Great America

Yesterday we decided to test Mason's amusement park stamina by going to Great America. We were hoping to get a better feel of how Disney World might go on a cooler day, with shorter lines! It was a beautiful day and Mason had a blast! He even rode his first roller coaster and loved it! He got to meet Scooby Doo, Tweety, and Pepe Le Pew (he let Daddy join him this time).

 

We took a ride on Sky Trek Tower to see the whole park from the sky and decide where to go next. Mason liked trying to find Mommy's car in the parking lot!

 It was hard to get a lot of photos on rides, but here's a few. He rode on airplanes in the kids area with Erica and Tyler.

 Here he is on the Flintstone cars. He loved that he could ride these "self."

 Riding the boats with one hand on the wheel and the other on the bell!

 On the carousel (this, unfortunately, seems to be his new picture face). He got to ride 4 times so he was in heaven!!

 He kept telling us what a fun day he had and he was pretty well behaved. He even did pretty well when a ride we'd been waiting for for 45 minutes went down temporarily. Overall it was a great day and everyone left tired!

The Week of the Young Child

To celebrate the Week of the Young Child, one of the neighboring towns had a fair this weekend that included "lots of trucks." Mason and I went and, of course, ended up leaving when the trucks left! It was a lot of fun. The weather was beautiful and Mason got to climb on everything at least once. They had so many different vehicles, train rides, face painting, and many different vendors. He even got a new bike helmet, FREE!!

In the back of the police truck

 Driving the fire truck, his favorite

 Scoping out the longest limo I've ever seen

 Time for the construction area

 Heading off on his first train ride

 Saying hi to the pelican

 Getting his face painted (for the first time)

 Playing at one of the sensory tables

 Snacking on a truck cookie!

 Back to the tractor!!

 We even ate lunch from a truck!

 Second train ride

 Even Scooby Doo was there!

 All buckled up in the school bus

Daddy's Birthday Weekend

Despite having foot problems, Devin wanted to run the Shamrock Shuffle this year so we spent this past weekend (also his birthday weekend) downtown. The race expo was at Navy Pier so we started there and had lunch at Bubba Gump. Mason loved all the free samples at the expo and the bonus for him was the stop at the Children's Museum. Here's a few pictures from the times we were able to pry him away from the fire truck exhibit!

In the dino exhibit

Using the magnifying glass in the "mini museum"

Checking out the solar system with Daddy

Our little construction worker

Painting with water

He saw Spiderman stuff in here!

 We spent Saturday night walking around the city and stopped for cupcakes after dinner. We all woke up early to get ready for Daddy's race.

Ready for the finish line

At the race!

Waiting (impatiently) for Daddy

Action shot of Daddy at about mile 4

After the race, Mason requested to go to the zoo to see zebras. Of course, we took him!

At the new dino exhibit

Seeing the zebras

Riding the carousel with Daddy

Happy Easter

Mason woke up Easter morning to discover a "mess" downstairs.

After deciding that the footprints belonged to the Easter bunny, he followed them and discovered that they led to his basket and more eggs in the backyard!

One happy boy

After church we went to Grandma Monica & Papa Gene's house for Easter dinner. Mason quickly discovered that the bunny had stopped there too and left more eggs and baskets!

In his Easter outfit (he insisted on taking pictures with the bunny)

Fixing the bunny's tie

Riding Papa's motorcycle

Hunting for eggs