The tractor video

I finally was able to upload it to youtube...enjoy :)

The zoo, fair and swimming lessons

Last weekend, we ventured the hour and a half drive to the Binder Park Zoo in Battle Creek. It was very cool! Much much larger than John Ball Zoo in Grand Rapids. We decided to do the Wild Africa part last as you had to take a tram ride there. Jack had so much fun seeing all the animals and being outdoors. Lastly we headed out on the tram to "Africa." When the tram pulled up to Wild Africa, I really imagined that's about what it would be like on an African safari! There were huts and great rolling hills with all sorts of animals roaming. We were not able to complete the Wild Africa part as it was getting so hot/humid and dangerously close to nap time but still were able to spend a couple hours there. We know now we'll definitely head back there to complete the Wild Africa portion...maybe when the weather cools off just a bit more :)

Riding the ant.

"Puh-kuck!"

"Goh." (Pygmy goats, which he was actually afraid of!)

He was ok with this one...it was behind a gate.

Whatchu lookin' at?Moo.

Yep, he's still cute...even on a cow.

The walk to the Wild Africa tram ride.

The tram. Jack was very intrigued with the voice over the loud speaker.

And I didn't take any pictures actually IN Wild Africa...I guess I was too busy admiring the animals.

Later that day, we headed to the Hudsonville Fair. Oh my goodness...Jack was in heaven with all the tractors! He LOVED (and that's an understatement) riding on all of them. And I do mean ALL. Forget about the actual fair with elephant ears and rides and carnival games...all he wanted to do was walk through the tractors and try them all out. I think I'll just start calling him John Deere now.

We could barely keep up with him. As soon as we set him down from one tractor it was on to the next...

...and the next...

...and the next......and the next...

His "vroom, vroom" face.

...and the next...

This one! I didn't get to try this one out!

...oooh....exciting.

Super giant tires...quite intimidating, really.
Yikes.
The best (ok, very poor!) attempt at a family photo of the day, but obviously Jack's too intrigued with the tractor (which matched my purse as you can see the strap on my shoulder.)

In other news, Jack and I previewed a gymnastics class early this week. I was contemplating signing him up for their program this fall as he enjoys tumbling at home. I am glad we did the preview though because I think he's still a little too young to comprehend all of the instructions without being overwhelmed. It's an absolutely fantastic program but I think we'll postpone it a few more months until he's closer to 2. Instead I just signed him up for swimming lessons which start in a few weeks and run through the middle of fall. (He loves the pool!) It should be lots of fun for a few months :)

(Edit: I added the photos finally and waited over an hour for the video to load...no such luck! I'll try uploading it to YouTube or another site this week and then will post the link.)

Words are fun :)

And now a lesson (er, rather interpretation) in Jack's vocabulary. At least the ones I can think of for now besides "mommy," "daddy" and "hi" that is.

"wing"= swing
"paco"= pinecone
"pone"= phone
"nigh nagh"= night, night
"pi-eee"= pretty
"uh-pane"= airplane
"et"=jet
"buh-eee"= birdie
"beet"= beach
"wuh-how!"= wow
"ow"=ow
"baby"=baby
"cook"=cookie
"per, per"= cooper the cat
"dull dun"= all done
"call con"= all gone

I think my favorite of all of them is "paco." It just sounds so cute to hear him running around saying "paco, paco, paco!" Well we're off to run errands and then I have a wedding to do this afternoon. Have a great weekend everyone!

The shoes are here!

We're now the proud owners of a Hoover SteamVac (although I can't figure out why it's called that b/c no steam is involved?) It's a carpet shampooer, basically. Our carpet actually looks new again and it's pretty excellent :) With 2 cats and Jack I wish we would have invested in something like this a long time ago! (Another example of "you know you're old when...you get excited about household appliances.")


