Treasure Hunting!

The weather was absolutely gorgeous today so we went on a "treasure hunt" (a.k.a. geocaching). For those of you who are unfamiliar with geocaching it is an outdoor activity where you use a GPS to find containers (caches) that are hidden throughout the world. The caches typically have a logbook in them that you sign and often times contain items for trading. It's basically a high-tech game of hide-and-seek. Although we have talked about doing it many times, this ended up to be our first adventure. Aiden was excited to go find hidden treasure! We ended up pretty successful by finding 2 out of 3 (we gave up on the last one because Aiden was getting hungry and thirsty (go figure!).

Bryan and Aiden leading the treasure hunt...

Aiden found many of his own "treasures" including sticks, stones, pine cones, etc. and insisted on throwing them all into the water!

Our first treasure was hidden pretty good and quite hard to find but persistence paid off and we found it! We signed the logbook and Aiden took a penny from it.

Gavin just enjoyed being outside and chewing on his pipee clip! Easy to please :)

Our second treasure was hidden in a camouflage container on a tree. Aiden was so excited because this one had a little toy dinosaur in it that he traded with the penny from the previous one.

The third treasure was hidden somewhere in this area - we'll have to go back to find it some other time!

Matching Jammies!

You may think this is lame, but I was SO excited to get Aiden and Gavin matching sleepers for the winter! They both have wet hair from the bath they took just prior to these pics but I think they still look adorable!

Gavin actually put his thumb in Aiden's mouth...

Gavin trying to get away from all the pics I was taking... :)

Halloween

Aiden was a pirate and Gavin was a bear for Halloween. Even though it was rather cold outside we had a great time. Aiden was SO excited Halloween morning and asked me about 20 times when it was time for Trick-or-Treating! So fun to see a child's excitement! We had lots of fun and best of all made more family memories!

To see pics from Halloween please follow this link:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=39196&id=1021429484&l=aa4b27f0a1

August in a Nut Shell

Since I still have friends who don't do facebook (SUSAN) I will update my blog! Here's our August in a nutshell...

Gavin, Aiden, and I took many bike rides. They both really like riding in the Burley but it sure makes hills a whole new challenge when you have 49 additional pounds to pull behind you!

Aiden LOVES riding the bike he got for his birthday! There is a park just down the road from us that has a really nice paved trail for biking/walking. PERFECT to just let Aiden ride free and not have to worry about traffic.

Gavin hanging out on his boppy...

Aiden LOVES playing outside and has been riding his Gator, playing with the neighbor kids, creating sidewalk chalk art, playing on the deck, and playing with bubbles.

Aiden is such a great big brother. He always wants to hold Gavin or just lay with him in bed. It's so cute how Aiden is so sweet with him and how Gavin just adores his big brother and loves to watch him.

We went to the Air Zoo in Kalamazoo. Aiden had a blast riding all of the rides. We are so glad that he loves rides and isn't scared because that will definitely have to lead to an amusement park trip when he gets older since Bryan and I love rollercoasters!

This was one of those rides that go all the way up and then drop down fast and then go back up, etc. Aiden LOVED it but wasn't thrilled about putting his arms up in the air.

Aiden and Gavin love taking baths together. It works out perfect because Aiden loves to entertain Gavin in the tub and Gavin loves to watch Aiden acting silly.

Bryan and Aiden went and picked 75 ears of sweet corn at the farm. So I was left with the task of shucking, blanching, cutting, bagging, and freezing all of it - took a LONG time. We now have plenty of corn in the freezer for winter! Yummmm!

I'll leave you will a hillarious video. We've just recently started Gavin with fruits and veggies. He pulls the funniest faces while he is eating them.

Happy Birthday Aiden!

I can't believe Aiden is three years old today! That time has gone WAY too fast! He had a very busy and fun birthday. This is the first birthday where he actually understood what a birthday is and was SUPER excited for it. This video is from the night before his birthday...

For his birthday breakfast I made him a Mickey Mouse shaped pancake and sausage.

Then we went with Bryan's sister Aimee, her daughter Alyvia, and Grandpa George to a play place for the kids. They had a blast! There were a lot of activities for them to do and they had fun playing together.

All of that playing made the kids very hungry so we headed to Grandville for the Texas Roadhouse. When it is your birthday, they bring a saddle out to your table and have you sit on it while they annouce your birthday to the entire restaurant - Aiden loved it! :)

Then we drove around for awhile and headed back to our house to open some presents. Aiden and Alyvia rode around on the Gator for awhile.

Next we headed for Grandpa and Grandma's house for cake, ice cream, and more presents. Aiden loves the show "Handy Manny" so we had a cake with Manny's tools on it.

Since Aiden is the jokester type, I bought the trick candles that relight after you blow them out. He couldn't figure out why they kept coming back but was happy to go along with it.

Getting Aiden to eat with utensils is an everyday chore. There is not a meal that goes by that we don't have to get on his case to use his spoon/fork instead of his hands. The kid acts like he was raised in a barn! I keep hoping that when he gets older he will use them but it looks like three years old may not be the magical year for that to happen...

Grandpa and Grandma and us went in together to get Aiden a bike for his birthday. He loves driving it all around. He DOES have a helmet but I forgot to bring it to the birthday party.

Traffic jam with his cousins...