Osborne

Today Oliver and I went to Osborne, our County Conservation Board's park to see animals native to our region and enjoy a picnic lunch. I hadn't been to Osborne since I was in middle school and it had changed a lot since then. I remember the Nature Center in the basement being more grand and having more animals in it but all we found were turtles, 2 snakes, and a bluegill for live animals and the rest were stuffed. The highlight of going to Osborne was always seeing Ben the Bear, unfortunately it was Ben's nap time and we only saw his paws sticking out of his little house. Here are pictures of some of the animals. 

A coyote or "yote" Oliver called him

A deer. The deer was right up to the fence. I'm sure we could have touched it but really this is as close to a deer as I'd like to be especially when I see them every morning when I'm driving to work at 4:30am.

 After the doe was visiting us, soon her twin fawns came out as well. The sign said they were males born in May.

 The wolf from a distance.  

 A log house just Oliver's size. He didn't spend much time playing though because he wasn't a big fan of the sand or "dirt" as he called it. 

 The choo choo

 Driving the train

 We sat by the deer and coyote for lunch and Oliver kept calling them all puppies throughout the whole time we were eating. He would get excited seeing the fawns jump.  

 Mmmm "nana" with his crazy hat hair

I had made homemade chicken salad sandwiches before leaving the house this morning and homemade chex mix. It made for a nice picnic. It was a fun morning just Oliver and I. We did have to call Shawn on the way home to rub it in that we were having fun while he was working. 

"ater" (Water)

 Saturday we were outside early in the morning before it got hot. Oliver wanted to help Shawn wash the motorcycle but I think he just enjoyed playing in the water. 

Oliver would put his hand into the water from the hose and giggle with excitement. Shouting "ater cold!"

Then he played in the gravel on the driveway and while Shawn wasn't looking smeared his hands on the motorcycle making Shawn have to rewash that area. 

He helped me then water the garden and "owers" or flowers as we known them as. He ended up wet from head to toe. Guess we know next time we have the hose out to just put his swimming suit on. 

Uff da Daze 2012

Uff da Daze in St. Olaf was this past weekend and the parade was full of tractors and politicians. If you have kids this is parade for them, it is short and there is a lot of candy to go around for all kids. Oliver loved the parade but couldn't get the concept of the candy. We would tell him to go get it, take his hand over to it, and he would pick it up and throw it again. I guess he saw the people in the parade throwing it so he thought that that's what you're supposed to do. It was adorable! Here's some pictures from the day.

Shawn and Oliver on the Oliver 770

 The slow tractor race was after the parade and lunch where the object of the race is to be the slowest tractor. Shawn and his dad raced the first heat together, Chuck on the Oliver 70 and Shawn on the 770.

 Well you can see that Chuck won, he was the slowest of this match-up.

 The 2nd match-up was with Chuck and a International tractor and as you can see in this race we lost as well. That International tractor ended up winning the race and the prize.

 And of course, we cannot go downtown without going to the park so he could "wing." Many tantrums have happened while walking downtown if you don't stop at the park for him to swing awhile. He knows the way to the park and if you don't go straight across the street you'll see a meltdown. 

It was a good day, beautiful weather, and a long afternoon nap!

90's to 30's???

Monday was my only day off of Memorial Day weekend so Sunday night we met together at the neighbors for bean bags, drinks and snacks. Oliver went to bed late at 9pm because he was having too much fun playing with the neighbor girls so Monday morning we all slept in until after 7. It was a relaxing morning and day for me. I think I even told Shawn at one point that I was bored.

 It was getting warmer throughout the day but not as warm as Sunday and its 90 degree temps. Shawn went off on a motorcycle ride so Oliver played outside most of the afternoon. We went over the Grandpa and Grandma Doerscher's and they got the pool out for Oliver to play in. Grandpa and Grandma Peterman had him in their little pool Sunday Shawn had said, and I was sad I missed out on the fun so I wanted to do it again today. Not like we won't have other warm days I know, but I had to see him in his new swimsuit. 

Shawn had said that he wouldn't sit for his parents on Sunday either in their pool and it looked that same way for us.

 Refusing to sit so he just squatted 

 One of the neighbor girls and his friend from daycare came to play too!

 She didn't like all of Oliver's splashing though

Now it's hard to believe that we went from 90 degrees on Sunday to a wind chill in the 30's this morning. Definitely won't be swimming today but it is supposed to warm slightly. 

Uff da Daze is tomorrow and Shawn and Chuck are putting the Oliver tractor's in the slow pull race so we'll see if we can win this year. Took home 2nd last year with the Oliver 70. I can't believe that it is June already!