Our Deere Friends

A few weekends ago we traveled to Moline, IL to visit the zoo, John Deere factory, and to get some delicious ice cream with our "Deere" (and best) friends, the Jacksons.


The zoo is quite small and perfect for (most) toddlers. Unfortunately, Ethan was not in the best of moods and decided he didn't want to see the animals that day, crying in panic if we got closer than 10 feet from an animal's fence. Petting zoo? Out of the question for him. Which inevitably brings up the question in my mind, "WHY do we keep planning trips around what our children would enjoy; when really, they more often than not don't have any fun with what we end up doing?) Luckily, Ethan warmed up the second half of the zoo and enjoyed the animals from a nice, safe distance. Funny how kids remember things a bit different than how things happen: Ethan now often talks about how he saw animals at the zoo and had so much fun there, and liked it a lot. Thank goodness for a change of heart, even if it is after the fact.


The John Deere Pavilion was great; we got to see, climb, and play on HUGE John Deere tractors on display and experience some other hands-on activities. Ethan is IN LOVE with anything tractor/truck/construction, so this was so fun for him to be able to pretend to be the tractor driver.

The big tractor scoop was perfect for pictures!

The day ended with a trip to Lagomarcino's, which National Geographic Traveler says is "the best old-fashioned ice cream parlor in the world" and Roadfood claims it has "just maybe the best hot fudge in this solar system or any other.” I ordered a hot fudge sundae and yes, the hot fudge is delicious, and the ice cream was really good too. My "Green River" drink was probably really good, but I didn't really get to taste any as Ethan decided take over our drinks and Brian's milkshake.

SAY CHEESE! How NOT to have a photoshoot...

Great photographer + professional camera + beautiful location= Good family photo shoot

The above equation should be true. But unfortunately, we know how to make any ordinary activity into a whirlwind of adventure.

Here's a play-by-play on how to have
the most memorable (i.e. worst) photo shoot EVER:

Attempt I

• Plan photo shoot for evening of 1st day of summer in apple orchard; make sure temps are high and humidity is higher (so much that you feel you're actually swimming in the air).
• Have towel handy to stop and wipe sweat dripping down everyone's faces within the first 5 minutes.
• Bribe toddler with candy each time he smiles: this inevitably results in him hiding his head from the camera to spite us, or "complying" with our request by throwing his head back and laughing like an evil villain.
• Forget to bring anything for photographer to distract baby with. He will be too distracted looking elsewhere or trying to pull grass off the ground anyways.

Attempt II

• Since neither child is willing to look and smile at the camera, take a break by getting shots of the kids together and individually.
• Toddler will continue with his villainous goofing off.
  
• Put baby on unlevel grass, where he will roll over with his face in the grass. In the next 5 minutes, baby will break out into hives, at which he will not be able to keep from scratching the right side of his face remainder of day.

Attempt III

• Hike a few minutes away to get to beautiful scenery and pond.
• Try more family pictures. Toddler may almost respond to bribes/threats, but adds in the "pirate stink-eye". Baby will keep scratching hives on face.
• Let it rain. Hide under wimpy tree while heavy rain pummels you.
• At first let-up of rain, run towards parked cars (through the orchard and up the big hill)
• Stop again under another tree as rain starts pouring again. Send husband to run get car and drive over grass to rescue photographer/camera, wife, and crying children.
• Wait in car until raining stops. Back car up, allowing hidden metal stake in ground to scratch whole side of car (luckily, same side Ethan already got to with his bike).

Attempt IV

• Muster up enough courage to try for a few more pictures in front of picturesque barn, despite SOAKING clothes, cranky kids, and humid-soaking-fro-of-a-hairdo.
• Try family photos again. Uhh. Decide we won't be inviting children under the age of 3 to our next family portrait session.
• Strive for one last shot of boys together. Sit both on bench, trying to stay close enough to catch anyone that jumps.
• Jump up and down, yell, sing, dance, trying to get boys to look at camera.
  
• Baby will find something more interesting on ground, and try to touch it, doing a FACE PLANT into cement ground 2 feet below!
  
• Hold in tears while trying to comfort traumatized and wounded baby, decide whether or not ER visit was necessary (luckily, we got to skip that).
• Pay photographer.
• Go home.
• Cry.

Reshoot

• Luckily, photographer is nice enough to do a quick re-shoot since the devil and his minions ganged up against us in our last shoot.
  
• Repeat children refusing to look at camera.
• Snap a few good ones.
• Sigh in relief.
• Avoid the tendency to remember that this type of event must be repeated yearly.

