky Top

Another piece of fall we squeezed into Fall Break was a trip to Sky Top orchard.  It's one of my favorite places.  It's beautiful!  We would've rather gone with Buck, but it's gotten to be such a popular place that the weekends are crazy.  It was so fun to have Marco, Bella, and Grandma with us, though.

 The kids spent almost all of their time in the trees.  It made me think of the book Caps For Sale...just a bunch of monkeys.

 Jake really enjoyed munching on the apples, and I let him until he started choking on bigger pieces.  From then on it was a constant battle to catch him each time he snuck one from the basket.  He got really angry when we took them away.

I realized I don't have many pictures of John.  He was all business.  We stayed there most of the day, and they didn't want to leave when it was finally time to go.  It was a really fun day, topped off with Sky Top's signature apple cider doughnuts.  Now if we could only find the time to make those apples into a few pies...