On Saturday we made the best $30 garage sale purchase ever.  Lex is now the proud owner of a kid-sized electric John Deere tractor and trailer.  As you can imagine, he’s pretty obsessed with it.  He talks about it constantly, and every morning we have to have a discussion about why he can’t start riding it before he gets out of his pajamas (or at least eats breakfast).

One day we even took the tractor to a nearby park with a large open field:

Tim’s parents are here visiting, and on Thursday we all took a day trip over to McMinnville to tour the aviation museum there.

The museum houses the Spruce Goose, the famous (and humungous) wood plane that Howard Hughes built.  It was hard to take a good picture of it while standing there because of its size.

Luckily there was a kid-friendly area for Lex at the museum:

and I played too…

There was a free plane ride that went up and down and around in circles.  I wasn’t sure Lex would like it, but he bravely flew by himself.

We also toured the space museum, which Tim enjoyed.  Meanwhile Lex played outside on a playground with his grandma.

I can’t wait to go back again next summer.  An indoor water park is being built (see the picture below).  I was told that there will eventually be hydrotube slides coming out of the 747 on the roof, and a wave pool to play in down below.

On Saturday we joined the Ramms for a family outing to Horning’s Hideout, a large property with a small stocked lake where people can camp, fish, play frisbee golf, etc.

One of the first things we did was share a picnic lunch together:

Lex and Gabby had a great time catching salamanders with nets:

Here’s three of the victims (but they were released back into the water shortly thereafter):

The kids posed for a picture in their life jackets as we got ready to take paddle boats out on the lake:

My boys:

There was a small playground by our picnic site, and the tire swing was a big hit:

There were also several peacocks just roaming around the property.  Lex wanted to pet one, but we didn’t think that would go over very well.

We had a terrific morning there and still somehow managed to get Lex down for a nap at home before he collapsed from exhaustion.

Tim had Monday off of work, so we decided to spend the morning at the zoo.  There’s a new dinosaur exhibit there that we hadn’t seen yet.

I wasn’t sure if Lex would be scared of all the huge creatures that growled and spit water on us as we walked by, but he seemed to really enjoy it.  (although he did refuse to pose with me in the picture below)

There was even a sand digging pit that allowed budding young archaeologists (and me) to uncover dinosaur bones with our paint brushes and shovels.

We didn’t just go see the dinosaurs.  We also hit a few other animal exhibits along the way. Here’s a cute picture of a green lorikeet drinking nectar from the boys’ paper cup.  (And yes, it was cold yesterday, which is why you see my husband in full winter garb on July 5th.)

What a fun and busy day this has been!  Loretta’s neighborhood always puts on a great block party for the 4th of July, and (keeping to our yearly tradition of being with Loretta on her birthday) we joined in on some of the activities.  This morning was a group walk, followed by a pancake feed.  Then afterwards Lex played in the park with Gabby.

The neighborhood parade started around noon, and it was short but sweet.  Lex loved seeing all the police cars and motorcycles drive by.  We bought KFC and had a picnic on the grass as we watched the parade, but I think Lex was too excited to actually eat anything but a tootsie pop that was thrown to him.

And here’s a picture of our tired boy as we headed home (about two hours past his usual naptime.)

After we had all napped and recovered from our busy morning, we headed over to an evening bbq with some of the families in our play group.

Here’s Lex and Jack playing in the sand/mud:

We set off fireworks in true toddler fashion…at approximately 6 pm in broad daylight.  Lex thoroughly enjoyed himself.  He threw pop-its on the ground and clapped and shouted as every fountain spewed sparks.

(It was still fun, but I have to admit that sparklers lose a lot of their entertainment value when they’re not done in the dark.)

Anyways, we had a great 4th and I hope you all did too.  Our tired little boy hasn’t made a peep since I put him to bed, despite all the late night fireworks that are now whistling and booming outside his bedroom window.