Big Tractor

The National Farm Machinery Show, held in Louisville, Kentucky, was the end of last week through this past Saturday. Cargill has a booth and Russ chose to manage the booth on Saturday so that we could go with him, anticipating Lawson enjoying the show. Enjoying is not even the word... he was in tractor heaven!

We drove to Louisville Friday after school, arriving around 6 pm. We got settled into our hotel and had dinner with Gretta and Joel, who quickly became "Joe" in Lawson's language and were then off to bed for the big show on Saturday morning.

We were to be there at 9:00 and were not scheduled to "tear-down" until 6:00 pm... I was mentally prepared for this big day --- I thought. We got there about 8:45 and it was 20 degrees outside where we had to wait for the doors to open at 9:00... fortunately, they let Russ in with Lawson and the stroller as he had a pass, but wouldn't let the 7 month pregnant wife/mama in, so I waited with Joel outside. We finally saw another entrance and were able to sneak in to the warm building. Once inside, I was in shock at the size of the building and at all of the equipment. It is indescribable. Lawson was wide-eyed and so excited as he was attempting to take it all in. We found Cargill's booth and the day went full-speed ahead from there. Lawson and I took off as Russ got things ready for the day.

Growing up on a farm, I had what I thought to be a pretty good sense about farm machinery... I was wrong. There were pieces of equipment that I had never seen or heard of before and the ones that I was familiar with had so many cool options on them, that they were even new to me. It was fun! I took over 100 pictures in the 9 hours we were there and although I didn't post all of them, the post is long. It occurred to me as I was taking his picture on about tractor #10 that it wasn't necessary to take his picture on EVERY tractor, but it was hard not to.

We saw tractors in every shape, color, and size... literally. And if I only had 10 cents for every time he said "trac-tor", I would be rich! His excitement was heart-warming. He would clap as we went from tractor to tractor and shout "hooray!"... so cute!

By lunch time, I was exhausted and he was not. I was beginning to wonder what the heck I was thinking, but as we ate with Russ it occurred to me that I was right where I needed to be... making great memories with both of my boys. It is rare that Lawson and I get to travel with Russ for work and what fun Lawson was having! His smiles, claps, and hoorays were priceless. I decided to suck it up... his two-hour nap following lunch was truly the life saver for the day.

Below are a "few" (ha!) pics from our trip. They are not organized in any particular order as there were too many to sort through...


This was the first tractor stop for the day... "Hooray!"

His smile is worth more than 1000 words!

This was the end of the day at the mall. Once we left the show, we stopped at the mall as we hadn't walked enough that day and needed a few more steps in... ha! No really, we needed to stop at Pottery Barn and we needed to eat so we stopped and shopped. Lawson is into sitting down and patting the area next to him, inviting you to sit down. As we left the California Pizza Kitchen, there was a little bench that he climbed up on and then patted for us to sit with him. Humoring him, we gladly stopped and sat. He jumped down from there and ran to this teeny-tiny ledge and sat his little buns down, patting for us to sit... it was hilarious! People all around were cracking up as it was so obvious to those who don't know him what he was wanting us to do... I am glad my camera was in my purse because he was so cute!

This was one of the biggest combine headers I have ever seen!! HUGE!

In addition to equipment, there were lots of other neat agriculture vendors there. This is a small sample of a livestock scale that Lawson really enjoyed playing with. I had to get on it, too! :)

Here he is in front of Daddy's booth...

This was by far the most unique tractor we saw. Russ gave me a hard time about putting him on the pink tractor, but it was repainted in memory of a lady who lost her battle to breast cancer. When would we ever see another pink tractor and it was for a good cause... you should have seen the little girls lined up to have their picture taken on the pink tractor!!! And speaking of lines - I was beginning to think we were at Disney World... I couldn't believe people were literally waiting in line to get on tractors. It was crazy! Lawson wanted to get on this John Deere cotton picker so bad because the lights were flashing, etc. but there were 7 people waiting and I thought to myself there is no way I am going to wait with this 21 month old little boy! There was PLENTY more to see than the cotton picker!

Such a natural... shifting those gears!

"Hooray!"

This was really cute, too. Lawson was playing and talking when a salesman walked over and gave me a hat for him to put on. I had never heard of this type of tractor, but he told me to put the hat on him and then send some pictures into the tractor company via the website. I haven't yet done that, but I might.

Now, this is some serious farming right here...

A "blue" tractor - interior and all!

Ok - here are a few of my favorites! As he was sitting on many of the tractors he would say "hooray!" and this one was no different, initially. However, all of the sudden he began to sing and dance. Not long after that, he jumped down and using the gear shift he sang and sang and sang some more! It was adorable! And people around would stop and listen and just smile - he was simply full of happiness and joy while we were there!

More singing...

"Hooray!"

For some reason, I closed the door on one of the tractors... big mistake. From that point on, he thought all of the doors needed to be closed.

Attempting to close the door...

This is some type of wagon - he has my "touch everything" syndrome. Sorry for ALL that I touched Mom.

And finally, a nap!

So this was the biggest mis-hap of the day... this machine, whatever it was, was HUGE! (see next pic) But it was really cool! It had a line of only 3 people so I waited. Getting him up there was no big deal, but getting him down was a night mare. I remember my Daddy teaching me how to come down backwards off of the combines and tractors, meaning I must have been older than 2. Teaching him to do this was not happening - what was I thinking? Anyway, it was time for him to get off and he didn't want to, but by this time there were like five people waiting and it was obvious that I was going to have to go up to get him. So, seven months pregnant, here I go... in my stylish boots - another one of those, "what the heck was I thinking?" moments. So as I get up there, this lady is yelling for me to please stop that I am scaring her! I started to laugh and sweat all at the same time! Ha! What was I going to do? Finally, I just asked this man to please take him from me as I swung him down by one arm and then I would get him at the bottom. As I got down, with embarrassment, the lady who yelled at me said she was about to cry!!! I couldn't stop laughing as I visualized how BAD it must have looked! Oh, well, another tractor memory!

Pretty big, huh? The tires were as tall as me... I am sure you are wondering what I was thinking, too!

This was another big tractor, but Daddy went up with him...

A good ole' John Deere with more tires that were taller than me... thank goodness for Daddy.

I love this set of pictures for some reason...

Isn't he cute in this track-hoe? I think that is how you spell it...

Standing on the edge of the seat...

This was so cute... this dog food display wasn't far from Russ and he was down playing when he saw this dog and gave it a hug!

And at the hotel - he thought this little ride was grand!

And lastly, this morning... we couldn't leave the tractor show without a souvenir, so we got a t-shirt and he wore it to school this morning! Such a cutie-pie!

Looking forward to more memories at the tractor show... we are certain that two boys will be twice the fun! ; ) Hats off to all of our US farmers and agriculture employees! You are the Best!