Keeping the boys busy

My weekly photo theme was books, which was a pretty easy one for us.  Brady is a serious book lover, and Nathan is coming around, too.  Brady and I took Nathan to the library to show him what all the fuss is about.

Nathan got a little distracted by the excavator next door.

Brady choosing a book to check out- Merry Christmas, Curious George. We've awakened to Brady singing Christmas songs and today got a request for the Christmas tree.

We wrapped up another fun summer session of music classes this week.

I'm always looking for fun, cheap things to do with the boys in the summer, so I had an idea.  I surprised them with a trip to our little city airport after music class.

We saw fuel trucks,

a nice selection of rocks,

and airplanes landing!

A woman was out on the patio with us watching the orange Navy plane land. She told me that her baby was flying it. :)

We also got to see a few planes taking off (Brady is pointing to one back on the runway).

Brady earned a lollipop for playing nicely with Nathan one morning. Nathan was quick to point out that he had good behavior too.

There is a motorcycle ride that comes through our town every year, America's 9/11 Ride.  It's about 1,000 motorcycles on a three day ride that starts at the site of the Flight 93 crash in PA, then to the Pentagon, and finally to New York City.  I thought Brady would really like to see it, so we packed some snacks and headed downtown.  While we were waiting, one motorcycle drove through town, and it was pretty loud.  Brady told me he was scared and wanted to leave.  I was really proud of him for being able to communicate that to me, and we were able to avoid a meltdown.  Instead, we left downtown and found a spot along the route that was more open (less noise echo), and where Brady could watch from inside the van.  We had a great time.

On Sunday we attended our local Autism Society's barbecue.  It was at a really cool park that I've been meaning to check out, so this was a perfect opportunity.

We swam for a couple hours before the picnic.

Nathan loved the slides!

And it was right up Brady's alley.

We could see the lake from our pavilion, and Brady noticed the paddle boats. He was so excited about "boating" that we just had to do it.  Pete got his exercise paddling us around the lake.

Brady lost his enthusiasm once the life vest was around his neck!

At least Nathan and I enjoyed the view off the back.