Summer of Fun, part One

At the beginning of May I declared this summer would be called the "Summer of Fun"! Last summer was fun too, but since I wouldn't have a nursing baby this year I knew we could go out more easily and hence have a lot of fun.
We definitely stayed busy as I planned several trips and would go out and enjoy the weather each day. Did I mention I love summer!! If we weren't on a trip, we would split our time between going to a pool, a park, the museum, the zoo, playing with friends, the library or wherever else we could find to go.
With all the traveling, we spent a decent amount of time in the car. You would think the boys would be sick of the car, but they still love to get in there whenever Mom isn't paying attention. Right before we leave to go somewhere and I am grabbing the last minute things, I come to the garage to find them having a good ol' time the car, pushing every button and turning every knob. As you can see in the first picture, I used to keep a stash of gum in the car, but I figured Tate is not quite old enough to handle the three pieces of gum he had shoved in his mouth, so gum is in the house now.
One of our fun summer outings was our trip to the State Fair. I'm not sure why I enjoy a State Fair like I do, I can't remember really going to many as a kid. But with the horse shows, petting zoos, people-watching, and kettle corn, they make for an entertaining time.
Grant enjoyed the kiddie ride as Tate screamed in betrayal. He couldn't understand why he had to watch while older brother had fun. I didn't want to let Tate try a ride for fear he would be ready to get out half way through. I guess next year will be his summer of fun.
One of our favorite parts of the fair are seeing the amazingly huge horses. We try to go the day they are showing the draft horse teams. It's a fun part of the fair that not many people experience. We were in the horse arena with the majority of the people being over 65. But come on, you get to sit there, eat your food, and watch amazingly beautiful horse teams strut their stuff. And to top it off, they have a real-live old lady organ player playing elevator music with a carnival pipe organ. Awesome!
Here are the boys in front of the biggest horse we could find. Sorry you can't see the horse too well, but just know it was huge!! The horse's shoulders were at least 6 feet tall, almost level with Ryan's head! That's a big horse.
Well, that is all for this installment in the Summer of Fun, but expect more to come!