Visit from Gma Candy and Gpa Kirk

 Grandma Candy and Grandpa Kirk came to visit us in June! It happened to be the opening weekend of Frederik Meijer's Japanese Gardens. I thought it'd be fun to take them there since they have never been there before. Plus, I couldn't wait to see the new gardens!

Say ROAR!!

The gardens have TONS and tons of paths to walk through and around and all over the place.

The pictures just doesn't do it justice. This is just a tiny piece of them. With everything built in Japan and shipped over, they then flew over artisans from Japan to put it together exactly as it would be over there.

This is at the highest point in the gardens. I can only imagine many people just might say 'YES' on this very spot!

After the Japanese gardens, we walked around the sculpture park.

We had fun along the walk even with a little bit of rain along the way.

Hopefully we can get up there to visit them this upcoming month before Jason has to leave for the fall. I am dreading summer ending for many reasons and the fact that he'll be gone for 10 weeks just makes me all sorts of anxious. Trying to enjoy the hear and now.....

Definition of Summer

I tend to take pics and blog later....which I imagine most people do, but I mean like 3-6 weeks later :)

But I do remember this day like it was yesterday. It was one of those days where I couldn't stop saying "wow, what a gorgeous day!".  It was one of those 'set up the slip n' slide and watch the kids play for hours' type of days.

Kids started coming out of houses all down the street. Who wouldn't pay to go back to the days of being a kid where you got to eat endless freeze pops?! My husband would say that I still do that but I wouldn't go as far as endless..... maybe just two for me. Or three.

Austin still has a snake on his face from the Festival of the Arts downtown GR. It was literally the perfect day.

I can't tone down the vibrancy of these photos any. This is how summer is. bright, beautiful, and green.

The kids had fun showing off their 'skills' as they hit the end!

I told them to get together real quick for a picture.

It will definitely be one of my top 10 favorite photos of the summer. It defines summer. These kids grow too fast.  It's one of those photos you'd print and tape in scrap book if I actually did that. But this is my scrap book for now. Austin and Kasen are inseparable. Kora has a missing tooth. Natalie and Michelle play for countless hours on end. They all live on the same street for now. And they are all friends no matter their differences. Being young is easy and fun. And it was fun to sit back and watch and soak it all in.

Summer Bucket List 2015: Air Zoo

Our Summer Bucket List this year had to include the Air Zoo located in Kalamazoo. Austin was too young to go there when we lived in Kzoo. And now since we really need to get going on decorating his room (it's only been 2 1/2 years in this house before putting something up on his walls) we thought some cool black and white photos of airplanes would get us started.

I think this is Austin's painful smile. Like Mom really!? Can we just get inside and play already!?

Austin's favorite toys always come with us on our day trips. In particular this hot wheels made sure to come with us and stay with us. He is good about keeping track of the items he loves.

Mixed in to these photos are just some shots that I might want to blow up or seperate one photo into multiple for his wall. The lighting of course was horrible but that's ok since we plan to do b&ws anyway.

The rides are a huge hit of course. When we first arrived someone gave us the long run down of all the different things to see and do. All of which 10% we probably did since the kids couldn't steer away from the rides. Some rides are meant for older/taller children but the majority of them Austin and Ava could ride by themselves or with us. It gave us a very small fractional hint at what its like to wait in lines for rides with kids, (throat clearing) like at Disney or something.

We have been talking a lot about heading to Disney in the next year or two. While everyone is happy and healthy in my family, it might be wise to check that off the list.

The parts of the Air Zoo we didn't get to were probably incredibly interesting for me or my parents but maybe not so much for the kiddos. Maybe in a few years they might want to head back.

If you might be wondering where Ava is, she might have been riding some more rides with Grandma. Austin was just tall enough to hit up one of the 'adult' spaceship rides so I think he was getting pretty excited about that.

Just some more shots. I have about 50 different ones so I just grabbed a few for the blog. Jason and I have yet to go through and see which ones we want to put where.

Just outside of the gift shoppe before we head out. They actually have some cute things there.

Just a side note, the cafeteria pretty much blows. I don't know how else to put it. They have fried food, it isn't good and it's not super organized. the kids ate nothing as usual and got pretty crabby by the time we left. pack a lunch and have the kids eat it in the car, that's a way better idea.

This is where my iphone pics begin. Sometimes it's just easier to whip out the phone. Plus video is way too much fun and easy to take.

Ferris wheel selfie!!

Grandpa was busy taking and sending pics as well :)

Her face says it all. She was kinda nervous about the rides at first but once she tried each one, she was hooked. Reminds me of my first roller coaster at Michigan Adventure. I was scared and wouldn't go. Somehow my cousin Kate convinced me to go and we went about 18 more times in a row. Literally! It was the corkscrew, remember that Kate!? I have been hooked to roller coasters ever since. The bigger, the better!!

Ava smiles like this a lot for photos. Always keeping her mouth closed with some smirk and squinting her eyes. Silly girl!



Overall, it was a good time. Can't wait to go back. It's easy to pay once and ride all the rides as much as your heart desires. Pack a Lunch. Buy something from the gift shoppe. Go on a rainy day. Cross it off the bucket list. Done and done.