Wild weekend in Davenport, Iowa

Last weekend we made the 4 hour drive up to Davenport, Iowa to spend time with our really good friends the Hodgen's.  We were so excited to spend time with them, it has been an entire year since we had seen them.  This was also a test run for us to see how Mac would do with traveling.  Our big summer vacation is coming up and we are getting a little nervous to travel that long and far with a 9 month old.  But this trip was a huge success.  Mac did so well in the car.  He slept the majority of the time.  Davenport is home to the John Deere world headquarters, and they have set up a pavilion that is full of their tractors for everyone to go in and play on and enjoy.  This is literally every little boy's dream,  to be able to crawl up on all the tractors and press all the buttons.  It was really fun for the adults to, I have to admit!   

 This is Mac inside one of the tires for the tractors, he looks so tiny!

 He is already ready to mow the lawn!!  

 This is Steve and Adam playing the virtual tractor game.  

 Helping Daddy mow, what a good boy!

 This trip was also Mac's first time in a swimming pool.  Luckily the water was not to cold.  He loved it. I am pretty sure he would have swam all day if we would have let him.  He has no fear of the water.  Matt had to make sure and hold his head away from the water enough so that he couldn't lean over and drink from the pool.  Silly little boy, but how do you reason with a 7 month old that you aren't supposed to put everything in your mouth?  We haven't figured this one out yet!!  

 After swimming, we headed to the Iowa Machine Shed for some dinner.  We were celebrating Matt and Steve's graduation!!!  Did I mention that Matt had officially graduated from college?  I am so proud of my amazing husband!!  No more school!  That is an amazing feeling.  It was only fitting that we celebrated with the Hodgen's .  They were with us through it all in Alabama!  Iowa Machine Shed was a really fun place to eat.  We were able to go on a hay ride before dinner.  The picture above is Mac's reaction to the hay ride.  He didn't love it so much.  Poor little guy.  This place had a gift shop that was amazing.  They had bacon everything!!  Bacon candles, bacon chocolate, bacon band aides, bacon popcorn.  Anything you could imagine was done with bacon. WE tried the bacon popcorn and it was pretty good, but how can you go wrong with bacon? We had such a fun time at dinner.  Good food and good company.  It can't get much better than that!  

 Matt and Steve celebrating their graduation.

 This is Steve and Melissa's daughter Shannon.  She loved Mac.  The entire time she would tell us how cute he was and she even came up with a nick name for Mac, "Baby Lester" .  So funny and precious, we have missed hanging out with her.  For some reason I didn't get any pictures of Adam, but we have missed him too!  Thank you Hodgen's for letting us visit you!  We really had a great time.  Hopefully we will be back again soon!