Loving the Outdoors

Well, Josh is gone. After many LONG delays, rescheduling, and frustration (due to the crazy storms last night), he finally took off this evening heading to his last training school in California. I’m already sad that he’s gone (again) but at least I can sit here and smile as I continue to write about all the fun we had over the last two weeks.

There was a morning during the first week that Josh was here that I just couldn’t resist going outside. We’ve had some gorgeous weather over the past two weeks and we tried to spend as much of it outside as possible. That morning, we headed down to Ben Butterworth Parkway. For those of you not from the area, it is a walking trail along the Mississippi River that stretches for miles through Moline.

We took a long walk along the river and then let Dylan burn off some energy at the park. The playground is kind of shaped like a ship and there’s a really tall slide that, I think, is supposed to look like the crows nest? Well, Dylan wasn’t intimidated by the height at all. As a matter of fact, he climbed those stairs several times, passing up the smaller slides in favor of the huge spiral one.

He’s quite the adventurer! For being only one and a half, he’s such a rock star! I think he may have been showing off a bit for Daddy. Josh was at the bottom of the slide to pick him up and swing him around in circles every time, so that was probably another big part of why Dylan braved the top of the ship so many times.

On the other hand, he was not really a fan of the swing. For a kid who loves to rough house and be thrown around, he wasn’t all about flying through the air in swing form! Not even with Daddy holding him on the swing. But after clearly telling us he was through with the swings, he was running back to the tall, curvy slide in no time!

Back a home a few days later, Dylan got an early Easter gift from Grandma Linda, Grandpa Bob, Great-Grandpa Ben & Great-Grandma Cathie…his own slide for his backyard! He loved it! It was even better when Daddy gave him an extra push so he flew down extra fast! He also likes to stop himself before reaching the very bottom and then jumping off into the grass. Once again…such a boy!

We also got to celebrate Opening Day! I was happy to see that ESPN was celebrating the day by showing the Cardinals vs. Marlins game. Dylan and I got dressed in our awesome St. Louis gear while Josh wore his Tigers shirt. I am a baseball girl, and getting to watch the first game of the season with my boys made it the perfect evening. We even had my parents over for dinner! One of many great nights.

These two weeks together was so wonderful for Josh & Dylan. Dylan got to spend time with his favorite person (Yes, he’s a Daddy’s boy and I am totally okay with that. It’s easy when he’s got such a great Daddy).

And Josh got to really experience how much Dylan has started talking and communicating. He learns so quickly! Josh taught him a few really funny things while he was here and wouldn’t stop smiling the whole time. I’m sure it was the combination of how fun it was and how proud he was of his little man.

Blackhawk State Park

Only a couple days later, we had gorgeous weather again. So we decided to make the most of our afternoon and hike the trails at Blackhawk State Park. I hadn’t been there in years, but remembered loving it when I was younger.

We took some stairs down into the woods and we were off! Dylan wasted no time taking the lead and remained there for the entire hike. I was a little nervous about how our extremely independent 20 month old would do. For not even being two years old yet, he really loves getting out there and doing stuff! He was a champ.

There were only a couple tumbles (including the bottom 6 steps on this wooden staircase) but he hopped right up…after a few magic kisses from Mommy & Daddy, of course!

Josh was really proud of Dylan for putting him arms out while falling down the stairs so he didn’t roll as fast. “That was a good fall, Dylan!” I think Moms and Dads get proud over different kinds of things.

Dylan is all boy and loves to be outdoors. This hike was perfect for him! He loved being our leader and picking which trail to chose when there was a fork in the road. We never even had the option to lead. Heck, if he didn’t look back once in a while to make sure we were keeping up, he might not have even noticed if we were gone.

Don’t you just love the dirt stains covering the butt of his jeans? I think that it’s a successful day for a little boy if you have dirt all over your butt! Success!

The park is alongside the Rock River and you can see it from the paths. Dylan kept pointing to the river and saying “Waa-waa.” “Yes, Dylan. That’s water…that’s the river.” Either he wanted to make sure we saw it, or he wanted us to notice that he knows the word. This Mama was proud.

After a while we started making him take a break whenever we’d come across a bench or a log so he could take a drink (and pose for a photo).

Pretty soon he started stopping on his own, sitting down, and then patting the bench next to him for Josh to sit. Once Josh was there Dylan pointed to me and would flash me his fake smile. So I would then pull the camera out and take a photo. I’m not sure if I have him trained, or if he has us trained! Either way, it adds up to a lot of photographs!

No obstacle was too big for our fearless leader. Whether it was a downed tree, an incline, a hole, or a big rock…he conquered them all!

And he stopped at every tree along the trail to touch it and say, “TEE!” “Yes, Dylan, that’s a tree.”

As a special treat, he even stopped at a mile marker to play a drum solo for all the forest creatures. I’m not sure the animals enjoyed it as much as Josh and I did. The drum solo also came with some singing and dancing.

And apparently, once was not enough. After he finished he walked about 8 steps, turned around, and came back for an encore. Kids are just awesome!

We made a giant loop around and were ready to head back to the car. But Dylan wouldn’t let any photo opportunities pass us up. He made Josh sit down on the rocks with him before we left the trail so we could get this photo. I’m glad he did, it’s a cute one!

Dylan also make us take one more before going to the car. He just wouldn’t leave until we captured this moment of them with a road blocker. Ah, the memories…