An Evening out with Ephraim

     Ephraim and I drove the big boys up to a concert in Madison tonight.  It was held at a beautiful venue, Olbrich Gardens.  I had planned on having a lovely evening walk around the grounds, with Ephraim in the stroller while the boys sat and listened to the concert.  Ephraim had other plans.
     He is a boy who loves to be out doing things on his own two feet!

   His first mission was to catch a Canadian goose.  There were 50 or so, feeding in the grass by the lake. I don't think they can fly this time of year.  To escape Ephraim, they just speed-waddled away.  He really can't run yet, so the local water fowl are safe for a few more weeks.

    Ephraim was in awe of these geese and kept stumbling over the lawn towards them, tripping often.  He couldn't take his eyes off them, even when he fell.  They eventually waddled into the lake to escape him.

   The problem with that, was that Ephraim wanted to jump right in after them.  So, I packed him up into the stroller, and we headed across the street to the gardens, away from the lake, which he was very determined to swim in.

Here is my determined Goose Chaser.  Better luck next time!

   At the gardens, instead of riding in the stroller, he wanted down to walk along the brick paths.  He would stop occasionally and test the mulch.  At least he is past the eat-the-mulch stage.  He only eats gravel and wood-chips now.  I call that progress.

   Ephraim has started the point-at-everything phase.  It is fun.  He had so much to show me!  All the flowers, the birds, the people... It was like we were having little conversations. 

 Here he is... heading down another path.  He went for 2 hours on those little feet.

   It was funny to see him pointing and walking, trying to show me where he wanted to go.  Occasionally we went off-road, and left the stroller behind.
    (The stroller is still a good place to stash the water bottles, snacks, diaper bag, and other misc items, so I'm glad we had it along, even if it doesn't contain Mr. I-Can-Walk-Now-Thank-You-Very-Much.)

    He really was pretty careful with the flowers.  He only pulled off a couple buds, mostly he wanted to feel them.

     He loved all the different paving stones to walk over. I am glad he is stable enough now to walk without face-planting constantly... that would have hurt on all the stone walkways.

  By the end of the evening,, my feet were tired, and I sat down to blow some bubbles and appreciate the sunset.  Ephraim was still ready to chase bubbles.

   Eventually, chasing bubbles turned into chewing on my lens cap, and rolling around on the lawn with me.   He was completely exhausted after 2 hours of go-go-go. 

    The concert ended and we went inside to collect the brothers. They had a good time, as did we. It was a great night out with my little man, who will be 1 year old in a couple of days.
   Ephraim is 2 days younger than Prince George of England.  I see all sorts of pictures on the internet of the little prince... but I doubt he has the determination of my little man.  Ephraim has the sort of built in determination that just might make him rule the world someday! -If he could only figure out how to catch those geese...

The Grandparents Come: Sylvia's Baptism and More Fun

   Sylvia turned 8 this June, so in our church (LDS )  she was old enough to get baptized.  It was wonderful that both sets of grandparents could arrange to travel across the country for this event.
     Here is Sean and Sylvia outside the church before the baptism.

 We had lots of Sylvia's friends come, and their older siblings and parents. It was wonderful to see such a show of support from our friends.  Here is Sylvia with her best friend, Laura.

 A very talented lady from church made this beautiful cake for Sylvia's special day.  After the service we enjoyed cake and other snacks, as we sat around tables laughing and visiting with friends and family.  It was a wonderful day.

      The day before the baptism, we visited one of our favorite local spots - Olbrich Gardens - with with our company.  They have a tropical conservatory, along with acres of beautifully landscaped gardens.  The roses smelled beautiful!
     Here is our crew in the tropical zone:

 And here is Noel, looking lovely beside a mini waterfall.

 Sean was so patient with Ephraim, who was just learning to walk.  They toured the gardens at Ephraim speed.

    Ephraim was in a constant state of nervousness during the whole grandparent visit, never sure when a strange looking grandma might sneak a kiss on his chubby cheeks.

