Once the "park" was finished someone had to play on it.  By chance it was Nick who had a good time exploring and throwing things off of the bridge.  He also enjoyed going into the tunnel like Thomas (the train).

Nick surveying his kingdom

Last Friday was the Fall Festival at Bright Horizons.  The weather was great, food was ... okay, and there was a bouncy house.  Nick had a great time.  Some kids wore their Halloween costume like Micah and some did not, like Nick.  Both looked adorable while holding hands for the picture taking session.

Micah and Nick are best friends.

Today was quite an active day.  First there was a garage sale, followed closely by Marina's party.  After a little relaxation we went to Schenpf Farms for some fun and pumpkin hunting.  We were unsure of the place as we had never gone but overall was very impressed (how can free carousel rides go wrong?).  Nick rode an airplane, a bee, the carousel and a choo choo train.  Though the line was long Dad got to have some chilli which is never a bad thing.  At last we ended with a couple pumpkins; Nick's, Nick's for daycare and one for home.  A long an tiring day!

At the entrance.

Nick and Dad on the choo choo train.

Nick in the bouncy house.

A video of Nick showing his climbing prowess.

As the weather gets better there will be more outside time to play.  Since we basically didn't have anything besides the pool we decided to get Nick a playhouse outside.  As soon as he saw it he got really excited and called it Nick's park.

It comes in a lot of pieces... Need some help.

We had a busy Sunday today.  First we had to go shopping for food and also pick up a book rack for Nick's room.  Then Grandma and Grandpa Taylor came by to visit.  We went to Chen's for lunch and then to Freestone park for play.  This is where Nick took his first solo ride ever!  He also rode the carousel with Grandma and fed the ducks some Cherrios.  After that we went to the Phoenix Roadrunners game (they lost but a good game).  All were tired at the end of the day.

Hmm, Peter Piper Pizza.

Measuring up to Amare.

Nick's room is nearing completion, only some minor touch ups and clean up to do.  The toddler bed is ready with a Cars theme and we got him a easel  with a white board, space for paper to draw on and a chalk board on the other side.  He seems to like it so far though we haven't started what will surely be a long process of moving him in.  Oh, and Dad loves the orange, it is Awesome!

Nick's bed and color scheme, light blue covers the rest of the area

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Nick and Mom drawing

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No

That's my boy!

At 4pm the kids go outside to play until just before 5, so if we show up before then we let him keep playing for a while, the dude loves himself some outside play.  It happened to be the first time I saw him kicking tail on their bigger bikes and I was impressed.  He is totally in control but going very fast, almost fast enough to lift a wheel on a turn, crazy.  He also rode a razor type scooter as shown below.

As Nick would say, "Beep Beep"

This weekend was gorgeous outside so we took full advantage of it.  First the fair and then the Zoo.  As usual fun was had by all.  I will let this first picture speak for the blog post.

Can you believe how big he is?

The family went to the Az state fair this weekend.  We parked off site to get free parking with the side benefit that Nick got to go for a bus ride which he really enjoyed.  Grandma Taylor joined in on the fun (while squeezing into the kid size rides so Mom and Dad didn't have to - thanks for that :)  The petting zoo didn't go quite as well as we figured it would but the choo choo train, carousel and slide more then made up for it.

Nick and Mom at the entrance.

Nick's latest, umm, work of art.  Introducing....

Nick's Worms

This past weekend we went to the annual Way Out West Oktoberfest at the Tempe town lake.  The weather was perfect and the beer was cold.  Nick's view was slightly different as he enjoyed the Way Out West Kinderfest.  He got to go down a big inflatable slide, jump around in a bouncy house with dinosaurs, ride the carousel (thrice), and play in the splash park.  Needless to say, he fell asleep on the way home.

Entrance to the Kinderfest

Tis October and that means overseeding time on the grass.  The daycare has a few areas for different age groups and since Nick's area was cut off we decided to take a look / play on the older kids stuff.  The best thing is their clubhouse where we see young Nicholas posing for a picture for dad (thanks for that Nick).

Bigger kids toys

So we happened into a Toyota dealership this week to take a look at the Sienna.  The dealership is new and is pretty nice, they even have a pirate ship which Nick and Dad got to play in.  No new car but lots of fun. 

On the lookout

There are two things that he loves more then life, Popsicles and suckers.  A long way down in third is dancing to music (maybe swinging but I digress).  So in the car this week he was doing a good job listening so he got a treat of a sucker, which of course he loved.  On the way home I put on some music (kid's, not dad's), specifically his current favorite of Icky Sticky Bubblegum.  Boy did his eyes light up, then a sudden realization that he had a sucker in his hand.  Big dilemma.  Sucker is of course a given, but how to clap to Icky Sticky Bubblegum?  First there was terror, then he thought of his escape, he would bite off the "sucker" from the stick and thus keep the sucker in his mouth while being able to clap to the bubblegum song.  Much effort ensued in trying to cut the stick in two, nothing would work.  Let me tell you, the face while this was occuring was priceless.  So after awhile of trying and failing to disassemble the sucker he gave in and just bobbed his head to the music while enjoying his sucker.

Thus ended the sticky bubblegum and sucker incident.

So many things change when you have a kid.  A suprising change is the required route to work.  Below is a map showing the normal (and altered path) for our commute to work.  The blue being the two normal routes to work, either bypassing the freeway or for those rare days when traffic is light we may go via freeway.  Now days we are going via the red route which is basically the highest amount of tractors / mile in the continental United States.

The tractor map of Chandler