Trains have been apart of our every day lives for almost 2 years now. I don't know what we would do without trains. John shares his passion with a few other boys his age...it is just too bad they don't live closer. One of the boys who loves trains as much as John lives in Texas. His name is Eli. This is the same Eli that went to TOT camp with John. John and Eli instantly connected and it was so nice to pass on the train conversation to someone else.
John and Eli's version of bumper cars.
A much needed juice break after playing outside. Eli's grandpa made this rocking horse. Isn't it cool?
Playing with trains...what else?
Eli's grandpa, Mr. Hale, also made this train set. It is spectacular. It is so nice I almost didn't want John to touch it. This is one of Eli's favorite toys and it isn't hard to see why.
The surprise of the afternoon for John was that Mr. Hale also made John (and Gus) a set. John was so excited and couldn't wait to play with them when we got home.
Gus even loves them.
These trains and cars are simply amazing and we are very honored that Mr. Hale thought of us when making them. I can only imagine the time and love that went into each car. Thank you, Mr. Hale! And, thank you, Mrs. Hale for losing your husband to his woodworking shop for several hours.
We took the first part of our vacation last week. The time went by so fast, as always, that I wonder where our vacation actually went. We had planned to leave very early on a Thursday morning and make the 12 hour trip to Texas in one fell swoop. But, plans changed and we left a couple of days earlier since Hans was going to have to fly home early to do a funeral. So, I packed up the kids, the car and mowed the lawn in about 2 hours and we left for what was supposed to be a 6 hour day. That 6 hour day ended up being more like 9 hours. It was rough. Since I didn't know were going to be leaving that day, I had already given Gus his nap, so he wasn't thrilled to wake up from a nap and be put directly in his car seat. I also managed to get a speeding ticket about 30 miles into Texas. Just so you know, don't speed in Texas. Texas tickets are wicked expensive and the small towns are even worse. I know the saying, 'Don't Mess with Texas' refers to littering, but I think it applies to most things.
The second day of the trip went much smoother, aside from Hans feeling like he had to die. Hans developed a bad case of acid reflux. Some people gain lots of weight when under stress, others lose lots of weight, develop acne like a teenager and get acid reflux. I could see with my own eyes how bad Hans was hurting, but I think I would choose acid reflux over the weight gain any day. Hans couldn't eat anything with out feeling like he was going to die, so he went to the urgent care center when we arrived at my parents. The second he left the house I started eating everything I could get my hands on. I had felt so bad for him the whole day that I didn't eat very much and I was VERY hungry. After a couple of days on his new medication, just in time to fly home, he was feeling pretty good.
We were able to see a lot of our friends when we had a cookout at my parents. The kids seemed to have a great time.
I'm not sure how Olivia was conned into pulling the boys, but the boys were taking full advantage of the ride and even screaming, "faster, faster."
At one point it got a little crazy and Olivia got hit in the head by a bat...a plastic one. I have to say that, throughout all of this, the men were sitting on the back porch talking and NOT watching the kids. It's probably a good thing the littler ones were inside.
Don't worry, I still have tons of pictures from the week in Texas. I'll post more soon.
While we were in Texas a friend of mine invited John to take part in a preschool program she does called TOT. This is a great program that teaches children so much more than ball handling. I was amazed at how well John watched and listened...and then tried to take charge.
Following directions.
Dribbling. He needs a little help with this.
Team spirit! GO TOTS!!!
I wish I could have made this picture a bit clearer. This was the free dance portion of the afternoon.
They had so many seconds to dance and then the music stopped so they could freeze. This is how John decided to freeze.
John's friend, Eli, just noticed that John's shirt had Thomas, James and Percy on it. He wanted the shirt. He looked at it like this for a LONG time. Boys and their trains.
