Minnesota Trip

Catching a ride on Uncle Eric's shoulders

My first Dairy Queen experience...mmm...Dilly Bars...

"Crunch" the MN Timberwolves mascot

Aunt Courtney and Harry on the slide



Mommy and Harry at cousin Jodie's Wedding

Harry and I joined Eric and Courtney for the long, long, long car ride (think12 hours) to Minnnesota. Eric drove some of it at night so Harrison mostly slept. He traveled very well. He spent the majority of the time doing 3 things - 1) Eating 2) Sleeping or 3)Watching Curious Buddies on DVD. We all know the songs by heart now. He didn't fuss nearly as much as I thought he would. We had a bag packed full of new toys or as we like to say "shiny things to distract him." Needless to say, we made frequent stops to let him stretch his legs. We had picnics at rest areas so he could run around. Uncle Eric, or "Ick" as Harry says, swung him around and showed him the joy of blowing those white, puff dandelion weed things. He thought it was pretty cool how they flew across the air. Aunt Courtney, or "Kiki" to Harry, played on the swings and the slide to help him burn off some energy.

Oh yes, Harrison enjoyed his first bites of a DQ Blizzard. Yum Yum. We even gave him his own Dilly Bar at one of our stops. He loved it. We also ran into a couple of the MN Timberwolves signing autographs at the Mankato Mall. Harry had his picture taken with the mascot, a couple of the ladies, and Sebastian Telfair & Craig Smith. The picture with the ladies was for Daddy since he had to work and couldn't make it on our little adventure.

Jodie's Wedding was beautiful. It was outside in a park with the beautiful MN scenery and fall leaves. Very nice. It was also good to see everyone and introduce them to Harry. He was a hit. He received many compliments on how cute, intelligent, and very well behaved he was. If they only knew...

Day Out with Thomas

Checking out the Moon Bounce

Realizing that "Hey, this is really fun!"

Picture with Sir Topham Hat

Cousin Matt and Harry riding Thomas the Train

Mommy, Harry, Uncle AJ and Cousin Matt

We went to the Day Out with Thomas the Train last month. Harrison had a fun time and fell asleep in the car shortly after we left - SUCCESS! He loved the moon bounce. He had a great time jumping up and down a couple times, then falling back onto his hiney. Very entertaining. We also went on a 15 minute train ride with the engine, Thomas, pulling us along. It was a fun day, but luckily, Harry isn't really into Thomas and the rest of the train paraphernalia - whew, those little toys are expensive.

Farmer for a Day

Planting the seed

Picking Apples

(NO those are NOT my boots)

Harvesting Potatoes and Pumpkins

Collecting Chicken Eggs

At the State Fair, we visited the Agtropolis Exhibit. Harrison was given a little apron and sent off to be a famer for the day. They taught him how to plant a seed - raking the sand, digging a hole, planting the seed, covering it up with a shovel, and then watering it. Then he was off to the Apple Orchard to pick apples. Next up was harvesting (digging in the sand) for potatoes and picking pumpkins off the vines. Finally to the Chicken Coop to collect eggs. Then Harrison brought his little basket to the register and was given $15 (play money - darn) for all his hard work. He spent $5 on a coloring book and played with the rest of the money for a good 5 minutes before he pulverized it. All that hard work made the little farmer hungry, so we bought some Peach Spice Jelly and some Cinamon/Sugar Cashews. Yum Yum

Petting Zoo

We went to the State Fair today with Grandma and Grandpa Hovey. Harrison had fun and was very well behaved. Here are some pictures at the petting zoo. Harry liked the goats and Al-paca the best. We also saw turtles, kangaroos, zebras, ostrichs, camels, and pigs. Oh, and at the hand washing station, there is a pedal on the ground to make the faucet turn on. Don't believe them when they tell you to hit the top with your elbow. I think I hit it about 4 or 5 times before I finally figured out they were playing a little trick on me. I'm still a little sore...

Take Me Out To The Ballgame

"Root, root, root for the CUBBIES!"

"If they don't win, it's a shame."

"For it's ONE..."

"TWO..."

"THREE strikes you're out, at the old ballgame."

Harrison has a little Sammy Sosa Cubs jersey that looks sooo cute on him. He points to the Cubs symbol and says "Cubbies". He also really likes the "baseball" song (thanks Uncle Chuckie and Sophie). He'll chime in for the "Cubbies" and 1,2,3 part. It was a nice night this past weekend so Joe, Harry, Ruby and I got some ice cream from Braums and went for a walk around the lake. As you can see from the last picture, Harry thought it was yummy. Little bit messy, but hey, you're only a kid once.

Playzone

Crawling through the "cave crawl".

Climbing towards the big slide without even looking back.

WEEEE!

Playing in the ball pit.

Where's Harrison?

It's been raining and actually flooding in Oklahoma so Harry and I were looking for some indoor fun. We ended up going to the Playzone at Dynamo Gymnastics. He had so much fun climbing and crawling all over everything. I think the slide and the ball pit were his favorites.

Tiger Safari

Needing a little persuasion from Mom.

Catching a ride with a turtle.

Riding a turtle is such hard work, better refuel.

Yes, the only thing separating Harrison and I from this tiger was a chain link fence.

Successful trip! Harrison and his friend Rylee fell asleep before we even made it out of the parking lot.

Harrison and I went with his daycare to the Tiger Safari in Tuttle. He seemed to have fun interacting with the animals. There was a little petting zoo where he was able to feed corn flakes to llamas, goats, and some other stinky furry animals. After a little prompting, he rode on the back of a turtle. We saw snakes (ehhh) bengal tigers, white tigers, lions, and bears. After the safari we had a picnic lunch and then headed off to the car. As you can see by the last picture, the tiger safari was a success. We had sleepy babies which makes for happy Mommies.