Seems like every time I asked Emma if she wanted to go for a tractor ride, she very adamantly said, "No. I don't want to." I guess she changed her mind during our last trip home. One afternoon Kevin took her outside and she rode with Grandpa. She still talks about it a month later!
Of course, we're still trying to brainwash her to believe that green machines are better than red. She's only smiling in the next photo because she was sitting with her grandpa!
One morning Kevin and I went for a walk while Emma stayed with her grandpa. I had planned to get some good exercise in so we started out running. A quarter of a mile down the road, we crossed the railroad tracks. Kevin suggested we walk along the tracks for a bit, like he used to do as a kid. I was kind of bummed because I knew it wouldn't be that great of a workout. As we started down the tracks, he told me about how he used to search for fiberglass marbles as a kid. Some of the train cars would carry the marbles to an insulation factory near McPherson. Oftentimes the marbles would fall out of the cars and end up along the tracks. A few seconds after he told me about the marbles, he bent down and picked one up! It was bigger than I expected, about 1-inch in diameter, and very shiny. Suddenly my eyes were glued to the tracks and we began our treasure hunt. Over the next half-mile we picked up about thirty fiberglass marbles. Not all of them were perfectly round or even shiny, but it was such a thrill to find them. (As I write this, I realize how stupid it is to walk along railroad tracks intensely focusing on something other than the fact that a train could come at any point, but hey, it was fun!) We returned home with our pockets full and my heart was happy. It was fun to spend time alone with Kevin and learn something new about his childhood and we had experienced something new as a couple. We decided we would try to go marble-hunting every time we go home!
