Once Jake was introduced to all the animals on the ranch he didn’t really seem to care too much about them.  His main focus was the tractors!  My dad has 3 good sized tractors and from the time Jake woke up in the morning until he went to bed at night, all he wanted to do was drive the tractors.  In fact, if my dad would go outside to start the morning chores before or while I was feeding Jake breakfast, he would refuse to eat because all he wanted to do was go outside with grandpa and ride those tractors.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

When they would go on their rides, grandpa taught him which lever made the bucket in front of the tractor go up and down, so he knew exactly what he was doing.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And when he was on the smaller tractor he would point to the other tractor

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

To let us know that he wanted to go on the BIG tractor, which is what he is signing below

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And any mention of the tractors, leads to them being in or near the barn which always leads to the cat who lives in the barn. That was the one animal that Jake had an interest in. Here he saw the cat and started signing cat.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I think grandpa is going to have a ranch hand who is very eager to drive the tractors pretty soon.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

One day we went to Lone Pine farms which is a really nice farmers market and they had a pumpkin patch set up with fun activities for the kids to do.  We did some shopping and played among the carts of pumpkins they had out front.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

One of the stems broke off a pumpkin and Jake kept saying Uh Oh! and trying to hand it to me like he wanted me to fix it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then we fed the goats

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And I was trying to get Jake to stand by the ruler to measure how tall he was, but he was not having it, so we left shortly after that.  But not without a large box of the apple cider doughnuts, YUM!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Later that day back at the ranch, my mom got out the bag of train tracks that my grandma had for my brother and I to play with when we were younger and then my nephews played with them and now Jake is having his turn.

I have one more to go before I wrap up this trip!

We planned our yearly trip up to visit my parents in Oregon a little bit later this year.  It is usually pretty warm when we go in the summer and since we have had such a hot summer in San Diego, I was longing for some cooler fall weather, so we planned our trip for the end of September through the first week of October.  Justin already had a business meeting planed in North Carolina for a couple of days, so we were able to arrange flights leaving within 50 minutes of each other on the same day to avoid multiple trips to the airport.  Justin left for North Carolina and Jake and I flew to Oregon.  Jake did great on the trip, when our 1 hour layover turned into a 3 hour layover at LAX I was a bit worried that I didn’t have enough stuff with me to entertain him for that long in one place, plus all the air travel time.  But it seemed to go by really fast and he provided lots of entertainment for the frustrated and weary travelers at our gate.  By the time we got to my parents house it was dinner time, then bath and to bed.  The next day is when the fun began!  And I will warn you in advance this trip is going to span over a few posts heavy with pictures…

First up on the agenda was feeding the cows.

And while seeing real live cows that close was fun and all…Jake was much more interested in driving the Kubota around.  So Grandpa let him drive all over the ranch, and he was one happy boy!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After all the morning chores were done, we had lunch and a nap before heading into town to find Jake a pair of real cowboy boots.  Our shopping trip was a success and he loves his new boots and wore them every single day we were there.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The next day my mom and I took Jake to the Children’s Science Museum in Eugene.  They had lots of hands on things for kids to do.  Jake was immediately drawn to the floating boats in the water.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then he found this contraption that had a powerful suction that pulled these balls into the tubes and spit them out at another station at the other side of the room.  At first we couldn’t figure out where the balls were going, but once we did, I sat at the other station for a bit and Jake and I sent balls back and forth to each other.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There was an area that was full of these red balls and he and my mom played in there for a while.  He loved the pulley system and kept winding up the bucket full of balls

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

One of his favorite things to do is shout the word GO after counting to 3.  Here my mom was lining up balls on a slanted track

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And she would count 1…2…3… Jake would yell GO and chase the balls down the track

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It was a fun place to go and let him run around and play.  Late that evening after Jake went to bed, Justin flew in from his meeting in North Carolina.  The next morning he was happy to see his daddy!  That day my parents invited some of their friends over to practice cow sorting.  This was something new to us, but apparently it is a pretty big sport among some parts of the country.  Basically, there are two round pens set up side by side with an opening between them.  There are 10 cows in one pen that have numbers on them and two people on horses.  A number is called out and one person/horse is guarding the opening while the other person/horse is trying to get the cow with that number away from the others and into the other pen without letting any other cows in as well. It is actually pretty entertaining to watch.  First everyone saddled up the horses and rode around to warm them up.  Jake didn’t like being on this side of the fence, he wanted to join the big boys.

After the cows were rounded up in the pen the games started.

We wrapped up the day with dinner at the Dexter Lake Club.  Jake was really loving all the new sights, sounds and things to play with.  He quickly learned how to pick up the grain bowls from the horse stalls and where to put them.  As you saw from the picture above, he loved pushing the broom around the barn and fell in love with the barn cat! I have lots and lots more to share so I’ll be back soon.

Last month my mom came to visit for a while and man it was nice having her here!  It was nice having someone else (an adult) to talk to as we went about our day, it is amazing how much more I could get done with an extra set of hands to entertain Jake.  I was able to make appointments and we ran all kinds of errands and got stuff done!  And of course we were having fun along the way with plenty of trips to the park, shopping and lots of giggles.

One afternoon we went to the Del Mar Races.  First we stopped at the paddock to watch the horses saddle up and parade around before heading out to the race track.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then we went to the infield to watch the races so Jacob would have room to run around.  Justin got some drinks for us and my mom let Jacob have a taste of her lemonade.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And that was it…she hardly even got any, Jacob wouldn’t give it back and drank the whole thing.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

When it got close to being empty I added some water to the cup hoping he would drink it and he wanted nothing to do with it. Pure lemonade only for this little boy!  We lost a few bucks and won a few bucks, it was a fun afternoon.

On another day we drove to Oma’s house for a visit. After Jacob got Oma comfortable in her recliner by pushing all the buttons to lift her up and down and lean her back and forth he discovered all the fun things she has to climb and ride around on.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After Oma took this for a spin around the hall he decided it was his turn and kept making his vroom, vroom noises

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Oma…what does this button do?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After we had In N Out for lunch (yum!) we went outside to run around for a bit before we headed home.  Jacob found some pretty flowers

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

and decided that Oma should have them.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Just a few days after we visited Oma, we were walking up the stairs and at the top of the stairs I have a picture of Jacob on Oma’s lap during Christmas hanging on the wall and he started signing Oma!  It is so awesome to see him recognize faces and learn who people are and be able to sign who they are.  When it came time for my mom to go home, Jacob walked around signing grandma, grandma, grandma everywhere he went for a few days.  He still signs grandma wash whenever he goes into the guest bathroom.  I just love seeing the wheels turn in his head!

It was a fun time with grandma and we look forward to next time!

 

We were a little disappointed in the weather last year when we went to Balboa Island, it was overcast and chilly and too cold to play on the sand.  This year the weather was perfect!  And Jacob has had lots of beach time this summer and loves playing in the water and the sand, so when we arrived we didn’t waste any time and headed right out to the beach.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jake loves running up and down the beach

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

and to and from the water, to fill up his bucket for building sandcastles.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then daddy showed him how to fill up the moat with water

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

But he was more interested in playing with the water

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

and dumping it on himself…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

He loves to point out the airplanes he hears in the sky, and there were plenty of planes flying overhead that day.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then everyone got in the water with the rafts to cool off.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It was a fun couple of days with friends and family and I am so happy our little guy loves the beach as much as we do!