Daddy’s View

Eric is such a sweet little boy.  Friday evening, Mommy and I were getting ready to go out for dinner to celebrate our wedding anniversary.  I heard Eric in the hallway looking for Mommy, so I told him to come in because Mommy was in here.  He came in and announced that he had a question.  He walked into the bathroom where Mommy was fixing her hair or jewelry or something, and he stopped and said very sincerely, “Mommy! You look beautiful!”  A short while later in theliving room, he said again, “You look beautiful, Mommy!”  It was just after this last comment that Mommy told the babysitter, Grandma G, that he could have whatever he wanted 🙂

Saturday morning, Eric and I got up first.  Mommy slept in a little.  Eric and I ate breakfast and were sitting on the sofa when I asked him if he wanted to go to the Indianapolis Air Show.  He had seen the commercials on TV and told Mommy several times during the week that he wanted to go.  When I asked him about it, he casually said that Tyler was going with us.  This caught me off guard, because Mommy told me that she had not mentioned to Eric that we would be going to the air show.  We had already pre-arranged for Tyler to go with us.  Eric must have overheard Mommy and/or Grandma talking about it.  Anyway, we both got ready to go, went to pick up Tyler, and headed for the air field.

At the air show, there were a lot of activities for everyone.  Plenty of airplanes and helicopters on display for viewing on the tarmac.  Special areas were set up for children to have fun.  One area was a large tent with learning activities focused on math skills.  This included a balloon rocket, toy rollercoaster, air cannons, and more.  Eric and I made a balloon rocket, and it flew all the way across the tent until it stopped at the other end.  Eric helped build a rollercoaster and run the car down and around the track.  It was a lot of fun!

Another area for the kids had several inflatable “bouncy houses” and slides.  Eric had fun bouncing, climbing, and sliding.  He also got strapped into a harness to jump really high on a trampoline.  Unlimited fun available but only a limited time to take advantage of it.

They also had a small car show.  Eric had the opportunity to sit in a real race car!  He thought it was very cool!

Obviously, we saw plenty of flying airplanes, some fast, some loud, some doing tricks, some flying together.  It was a spectacular sight!  We watched, oohed, aahed, took pictures, ate hot dogs, drank lemonade, and had much fun all afternoon!  As we were leaving and waiting in a long line of traffic to get out of the parking lot, I asked Eric if he had fun today.  He replied, “I had too much fun!”  It was a long day, we all had a lot of fun, and we were very tired.  We took Tyler home and headed home ourselves.  Mommy was happy to see us when we got back.  Eric enjoyed telling all about the day and showing Mommy and Grandma G his bag full of stuff that he came home with, including a flexible calculator, a toy plane, and an activity book, all in a cool backpack.

Today, we stayed home for fun.  Blake and his parents came over and we played in the yard.  I had Eric’s pool filled and the sprinkler turned on, and we all had water pistols to get each other wet.  It was a great way to enjoy such a hot afternoon.  We all had fun, and we were all again very tired at the end of the day.

I thought I should get up to date with my blog, since spring is almost over.  Summer officially begins later this week.  We had a busy May and June so far.

We spent Memorial Day weekend in Cincinatti with friends.  Eric was excited with anticipation leading up to the weekend.  We drove together with Eric’s friend Blake and his parents.  Eric and Blake rode together in the back seat of our Yukon.  Blake’s parents rode in the middle seat.  We all got out of work a little early, so we could arrive in Cincinatti for dinner.  We packed up the car and drove over to Blake’s house.  Blake came running over to greet us.  He was just as excited as Eric to spend the weekend together.  We had big plans and a busy schedule ahead of us.  It only took a few minutes to get Blake and his parents packed into the car and away we went!

We stopped along the way for the boys to go potty.  We just happened to stop at a DQ, so naturally we had to get some ice cream!

Once we were checked into the hotel, we got back in the car in search of dinner.  The retaurant we planned to eat at turned out not to be there any more.  So much for trusting the GPS.  I guess I will need to update the maps before our next trip.  We finally found an Italian restaurant.  We had fun eating spaghetti and meatballs.  The boys were wound up pretty high and having a lot of fun!

 Start with some bread and butter.

 Dig into the spaghetti and meatballs!

 Boy, these are good!

Saturday morning, we slept in a little, so Blake and his parents were waiting for us to have breakfast and get ready to go.  We had planned to spend the day at the Cincinatti Zoo.  We walked around the zoo and looked at lots of animals.  The boys were having a blast!  We saw camels, gorillas, giraffes, birds, snakes, frogs, elephants, lions, tigers, and monkeys.  We had ice cream and rode the carousel.  It was sunny and very hot, so we drank plenty of liquids and took several short breaks.  We ate lunch inside the air conditioning.

