Adventures with Penny

Since I’ve last updated this, Penny is now about half again as old as she was. She’s done a lot of growing and seen a lot of new things. So many new experiences, where to begin?


For Father’s Day, Debbie arranged for us to go on a lunchtime cruise around the harbor.

It was really nice and lots of good food, but I think the music was a bit loud for Penny. She didn’t have a problem with the boat ride itself, however, and I think we all had a good time.

Debbie wanted Penny to get some culture (because she needs a good counterbalance to her rasberry blowing duets with Daddy), so we went to the MFA to see the Dale Chihuly exhibit.

There were lots of pretty glass pieces.

Penny appeared to be having a good time.

There really was some impressive stuff there.

I think she and I were impressed by different things.

But for the most part, I think just about anything shiny had her attention.

I wish I could say the rest of the museum held her interest as well as the glass, but, while it wasn’t as shiny, she was a good sport.

Then, over the week of July 4th, we went back home so that Penny could meet the family. Penny did really well on three of the four flights and even managed to sleep through the entirety of two of them (between 2 of the flights, she got to meet the Colonel).

I feel bad for our fellow passengers on that final leg from O’Hare to Boston, but that was beyond our control. Anyway, while back home, Penny got to meet her Great Grandpa and Great Grandma Mullenix (while her parents ate and ate and ate and ate at Great Uncle Mike and Great Aunt Barb’s house)

and her Great Grandma Ultz.

She also got to meet her Grandpa Himes for the first time.

There were also many great aunts and uncles to meet too. Including Mark,

Jerilyn,

Jean,

Connie,

and Jeff and Becky.

Oh, and cousin Jamie, too.

There were many more great aunts and uncles she got to meet, but most of the time I’d rather play with her than get behind the camera, so I don’t have pictures of those meetings.

At Grandma and Grandpa Himes’ house, there was bubble blowing

and water gun squirting with cousins Malachi and Addison and Uncle Brian.

Sometimes Daddy got involved in a standoff too.

Malachi put on his fearsome face paint,

but quickly decided he was more of a lover than a fighter,

while Penny decided she wanted to start working on learning some building skills

with Addison.

Malachi, the expert, helped out in a supervisory role.

Penny spent some time hanging with Auntie Kara,

and making funny faces with Mommy.

Mommy and Brian chatted,

while Grammy and Grampy took the big kids riding on tractors.

Penny enjoyed playing in Mr. Turtle with her big cousin Addy,

while Grammy and Uncle Brian helped.

With the warm weather, everyone enjoyed being able to cool off in the water.

Malachi wanted to help water the lawn, but I think that was just because he wanted to help mow it if the grass grew.

One day, we went to the park and Penny got to try out swinging with Mommy and Addy

and sliding with Daddy.

Daddy spend a lot of time monkey-ing around

and the other kids got Grammy to push them and their mommy on the swings.

Good times with the cousins.

That evening, she went over to Great Grandma Ultz’ farm to meet some more relatives.

She got to feed the pony

and the goats,

and meet a cow,

some chickens,

and the pigs.

She also got to see Great Uncle Rick feed the baby calves with bottles just like she uses (only much bigger).

Addy and Uncle Brian explored the fields,

and Malachi got to explore his love of tractors.

There were new people to play with,

teeters to totter,

trees (and other things) to swing from (for the big kids),

and s'mores to eat.

When we went back to Elkhart, we saw some of the new elk statues they have around town,

and Grandpa Yoder took Penny (and the rest of us) to the Potawatami Park Zoo.

Penny got to see some monkeys,

pet a goat,

and look at the lazy lions.

She also got to watch some kangaroos and zebras

and help feed the fish.

She got to see a bunch of other animals,

but soon the heat got too much for her and we had to retreat to inside the reptile/monkey house.

There she met some monkeys that were very interesting in talking with her.

She also met more people and did more things, but, unfortunately, her daddy has a habit of snapping lots of pictures and then not taking any for a while in alternating spurts so there’s a lot of stuff that got missed. All in all it was a good trip, except that last leg of the flight (sorry to anyone who had seats around us), so thanks to everyone who helped make our visit so much fun.