Quantification of Fun

Stillife: Tyler in Cornfield

525,600 minutes, 525,000 moments so dear. 525,600 minutes - how do you measure, measure a year? In daylights, in sunsets, in midnights, in cups of coffee. In inches, in miles, in laughter, in strife. In 525,600 minutes - how do you measure a year in the life? How about love? How about love? How about love? Measure in love. Seasons of love.

Ah, Seasons of Love. How I got this song from Rent stuck in my head is beyond me, but consider yourself lucky that you don’t live in our house because you’d be hearing me sing it constantly (and poorly). John is ready to move out. But, it got me thinking about how to measure the fun we had during our 10-day trip to Iowa. We did so many things and had some many adventures, big and small, with family and alone (well, Tyler and his Mama). It’s tough to measure and put in metrics, but we’ll give it a try. Here we go, chronologically!
-10 round trips on one of the LAX escalators before we took one big airplane ride to St. Louis where we rode the walking sidewalk 22 times before getting on another airplane to Cedar Rapids.

Is Mom ever going to tire of sticking me on the pilot's laps? I'm gonna be 15 and

she'll still be putting me up here.

-One adoring Grandma waiting at the gate who just loved how Tyler would say “ya!” after every question. For example:
Grandma: Are you my precious little boy?
Tyler: Ya!
Grandma: Oh, you are too cute! I knew I gave you some of Grammy’s German heritage!
-One new floaty swimsuit which we used four times in Uncle Gary’s swimming pool where we played with 7 noodles, 1 boat, 2 squirt guns, several “guys,” a few balls and many assorted types of bugs – both live and dead.
-Two cows, two pigs, several super-fat chickens, a rooster, three goats and a slew of prairie dogs all seen at Old McDonald’s Farm (seriously), where Grandma took us one day in Bever Park near her house.

Yeeeee-haw!!

Must... get....in....to....save.....chickens!

Wow, the midwest farmer's daughters really do make you feel alright!

- Seven episodes of Clifford (and we all have that theme song stuck in our heads thankyouverymuch) watched on the drive up to Lake Okoboji where there were…
- five doting cousins, two more playful uncles and a fun aunt all waiting to get their hands on Tyler. We rented a condo which was 50 steps off the lake and so the first day we spent in a motorboat, trying to get Mama back up on water skis after 10 years. The next day we went to the hotel’s indoor water park which Tyler LOVED because the water was warm and shallow enough that he could walk around in it. We all did countless loops around the lazy river, with and without innertubes, shot basketballs, played with the hose and went down the slides.
- More fun was to be had running up and down the halls, or “nun!!!” as Tyler would say. My guess would be we nunned at least 25 times.

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Aunt Cathy points out what a bad water skier Tyler's mama really is .

The lazy river!

Splash!

Grammy and all her little (and not so little) munchkins.

- One birthday celebration dinner for Grandma was spent at Gepetto’s Restaurant where Tyler sat for exactly 5 minutes before demanding one of the 525,600 oboba rides he received while in Iowa. And, as an aside, Tyler now has two airplanes that whenever he sees them he says emphatically, I-wa! Somehow he must have dropped the “O” in the ocean, much like his great grandfather dropped the O from O’Shea many years ago.
- We lucked out and got a cool day when we visited Arnold’s Park, an “Iowa Classic” amusement park where the rides must have dated back to the 40’s. Tyler rode the flying fish 5 times in a row, and even then we had to pry his kung fu grip off the fish’s head and promise him more fun rides to get him out. He then went on the boats, the ferris wheel (not so keen on that), the baby roller coaster (which he did on his own, much to the surprise of all the other parents), the whirly wheel with Dad, and the baby choo choo with mom. We almost had one tantrum when he was not tall enough to go on the go-karts, but we placated him with the fake car inside. He also got his first snowcone.

Happy Birthday! Now get me out of this chair!

An Iowa Classic

Fun on the flying fish!

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This steering wheel must be broke, I was headed for the lake!

Let's see Mario do this trick!

- Seven more episodes of Clifford on the drive home. Clifford needed Emily so she chose him for her own…
- One set of real train tracks behind Uncle G’s house where Tyler saw at least three real trains go by. 20 times per day Mama was asked to go out and see if there was a choo choo. One hour per day was spent on said tracks, throwing rocks in the stream below, looking for choo choos, giving obobo rides down the tracks, picking up sticks and banging them and rocks on the tracks, etc.

Choo choo? Choo choo?

You get a line and I'll get a pole, honey!

- The adventure continued for T as we tried to get home with three hours of delay spent in the Cedar Rapids airport, resulting in 30 more oboba rides, 46 loops around the up and down escalater, and three trips to the store to see the airplanes.
- one mad dash through the Chicago airport to catch our flight where we kissed daddy goodbye and he went on to Denver.
- returning home we found two dead tomato plants, 11 pages of unread email and five bags to unpack, all culminating in one happy child and two exhausted parents.