Snow, Snow Everywhere!

We've had a very snowy winter here in Kentucky, and in honor of it finally getting warm this week, I'll post some pictures of a beautiful snowy Saturday.

Sophie attempted sledding, but didn't really like how fast she went downhill.

One of her favorite snowy pastimes is making snow angels. Apparently, she got tired of making them the old-fashioned way!

And a picture of a lovely winter bush in our yard:

First Snowfall in Kentucky and a Visit from St. Nicholas

We had what was to be the first of many snowfalls here in Kentucky in December. Although the snowfalls after Christmas were much more abundant, Sophie was excited with this dusting we got. She insisted on getting her snow get-up on and playing:


One of her favorite things to do is to make snow angels:



We also celebrated the Day of Saint Nicholas in December. Traditionally, German children put out their shoes/boots for St. Nicholas to fill with treats. Sophie put out her rain boots, and St. Nicholas dutifully stopped by!

Sophie's First Camping Trip--Cumberland Falls

Way back in October, we took Sophie on her first camping trip to Cumberland Falls. Our first attempt had been at the end of September, but we were rained out, so off we trekked again to the campground in October. On the way, we stopped at the Sanders Cafe (the original KFC). It was a strange mix between a normal KFC and an old cabin/cafe.

We had to pose with the Colonel:

We finally got to the campground and set up our new, larger tent.

Sophie enjoyed her first camping meal!

And after dinner, Daddy started a fire so we could roast marshmallows. He also told her some not-so-scary campfire stories while I cleaned up.

By the end of the day, she was exhausted!

We were able to visit the falls, and as you can tell by how tight Sophie was holding on to us, she was a little scared of them...

Sophie also enjoyed throwing rocks into the river...what kid doesn't?!

Hanging out:

Posing on a hike we took:

Hiking with Mommy and Daddy:

Planting Fall Flowers

Earlier this week, we decided it was time to spruce up our front yard and plant some flowers. Sophie was very excited by the prospect, and because of this, while we were at the store, we found the cutest kids gardening gloves for her to wear.

Some times she was more of a hinderance than a help, but she had fun. (I think she's actually putting dirt back in the hole Ian is digging in the picture below!)

And surprisingly, she was willing to clean up!

Now the hardest part is getting her to not pick the flowers!

A Day at the Park

Well, I had the best of intentions for getting pictures posted here and at the Wilsons in Europe blog, but it has just been so crazy at work and at home the last couple of weeks. These pictures are from last weekend at Millenium Park in Danville. Sophie hadn't been here since before we moved to France, and we thought she'd like the large playground, the paths, and the lake with ducks. (Some of you may remember this park as the place where we celebrated Sophie's first birthday.)

We started at the playground, where Sophie had fun climbing everything in sight:


Eventually, we moved to feeding the ducks.


And then we got a little bike-riding practice in. The paths here are much flatter than our driveway, so it was a little less scary for her. She got the hang of pedaling a few times, but then would accidentally step on the brake and stop! She gets frustrated really easily with the bike, so we'll just keep practicing when we can.


And finally, on our walk around the lake, we spotted this crane (or heron?). It was fun to see other animals besides the ducks, including some turtles that live there.

Hopefully, there are more pictures to come soon. At the very least, things will slow down a bit in a week or so...

Spring Play

The weather here finally turned nice a couple of weeks ago, so we've been trying to spend a lot of time outside. Sophie loves to play outside, and although Daddy wants her to take after us and study humanities, I think she's going to be a scientist, perhaps a botanist, given her love for exploring our yard. She loves to find new flowers and plants--in these pictures, she was picking some sort of daisy weed, but lately she's been very interested in the wild strawberries growing in our yard (and so far we've been successful in convincing her not to eat them!)


Here she is on the hunt for her purple flowers (which are some sort of wild pansy that grows in and near one of our planters):


You can't really see them since they're so small, but she has some pansies in her hand:

I love this picture because it shows just how active Sophie is right now...we can't even catch her with the camera sometimes!

Here she is telling me about the flowers she found: