One day, when the children were small, we took them on a vacation.  On the way home we stopped to show them the International Airport.   We used the time as an opportunity to delight our children and to let them learn something in a new setting.

Four-year-old Danny, the oldest child, enjoyed spending lots of time learning about farm life.  For one of his favorite projects, he spent time cutting out pictures of tractors and pasting them into a scrapbook.  He discovered that each brand of tractor had a signature color.  For example, John Deere products are green and yellow, the Allis-Chalmers tractors were orange, and International-Harvestor was red, etc.  In his short years on this earth, he became adept at recognizing brands of farm machinery by their colors.

At the airport, Danny’s eye’s grew big as he saw the 727s and 747s land  on the runway.  He watched with wonder as they took off.  His eyes were glued on them whenever they taxied near to the observation window.  He did not grow tired of watching those big machines.

Many of the red-tailed airplanes loaded and unloaded passengers where we had a front-row seat.

It had been an exciting day for our little family.  But as the day wore on, we needed to leave the airport and head for home.  We got settled in the car and drove off.

While exiting the big city, Daddy asked the kids, “So, what was the best part of vacation for you?”

Danny blurted out with satisfaction, “The International Airport!”    After a moment of silence this little farm boy added, “Daddy, can we go to the John Deere Airport?”

photo credit: Willamor Media via photo pin cc