To demonstrate how important this is to me... I was up till 2:30 am last night writing yesterday's post. Hopefully it won't take me quite so long to get current tonight.

Sleeping in is nice, but I want to start getting up early to maximize the amount of my vacation time in which I am not the only one awake. My dad wakes up early every day and Ruth tells me Isaiah has been having a wonderful time getting up early and talking with Grandpa Roger out on the back porch. It's neat that Grandpa and Isaiah have some time alone together, but I want to join them in the morning sun.

Day 5- Monday

Isaiah and Dalton are friends. Dalton came to Isaiah's 2nd birthday a couple of months ago. They played together very well for a 2 year old and a 3 year old. They only had a few sharing incidents the whole day.

My dad, who had been staying with my sister Robin, arrived about 10:30 am. Kroger and Isaiah descended on him immediately. It is really amazing how Kroger has taken to him. Isaiah is very sweet and social and he takes to people quickly. It's no surprise he is fast friends with Grandpa Roger, but Kroger usually takes a long time to make friends with someone. She is very skittish around strangers, especially big guys, but she took to my dad instantly. As soon as he sat down in our house the first time, Kroger was already pestering him to pet her or throw her ball.

We were talking about what to have for lunch when Kroger started barking. Whenever she starts barking like that, I look out the front door, and sure enough, there was a stranger there who had probably just (tried) to ring the doorbell I aim to fix before my vacation is over. When I asked if I could help him he asked if the Ford van was mine. I said no and called my dad out to talk to him about it.

He wanted to buy the thing. Evidently a van very similar to my dad's played an important role in a previous era of this guy's life. He kept looking around and around it, thumping body panels and listening to the solid ker-chunk of the doors closing. He thought the way Dad had converted the back section of the van into comfortable living quarters was pretty neat and he was impressed at the state the van is in. Eventually he asked how much it would take to buy it. Dad gave him a number and the Dude looked thoughtful.

"That's what it'd take, eh?" he asked with his hands on his hips looking at the van.
"Yup," said Dad "I don't really even want to sell it..."
"Hoo boy, Momma would sh*t if I drove up to the house in that!"
"It is fun to drive," Dad replied.
"Yessir, Momma would sh*t, but I wouldn't mind makin' her sh*t again. Here's my card. You call me if you change your mind about selling it, OK?"

We both chuckled as he drove off.

After lunch (Dad and I had hot dogs cut in half the long way and piled on toasted bread as sandwiches, the boys had grilled cheese sandwiches, and Ruth had leftover cool veggie pizza.) Dalton took a nap. We took Isaiah's monitor outside so we could here how Dalton was doing and we all went to work pulling weeds out of the rocks along the side of the house. I would like to get the whole area beside the house straightened up and looking nice while I'm off, but the weeding was the majority of what we accomplished. Watching Isaiah had a certain impact on the productivity of our group- we traded off keeping an eye on him while the other two weeded.

Eventually his interest was captured by the rainwater in the bottom of a couple of flower pots. He entertained himself by "doing dishes". He kept dropping rocks into the water and splashing them around. Then he'd take them out and put them into the water in another flower put to rinse, I guess. He likes to play in water, but I suppose that isn't surprising since he is a two year old boy.

When I got tired of helping pull weeds, I decided to take a back wheel off our van (not Dad's) to check on a squeeking brake that has been irritating me for a while. There was a lot of dust in the drum, but no obvious problems. Dad had a look and we poked and prodded a little, but we didn't see anything wrong. We scratched out heads a while and then I put the wheel back on.

While I had the jack out, I also put the hub cover, which had been riding around with us in the back of the van since my mom gave it to us, back on the front wheel it was missing from. Of course, while I was putting it on, we discovered the reason why it had not been on there to begin with. It was nothing a little Krazy Glue couldn't fix. I like fixing stuff with Krazy Glue as much as Isaiah likes playing in water.

Soon after I got the van all put back together, Dalton's dad picked him up and we went back inside. Isaiah fell asleep pretty quickly and Ruth and I went to the store while Grandpa checked his email and kept an eye on sleeping Isaiah. We got diapers and dropped off film (including those Dad took on his cross-country drive) at K-Mart and stuff to make dinner at the grocery store.

It's pretty neat having my dad around the house. It's neat having him around for meals. Our distinctive style of "cuisine" isn't fancy, but we like to think it has a downhome appeal. My dad is the kind of person who appreciates downhome appeal and sharing our cooking ideas is fun. Almost as much fun as having a meal with Isaiah.

Day 6- Tuesday

Today we actually went somewhere! It was a sunny, beautiful morning and we were all out front enjoying the beautiful weather when Ruth suggested that it was perfect weather to visit one of the destinations on our list.

Before Grandpa Roger had arrived, Isaiah had already told us he wanted to go to the zoo with him and to show him the "tunnel". The tunnel is the corkscrew slide at a newly opened park that is very close to Ruth's folk's house. Ruth and I had also decided that we wanted to visit Grant's Farm and the Museum of Transportation.

We came back inside and had frozen waffles for breakfast. Then I checked the web for directions to Grant's Farm and The Museum of Transportation (We've been to the zoo plenty of times). We talked about it a while and decided to go Grant's Farm. Ruth and my dad had never been there before (neither had Isaiah, but if Ruth hadn't that kind of goes without saying).

I had been to Grant's Farm before, but it was many years ago. I don't remember what grade I was in when we went there on a field trip- perhaps kindergarten or second grade, but I do remember being at Grant's Farm. Actually, I only remember one incident that transpired while I was there.

I was sitting on a bench by myself when a goat came right up to me and took a big bite out of the name tag pinned to my chest! I was wearing one of my favorite shirts and I was quite distressed that my shirt had been damaged. It wasn't, but I still hold a subliminal animosity towards goats today. They are very stupid animals, you know, and they smell bad.

For those of you who have never been to Grant's Farm, once you enter through the front gate, you must ride a tram to get to the park proper. Isaiah loved the tram. He was excited by the site of the thing long before we got on. As I have mentioned once or twice before, he loves machines, but he especially loves any machines that have wheels or are vehicles.

The ~20 minute tram ride took us through the habitat of zebras, yaks, bison, and several other large, four-footed creatures that live together in harmony in one big fenced-in preserve and finally deposited us by the Bauernhof. The Bauernhof houses the Busch family (yes, the Busch family of Busch beer) carriage collection and some stables with horses.

Isaiah liked the carriages, but he didn't believe me when I told him the 1887 horse-drawn Ahrens fire-engine was a fire-engine. Even when I explained that it was very old and horses pulled it, like the other carriages in the room I had already told him about, he adamantly stated "That is not a fire-engine, Daddo.".

He liked the animals, too. He got to pet a horse, a donkey and a camel and he saw kangaroos, bald eagles (like Miyaka), a giant tortoise, and elephants among others. The thing he liked most about Grant's Farm, though, was a giant plastic turtle sliding board in a small playground area. I think he would have been satisfied to have played on that turtle if he'd done nothing else.

While we saw just about all of the park, our leisurely retreat was hastened by the barely distinguishable drizzle that was growing more distinguishable by the moment while the temperature dropped. We were beginning to fear we would all get good and wet, but we made it back to the van just in time to miss the majority of the rain. Not surprisingly, within 15 minutes I was the only one awake in the van.

Isaiah's golden quote of the day:
"I need- you need to carry me."

I'm almost caught up- I ought to get current tomorrow...

Everybody gets a map when they go to Grant's Farm!

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