Staycation!

Happy Fourth of July :) We went to the Anderson 4th of July parade again this year, and were able to enjoy all the loud vehicles, free candy (well, a few pieces anyway), good friends and family before the rain hit...This was Marlo in the Bjorn before she fell asleep for most of the parade :)

Nana: "Ty, um, maybe you should NOT go play in the street!" Ty: "But I want some candy!"

Aunt Alex, Nana, Mama and Ty (looking for some goodies in his bag already!)

Ty and his new buddy, Davis, sitting on the curb enjoying a sweet treat.

Our great friends, The Culpeppers (soon to be 4 of them!) found us at the parade again this year, yay!

Marlo and Mama had to escape to the car to dodge the rain (and have a little "snack pack"), and Marlo was just SO happy :)

Daddies and Children (Brian and Gunnar, Tommy and Marlo-who appears to be watching a good program on the television!)

A-DOR-ABLE!

For our first little "staycation" adventure we decided to visit the Zoo. This is Daddy attempting to educate Ty on the elephants and their habitats, and their feeding habits, etc. And this is also Ty just being concerned about "elephant POOP!".

Marlo enjoying her first train ride without being in the Bjorn! Ah, Freeeeeedom!

Ty getting up close and personal with the turtle...usually these things don't move and inch when he's checking them out...

But, something must have drawn the turtle to Ty...they were becoming fast friends :)

"Hello Mr. Turtle, who's neck is longer, yours or mine?"

Our next staycation adventure was kickin' back and relaxin' in the back yard-hillibilly style. Ty was absolutely enthralled with giving Banks drinks from the hose...

Sweet.

One of our outings to Veteran's Park revealed a lovely surprise for Ty, he happened upon this stick and very seriously declared, "It's a 'y', Mommy!"

Perhaps our most favorite outing was to the lavishly landscaped grounds of the Eastgate Putt Putt (ha!)...We weren't sure if Ty would enjoy it, if he could endure the full 18 holes and the tricks of some of the holes...

Who thinks Tiger could do this???...

Daddy-lining up a shot (did he make it? ha ha ha ha! NOOO!)

Ty taking a few pointers from the pro, Daddy...or WAIT, is it the other way around?

Ty, lining up his hole-in-one...

But first, let me tell you about his method...He runs right past the teeing off area, right to about 5 inches from the hole, sets his ball down, and holding the club the wrong way, sort of pushes the ball in the hole-only to jump in excitement "Daddy, I got a hole in one!"

Here's some of the "teeing off" action...

Yep, that's a Hole in ONE! or two or three or forty!

"Wait, where's my BALL? It transported it WHERE?!" Darn those tricky holes!

And here is Ty's lovely sugary stained tongue. He "bought" a Ring Pop with his tickets from the arcade after putt-putting. If you follow the trail from Daddy's pocket to those oh so lovely inflated ticket "prices", you'll see an amount probably somewhere near $5 for that lovely cavity bomb!

We did have to make a quick trip to Eastgate Mall to Stride Rite and while shopping around and enduring what felt like tantrum after tantrum we finally attained peace and serenity by planting Ty in the aisles of vacuums at Sears...Let me tell you just how much JOY this brings Ty, beyond what I can describe really...he looks forward to the ads in the Sunday paper JUST for the vacuum selection...let's hope this infatuation carries into his teenage years, when I'll draw on this fascination to help me tidy up around the house!

And finally, we hit the Woodland Mound Water park.

Ty was quite reserved to begin with, content just to watch the fountains spurt before him...

But then he joined in the fun and saddled up on this spitting turtle (he had a thing for turtles this week, ha)!

Overall, we had an eventful STAY-cation this week and we look forward to more of them. And now, I must finish this blog so I can go get ready to scout out yet ANOTHER putt putt venue we can go to tonight! It's off to Mason, OH for us!....