Two Brothers Festival

This Sunday funday we took the kiddos to Two Brothers Festival. Two Brothers Brewing Company is the largest independently owned and operated craft brewer in Chicagoland. For those that love craft beer (Mr. Vail), it's a big hit. Today was family fun day where they had live bands, face painting, tattoos, a mini zoo and balloon art. So we packed up our chairs and off we went on this 90 degree day. Once we got there, we scored a spot in the shade and shortly thereafter Aunt Jenny, Uncle Mike and Tristan joined us. The cousins enjoyed receiving a tattoo, playing with one another, seeing an eagle, a turtle, a snake and fire trucks! We all tried to stay cool and enjoy the live band. Here are some pictures from the day. Iz and I took a dip in the pool just to cool off once we got home. Baby G was so tired after her bath, she went to bed.

But My Tractor Works Mommy....

A little Vail family humor for you....After dinner tonight, I decided it would be a good idea to go outside and mow the grass before it rains for the next few days.  At 8 p.m., Isabella and I went outside and she jumped on her John Deere and I jumped on mine.  She has a little battery operated John Deere tractor with a trailer and she pretends to mow the grass as I am actually mowing it.  When she gets tired, she hops on with me and steers the way.

As I am making my last two rows and finishing up for the night, all of a sudden, my John Deere won't move either forward or backward.  And it just happens to be all the way at the back of the property.  Isabella comes up to me and says "What is wrong mommy?"  And I say, "Isabella, my tractor won't move either forward or backward, something is WRONG."  And with that innocent look, at a time that I am feeling sad that something is wrong with my tractor, she looks up at me with those green eyes and says..."But my tractor works mommy, you can use it if you want."
I smile at her and say THANK YOU HONEY!!!  I walk off to find Bob.  I tell him the news and muttering a few words under his breath, he says ADD IT TO THE LIST!  Just call John Deere tomorrow and have them come and pick it up.  I watch him try to get the tractor to work for about 10 minutes and then I walk away.  If I call John Deere, that means we are like 2 weeks without a tractor, which would feel like an eternity.  Not happening.  Nothing smelled like it was burning.  I knew I had not done anything wrong.  It had to be something simple.  Bummed.  It's like not having a wash machine or vacuum cleaner.  The lawn mower ranks right up there with them.

I put Isabella to bed and think to myself....I don't want to go to bed thinking about this tractor all night.  I don't want to have to call service in the morning.  What should I do?  GOOGLE it.  So I DO.   I am not so smart about changing oil, or sharpening blades, or lawn mower problems for that matter, but someone out there knows.....right??!!

So I RUN OUTSIDE (Bob really MAD at this point) and I say BOB...I think it might be a transmission lockout, is there some sort of lever on the back of the tractor that you can just push in and I can try it again??  He goes to the back of the tractor, pushes a lever in, I jump on and WA LAAAAAAAA the john deere works again.

CHEERS TO ISABELLA for making me SMILE in a frantic moment and THANK YOU to google for helping fix our John Deere!!

Mother's & Father's Day

Gheesh.....just realized that I am slacking in the posting blogs department.  So let me take you back a month and then fast forward a month.  Did you catch that?
Last month for mother's day, Bob and I both got to have a nice visit with our mother's.  For father's day, we both got to have a nice visit with our fathers.  Each day, we ended back at the house where we relaxed and spent time with our girls.  Here are a few pictures from each day along with a picture of Baby G in the pool.  Hope you all enjoyed the beautiful weather!  She is becoming quite the little swimmer.