Train Ride

One of Tyler's favorite things to say is "choo choo," especially when we cross the train tracks here in Boone! He has also been really into Thomas the Train toys and cartoons. One of our friends from church volunteers at the Boone Scenic Valley Railroad and asked if we wanted to meet up on Saturday afternoon and go for a ride. We knew Tyler would LOVE it!














Excited by the model train in the station.














Ready to get on the train - saying "cheese."










Leaning WAY over the side of our open air car to have the best view - even the huge drop over the side of the High Bridge! Tyler was very brave and mostly wanted to stand up to ride instead of sitting. He loved it all except for the loud train whistle when the train turned around to head back and we were 1 car away from the loud train engine whistle - he jumped each time it blew.












Riding over the swollen Des Moines River



When we started the 1.5 hour trip we were at the end of the train, but half way the train stopped and the engine moved to the back of the train so we could head back the way we came - and then we were at the front of the train - with specks of coal/soot raining down on us from the train's smoke stack. By the end of the ride Tyler looked like he had been playing with the chimney sweeps from Mary Poppins!! So he got bath #2 of the day when we got home. I LOVE this picture. He was so happy....until we had to get back in the car to go home!




Haselhuhns, Halversons, and Lutzs (minus Jill and me).

Ames Aquatic Center

On Friday I decided to take Tyler to the new water park in Ames since we were in town to see my Mom already. Grandma went along to take pictures. Tyler was very excited to play in the water and a little overwhelmed at all the fun things to do! He only fussed once that he couldn't go on the big kids water slide (it helped that there were 2 slides in the wading pool for him).

Tyler Tales

Here are some things Tyler has amused us with lately:

We went to the Boone Pool for opening night last Friday and Tyler enjoyed the 2 wading pools and then pointed to the big pool and wanted to try it out...but then he saw the water slide and could not understand my reasoning that the water slide was not like the slide at the park and he was not old enough for this one...almost had to leave the pool due to the melt down that occurred.

After watching me weed the flower garden several weeks ago and helping me put some of the weeds into the wheel barrel after I pulled them up and handed them to him...yesterday Tyler took his new little plastic wheel barrel out into the yard, picked a dandelion, put it in his wheel barrel, and then pushed the wheel barrel around the house and out to dump in the stick/burn pile. Monkey see, monkey do!

We played in the garage last night because it was raining so hard outside. He was kicking his soccer ball around and it finally ended up rolling under my car and stopped in the dead center, too far to reach - without a moments pause, Tyler ran over to get his plastic dump truck, sat it down under my car and gave it a push in the direction of the ball. The truck bumped into the ball and pushed the ball out the other side! I was impressed with his young ingenuity!

Today...

Today I decided to stop putting it off and finally get to work on creating our family blog page. It has been on my "to-do" list for far too long. It is still a work in progress and I don't know what all the bells and whistles on this site will allow me to do yet, but I wanted to share with you all what I have created so far. It is my hope that this blog allows friends and family near and far to keep up with what the Haselhuhn family has been up to lately and watch as Tyler grows and changes before our eyes. It is also my plan to use things like this while Tyler is napping to keep my mind busy and try not to think about how homesick I am for camp this time of year! Enjoy!!