Diamond Lake Beach

So despite living in Lake County for 3 years now, I have actually never been to any of the lakes here.  I used to visit Lake Michigan a ton when we lived in Chicago and Evanston, but I guess I didn't have a kid then either, so I used to do a lot of things more often than I do now :)

Anyway, when I bought our pool pass this year, I bought the one that included admission to the public lake here in Mundelein, but Gav and I had never made it this summer until today (which unfortunately this weekend is the last weekend its open, Mundelein shuts their summer stuff down way early because their schools start next week).  And I'm bummed we didn't go to the beach more often now that I've been.  Diamond Lake is a good sized lake, with lots of people boating and waterskiing/jetskiing farther out.  The actual beach was good sized with lots of playground equipment, and they even have a cool raft/obstacle course thingy out in the lake that you can play on (I think we'll work on getting Gav just to get his face wet first though!).

I wasn't too sure how Gav would react to the beach since the pool has pretty much been a disaster all summer, but for the most part, he really liked it!  Of course the water was his least favorite, but we did spend a little over an hour at the beach (vs. the approx 10 minutes we spend at the pool before he starts asking to go home).

Here are some pics from our beach adventure today (which are apparently forbidden, I saw the big "No Cameras Allowed" sign on our way out, oops!)   **Disclaimer:  these pics were taken with our old cruddy camera, I was too chicken to bring the nice one to a place filled with sand!

Sand castle building action shot

 Super excited about how much sand there is to play with here!

 I managed to capture one of the few moments when Gavin actually enjoyed himself in the water.

 And we're back to hating the water (the boats out in the distance created the smallest of waves that gently lapped Gavin's legs during this pic, causing major tears...sigh!)

 Playing tic tac toe on the pirate ship playground

 Gav gearing himself up to go down the big slide

 Really enjoying the bouncy duck...he was also quacking a lot while riding, super cute!

 Love the look of disdain Gav has on his face here, not sure what its about though!

Farmers Market

So as I mentioned in the other post, Ryan surprised me with a brand new camera for our anniversary, so I decided to test it out at the Grayslake Farmers Market today.  Keep in mind that I pretty much only know how to turn it on and off at this point, but it still takes way better pictures than our old camera!

Gav and I have visited the farmers market a few times this summer, and its always a nice time.  They have a whole kids section which always has a few different activities for the kiddos.  And the produce is always tasty too (although today I had such a craving for strawberries and there wasn't a single one in that farmer's market!)

Gav loved this table that had pea gravel and a bunch of trucks to play with.

 Each time we've gone to the farmer's market, there has been a character for the kids to meet.  Last time it was Winnie the Pooh and Tigger, this time it was....Big Bird's redneck cousin?? 

 Much like real animals these days, Gav was very excited about meeting "Big Bird" from a distance...

 ...but as you can see, he wasn't too thrilled about getting up close and personal.  Now that I see "Big Bird's" face straight on, I think I understand why!

 Gav could not be gripping my arm any tighter in this pic, but he toughed it out to get a pic with Mommy!

 Experimenting with Bernoulli's principle ;)

 They always have a balloon artist at the farmer's market as well.  Last time Gavin got a sword and had it dismantled by the time we got to the car.  This time I selected a dog for Gavin, which took longer, but he still managed to undo it during the car ride home.  He is so much like his dad!

Lambs Farm

What?!  Two posts in less than a week?  I know, I'm shocked too.  But Gavin and I are trying to finish up our "summer bucket list" of all the fun stuff I have wanted to do (or wanted to do again) while on break.  So assuming I actually get on the computer and upload our pics, there will probably be a good amount of blogs in the next two weeks before its back to the grind!

Today we joined some friends of mine from school at Lambs Farm in good old Libertyville.  As a kid myself, I only knew Lambs Farm as the place I could see from the expressway that was about 10 minutes from Great America :)  So seeing Lambs Farm was probably around the time that Andy and I started driving our mom crazy trying to be the one who saw the American Eagle ride first!  But now I know that Lambs Farm is a farmyard/kiddie entertainment place that also provides adults with special needs a place to live and work.  Despite driving by Lambs Farm at least once a year when I was a kid, and it being 10 minutes away from our house, I had never been there before today.  Its a great place for kids Gavin's age, because it was low key enough for him to have his run of the place, and had enough activities to entertain him until nap time!

As we discovered at the fair on Sunday, Gavin is currently only interested in viewing animals from behind their cages/gates, so although there is a petting zoo at Lambs Farm, we have no picture evidence that Gavin did actually go in (clutching my arm the whole time).  But we did manage to get some other good pics of the fun: (**I know these pics are super blurry, I didn't realize that Gav had messed with the settings when I was taking these.  But luckily these are the last bad pics you'll see on here, because today Ryan surprised me with a brand new camera!  Much clearer pics coming soon!)

Gavin wasn't interested in getting close to the real animals, but he loved this ceramic pig!

 Well, this fake pig smells a lot better than the real ones!

 We went to Lambs Farm with two girls Gavin's age, but he refused to get on this swing until the girls were off.  Someone has discovered cooties at the age of 2!

 Deep thoughts on the swing

 More fake animals, more fun!

 Gavin definitely loves carousels.

 I love this pic of Gav and I on the "choo choo."

 I couldn't resist taking a pic of the sign you can see from the expressway.

 All tuckered out! 

The Lake County Fair

This past weekend, we got to enjoy some family time at the Lake County Fair.  The fairgrounds are actually just up the street from our neighborhood, but we've lived in Mundelein for 3 years now, and this was the first time we made it to the fair!  I have been begging Ryan to go to the fair because the schedule of events always sounds amazing (Demolition Derby, Tractor Pull, Lake County Pageant, and last but not least, the Banana Derby...what is a Banana Derby you ask?  Oh, its monkeys that race like jockeys on top of dogs.  And we got to see it, I know you're jealous, but try to move on :)

So although it has been hotter than the surface of the sun for the past 3 weeks, we still decided to venture out to the fair on Sunday.  We went right when it opened, which meant there wasn't much to do yet but look at the prize winning animals that have been sold to local grocery stores (Ryan had to remind me that this is what they're raised for, but I about passed out when I saw that Fuzzy the prize winning cow had been bought by Sunset Foods!).   Gavin really enjoyed looking at the animals.  He however really wanted no part of the petting zoo, which is funny because last fall he went to two petting zoos and loved them both.  Anyways, here are a few pics from our first trip to the Lake County Fair!

We asked Gavin to pose for a picture, and this is what he gave us.  What a ham!

 Having a deep conversation with the goat.  Gavin enjoyed speaking to all the animals in their native tongue, but he seemed most fluent in goat and sheep.

 The look on Gav's face says "I'm hot and sweaty take me home" but I swear he was laughing and smiling right before I took this pic!  At least Ryan looks like hes having a good time!

 Checking out the pigs.  Gavin wasn't interested in getting any closer than this.

 We underestimated the popularity of the Banana Derby and showed up 5 minutes before showtime.  As you can see, next time we will have to plan ahead.  But you can make out two monkey jockeys racing neck and neck in this pic, thrilling!

 Gav had zero interest in the petting zoo, which was the same travelling petting zoo from Geneseo that we visited at Diddier Farms last fall!

 The heat started to get to us all, so we went to the one air conditioned exhibit, which was a bunch of vendors, 4-H exhibits, and local police and fire fighting units, which is where Gav got this sweet helmet!