 Eric compares his hand to a gorilla hand!

 Eric wanted to ride on the white tiger.

 We brought home a friend from the zoo.  We wanted to keep him safe.

We went back to the hotel for a short rest and to clean up for dinner.  We headed to Montgomery Inn for dinner.  We (the adults anyway) were looking forward to some good ribs.  Dinner was delicious and fun!  Back at the hotel, we played in the swimming pool for a while before bedtime.  Eric loved it!  It was a very long and exhausting day.  Eric was asleep in no time at all.  I passed out soon after, and Mommy was not far behind.  We slept in again Sunday morning, though not as late as Saturday morning.  We got breakfast and headed out to the Newport Aquarium.

 Ready…set…jump!

The boys were just as excited to go to the aquarium as they were the day before to go to the zoo.  I’m pretty sure they had just as much fun, too.  We saw all kinds of fish, sharks, turtles, birds, bats, octopus, crabs, penguins, and more.  Eric and I were able to pet a shark, too!  Mommy took pictures from a distance 🙂

After the aquarium, we all piled into the car again and headed for home.  We dropped off Blake and his parents at their house and arrived home at our house just in time for dinner.  While we were spending the day looking at fish and rolling down the highway, Grandma G was busy making us a great big dinner!  Grandma’s really are wonderful!

We went camping on the weekend of June 9.  The weather was so nice all week, so I told Mommy that I really wanted to go camping, so we made last minute reservations and packed up the camper.  I got off work early Friday, and we drove to Prophetstown  State Park just north of West Lafayette.  We arrived at the campground and got the camper set up just in time for a slightly late dinner.  Mommy heated up some hot dogs, while Eric and I finished setting up the camp site for the weekend.  Eric is a very good helper when we set up the camper.  It is his job to pull out the step, so we can walk in and out of the camper.

 Ready to go!

 There is always time for the playground.

Saturday morning, we played for a while at the camp site, took a nature hike with the naturalist at the park, and drove into town for lunch and some shopping.  We spent much of the afternoon on the Purdue campus.  We started with lunch at the Triple XXX on the hill.  Mommy wanted to buy Eric and me some matching shirts at the Purdue store.  We tried a couple different stores but no luck with the matching shirts.  We drove around campus and I gave Mommy and Eric a driving tour.  A lot has changed since I went to school there a few years ago, but I managed to find the major landmarks.

When we we arrived back at the campground, we stopped at the Historic Prophetstown farm.  We saw chickens, peacocks, cows, pigs and horses.  We even tasted a waffle that was cooked on an old wood stove in the farm house.

 Eric apparently studying how to be messy 🙂

 Eric and Mommy admire the size of the windmill.

Eric settled in for the night and went to sleep.  Mommy and I stayed up to sit by the camp fire.  We toasted a few marshmallows and attempted to burn all of our fire wood.  Eric and I got up early Saturday morning and finished burning the wood.  It was a little chilly in the morning, so the fire was welcome.

 The sunrise as viewed from our campsite.

Eric was again a very good help when we packed up to go home.  Winding the crank to bring the camper down is Eric’s job, and he does it very well.  Thirty cranks and he stops, so we can check that all of the camper sides are tucked in before bringing it all the way down.  Of course, the last task is to push the step back in, since we will not be going in and out any more this weekend.

We drove home, unpacked, and played in the front yard for a short while.  Mommy fixed some sandwhiches for lunch, and Grandma G cooked us a very nice dinner.  It was a very nice weekend camping.  Eric had a lot of fun!

This last weekend, we had a small party to celebrate Aunt Carol’s birthday and Father’s Day.  Eric always loves it when we have a party!  he gets to visit with everyone and plenty of play time.  Most of all, we had cake and ice cream after dinner!  On Sunday, we did very little.  Mommy and Eric brought me breakfast in bed.  Mommy carried in my breakfast, and Eric carried in a vase with flowers.  Eric climbed into bed with me while I ate my breakfast.  We shared my bacon.  When I was finished, Eric and Mommy had their breakfast in the living room.  Eric came back to climb into bed with me again, and we played games on the iPad and rested together.  Later in the afternoon, I got out Eric’s pool and filled it with water.  He played while Grandma G and I sat on the porch and watched him.  All in all, it was a pretty lazy day, but the best part was spending time with Eric.