Picnic in the Park

This evening we headed to the park for a picnic supper. Graham was thrilled to be dining in style in his car rather than his boring old booster chair. For some reason, Graham always eats better meals when we're out and about. As strange as this sounds, he LOVES to eat his picnic meals straight from the ziplock bag. Forget the fancy china or cool animal plates, our boy is all about the plastic bags! :)



After we finished our dinner, we took a walk near the lake and let Graham play for a bit at the playground. I'm pretty certain that Graham's very favorite activity is riding around in his car. His giant smile sure shows us how much he's enjoying himself!

Our Weekend in Pictures

This weekend was pretty low key for us. We spent the weekend at home running errands, getting things done around the house, and just hanging out with Graham. Here is our weekend in pictures!

Running through the sprinkler..the problem with this activity lies in the fact that each time Graham sees a sprinkler (no matter who's yard it's in) he heads straight towards it

Taking his car through the "car wash" aka sprinkler

Still having fun in the car wash

Taking Annie for a walk at Starring Lake

We're still working on the "no feet on the table" rule-he looks a bit too comfortable in this position!

Stormy Day

Our picture perfect summer weather came to an end today. We were hit with a HORRIBLE storm right in the middle of the day that came on very quickly. Graham and I were out running errands and I had no idea that the weather had turned ugly until we were heading to the car and were met with torrential rain, hail, and the sound of blaring tornado sirens. We waited it out a bit in the parking lot and when the rain slowed down, I began to drive home. Of course as soon as I got to the highway the rain and hail picked up again and I was forced to pull off to the side. Graham was in the back screaming (I think the noise of the hail was frightening him) but to be honest, I really couldn't hear him because of the rain and wind-it was actually that bad! We did eventually make it home without incident and spent the next hour in the basement waiting for the storm to blow over.

After all that, I decided to cave in to my sugar craving and did some baking. Graham loves when I cook because I allow him to go nuts in the "baby safe" cupboards. Annie on the other hand, stays as far away as she possibly can. She's unfortunately learned from experience that flying pots and pans hurt!

Beach Day

With the weather being as hot as it is, it's been difficult to stay comfortable outside and Graham LOVES to play outside. So, today we headed to a local beach and met up with Wendy and Abby with the hopes of cooling off in the water. Graham and Abby loved playing in the sand and they both loved pushing the limits by trying to walk straight into the lake. These are two fearless kids and when they're together they must think they can take on the world.

Doesn't Graham look like a big boy with his baseball cap?

Collecting "treasures" in his bucket

What are we going to do with these two?

Teamwork!

After Wendy and I grew tired of the sand, we took two very frustrated children (they weren't done with the sand) and moved over to the kiddie water playground. Luckily, the frustration Graham and Abby had vanished as soon as they saw where they got to play. I'm glad we decided to try a new place today because I think we might have discovered where we'll be spending many hot afternoons in the future!

Perfect on a hot day!

I'm sure Graham wants one of these of his very own now!

A New Friend

This afternoon we ventured to the zoo (I know we're there often, but I promise that Graham and I don't live there!) with Peter, Lynn, and their nephew Dylan. Dylan is about 6 months older than Graham so it's fun for me to get a "sneak peak" as to what lies ahead for Graham. Both boys share a love of trucks and Dylan was kind enough to share a few of his favorites with Graham. I actually think the boys were more interested in the trucks they were carrying around than the animals behind the glass. Never the less, we did have a great afternoon enjoying the weather, animals, and company!

Taking a break from the animals to play in the sand with a few very cool trucks!

Taking a break from their very cool trucks to check out the animals

Feeding the goats with Uncle Peter...we were smart this time though and stayed outside the fence!

Happy 4th of July...a little belated

We're back in town after spending several days relaxing up at the lake. When the weather is nice, Graham always enjoys the freedom that comes with being up north. We couldn't have asked for better weather (not a single drop of rain!) so we spent as much time as we could playing outside. The highlight of our time up north was definitely the 4th of July and the festivities that went along with it. It's a tradition on our lake for each family to decorate their boat and participate in a boat parade. This year, we decided to go "tropical" and our boat was decked out complete with a giant hula skirt, palm trees, and hanging monkeys. Even the passengers on our boat got in the spirit by wearing Hawaiian shirts....yes, they were a bit bright and gaudy, but they sure made a statement! Unfortunately, our tropical party barge was outdone by the giant floating loon boat, but I'd say we came in a pretty close second!

Trying on some of the festive 4th gear!

Modeling more 4th attire...

Graham didn't seem to care in the least that I insisted on dressing him up for the parade complete with hula skirt attached to his life jacket! I figured that if native Hawaiian men can wear a hula skirt, so could my son!

Could he be any cuter?

Admiring "cousin" Gregg's matching hat

Graham is patiently waiting on the dock for the party barge to pick him up for his very first 4th of July boat parade!

Relaxing during the parade

After the parade was over, we spent the rest of the day being pretty lazy. It was so nice to lounge in the sun! Graham doesn't yet see the beauty in relaxing and sitting in one place for more than 5 seconds at a time, so he entertained himself with the sprinkler for a VERY long time!

Happy Boy!

He was determined to fill his cup with water!

SUCCESS!!!

I guess it's back to the real world for us now. Jeff unfortunately returns to work tomorrow and I'm sure he'll miss hanging out with Graham and I all day. I know that Graham is going to miss his playmate and I'm definitely going to miss the extra set of hands. It's so much nicer to have someone to share diaper duty!

Jeff and the Goats

Today was day #2 of having Jeff home from work and we wanted to take Graham to do something fun. Graham and I often go to the zoo during the week and each time we go, his reactions to the animals get more fun for me to watch. Since Jeff has only been able to experience the zoo secondhand through my stories and pictures, we decided to visit the zoo so Jeff could experience Graham's excitement firsthand.

One of the first things we did when we arrived, was head to the little farm complete with petting zoo. Normally, Graham and I are content saying hello to the goats through the fence but today, with Jeff along, the boys decided to take a different approach. They went into the fence to get up close and personal with the goats. I think Jeff immediately regretted his decision, because in a matter of seconds, the goats were all over him. These are not small goats. They're actually pretty large and when they so kindly began to jump all over Jeff, their faces were about the same height as Jeff's. So, you're probably wondering where Graham is during all of this. At first Jeff was holding him but he understandably became pretty scared when the giant goats when after his Daddy. Graham was quickly passed off to me and our trip inside the goat fence came to an end.

At least the baby goats know how to play nicely...

We're experiencing some very HOT weather here right now, so at the very end of our zoo afternoon when Graham spotted this water play area filled with laughing kids we really couldn't say no. It was actually surprising that Graham didn't hesitate for even a second before he got right in the middle of all the action. He enjoyed it so much in fact that he was one unhappy little guy when it was time to go home. No worries, I did have a clean, dry outfit for Graham to change into!

We're heading up to the lake tomorrow so this will be the last Graham update until the end of the weekend. Happy 4th of July!