Missing Summer already. Just before school started we went to Utah for my mom’s graduation. Since I was at her last graduation I figured it was only fitting that I came to her next one.
Obviously the dress code in Hawaii was a little more lax…
Don’t worry, I didn’t wear the same thing to her latest graduation. As if!
Congrats Grandma! A Masters in Public Administration, just because! Wow!
I think we are slowly exiting the Thomas phase of Aedan’s life. It is kind of sad. However the novelty of trains never seems to wear out, and you think it would given the fact that we used to live by train tracks, and we currently have trains run behind our backyard. We discovered that we live near America’s Largest Railway Museum and they were hosting a Day out with Thomas event. It was a hot hot day so if you don’t enjoy seeing sweaty foreheads, stop right here.
Aedan’s favorite yellow double decker train.
The fairs here in the Midwest are quirky, there’s no getting around that. Last year we wrote about the Arcola Broomcorn Festival and as boring as it may sound this is actually our 4th (I think) time back and we love it!
We hit some of our favorite vendors and a few new ones as well. Deep-fried candy bars, who would have thought? I saw on the news that a vendor at our state fair was selling chocolate covered bacon. I think if it is good for you it doesn’t belong at the fair. Just sayin’…
The parade was fun (yes folks, that is me still pregnant) and for someone who LOVES (understatement) all things with wheels, Aedan sure did a lot of this during the parade…
Gotta love the Lawn Rangers of course.
Hey wait, can I zoom in on this for a second? Is that Obama with a plunger?
Well anyway, a few extra quirks caught our attention this year:
Puppet and Drama Ministry? Okay don’t get me wrong, I’m a big fan of using all sorts of teaching methods, in moderation. This seemed a little silly though but I’d be willing to give it a try... Course, I’ve never been a fan of Veggie Tales either…
And in case you forgot Grandparents Day yesterday: get granny a H.A.G.S. Tshirt. I know my grandma would have got a good laugh out of it! (no we didn’t buy one for you Grandma, maybe next year)
Our second set of visitors this month was my dear ol’ ma and pa (I sure hope I don’t get in trouble for saying it like that…). Unfortunately they won’t be able to be here when the baby is born as they both work full-time, go on frequent business trips, and/or take classes that start up next week. But we were lucky enough to have them here for a short while. 
And he couldn’t wait to take them to all of his favorite places.
Even if they were a little bit cheesy…
A new one for us was the Chanute Aerospace Museum which proudly claims to be the largest airplane museum in the whole state of Illinois. Why oh why haven’t we checked it out sooner?
The people working there were amazed that my 3 yr old even knew what a biplane was. They obviously don’t know how a little boy’s mind works… at least this little boy. I can even ask him what P-L-A-N-E spells and he knows it, which is apparently cooler to know than to know when I spell A-E-D-A-N. 
If it weren’t for my dad and for the fact that it was his birthday, we probably would have never ventured out to a bluegrass festival in an Amish amusement park. 
We definitely felt like the youngsters in the crowd for this event. I actually ran into a friend at this festival who exclaimed, “I didn’t imagine seeing you here!” to which I replied, “I didn’t imagine seeing anyone I know here!” 
My how time flies!
