Baseball Guy Goes on Vacation(s)

It took us three years and eleven months, but we finally did it.  We traveled with Wes (who, for the record, has referred to himself in the third person as "Baseball Guy" all summer). We packed an entire library of books and DVDs into our car, put our daily routines on hold, and hit the road to my brother's house in Des Moines.  Forty-nine water towers later, we arrived. And it was a gigantic success.

Wes was a rock star for the ride, with the highlight being Whitey's Ice Cream in the Quad Cities.

In typical Wes fashion, it took him a bit to warm up to his new surroundings, but with a little time, he discovered that Uncle Brian has some pretty cool toys.

Big kit.

Wes, please, please don't put a door ding in this one...

Built in sprinklers?!  The best.

Wes gave my brother's rc truck the brawny
name of "Little Trucky."

Races

Retrieving foul (wiffle) balls

Wes learned that not all waffles come
 from the freezer aisle.

One of the highlights of the weekend was a trip to the Ankeny pool.  Though Wes never gathered enough courage to go on the lazy river, he had a great time jumping into the pool with Aunt Jodi and going under waterfalls with Uncle Brian.

Wes is still talking about the night he got to stay up (waaaay) past his bedtime to see the lights on a bike-path bridge over the Des Moines River.

It was a long walk to the bridge, and Wes insisted
that he walk it all. Eventually, we got there.

By the time we left, we were happy but tired.  The boys snoozed during the ride.

Since Wes is a guy of routine and often (always?) resists changes to his routine, we wanted to take him to a hotel while he still had the fun of Brian's fresh in his memory.  So a few weeks later, we packed our bags again and made our way to Peoria.  Minus the meltdown before we left the driveway ("I want to sleep at hoooome!!"), we had another great success. We made sure to do all of our familiar favorites as well as try a few new adventures.

While the Baseball Guy thought the Peoria Chiefs game was pretty cool, his favorite part by far was the Dippin' Dots.

New uniform

Twins.

His favorite things about the hotel were the key cards, free cookies at the front desk, and, of course, the swimming pool.

"No hands!" He was proud to float by himself.

The next day we checked out the new Children's Museum and the Zoo.  We came home tired but excited to do something like this again (and soon).

The rest of our days at home have been filled with baseball, swimming, and more baseball.  

Baseball Guy even wears his cap to breakfast