California!

It feels like summer is in full swing! We have been looking forward to our trip to California for a few months now. It was so fun to travel this time with Colter because he could process what was going on- we were going to get on a plane, we were going to see Gigi & Grandpa, etc. He LOVED being at the airport and watching the planes take off an on. The flights were not amazing. He missed naps on both legs so behavior was less than stellar, but we survived. Little lady didn't have much to say about the flights. When we landed in California, we were given our first surprise of the trip, unloading through the back of the airplane right onto the tarmac. I'm so bummed this picture didn't turn out, but you can kind of see how close we were to the plane. Colter kept talking about the engines spinning around and around.

The next day we went to a train museum in the middle of nowhere. We thought it was closed, but we were just the first car there! Colter was in heaven. The entrance to the museum had a railroad crossing with a few different signal lights. Colter didn't want to move. He was almost frozen because he didn't know how to take all of the different sites in. The museum is basically a big area of different train cars. One of the first thing we found was a garden of sorts with a bunch of different signal lights. It was Colter heaven. There were buttons you could push that would make the different signals light up or move. That could have been the whole museum and Colter would have been thrilled but there was more.. Greg, Ben and Colter were walking around looking at different cars when they saw a real working diesel engine. They were checking it out when the conductor asked if they wanted a ride! What a blessing from above. All 3 of them go to go inside the engine and drive with the engineer while it was moving. Greg called Mary and told her that they were coming to the station on the train and we were so confused. Then we heard the horn and watched the tracks and realized they were actually inside the engine! Seeing his huge grin and hearing his little voice yell "SIGNAL LIGHTS!!"  was one of my favorite parenting moments so far.

On Monday we mainly hung out at Ben's parent's house, but also ventured out to a park to enjoy in and out burger.

My favorite part of the trip was watching Colter in their backyard. He would roam from one thing to the next for hours. One minute he'd be watering a tree, the next he'd be playing in a bucket of water, then he'd be picking/eating blueberries, then he'd start digging in the dirt, then he'd go put cars in their fountain. It was non stop. He was filthy and exhausted by the end of the day.. just like little boys should be. I was so thankful that Mary & Greg were so gracious with letting Colter explore. He definitely took way too many unripe blueberries off the bush, filled up their fountain with dirt, threw potatoes that he was supposed to be gathering for dinner, and probably dug 3,000 holes. We ate dinner on the patio every night and soaked up the beautiful weather.

Tuesday Ben and I took Colter bowling. I realized walking into the alley that it might not have been the best choice for an activity with Colter. He's sensitive to noise and he doesn't always like things falling over.. which is pretty much what bowling is about. He definitely took a while to warm up, perhaps it was the out of the oven cookie that helped, but he eventually got into it. Almost every day that I have gotten him from his nap, he's asked to go bowling again and "knock the pins down."

Wednesday we did a little swimming at one of their friend's pool and spent more time with Ben's grandparents. It made me teary on numerous occasions seeing how many people love our kids so deeply. There are so many people in this world who don't have anyone that cares deeply about them, and our kids have so many people that just adore them. It is a huge blessing. 

I loved the slowness and ease of this vacation. No rush to go from activity to activity, we could just be. Early morning walks, lots of amazing food, tons of play time inside and out, a few movies, lots of games.

 It was just what we needed to kick off summer 2013!!

This was our view as we were coming home. Amazing.