Before diving into the weekend activities - thought I'd mention that I was in San Antonio recently for work. Todd had visited the historic city back in college; I've always wanted to go especially after working at my old firm - Urban Design Group. They designed some portion of the River Walk 20+ years ago; every day at the office I would pass by photos hanging on the wall. I finally had my chance to see the River Walk as well as the Alamo. In fact - the hotel I was staying at was right next door to the Alamo. Literally.
The day after I got back from Texas, I went to the garden & picked a watermelon / took it home /put it in the 'fridge to chill so we could cut it open the following day. We had 3 watermelons ready for harvest around the same time, so we shared this one with the members of the garden on a Saturday. Here's a picture of Mercer, Jackson, and Glady enjoying it ~About a month ago, we went to a nearby park for a picnic, to play in the stream, to go on a hike, and to look for letterbox stamps. Todd has tried on previous trips to teach Mercer to skip stones. This time, Mercer got the hang of it (sort of) and was elated when his stones would take a hop. I'm pretty bad at skipping stones. My contribution to the joy of playing in the stream: Mercer and I throwing leaves on the top of the water & chasing them down as they floated (or watching some get caught up in a whirl and going under).
At this park, there were several letterboxes stashed along the trails. We found a couple of boxes; inside one of the boxes were 2 log books & 2 stamps! A bonus letterbox! I learned at a geocaching class last year that sometimes people plant "hitchhikers" -- geocaches or letterboxes that do not have a permanent home. The idea is that they travel. People find them & then carry them to their next destination somewhere else. The person who planted the original hitchhiker can track the journey that it takes. This is done on a computer program where people record their "finds" in an online log-book. (www.atlasquest.com)
It was a beautiful weekend & we actually ran into a couple different families that we knew. Mercer and the son of one of our old co-workers kept climbing up and down the other side of this rock over and over and over again. I heard that as a nation, we were just coming off of one of the hottest-temperature months in recorded history... suppose a lot of people took advantage of the cooler temps?! 
Two weekends ago, our neighbors graciously invited us to join them on a boat ride. Each summer, we have taken a boat ride with Pam & Orie. Seems that each year, Mercer gets a little more driving time in. This year, he even tested the throttle of the boat (kicking it up a notch) when Orie wasn't looking! ~yikes~
Last Saturday, we went camping in the back yard. We try this each summer. We wanted to give it a try to see if everything was OK with our tent and to prepare Mercer for our upcoming 3-day camping adventure. We had friends Jackson & Glady over for s'mores, but evening drew near and a big thunderstorm was approaching; they went home / we buckled down in the tent for the night. It did rain -- pretty hard -- but we stayed dry in our tent and little guy amazingly slept through the storm! He did wake up at 5-something AM to the sounds of an owl in the back yard, though, which was pretty cool. The water from our pond & stream lulled us all back to sleep. It was quite nice.
This weekend, we were pretty low-key. We had friends come over and hosted our third adoption pancake breakfast. It was a smaller crowd than before, but it was nice to spend some time talking with each of the guests! We are emailing out "birthmother" letters to all of our friends, familly, and neighbors. It's a letter written to a counselor, lawyer, OB, religious figure... someone who may have contact with a birthmother. IF you think that you may have a contact or a friend-of-a-friend who's in such a position, please pass this letter along when you get it. (and - if you're reading this / don't get a letter - let me know. I will be sure to email you one!!)
Just after everyone left the pancake breakfast, Mercer cleaned up his toys that he and his friends had pulled out, so he earned a little bit of allowance money. He earned the last little bit needed to earn a LEGO toy he had been saving up for! Over the past 2 weeks (since the last post about him helping with yard work), he has been helping to set the table, take dirty dishes to the sink after a meal, put his clothes in the laundry hamper (instead of throwing on the floor), and generally picking up. It's been pretty cool to watch how much he wants to help when he has a goal in mind. Hopefully some of this helpfulness will stick and will not only come by earning a nickel or a dime here or there!
We have a big weekend -- a big adventure -- coming up next weekend. That will certainly warrant it's own post. 'til then, have a great week! Here's another photo of Mercer at Amicalola... he spent a lot of time climbing on rocks that were along the path... nature's playground!! /
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