Cooling Off At The Pool

 It was hot out again today so Mommy and I went to the pool at our condo.  I got in first. The water was pretty cold.

 I could barely stand it.

 Finally I decided to just jump in.

 I made a pretty big splash.

We only lasted about 20 minutes. I decided the water was just too cold and I wanted a cookie instead.

A Day Out With Thomas









Mommy surprised me by taking me to 'A Day Out With Thomas'.  She made it all the way to Snoqualmie before I figured out that Thomas was in town.  I did ask her if we were going for a train ride about half way there - but she kept her secret.

We got to ride on the Thomas train. We sat in the first coach. See how close we were to Thomas.  Unfortunately, we were close to Thomas but none of the windows would open - so it was super hot.... especially considering it was one of the hottest days of the year.

The bench wasn't very comfortable - and it was pretty wobbly.

But I had a great view of the scenery going by during our ride.

 After we got off the train - there was a ton of fun stuff to do.  I played with Thomas the train play sets.

Then we went to the gift shop.  I wanted one of everything. Mommy did buy me a couple cool souvenirs.



Random Keagan







 Just some random pictures of Keagan.  It took some begging, but I finally got him to put on this Scooby Doo shirt.  He thought it was a lot more cool after he found out Uncle Joe liked Scooby.

 K dropped his tablet and busted the glass display screen.  It wouldn't work any more.  So Grandma and Grandpa bought him a new one.  This one is even cooler.

And this is just Keagan being Keagan.  This is Keagan's gun show (pew pew!)  His blue lips are courtesy of the Amazing Spiderman ice cream we bought that day.

Celebrating The 4th

Mommy had to work on the 4th, so I spent the day with Uncle Jim and Penny.  We started the day at a campground.  They had a swimming pool, a bouncy house slide and some cool bike scooter things that I got to ride.
Then we went to Penny's daughter's house.  Mommy joined us after work and we got to do fireworks!

 We played with snakes.

 Watched some fountain fireworks.



And even set off some smoke bombs.



Every time I lit something, I dropped the punk and ran.  Evidently I'm supposed to take it with me.

Nicholas and I set off smoke bombs and tanks.  It was fun until the tank pointed at us and fired.  No one got hurt.

Most of the time I watched from the sidewalk.

We played with sparklers.

The neighbors set off about 10,000 firecrackers at once.  It was LOUD and went on forever. They had quite a mess to clean up.

The fireworks got louder and brighter as the night got darker.

 The neighbors on the corner had 2 trucks filled with fireworks. They set off fireworks for a long time.

 OOOOOOO

AAAHHHHH!

We had to dodge fireworks as we drove home but we made it.  I fell asleep on the way because I didn't take a nap.  Then I slept until almost 7:30 the next morning (which made Mommy pretty happy).

The Long Trip Home

 

Vacation is over. We had to drive back to Fargo so we could fly back home.

I didn't want to go home. I even tried to convince Mommy to let me stay with Grandma and Grandpa, but she said no.

 The weather on the drive there should have been a warning about how the rest of the trip was going to go.  Mommy switched our connecting flight in Minneapolis so we wouldn't have a 3 1/2 hour layover.  But storms in Minnesota closed down the airport and by the time they reopened we would miss our earlier flight. 

 So Mommy switched our flights to the next day and we stayed at Joe and Emma's one more night.  I ran around the airport while we waited for Aunt Emma to come and get us. (she brought me chicken nuggets).

 The next morning, we actually got off the ground in time.

I got to watch some cool clouds on the way to Minnesota.

 When we got there, I played on a free iPad while we waited for our connecting flight.  Then Mommy had a brilliant idea. The flight was oversold so she volunteered to take a later flight so we could get vouchers to use for our tickets to Phoenix in November.  But after our flight left, they told us that there were no seats available on the next flight (like they'd promised). The next flight was 6 hours away.  So we got free meal vouchers, ate some lunch and then spent a lot of time at the kids play area.

By the time we finally got on the last flight, I was very tired and cranky.







I fell asleep before the flight even got off the ground.  We got home 16 hours than originally scheduled, but it was such a fun trip.

Dinosaurs!

 

One day we went to Grandma's work. They have dinosaurs!

 

 Check out these big bones.

 These rocks are awesome.  They change colors in different light.

 That's one big fish and turtle.

 Look out for those tusks.

 They also had buffalo.

 For some reason, they have a place for you to smell buffalo poop. 

This was a cool little video screen of dinosaur stuff. I thought it was a video game and didn't want to leave.

Family Fun Day In Bismarck

We decided to go bowling one day.  I tried getting the ball down the aisle on my own. It helped that there were bumpers in the gutters.

 

 Grandpa is pretty good. He won a sportsmanship award and his name is engraved in a trophy case.

 Then we stopped at Fort Hancock to look at a train.

 It's right next to a real train track.

 I got really close to a real train.  I waved - and then we all jumped really high when the engineer honked the horn at us.

 The train stopped next to us.

Grandpa and I had to get a closer look.

Grandma and Grandpa's House

 Finally, we get to spend a week at Grandma and Grandpa's house.  Can't wait to play in that yard.

 Grandpa had to mow the lawn. I sat in the window and watched.

 It's a big back yard.

 I rode my bike down the long driveway. It's hard to peddle on the rocks though.

 Then Grandpa fired up the 4 wheeler.

 It was so much fun.  I ended each ride the same way, yelling "Again!"

 Grandpa had a birthday while we were there.  We got yummy ice cream cake.

 Then Grandpa showed me how you're actually supposed to play with the pool table.

 He showed me how to line up my shot.

Did I do it right?