We took Liam on his first extended road trip over Memorial Day weekend and he did great!   We left Friday after work and drove to Brady, TX to visit friends.   It’s about a 3½ hour drive and Liam stayed awake for the entire drive and never complained.   On the way there, we passed several fields with cows, sheep, & goats in them and along the way, he’d remind us of the sounds they make.

We stayed at our friend Glenda’s house and she spoiled him rotten all weekend.   He got to eat & drink all sorts of sugary items that we would never give him at home, but since it was a mini-vacation for him and gave Glenda such pleasure, we let him be spoiled.   She has a swimming pool at her house and unlike our last swimming adventure, the water there was warm and the temp outside hovered around 100° all weekend.   We started him off in a tube floaty that has a seat in the middle but he didn’t like that at all because he was too far removed from the water.   Next, we put arm floaty’s on him and he did pretty well with those but never felt confident enough to try to swim on his own.   The next day I bought him a swim vest that clipped on to his swim trunks and that worked out perfect for him!   Rob taught him how to kick & dog paddle and he let go and swam from one side of the pool to the other on his own and would get in and out of the pool by himself.   He’s definitely going to be a swimmer!



After mastering the pool, Liam was very interested in Sladyn’s Razor so he convinced him to take him for a ride on it around the pool:



On Saturday, we took Liam to Georgina (GiGi) & Joey’s farm in Calf Creek, TX to visit the cows and sheep.   Joey’s dad, "Pappy," is 88 years old and still lives on the farm.   He was thrilled to have Liam come visit the animals.   GiGi rode in the back of the farm truck and held Liam while we drove out to the pasture.   When we got out to the pasture, Joey blew the horn and cows came running in to the truck from every direction.   Joey put out feed for the cows and then took Liam and walked in the middle of all the cows so he could pet them.   Rob & I felt like really city-slickers at that moment not knowing anything about cows or farms and asking stupid questions like, "Can you milk these cows?"   We were quickly educated that cattle are either raised as dairy cows (for milking) or free range cows.   The cattle we were looking at were the latter variety — or in other words... steak.   Either way, they all say "moo" and Liam was so excited to hear them:



After leaving the cows, we drove through the pastures hunting the sheep.   I’m sure glad Joey knows his way around those pastures because there was nothing in sight but trees and I had no sense of direction out there.   He finally spotted the sheep in one of the three pastures they hang out and took Liam up to see them.   The sheep were much more skittish than the cows so Liam was not able to pet them but he did get close to them and hear them say their "baa’s."

After that, we headed back to the farm house and thanked "Pappy" for letting us visit the animals and Liam blew kisses goodbye to him & Joey:



On Sunday, we drove to Brownwood and ate at Underwood’s; which is the best BBQ place in the world!   Liam loved the cherry & apple cobbler and the fresh hot rolls.   After lunch, we did some shopping and then it was back to the swimming pool for the rest of the day!

We drove home yesterday and Liam stayed awake for most of the ride, but was exhausted by the time we got home.   He ate a late lunch and then went down for a long nap.   He learned a new word in Brady which pretty much sums up the whole exciting weekend... Wow!
 

Labels: holidays, traveling