Binder Park Zoo, Fair, Summer

We've had a busy few weeks. A couple of weeks ago we went to Binder Park Zoo in Battle Creek. At Binder, you can feed giraffes. Last year Seth was the only one who was brave enough to feed the giraffes, Noah stood as far away as possible. This year, both of the boys loved it! Noah was practically cramming lettuce into their mouths. We had a great day, the boys were exhausted and were asleep within 10 minutes of getting into the car. Their favorite was the giraffes, but they also loved seeing the monkeys and one of them enjoyed riding the little train around the park. The one who didn't love it and whined the whole way shall remain nameless.

Noah and a BIG tortoise

Our only picture that is decent of the two of them together from the day.

They had fun feeding the giraffes.

We also made our first trip to Millennium Park to play at the splash pad and at the beach. For the first hour, we thought the trip was a monumental disaster. The boys hated the splash pad and refused to go into the water. Luckily our friends, the Sorensen's, arrived with their boys and sand toys. Our boys were encouraged by the 'big boys' and decided that playing in the sand was fun and playing in the water was O.K.

Dad tried for a while to convince them to get into the water. Noah was very stubborn (and surprisingly strong).

Summer isn't complete without a trip to the local fair. We made our way to the Hudsonville Fair where both boys declared that they were 'scared' of the animals. We didn't go into any of the barns to see the pigs, chickens, cows, or bunnies. I don't know if they they thought it was because everything was enclosed and it was kind of stinky or if they were just in moods. We know they usually love animals and thought they would really enjoy it, but we were wrong. Happens a lot. Seth only rode one ride - the big slide with Daddy. Noah was so brave and wanted to ride everything! He was crying at the top of the slide with Chris and I thought he was scared until he got to the bottom and I realized that he was mad (really mad) that he couldn't go by himself. That's why he was crying.

Pictures of Noah on the rides. Poor Seth, maybe next year.

A few pictures of the boys playing outside, just because I think they're cute.

One last story of a toddler trying to humiliate his mother in a busy store. Last weekend we took the boys to Meijer to do some grocery shopping. I had Noah in one cart, Chris had Seth in another. We separated for a few minutes to make shopping more efficient and pick up a few things. Noah realized that Daddy and Bubby weren't with us anymore and asked me "Where'd Daddy go?" I told him that he was shopping with Seth and we would meet up with them soon. He then thought it would be funny to start pointing to random men in Meijer and asking LOUDLY, "Is that my daddy?". Did I say he was loud? The men and everyone around them heard and looked at us. We got several laughs directed toward us. Noah was so proud of himself.

-Shelby