Foodless Friday: Part of our trip and a giveaway!

(Just an FYI for those of you who read my personal blog... this is pretty much the same post! You can skip to the end to see how to enter the giveaway...) The trip to Madison, WI for my husband to defend his thesis was such a whirlwind trip - from planning to returning it was 2 weeks, or just over - yep that includes buying plane tickets (highly suggest NOT buying plane tickets the week of)! We did have some time to watch a show all about airports to help prepare my son for flying (one of the episodes in Mighty Machines, one of his favorite shows!)

I think having him see the airport and watch all about airplanes helped him - he LOVED the flight out (the flight back was a little more rough since we woke him up about 4:30 to catch it - no luck keeping him asleep while getting him in the car!)

 Flight out, this was actually the flight from Chicago to Madison.

 Airport in Madison bright and early Saturday morning on the return trip. He loved looking at the planes, trucks while waiting for our flight!

 "It's an airplane!"

 Flight from Chicago to Salt Lake City.

 Look at those clouds!

 Another shot of the flight from Chicago to Madison.

 Somewhere in the Midwest...

The Rockies! I always love to see how massive these mountains are when flying. Plus on the way back it lets me know we are getting close to home!

My son also enjoyed riding the bus while in Madison. We rode it a few times to and from campus (and downtown.)

 He loved looking out the window at all the cars and trucks we passed by.

 He started riding like a regular bus traveler!

 He'd walk to the back of the bus and sit in the seat like such a grown up!

 Except the pacifier and playing with his ears... funny thing about the pacifier - he'd only been using it for naps until he got an ear infection that cleared up shortly before we left. Since then he ALWAYS wants it!

He really LOVED the bus rides!

We arrived Friday evening and got settled in a friend's apartment (thanks Margaret!) Saturday we ran some errands and such. Sunday we went to church, all took naps and afterward felt much more rested! After dinner we went to the Arboretum. When we lived in Madison, Hubby and I would take trips to the Arboretum to see the birds. We loved taking the less traveled paths and seeing all the different plants and animals that were there. We saw quite a few birds as well.

  I love how they have benches and such by trees.

 I loved this shot even thought it turned out a bit blurry.

 This bench has a great view and it was near here that Hubby and I saw a brown thrasher a few years ago.

 I think this bench would be a perfect place to take couple pictures, especially grandparents!

 This is the view from the bench. I love it as well.

 Hubby was sitting here and I loved the shot, so I made him look to the left to get a profile instead of just the back of his head.

I love how my son is captured by the plant that my husband is showing him!

 This tree intrigued me

 so I took a close up picture of it.

 LOVE this flower, so interesting.

And now for the birds we saw: 

#1

#2

#3 (this one is hard so just a guess of which type is fine)

#4

#4 again

#5 (bottom bird)

#6

 #7

Anybody recognize any of these?

Now for the giveaway:

Image from teachercreated.com

This is a great cookbook for cooking with children. Especially if you haven't yet and want to start.

Each recipe has a suggested book at the top (and they have other suggestions at the end of the recipe as well.) They also give a list of ingredients as well as kitchen gadgets you'll need. It includes over 50 recipes as well as ideas for activities.

To enter this contest leave a comment and let me know which birds you recognize, or if you prefer you can leave a comment about anything...

For an additional entry, you can leave a comment on any post since Monday, then leave another comment on this post to let me know. (You can comment on every post, but only one additional entry.)

Contest open worldwide. Contest will end Thursday (June 23) evening. Winner will be announced next Friday (June 24), please check back to see if you won as I will not require you to enter any contact information. Winner will be selected by random.org.