Thank Goodness for Lowe's!

Exhausted and desperate this afternoon to figure out what to do to with our little Jack to keep him happy and well-exercised, I decided it was time for a trip to Lowe's (home improvement store). I needed a snow shovel and a few car scrapers (snow is forecast here and, as opposed to the DC-area, that generally means we're going to get some of the white stuff) and I figured it'd be a good opportunity for him to run unencumbered and to get out some energy. Mick and I discovered over the weekend that, when it's too cold to play outside, the best thing to do with Jack is to take him to a big, empty store and to let him loose.

Lowe's was a wonderland of excitement for Jack! First, there were the Christmas decorations, which he was completely enamored by:

a bit blurry, but this is how much of the trip was - he just ran and ran and ran...

this was particularly exciting: they put a glowing decoration low enough for Jack to touch!

the wreaths were pretty, but more exciting were all of the moving inflatable figures on the very top of the shelves; as my dad said: "better than Disneyworld!"

this was especially funny: he grabbed a bag of fake snow fluff while running around and then slung it over his shoulder, Santa-style, while checking out the Christmas cactuses

then there were the funnels... he spent a while here. I actually should have bought these as a great toy for him; I think they were less than $3. Maybe they'll show up under the tree...

and of course, who can resist the shiny John Deere ride-on lawnmowers? Not something we'll need for our lawn here, but there's always Papa's John Deere (which even has a snowplow on the front!)

... and finally, the fire pits. In general, these were pretty thrilling as, again, they were kid-level. But this one particularly held Jack's attention as it also had benches that could be moved around and climbed upon.

We did get some strange looks while we were there (for well over an hour) but I promise that nothing was broken and everything was put back exactly where it belonged. We also bought two shovels, two scrapers, and two sets of lighted garland. So technically we didn't just use Lowe's for its space...

Anyway, thanks Lowe's. We'll be back...