Impression 5

Another day, another summer vacation outing...

We took Julian to the Impression 5 Science Center in Lansing and he had a ball. As soon as we walked in, we were slightly disturbed to discover that they did not have air conditioning and it was about 90 degrees with stifling humidity that day. Luckily there was one air conditioned room for toddlers and it turned out to be J's favorite. (Mine too, imagine that!)

Doin' work...

Looking a little nervous (understandably so)...

He loved the "bubble room"

POP!

Future heart surgeon (or maybe just heartbreaker?) exploring the atriums and ventricles of the human heart

Future Iron Chef?

Future symphony artist?

Future comedian!

Julian loved splashing and playing in the water table. So much so in fact, that the girl working in there basically followed us around with a mop, trying to keep the room from flooding. Oh well, it's a "toddler room" -- what else would you expect? At least he wasn't dumping entire buckets on the floor...oh, wait...yes he was.

Boat Noise

Choo-Choo Noise

Daddy desperately trying to keep some water in the table

Some catching up to do...

Since I am officially too pregnant to do much in the way of fun outings anymore we are keeping things closer to home these days. Even just doing laundry or making lunch is starting to trigger contractions and tire me out!

Luckily though, I have about 4 outings worth of pictures still to share...maybe that will tide us over until we have pictures of the new baby to post! (Wishful thinking on my part.)

One of our latest trips was to Mooville with Amanda and Camden. It's a farm that sells milk and ice cream and has a cute little petting zoo full of farm animals. The boys had a fun time together as always.
Julian's favorite part was the shed full of kittens. He was so sweet and gentle with them and kept giving them hugs and kisses and saying "meow" to them.

The chickens and sheep were a hit too, while the dirty pig and goats hardly got any love.

After petting all the animals and playing on the jungle gym for awhile (oh and washing their hands thoroughly), the boys had lunch followed by some Mooville ice cream. Mmm!

As it turns out, ice cream is a great training tool for manners....and J has really gotten good with "please" and "thank you" (please = "peassssss" and thank you = "ck-ck").

Unfortunately he's gotten a lot pf practice with "sorry" as well. He gets too excited when playing sometimes and ends up biting, scratching, or hitting us. But as soon as he looks at you all squinty-eyed and wrinkle-nosed and says "sah-wee" -- it's pretty hard to stay mad at him. :)

South Haven

We couldn't wait to take Julian to South Haven at some point this summer. Of course, the day we packed up and headed out, we pulled up to a completely empty beach and a sign from the Health Department saying not to touch the water because of the high levels of E. coli. Yum.

Luckily, only one beach was closed (kind of creepy since really, it's all the same water) and we were able to go to a different one. I will say though, we didn't put our thinking caps on when we parked as far away as possible from the bathrooms with a toddler and an 8-month-pregnant girl. (I immediately started a mental list of ways to improve upon beach trips with kids in the future!)

Not sure about this...

Waving "hi" to his shadow

We had a great time. J liked stepping in the sand barefoot (like learning to walk all over again!) and chasing the seagulls. The water was freezing, but of course, he didn't care. It was pretty hot, so we didn't stay on the beach for very long (plus I didn't think to bring more than one sippy of water -- add it to the list!), but J got to help Daddy make a sandcastle and walk up and down the beach in the sand and water enough to tire himself out.

Sneaking a drink of Daddy's grape slush...

Sour!

We had lunch on The Idler, (a boat that's converted into a restaurant) in nice, shady seats on the deck where we could watch boats go by. Our little people-person waved and grinned at everyone around us and even got into singing along to "Uptown Girl". (He did the oooooo's.)

It was a pretty quick trip...in fact, we got J home in time for an afternoon nap. Luckily, between his age and my stage of pregnancy this summer, we have about the same tolerance for heat and walking before we need naps -- it works out perfectly!

Fourth of July Fun

We went to Full Blast with Grandma Terri, Aunt Amanda, and Camden over the holiday weekend and had so much fun. Julian loved the pools and the fact that he could walk in the water on his own, and climb stairs, and turn wheels, and slide, and spray water...

He got really brave and started putting his face under water on purpose too. Not sure if it was this confidence-boosting waterpark trip or not, but he is a little fish in G&G's big pool now! He floats with his little swimmies all by himself and doesn't even mind going under water sometimes. He looks like such a big boy! (I have a little video of that I'll post soon.)

Balloon Festival

We figured it was our duty as parents to take Julian to see some part of the Balloon Festival this year. Although neither Mitch or I are big fans of hot, sweaty, carnival-going crowds; we bit the bullet for our wide-eyed little guy.

I thought he would love seeing the balloons inflate and take off at the airport. Turns out, there was so much to look at (humanity in general, lights, vendor stands, carnival rides, etc.), by the time we saw the balloons, he was fairly unimpressed. Oh well. Daddy and I liked that part.

We did get to see some balloons go over our house the other morning though, and he loved that. J can make a pretty cool hot air balloon noise, and kept repeating it and saying "oh wow!" every time he heard or saw one. Sugar Bear even went right over our heads!

We figured it was about time this kid starting pulling his own weight around here.

Favorite phrase of the month: "What's that?"

Not too sure about this whole carney scene...

Best view in the place

He did get into seeing this jet up close (F16, I think?)

Dinner was his favorite part!

In the end, he was way more excited about seeing Uncle Deej's truck and tractor after the show. Good to know...that local attraction is far less crowded with fewer carnival folk involved.