well - this post could be long! We were on vacation this past week 6/30-7/4 and of course packed a decent amount of events into our days. We started on Tuesday 7/1/08 at a Twins/Tigers game, which of course the Twins were victorious. :) James' aunt & uncle, Jim & Joan drove up from Zumbrota, MN to join us for the game. Always a good time. Joan was surprised at how well Brady sat for 3 hours - James and I were equally impressed!

We stayed Tuesday night at James' cousins place in Eagan, MN. We love staying there, they truly seem to uphold the name "hotel Wood" - and it's fun for Brady to have kids to play with. Jeremy & Kelly have 3 children, Tyler (13), Alexis (4) and Addison (1). Lexi sure loves when Brady comes and she treats him so well, even helped me give him a bath.

Wednesday we headed for the Minnesota Zoo in Apple Valley, MN - we were a little concerned with how Brady might do since he doesn't seem to like even cats & dogs. The fish seemed to be a favorite for him, he pressed his nose to the plexi glass watching the dolphins swim around for awhile, but couldn't seem to get closer than 5 feet to any animal that wasn't in water. We don't understand it . . . but why should we, right? :) My parents took me nearly every summer and it has changed, but not enough where it didn't bring back very fond memories - and I still LOVE the zoo!

After Brady taking pretty well to the dolphins as you see at left, we decided to watch the actual dolphin show before leaving. I cracked up hard when I captured Brady's face as he watched the dolphins jump out of the water during the show. I just can't believe that I timed it right. Check this out!

After the zoo, we headed to Zumbrota, MN, to James' uncle Gary & aunt Alyce's farm to stay Wednesday and Thursday nights. We were again back to our trouble with how Brady was going to take to the animals. He could pick from dogs, cats, cows and birds. We tried to teach him to say "hi" and "bye" to each animal, hoping to curb some of his fear. I don't know that we really succeeded with that approach because he would still scream when at the level of the animal. Sometimes to the point that he didn't like James or I even petting any particular animal. He really didn't seem to like when I sat in the driveway with the 13 cats and kittens as they crawled all over me. So protective at such a young age! Gary & Alyce's grandson Garrett did his best in being very patient with Brady to encourage him to pet a rooster . . . pointing at it was the closest Brady got . . . bless Garrett, he tried!

Thursday we visited with another cousin of James' in Zumbrota before picking up his grandparents for lunch at the Coffee Mill in downtown Zumbrota. Grandma Violet's health has been failing in the past year, so we really wanted to make a point of spending time with her - quite honestly was a large piece of where we chose to spend our vacation. We returned to their home after a yummy lunch to just sit and visit for awhile. It was a beautiful afternoon to sit on their deck, plus Brady had a fabulous time watching the traffic go by since grandma & grandpa live on highway 52 to Rochester, MN.

Early Friday morning we returned to Eagan for a 4th of July parade. It was quite toasty sitting out there - I believe it was near 90 degrees by the conclusion of the parade about noon. It dawned on us that Brady doesn't get to watch many parades, so excited to see his reactions. The only parade he annually attends is Loco Daze in Dilworth, but with Grandpa Jerry in charge, we don't get "down time" to actually watch the parade. I lost count after about 30 minutes of how many cars and trucks Brady pointed out, but overall seemed to really like the parade. He leaned forward out of my lap many times to see what was coming next. He liked the "wow-wow" trucks (fire engines to the rest of us), but wasn't a fan of the load horn when they were sitting right in front of us.

Friday afternoon, Kelly (cousin Jeremy's wife) and I took Brady and her 2 girls to McDonald's for lunch and then put them all down for naps while the guys went golfing. I think this was only the 2nd time out this summer for James, but I think he enjoyed himself - don't know that he thinks he did all too well, but that's another story. The evening brought us to the Mendakota Country Club (where Jeremy & Kelly are members) for a buffet dinner, games for the kids, horse rides, bouncy house, petting zoo and fireworks at dusk. It was a beautiful evening to be outside, not even much bother from the mosquitos - I'm guessing the club had recently sprayed in preparation for the night. We lined up along the first tee awaiting the fireworks - Brady loving the sparklers and little fireworks that were going off around us. He even got in to the "oohs" and "aahs" that are appropriate for fireworks. So 10:15pm comes and the "real" fireworks start . . . we think he liked them, but had to laugh at the manner in which he enjoyed them . . . check out the picture at left to see how Brady watched the fireworks that night - we can't figure out if they were a little too bright or it was the noise or a combination of both - too funny!

not too shabby if I do say so myself :) Didn't know I had a "fireworks" setting on our camera until I needed to have one!

Our vacation wrapped with some time with my family on the 5th & 6th, but I don't have any of those pictures so that will have to be a different post when I get those pictures on the computer.