framed (an excavator on the way to school)

This excavator was parked in the crosswalk on our way to school.  And the work crew was nowhere to be found (afternoon naps, presumably).

So we just crossed underneath.  Where else?!?!

This is actually a not-so-rare occurrence.. getting up close and personal with a random piece of road equipment.

Last weekend Matt and I walked down to the river with the little guys.  And there on the side of the road was an (obviously) abandoned bulldozer.  A flat tire and spider webs clinging to the steering wheel made it clear that this beauty had been parked for quite a while.

What's a brother to do?  Drive it.

They played on this bulldozer (and the dump truck parked in front of it) for so long that I got hungry, walked a few blocks away to buy a snack, and returned only to find them still playing on this bulldozer!

My favorite part was when Matt said something to the effect of "well, we can't really drive it .... " and  John Paul responded, "Dad, we''re just pretending the tire's not flat!"  Clearly, this was the penultimate bulldozer driving experience and John Paul wasn't going to let a silly little flat tire convince anyone that he wasn't operating this bulldozer!