Keep busy!

Coming back from vacation is so HARD!!!

And that's coming from a woman who's been home for a full three weeks now.

HA!

I've decided the best way to deal with the monotony

(aka: laundry, cleaning, cooking, commitments...)

of "non-vacation" life is to make every day

(well as many days as I can)

as much like a vacation as possible!

In true "my camera is still broken" style my cell phone is carrying more then its

fair share of the workload in documenting our many adventures. Sorry, in advance for the quality.

First up, Ezra's #1 requested activity....THE AIRPLANE MUSEUM!

What 2.5 year old WOULDN'T love climbing into his (or her) very own authentic cockpit, complete with steering wheel, throttles, and buttons galore?

Of course, once your done being the captain, it's always fun to pretend to be the wealthy businessman in first class.

HA!

A helicopter flight simulator?....yes please!

But sometimes, nothing beats the good old "kid zone" full of wooden shuttles to ride on and playhouses to pretend in.

I totally get why he loves this place!

Next, we trekked to Oakland to ride the little train in Tilden park.

(Thanks to our AWESOME Becker friends for hooking us up with their extra tickets before they took off for European adventures.)

We snagged a covered car for the first ride...

...but Ezra wanted to "see more" so we sat in the "coal cars" for the next few rides.

I tried to get a picture with him standing next to the engine...but he demanded I take one of the caboose instead.

HA!

On our way back out of the park we stopped to ride the 100 year old carousel and eat lunch.

(this is also where I discovered that if you forget to bring an extra pull-up for your potty training toddler, a pad will add an amazingly absorbent layer to his full pull-up and buy you at least another hour's worth of adventures.

Gross, I know, but it totally works!)

The horses have real tails on this ride!

I can't believe how well persevered it is.

Ezra demanded that we "bring Daddy back" to see this carousel so it MUST have been cool.

Of course we had to visit Ardenwood Farms.

(we've been here so much lately, I feel like all of my pictures are starting to look the same.)

When asked what he wanted to wear that day, Ezra simply stated,

"hmmmm my farmer pants" aka: the overalls.

HA!

We happened to come on "Station Day" which was full of mini-activities run by volunteers in period clothing.

Ezra's favorite stations were

-Meet the bunnies

-Meet the goats

-Meet the pigs

-Meet the chickens.

Mine was

-Pioneer Gardening.

BAHHH....I'm so boring!

HA HA

But the smell of the tomato plants made me so homesick that we didn't stay for long.

(even though I plucked one of the fragrant green leaves to smell as we walked to the train. Why do I torture myself?)

The train ride, of course, was Ezra's ultimate favorite. =)

Last, we headed back to Oakland for another trip to Fairyland.

This year we made sure to visit the "old west town", which we accidentally skipped last time.

He LOVED the giant twisty slide....especially because he was the only kid in the whole town!

He made sure to tell the Owl where to take him in the boat...

...remember last year's picture?

He's bigger...but still just as demanding.

Needless to say....he enjoyed his "ride".

Do you remember his misery on the giraffe last year?

THIS time around he climbed right on....and just sort of hung out.

HA!

We discovered a merry-go-round we didn't know existed....and Ezra asked for ride after ride "on the dodo."

Love it!

Although it's hard to leave family and friends behind and rejoin our lonely little existence out here in the land of "not Utah", I'm so grateful that I get to be with this amazing tiny man all the time.

We have our battles, our power struggles, and our tantrums...but at the end of the day I really wouldn't want my life to be any other way. =)