Harford County Farm Fair

Due to the parking issues, the boys were able to experience their 1st ride in a school bus. They were beyond excited about it and kept on repeating "i ride the bus."

 

We started to walk around and checked out the animal stalls.  First up, were the pigs.

It was a huge surprise for Connor to actually reach out to touch the sheep.  he toys with the idea of getting close to dogs so the sheep came as a real surprise.

The cows are always a crowd favorite at our house.  Before spotting the cows in the stalls, this black cow had Connor's attention along with his water buckets that he was so helpful to put his hands in. Why, Connor, why??

On to the stalls...

The boys were intrigued by all of the tools and vehicles that they saw. They are available for hire..

Muscles pushing the wheel barrow was my favorite!

Jackson moves through the stalls so fast in comparison to Connor, who could just stare at the cows for hours on end.  Michael and I ended up comparing notes on what each boy liked and inevitably, there are things that whomever walking with Jackson will miss.   After looking at the slideshow of pictures, Michael commented that he didn't even realize that either one had done the maze. It's amazing how much you see and don't get to see with either boy when being at the same place with them.

These newborn chicks were adorable. Jackson was offered the chance to hold one and I was so concerned that he would be a little too excited and he did do a little squeezing but did respond when I said gentle.

The boys discovered a new animal, the alpaca, and saw some horses.  I found out afterwards that Jackson actually pet a horse.  We can't recall his name but this picture of the brown horse is the one that I pet, Fudge.  Connor was so happy that I pet him as he was a little tense being that close to the horse.

This is as close as Connor would get to the pony.

One of my favorite pictures of my favorite guys and one big pink bunny!

The Wood Chipper

In the afternoon prior to the most recent storm that sent us packing on our camping trip and meandering around like nomads, I contacted the BGE contact about getting some work done on our trees.

The wires were covered with limbs and I was ALWAYS afraid that something was going to snap and come crashing into our house or the other three that it reaches.  Sherry was awesome and we decided on a house pass to remove EVERYTHING that was touching any and all wires.  It saved us a ton of money and gave the boys a welcome delay in their nap.

 Connor was in full-on stare mode.

 Jackson was so happy about the Wood Chipper.

The wood chippers in action.

The wood chipper itself.  It is now on our list of vehicles to search for when driving around.

Jakson and Connor's version of the Lion Sleeps Tonight

The boys, well Jackson, has a love/hate relationship with the Lion King.  He absolutely LOVES the music and songs but is TERRIFIED of Scar, the hyenas and the scene leading up to "Can you feel the love night" when Nala and Simba reconnect. 

He adores Pumba and Timon but CAN NOT watch the scene.  We had recently started singing the song to the boys and this was one of the versions that I was able to catch on video one random Friday morning.  At the end, the boys are poking fun of Jackson's terrified state during the scuffle between Pumba, Timon and Nala when Pumba screams "She's going to eat me!!"

celebrating the 4th on the 5th

Michael planned to take the morning of the 5th off so that we could go to the pool with Michael and Sophia and let the boys have some fun since the celebrations on the 4th weren't so spectacular.  We learned rather quickly that the boys' cousins don't wake up that early so we sent Connor up to go get Sophia ready for some fun at the pool.

When we got to the pool, Jackson made himself right at home.

He was VERY concerned about the boats and made sure to not share any with Connor.

Connor took over control of the animals so all was good.

 

While we are at the pool, I called our home number and the phone started ringing. So, not only did we got in some quality time in at the pool but we were also able to confirm that we had power. It was a good day.

a not-so-sparkly and fun 4th of July

As we had decided not to stay another night at the hotel, this day was designated to pack up and deliver all the rest of our food to a freezer/refrigerator in hopes that we could keep it and not throw it away.  Unfortunately, there was a LOT of driving and a lot of sweating with all of the maneuvering.

We decided to stay with Joe and Missy who had been offering but due to the distance from Michael's office, we hadn't taken them up on it.  By the time we got to their house after delivering food to Corey's freezer and had fed the boys, we had already had enough for the day.

The boys played with Phoebe and we settled in for what was going to be our last night of camping.

It was an incredibly frustrating day as there were 1,950 houses without power in our area and as of mid-day on the 4th, all but 140 of the houses, had been restored.  We just happened to buy our house on the wrong side of the street, I guess. Needless to see, it was my least favorite day of camping and I was just so ready to go home.

We planned to go to the pool with Michael and Sophia the next day and were looking for the happy signs of a ringing phone to signal that our power was back and little did we know that BG&E was on board to finally deliver and restore our power.

STILL camping

There were several estimated times that our power was supposed to be returned in the past couple of days that came and went and it was starting to take its toll on me.  To keep the kids occupied and cool, we decided on the mall. 

Before the mall, Connor was making calls and recreating one of his Little People DVDs where his girl crush, Maggie, was the controller at Wheelieville racetrack.  He had memorized her lines and awas repeating them almost word for word into the phone.  Their memories are amazing.

 

While I was getting ready, Connor was his typical "little mother" self and taking care of his penguin giving him some eye drops.

The mall is an incredibly popular choice for the boys lately due to the newly opened toy store on the upper level.  There is a Chuggington wooden rail system and massive amount of plush including a large lion that Connor has fallen for.  Jackson doesn't want to share the train table with Connor and consistently encourages him to play with the plush by walking over to them and letting Connor know what animals he is "missing" out on.  He is a master at manipulation at 2 1/2. Help us and Connor.

We had decided that this was going to be our last night of camping in the hotel room. Since the next day was Fourth of July and Michael was going to be off, it made sense to take advantage of having him around.  Good night to the hotel. 

first FULL day of camping

After waking up a little later than normal (thank you heavy curtains), and before the boys had breakfast, the wheelies took a spin in the tub.   

In an attempt to keep things as "normal" for the boys as possible, we went to the Ultimate Play Zone for some jumping and sliding.

After the fun at the Ultimate Play Zone, we returned for lunch, naps and some chip snacking.

The boys have been so resilient during this entire process and we couldn't have been happier with how well they have "adjusted" to camping.  Despite the early bed times for EVERYONE and having to pretend to take naps to ensure that the boys actually get one, we are hopeful to get back into the house soon.  There have been many a update but nothing all that promising on the prospect of returning to the house.









The boys are so resilient and have not

Checking in and getting comfortable with our camp site

After spending the night with Gina and Tony and waking up to discover a weekly forecast of triple digit temperatures and no update on return of power, we contacted the Extended Stay and booked a room for at least two days.  The room had a full size refrigerator so we could save all of our food and money on meals.

Connor did a great job in his role of door guard. 

We were bordering on a situation due to check-in timing of no naps plus the potential added issue of using a pack n play BUT the boys did not have any issues, which gave us great hope for the rest of the time that we were going to have to stay.

Getting the animals sorted while waiting for his brother to wake up from his nap.

After dinner, we finished the night with a bath and hoped for a successful night of sleeping.