A Return To July

At this, the beginning of Autumn, I feel a touch of melancholy at the loss of the nice, warm days, and the decreased flexibility in work and school schedules. To dissipate this melancholy, I thought it would be a fun idea to look back into the archives of my photographs and pull out a few images from this past Summer.

Therefore, in this retro-image post, I will focus on our trips to the Saginaw County Fair and also a picnic at Bay City State Park. Both adventures occurred in late July of 2007.

In the first image, we are visiting one of the animal exhibits at the Saginaw County Fair. Theodore and Julia are both utilizing some of their paternal genome in studying the lifestyle and behavior of the pigs at the fair:





The pigs were rather large and too sleepy and cumbersome to hold, and so Theo soon lost interest. However, little Theo found great excitement in observing an animal similar in size and age to him.... a baby chick! Here, we see him gently petting this downy feathered friend:





A few days after our visit to the Fair, all of us in the family decided it would be fun and exciting to make a picnic supper and take it to a park. We wanted to be comfortably messy and have plenty of room to play. The park we chose was Bay City State Park, and we planned our excursion for a late Monday afternoon. The weather was beautiful, with temperatures in the mid 80s. Choosing dinnertime on a Monday proved a wonderful decision as only a relatively small number of other people were using the park, and we had plenty of options on locations to eat, where to explore, and what to do.

Theo's mom prepared a wonderful feast consisting of a cold chicken & salsa salad. We ate the salad mixture on tortillas and also had fresh vegetables and various other snacks. The meal was a true gourmet delight! Theo loved the meal, and simply referred to everything as "tacos" or "cheese", but his aiming ability (success in getting food to his mouth) was as usual only around 0.500. For Theo's Mom and myself, it was pleasant being able to allow the numerous crumbs to simply fall to the ground.

Here we see our little guy sitting at the picnic table after having worked on eating his desert, chocolate pudding:



Eating energized little Theo and here we see him on the swing set at the park. Even though he is a little nervous about the swinging motion itself, he was very adamant about trying the activity (especially since his sister, Julia, is so very fond of swings):





After expending some energy following dinner, Theo and the rest of the family decided to take a long, gentle walk along the paths leading up to the beach at Bay City State Park. At the beach,we removed our shoes to be able to feel the warm sand between our toes.

Theo, having never walked on the beach before, was a little unsteady due to the sand shifting under his feet. However, after a few minutes he found his bearing and started racing up and down the beach:





These two wonderful adventures help me to recall some of the fun of this past Summer.

Theo's Dad

A Multitude of Parties for Theo!

This past weekend was the Labor Day weekend, and our family did indeed labor.... we labored to have a lot of fun! The weekend started off with attending the wedding of my cousin and his fiance (grown-ups only were invited, so no photographs of Theo or Julia). The next morning, the family awoke early and was on the road at 6:30 am to headed to Theo's Mom's family reunion held each Labor Day. This year, the reunion was held in East Jordan, Michigan. To conclude this adventure-packed weekend, my sister and brother-in-law invited all of us to their neighborhood's block party held this year on the Monday of Labor Day.

The images of little Theo start when we arrive at East Jordan. Theo bounds out of our minivan and runs around as fast as he can looking at all the reunion festivities. As Theo is especially fond of large vehicles (trucks, tractors and the like), the campers first grab his attention. Here we see young Theo running around his grandparent's camper:



When we have him stop moving for a moment and ask him what he would like to do first, he emphatically expounds about wanting to eat:



Theo's maternal grandmother has thought ahead, and purchased a large number of "cheese and cracker" snack packs for both Theo and Julia. As both are very big fans of cheese, they are both delighted. Here we see Theo enjoying his snack:



Here is a closer look at Theo as he continues to eat the cheese and crackers:



Following the food, Theo also wanted to have a beverage to drink. In doing so, he ended up getting VERY messy. So messy, in fact, that Theo's Mom decided he needed to change his shirt. Here we see our little guy dressed in his "camo" outfit:



One of the events that is a regular staple at the reunion is a "fishing" contest for the younger kids. The kids fish by guiding a fishing pole (the line and hook (a large, safe, kid-friendly hook)) through an open window of either the host's home or their camper. Hiding behind the window, the host running the event attaches a prize that the kids can then reel in:



This year, the theme of the reunion was "Easter". The kids pulled out an Easter Basket filled with all sorts of fun items. In Theo's basket, he found a wide variety of toy sea creatures (sharks, etc). Here we see him showing off his prizes to his grandpa:



Like his sister, Julia, Theo also received a pair of sunglasses. However, his were yellow:



While Theo was happy to receive his sunglasses, he was actually much happier, simply running, and running, and running from place to place at the reunion:



The next day, at my sister and brother-in-law's block party, Theodore was once again very excited to run and run and run... back and forth between the seating areas, to and from the various tables of food, and in visiting with the other guests. However, he actually stopped moving for a few moments when he saw one of the older kid's bicycle. This "mean-green" machine captivated little Theo:



Eventually, however, Theo left the bicycle in favor of petting one of the several dogs and puppies that were also at the block party:



As you can see, the weekend was a whirlwind of fun and excitement for little Theo. Be sure to check out the Adventures of Julia , to see Julia's take on this fun-filled weekend.

Theo's Dad