Balloon Festival, Part I

Last night we went to a local hot air balloon festival. We had a good time with friends and really enjoyed watching the balloons light up at night.

Philbrook Museum of Art

Mom came to visit and watch Beckett during the first/second week of August so that I could work for a few weeks and not have to worry about him. She found so many fun activities for them to do, so Blake and I crashed their party a time or two. Don't worry, they had plenty of time to themselves. 

We went to the Second Saturday event at the Philbrook Museum of Art. We aren't really art museum kind of folks, but it was a free kid event, so we decided to give it a try. We really did enjoy being outdoors in the beautiful gardens and got a couple of cute pictures out of it, so I guess it was well worth it. Beckett got to do a little drawing and painting of his own. The instructions for the impressionist art pieces were to draw something that you observed in the gardens. What did he draw? Train tracks. Same thing he draws every.single.time.  

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Working so hard on his train track drawing.

Summer Activities

Sleeping in his "nest" that he built out of stuffed animals

Always a great time with the cousins! 

Road trips to Grandma and Grandpa's

ORU got a new bus. Dad got to design it, so
this little guy was dying to see it.

Hanging out with Stella

We bought this car for B for Christmas.
 It's my favorite toy thus far. 

Beckett added a few personal touches to the map. 

Who knew that OSU was a new state?

He wanted to carry this around until I
 had a second to pour it for him.
Milkaholic? Yes

Summer legs

I rarely print off pictures, so when Beckett found
 an envelope with old pictures he was so excited
 to hang them all on the fridge. 

Kiddie Park

We took a trip to the Kiddie Park in Bartlesville during one of the rare cooler evenings of the summer. It was actually 70 degrees on Blake's birthday weekend and he sacrificed to go to a little theme park. What a great dad! The park is about an hour away, but it's only open for a few hours each evening. However, the rides are 50 cents a ride, so it was definitely worth the drive. The park doesn't look like it has been updated since it opened many years ago, but we had a blast! 

He waited so patiently to ride in the Thomas car. We expected a
meltdown when the girl in front of him chose Thomas the first time
 so that she could be close to her sister. He didn't meltdown at
 all, so we promised that he could try again. Success! That smile
made it worth the wait!

Our favorite part was riding the train at the end of the night! 

Ollie's Station Restaurant

While my parents were in town, we finally visited a local restaurant that we have been wanting to take Beckett to for a while. It's called Ollie's Station Restaurant on Route 66. Beckett absolutely loved it. The food wasn't that great, but the environment was pretty cool. Don't expect little boys to eat there. Beckett took one bite of a roll, but was too distracted to eat anything else. There were train tracks overhead that had electric trains that went around the restaurant while we ate and other big displays that were glassed in. There were so many unique trains. It was every train lover's dream!  

"Woooot woooot!"

 

They also had some antique Thomas
brand trains. How cool are these? 

Swim Lessons

At the end of June, we enrolled Beckett into swim lessons again. Unfortunately, he remembered enough from last year that he dreaded going back this year (mainly, the diving board). At his 3 year old well check, I discussed swim lessons with his doctor. I told him that I signed him up, but that he was really dreading going and he responded with, "most kids don't want to go to swim lessons." For some reason, this was all of the justification that I needed to send him. He did so well this year. Last year, he cried for almost the entire first week, and I had to spend the week watching through a window until he stopped crying. This year he had the sweetest teacher name Katie and I felt like he learned so much from her. 

Counting down the days. He got to cut
 a ring off of his chain after every lesson. 

Picking out the train we were going to buy at the end of swim lessons.
 He picked the train that he wanted from the very beginning and after
 much research and many trips to the store, he never changed his mind. 

He finally got brave enough to jump off the diving board by himself.

On the last day, his teacher took him off of the high dive.
I'm not exactly sure how tall the high dive is, but most of
the teachers didn't like going off of it. I know I wouldn't! 

Summer Activities

What have we been up to this summer?

Feeding the ducks at the park

Playing at the splash pad with friends

Relaxing on a rainy day

Feeding the turtles at the park with some new friends

Touring the local fire station

Most kids were afraid when
the firefighter completely geared up.
 However, it was a great teaching moment. 

Exercising on the bridge

Free summer movie, hoping to break
 your fear of movie theaters
 (I took him to see The Lorax last
 year and am paying the price for that one)

When your son asks you
to dance, you never ever say no

A few days before the 4th of July, we went to watch a big fireworks celebration at a local church. We got there a little bit early and had some time to kick the soccer ball and throw the football around for a little while.

Daddy and B watching the fireworks

Playing with Kate