And my favorite picture...

Stats

Ethan

• Potty trained last month and did amazingly well--only a handful of accidents since the first day.
• Best big brother ever--will do anything to entertain "Dan" (his name for Gavin); he can't stand it if Gavin's not around to play with and begs for me to wake him up from naps.
• Curious as a cat--almost everything I do is met with the question of "What you doing mom?" "Why you doing that mom?" "Where you going mom?" "What that sound mom?"
• Very good boy--rarely gets in trouble because besides tantrums when he's tired, he's really well behaved.
• LOVES trucks and tractors--all our errands now include detours around town to drive past construction zones so he can stare at the tractors working.
• Picky picky--from being an Extremely picky eater to loving the chance to pick out his own and Gavin's clothes every day, he is starting to relish independence and the chance to say "No, I do all by myself, Mom!"

Gavin

• Angel--the most content, happy, independent baby ever. As long as he's fed and had a nap, he'll scoot across the floor exploring everything around the house for hours, thoroughly entertained.
• Claps his hands excitedly every time he hears praise for him or Ethan.
• Finally decided a few weeks ago to return to the habit of sleeping through the night since he last discovered that talent at the age of 2-3 months old.
• Tries SO hard to crawl, rocking back and forth on hand and knees, and to pull himself up to standing; it's so hard to do!
• Just a little guy: his 6-9 month clothes seem to drown him even though he's now 10 months old! 20th percentile in weight compared to Ethan's chubby 95th percentile at this age.
• Loves to watch Ethan play and giggles now that he can travel across the room to knock over Ethan's towers and steal other toys away to Ethan's dismay.
• Curly hair???? I don't know how, but it's so stinking cute!
  

My days with these two are wonderful (ok, mostly, I won't deny having some of "THOSE days"). These boys are best friends already and I'm so glad they have each other, I think they'd each feel deprived without the other. And of course, we all love our favorite boy: Daddy!

4 days that made our 4th of July GREAT:

1) FRIDAY: Local "singing showcase" and evening at the park. It also included a carnival, which didn't really add anything to the night--once we talked Ethan into riding one of the kids rides, we stuck him on the ride, the carnival worker started it, and Ethan SCREAMED in fear as he started moving at a rapid, mmm, let's say 5 mph. The ride was promptly stopped, the carnival picked up our panicking child and handed him to us. What a wasted $2! Luckily the singers were performing at the adjoining park, so we had free family fun on slides and swings while being serenaded by Nashville-star hopefuls.


2) SATURDAY: The evening was spent at a minor league baseball game, complete with access to the all-you-can-eat baseball buffet of brats, burgers, and drinks. We had great fun, but decided to end the night on a good note by getting our kids to bed at a decent hour and as fair-weathered-fans, we snuck out of the game during the 5th inning.


3) SUNDAY: Inspiring church meetings included many reminders of the blessings of living in such a wonderful nation, blessed of God with all the freedoms we enjoy and the obligations that come with the stewardship of those blessings.

Coming home from church, we parked a block behind our apartment, and walked home to find the city's PARADE going right past our FRONT DOOR! Crowds had been saving areas to watch the parade for the past 4 hours, so we were excited that we could just walk up and watch it from our front yard :) Ethan was a little unsure about being allowed to go off the sidewalk onto the edges of the street to pick up the armfuls of candy being thrown our way (did I mention it was the BEGINNING of the parade route--you know, the part where they throw candy like there's no tomorrow, then run out of it two blocks down?). After hearing about runaway horses in another Iowa parade, I was grateful Ethan and Gavin were happy to sit right by us on the lawn. Though the weather had been predicted to be rain all day, the storms stayed at bay during the parade, and EXACTLY as the last float drove by, it started to sprinkle. I guess IT CAN'T RAIN ON OUR PARADE!

A big rain storm came that evening but luckily stopped an hour before fireworks, so when darkness hit, we woke our kids up from bed, and walked a couple blocks over to the park where we had a great view of the fireworks. Apparently the kids weren't quite as impressed with the fireworks as we were; Gavin seemed unsure about them and Ethan constantly complained "It's too LOUD, I don't like it so LOUD." Luckily with a little help from Brian's hands, Ethan seemed to enjoy them much more if his ears were covered.


4) MONDAY: A nice day was spent at home together and then we went to Toy Story 3. We loved it, Ethan was glued to it the whole time (I was surprised some of those mean toys didn't scare him), and though Gavin struggled, he eventually fell asleep in Brian's magic arms.


If only EVERY weekend could be 4 days and filled with fun! Happy 4th of July!