The Bishop Diaries: Fun with Jackson Quinn

My sidekick and I have been trying to squeeze in as much summer fun as possible within the last week and I have to say how awesome it is now that he is talking and discovering, well... everything.

This boy makes me smile like I've never known before.
Case in point - We went boating with my friend Paul and he was loving it. LOVING it. He didn't mind the snoopy life jacket, he stayed close to mommy and he adored looking at all of the nature around us as we were sailing down the river. Paul was trying to teach him to say the word barge. He would point as one when we would pass by and say "barge" repeatedly. After a few times, Jackson decided that Paul was wrong. It's not a barge, it's a water truck. Well, makes sense, I guess. It's on the water and transports things, so good job, Jax. Very inventive.

Just driving the boat, no big deal...

He was so worn out after his nautical adventure that he was out

within thirty seconds of leaving the marina.

Speaking of trucks, he has these two in the great room and goes from one to the next. Repeatedly.

One is motorized, the other isn't. Suspiciously, he likes the non-motorized one better. He also likes dare-deviling on it, as he does everything.

This boy is so absolutely fearless that he's going to give me a heart attack at some point. He climbs on and jumps from everything. If he'd ever seen Superman, I'd understand it a bit better. He hasn't.

I guess he's just all boy.

Next it was off to the park for a nice cool morning of outdoor fun

He found this ridiculously large piece of asphalt and decided to carry it

around for about thirty minutes.

After the asphalt lost it's newness, it was onto the mulch.

Mulch always makes everything better in JQ land.

(Please note that he has mulch in his hair from throwing it everywhere. Don't ask me how, but the boy had mulch in his diaper when we got home.)

That tongue. It comes out whenever he's concentrating and cracks me up!

Grandpa came over in his truck (which Jackson is obsessed with)

and let him sit in it to pretend drive. He was pressing every button, moving every lever and honking the horn (sorry, neighbors). Apparently, he was even checking his rear view mirror.

Next up it was time for Callie's 5th birthday party.
While Cal was out enjoying her special day, Jax was inside, flirting with Macy.

and then driving her Jeep

panning for gold and treasures

attempting to sit on a big boy swing

sitting inside of a "tractor"

loving on that same "tractor"

driving another "tractor"

and probably messing up some of the settings on it, too. Sorry, Ted & Anna!

Yesterday we went to Monkey Joes and I was pleasantly surprised.

I had heard of this place but had never been. It's pretty darn amazing.

They have a ton of inflatables, rides, games and (cue the angels singing) a tot spot.

It's basically a crazy, energy filled, independant toddler's parent's dream come true.

We had to wear socks...

But then Jax got to run until he could run no more. The area for tots is self contained

(with a padded gate), has nice puffy leather couches for parents to sit on and has a ton of things for the little ones to do.

Pianos, slides, games, a padded merry go round, bridges, huge blocks to stack, you name it.

He played for about an hour before anyone else even arrived.

It was so worth the money and we will definitely be back. Numerous times.

Luckily, he wore his best tuxedo for the special occasion.

And finally, today we did some crafty things.
It was a thunderstormy, rainy, blah day here and so we decided to stay in.
Jackson loves crayons, pencils, markers, pens, well, you get the idea.

Thank goodness for Color Wonder markers. They are a miracle and I should probably send Crayola a thank you card for inventing them. When he got bored at his table, I taped the paper to the window and he thought that was pretty much the coolest thing ever.

We also had some contact paper sticky art project going on.