Museum of Transportation (Stay-Cation Part 1)

During the first week in June, we had a family stay-cation. We took the week off of work and just stayed home. We didn't pack up the bags or the car. Instead we just relaxed, spent time together, and played the part of tourists in our own town. Our first stop was the Museum of Trasportation, a place that I thought was going to be fairly boring. I was wrong. They had probably close to 40 full size train cars that you could walk around and climb into. They also had a nice air-conditioned (it was hot that day) museum with old cars and a Route 66 history. Andrew has just been into cars and just recently gotten into trains so he absolutely loved it.

Locomotive.

Caboose!

If it was blue, this one would totally be "The Little Engine That Could". It's the oldest engined they have - a wood burning locomotive from 1858.

This may have been Andrew's favorite part. I think he and Susie rode this train about five times.

With the engineer in between rides waiting for the next riders to be shuttled to the train.

Sprinkler Saturday

It was hotter than blue blazes this weekend - mid 90s and humid for most of the weekend. The heat didn't stop Andrew though. He was ready to get outside on Saturday moring. So at 9:30 we threw on swimming suits and got the sprinkler out to help us beat the heat. Yes, it was hot enought for the sprinkler that early.

Grandma Barb even took a few turns getting wet.

And she was wearing her clothes!

Dumpster Diving

Near the end of the walk a couple weeks ago, we spotted something in the alley sitting up next to the dumpster. It was a Little Tykes workbench that was in great condition except for a little dust, dirt, and cobwebs. It even had the plastic screws and nails. I think it must have come out of someone's garage or basement. Andrew immediately started reaching out of the stroller to get to it. After playing with it for a few minutes, we asked him if he wanted us to take it home. He giggled with excitement. So I picked it up and carried it on my shoulders for about 2 blocks to our house. A quick hose down once we got back in the yard, and it was ready to go.

BEFORE....

& AFTER

Puzzle Pride

The title of this post is mostly about my pride - and surprise at how much and how quickly Andrew is learning. Of Andrew's collection of puzzles, he has two where every piece in the puzzle is exactly the same shape. It's a cool idea because it gives a really young one the chance to have fun with a puzzle and practice the dexterity it takes to fit pieces when maybe they aren't quite ready to discern between different designs and colors. When he first got these, Andrew focused on putting all of the fish tails and car fronts together. He was too young to pay attention to the different colors and designs. He produced some pretty cool designs using this method actually. But tonight, I noticed for the first time how he has started to pay attention to the designs and colors as well as the shapes of the pieces. And it made me just so proud and happy to watch him work it all out! I took this short video of Andrew figuring out the shapes and the colors for each piece. Check it out as he "goes fishin".

Fingers Were Made For Pointing

These fingers were made for pointin'...

And that's just what they'll do...

One of these days, these fingers might just point right at you!

Ready, fingers...

Start pointin'!