     Sylvia loves Olbrich.  She likes to park herself by a beautiful plant and sketch it.  She has lots of patience and a good eye for color.  She gets both traits from Sean.   Sitting by her in this picture is Sean's mom, Liz, who is also an accomplished artist.  I am sure Sylvia's artistic gene comes from her.

     Sylvia also has Sean's goofy sense of humor, as seen below.  (I think humor is more environmentally influenced than genetic, and I trace the goofy humor influence in our family to Sean's dad, Brad.)
       I'm not sure what this statue was supposed to be, but it was in the Thai garden, and Sylv thought it was pretty funny.

 Little did Sylvia know that within 2 days, she would be riding a real elephant...but for now, the statute would have to do.

After touring the gardens, we had a picnic lunch in the park nearby.  My mom loves to swing, like Sylvia does.  They had a good time together while we got lunch ready.

     Brad and Liz (Sean's parents) left first, but not without trying to get a picture with Ephraim, who wasn't taking his eyes off these strangers for a minute.

     The last day my parents were here, we traveled an hour north to Circus World.  It is a site that used to be the wintering ground for The Ringling Brothers Circus.  It has a beautiful collection of old circus wagons, hand carved and painted. It is worth the visit to just see the artistry of the wagons.

They also have the only working cannon (that used to shoot out clowns in to a net) from 100 years ago. 

      Last year, we visited Circus World in the off season, and only saw the grounds and wagon collection. See that post here: http://hinkypunks.blogspot.com/2013/10/circus-world-and-beyond.html
      It is way cooler during the show season!   They had  Big Top circus shows, magic shows, clown shows, and music demonstrations. Here is the crew, waiting skeptically for a circus show.  It was actually really good! - Dog tricks, beautiful ponies, elephants.. it really was amazing.

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     I loved the clown show!  Usually you just think of clowns as those scarey guys in parades, but this clown did a full show on his own.. and I was cracking up laughing.  Here is my mom, with her alter ego.

 Sylvia got her face painted...

  She was so excited!

      Grandpa bought the kids a ride on Kelly, the elephant.  It was pretty amazing.  Sylvia was terrified the saddle would slip, but Noel thought it was a blast.  My favorite part of the day was seeing her face light up laughing when the elephent first took off, rocking back and forth.  When she got down, she said "I think we need to get an elephant."

I think Sylv as nervous because she was sitting in front.. maybe she is not cut out for circus life.

    Another highlight of the day was the cotton candy.  My kids love the stuff!  I keep trying in, but every time am reminded why I don't like it.  Maybe this is another genetic preference from Sean's side.

      We saw a funny scene play out as it was closing time.  The elephant's keepers took them down to the river to cool off and drink water after the Big Top show.  We watched the elephants splash around for a bit, slowly wandering farther and farther away from the men.  The man in khaki started shouting at them like a dog owner would.  "Kelly!  Come here!  Come here now!" with the same exasperated tone that I hear at the dog park.
      When he realized that Kelly-the-elephant was ignoring him, and heading farther upstream, flipping water over her back insolently, he started calling for the more obedient one.. Violet.  "Violet, Come!  Come Violet!"   When Violet reluctantly turned around and started heading back to the man, you could see his relief.   Kelly, the rebel elephant, splashed a little more, then followed her buddy back.  It was really a fun scene to watch play out!

      One of my favorite little gems of the day was the concert given on old musical instruments from the past 150 years of circus shows.  There were some weird ones!  For a finale, they played a medley of Mary Poppins tunes on the different instruments.  One man stayed at the organ, while the other ran from instrument to instrument.  It was a cool show.   I loved swaying back and forth, singing along to the tunes with my mom - who taught me to love all things Mary Poppinsy!  (Much to the dismay of our kids sitting on the bench in front of us, trying to look cool.)

    There was a new interactive exhibit that my mom enjoyed trying out along with the kids. It was fun to end the day with fits of laughter.

    Here are my parents with Sylvia, before they headed to the airport.  It was a whirlwind trip for both sets of grandparents, but we are so glad they came!