Hudsonville Fair

Last week Amy and I took Ryley and Ty to the Hudsonville Fair. I love going to fairs, and Amy and I were both excited for greasy food, turtle races (ha!), and petting the animals. We walked through all the barns with all the different animals, and I think the favorite for everyone was the goat barn! They were so cute :) I couldn't believe how "into" the goats Ty was too. He was trying to stick his fingers in every cage that we walked by.

Ty and Ryley checking them out

You can't go to a fair without getting an elephant ear.......

and a corn dog :) Nothing like a good healthy lunch!Love this picture :)
No better toy than the stroller at the fair. Ty and Ryley playing
Now, we just have to figure out which fair is coming next, so I can get my elephant ear fix once again!! Thanks Amy and Ryley for a fun day (even though Donatello didn't win the turtle race)!

Beach Bums

So, for the next week straight we are living at my parents house at the lake. My mom and dad will be coming back from Arizona for a few days starting Thursday, and I am super excited to see them. In the meantime, Nate, Ty, and I are ready to spend the days at the beach (except Nate still has football). So, Ty and I get some extra mommy and son time at the beach everyday, which I LOVE! :)

Throwing rocks in the lake

Ty loves running back and forth in this little stream
Nate's family came out Sunday evening to cook out and hang out at the beach for a little bit.... Ty provides great entertainment for everyone haha
Aunt Kara jumping in the water to splash Ty
Sharing some watermelon with Aunt Kelsi
I kept it light on the pictures, because we still have 6 days at the beach, and you can never get too many pictures at the beach :)

Ty's Basketball Heaven

There is definitely a benefit to being married to a high school coach. We were picking up some stuff from Nate's classroom and decided to bring Ty into one of the gyms since he loves basketball. Now, you have to realize that Ty LOVES basketball hoops. When we take a walk through our neighborhood, he successfully points out every single basketball hoop and says "BA BA!". The moment we walked into the gym and he saw all the basketball hoops, he literally started jumping up and down and saying "ba ba, ba ba, ba ba, over and over again. Then, we took him to the closet that held all the basketballs, and I totally wish I would have gotten this on tape. He freaked out. He was screaming, jumping up and down, yelling ba ba, and clapping. It was hilarious. I did get one video of him running back and forth and shooting the ball with Nate. He just could not get enough of this place. We were there for a good 40 minutes, and he still was upset when we left, and not to mention the bright red face, and sweat dripping down.

Here is a video of Ty running back and forth from the closet to the hoop. Sorry it's kind of long, but super cute!

Ty selecting the "perfect" ball

and at that moment this one is it!!
He never stopped running!
We now know where we will be spending cold, rainy, and soon snowy days!

Ann Arbor

We were so excited to visit some of our best friends in Ann Arbor. We have been looking forward to this weekend for the last few weeks and of course it came and went too quickly! We left later Friday afternoon and got to Ann Arbor just in time to spend a little time together before Ty went to bed for the night. We spent the weekend just relaxing, talking, playing Hand and Foot (which the boys got creamed in..... Go Girls :)), and simply enjoying spending more than a few hours together.

Ty snuggling with Uncle Matt and Aunt Sarah on the couch before bedtime

Sarah and Matt have a 13 week old puppy, Stella. Stella acts just like a puppy and she loved to chase Ty (she especially loved to try and take Ty's bear, which he did not like at all)!
Ty man
Ty man and Stella playing outsideUncle Matt giving Ty a bath. Matt is always the bath man when we get together.

Ty wrestling on the floor with Uncle Matt and Stella

Ty and Stella playing in the tunnel

We were so sad to leave on Sunday and can't wait for our next visit!
Thanks Matt and Sarah, we love you!

Camp Sunshine 2011

Nate and I had the privilege of spending two days at Camp Sunshine this summer. This was Nate's 7th summer and my 4th summer helping out at the Camp. For those of you who don't know, Camp Sunshine is a camp that strives to provide a camp experience for individuals with developmental disabilities. It was hard leaving Ty for two full days but he had his own fun with a number of different people (thanks to Nate's family, Toddlerville, and Elies!). Nate and I love being at this camp. For me, it is completely exhausting and rejuvenating all at the same time. Being there reminds me and refocuses me on what is truly important in life. I learn so much from these campers in just a short amount of time, and it is truly a blessing to be able to spend time with them.

The first day we took a few field trips. One was to a blueberry farm where each camper got to pick a container full. The blueberries were then all put together and the camp made blueberry french toast and muffins with them!

We also went to Holland Fish & Game and all 67 campers got to fish.

Here is a picture of Nate and Zach. Nate and Zach have been great friends since elementary school and Zach even stood in our wedding. He is full of life, and is so much fun to be around.

After each meal, there is a time of reflections where we sing songs and have a bible lesson.
The best part of camp is the talent show. Each camper signs up to perform his/her talent on stage. It is so cool seeing the performances and watching the campers be so proud to be performing on a stage. There were talents that ranged from clapping to drawing pictures to throwing a baseball to telling jokes to singing and dancing.
I helped perform "Stuck like Glue" on stage... yes :)

Zach performing with his Hope Chicks!
Nate, Zach and I after the talent showWe can't wait till Camp Sunshine 2012!

John Ball Zoo

We finally made it to John Ball Zoo! Neither of us had been there in quite some time and it was great to see the changes they had made! There were more hands on things for you to do, and it was fun seeing Ty explore everything!

Ty loved the sting ray pool. Not only did he like touching them (he'd laugh each time he'd touch one) but he also loved splashing in the pool (we had to finally leave because he wouldn't stop haha). There was also a petting zoo there. These little goats just surrounded him!

This was my personal favorite! You went into this cage and there were TONS of birds. You bought these little sticks and the birds would jump on the stick to eat the bird seed. Ty was not sure what to think about this....... The birds LOVED Nate.... he had about 5 or 6 of them on him at one point...
Ty and I by the "waterfall"

The John Ball Zoo is perfect for a little one Ty's age. I loved that we got to see and explore everything in just about 2 hours. Any longer and I think he would have lost it :)

Exploring

Exploring the cupboard
One day, this became Ty's mission, to fit into the cupboard. He used to be able to fit into this cupboard, but that was a few months ago. However, he was determined to fit in.... so he tried this way.....and this way......

and this way.......

and backwards.....

after about 15 minutes he finally gave up.... haha

Exploring Crazy Bounce
Amy and I decided that we wanted to take the kids to Crazy Bounce the other day when it was rainy. I wasn't sure if Ty was going to be able to do that much but he LOVED it. He loved the ball pit in the mini bounce house and he also loved going down the huge blow up slides!

Exploring Bubbles

We have finally found our love for bubbles!! I tried putting bubbles in a few times before this, and he totally freaked out when I did. I decided to try again, and it was a hit! Every night at bath-time he points to the bubbles container and says "Ba-Ba"!