Jack's new shoes arrived today. (They're even more adorable in person and on his feet!) First of all, just seeing the UPS driver was exciting enough and Jack was babbling up a storm to the driver and waving (we were playing outside at the time). Then he was even more excited about what was IN the box. (I let him help open it.) When he saw his shoes he immediately whipped off the shoes he had on and held his foot up for me to put them on. He was so tickled and excited he ran all the way down to the end of the street and back to give them a little test run. I think he likes them :)

What he doesn't know is that there's another pair that should be arriving tomorrow too. He's going to be in for even more excitement :) These are tomorrow's shoes (but I bought them in a size up for later this fall/winter). Little boys really are so much fun to dress!

In other news, after much thought we've changed our February trip to the Bahamas slightly around. Instead of going on a Disney cruise, we are going to rent a condo in Orlando for 5 days and have time to relax, a day at the ocean, and a day at Disneyworld. We'll also spend a day at Universal Studios with my family after they return from the cruise. We're excited about it!

Well, Jack's sleeping and I have a million things I'd like to accomplish. Hope everyone has a fantastic day!

Play time and new shoes :)

We decided to meet up with some friends today at one of the mall play areas. What fun! Jack had to "check in" with me every couple minutes...maybe he thought I was going to leave him! He also wasn't too sure about the slide. But loved going around to all the little babies and giving them little "thigh squishes" (he learned that one from me as I love to squish his little chunky thighs!) A few quick snapshots from the morning:





And yesterday's shopping trip for fall clothes inspired me to find shoes for Jack (his sandals are the only ones that fit him right now). Say hello to his new shoes (I just ordered them today on a super fabulous sale...even better!):
And lastly, reading with Grandma a few days ago. I love this one :)

Long time, no blog...

Oh my goodness it's been almost a month since I've blogged. Sorry.

I just booked a little 3 day trip for us in September. We're going to head up to Mackinac Island for a couple nights. I haven't been there in probably 5 or 6 years and I'm so excited about it! Rob had some vacation time to use up yet this year (or he just loses it) and we didn't want to do anything too expensive or far away since we're going to the Bahamas in February. I think this will be just right :) We can bike around the island in perfect sweatshirt weather (ah, I love fresh fall air with a lake breeze!) Definitely looking forward to exploring everything on the island with Jack :)

Last Friday night I had a GNO (Girls Night Out) with a great group of my girlfriends! We headed out to Reds on the River in Rockford. It was great fun mingling for several hours and laughing. (The food was delicious too!) It's not often I head out with my girlfriends for an evening and I so much appreciated it! Here's a group shot of the evening... (and I wore the great yellow heels Rob bought me a few weeks ago on his business trip that he picked out himself!)


We headed to the beach in Holland on Sunday evening just to putz around. Jack and I both got our pants and shoes drenched when we didn't quite run back quick enough from the water. (It was COLD!) Jack learned to say "Beets! Beets!" for beach :) It's darling. We had a great time! (Forgot the camera, of course.)

Tuesday night we headed to Saugatuck. We decided to take the sand dune ride, which we'd never done before (well, at least in Saugatuck.) Let me say, it was probably the best sand dune ride we've been on. It was beautiful and the driver was beyond entertaining! Jack had an absolute riot yelling and screaming "Whooooooa!" every time we rounding a corner quickly or headed down the steep hills. It was hilarious! (This time I remembered the camera just as we were pulling out of our neighborhood and Rob wouldn't let me turn around to go get it. Boo!)

Jack and I had a few errands to run today. We also stopped at the mall and ended up buying him almost all of his fall clothes because there were super awesome sales! He picked out some really cute things and I can't wait until he can wear them! Except I started looking in the 18-24 mo. sized clothes...and then I realized that those probably won't fit him in a couple months. Well, the next size up is a 2T. Did you catch that? A 2T. (One more time.) 2T. No more buying clothes in "months." Just further proof that he is growing up.

Speaking of growing up...my (and Jolyn's!) birthday is Saturday. And boy, I'm starting to feel older! 27. No longer "young twenties" or "mid twenties." I've moved into that "late twenties" group. And I'm only 3 years away from 30 now. At least I have 3 years to get used to that idea.

Enough of my rambling. Sorry for only one picture! I need to get better about remembering the camera when we're out... More pictures next time :)