We also took Brayden to his very first Red Arrow football game. The Red Arrows took on Caledonia for a very good game. I have to say that I have never seen Red Arrow Stadium so full. The game was pretty stressful right around half time, but they ended up pulling of a win. Unfortunately, they couldn't keep the streak going and have now ended their season. :( We only stayed until the end of the third quarter, but he had a blast. We had to park at an elementary school and take a shuttle to the stadium, so he got to take his very first bus ride, which was beyond super exciting. Once we got to the game he got to see Brittany and Travis, some of his favorite people in the world. Brittany is a cheerleader, and since this is her senior year, this was also our last chance to see her cheer. Unfortunately, the picture I have of Brit isn't very good, the stinkin cheerleaders kept moving.
Like I said, the animals were really active. I was so thrilled to see the bears up and moving - I don't think I have ever caught them on a good day before!
We brought Brayden with us and he had a lot of fun playing and the other kids were great with him, which helped us decide that maybe this is the right thing to do right now.
This is me jousting against one of the kids - I won and didn't even cheat!
This is one of the pieces there, you crawled in through the yellow hole and it was an obstacle course/maze inside. Very easy for the smaller kids, very difficult for the adults. I have a bunch of pictures that show the place better, but they include the other kids and I don't want to post their pictures without permission, so just picture this thing times about 10 others like it, but with other activities.
Another thing that was much easier for the kids were these stinkin rock wall things. The just collapsed under our weight, but the kids thought it was very amusing that I couldn't climb it. (I did finally make it by cheating and taking off my socks so I could have some traction. I sure wasn't going to let the kids show me up on our first event together, they will have plenty of time for that!)
One of the girls took this video of Kyle and Brayden bouncing. Isn't he just the cutest thing!
Then last week Wednesday I took a much needed day off from work and Brayden and I went to my Mom and Dad's house to make applesauce. Since I had no idea what I was doing, Mom and Grandma were there to help. And thankfully they were because it is a lot of work to peel and cut all those apples.
Of course we had the biggest helper in the world helping us cut apples. I seriously think he could eat them faster than we could cut them.
In all we ended up with 14 jars and 5 zip-lock bags worth of applesauce (we ran out of matching jars and lids). I kept a couple of apples out because I wanted to try my Betty Crocker hand at some apple dumplings. Well... those didn't turn out nearly as good as the applesauce, and I am sure it was because Mom wasn't around. I guess there are some things you will never be able to do without your mom and I think baking is one of those things for me. And if you ask her, I am sure she has much more she could add to the list.
This past weekend, we took Brayden to Klackle's Orchard in Greenville. They had a bunch of activities set up for the kids along with wagons that pulled wagons out into the orchard so you could pick your own apples.
It was an absolutely beautiful day and we all had a great time. Brayden loved the apples, I think he ate five that day. At least he got in his servings of fruit, I guess. The place was packed and Brayden got tired so we didn't get to do everything that we wanted, but I don't think he really cared by that time.
The gardens were completely decorated for fall already. They had some HUGE pumpkins set out (which for some reason I didn't get a picture of - maybe Heather did if she ever updates her blog) but the kids loved these little "pumpkins". They played with them forever and probably would have stayed even longer if we had let them.
The Gardens have a fabulous play area for kids with lots of activities that our their size. This is the kids' door to the children's garden. Brayden loved being able to go in and out it.
These trees came up in the middle of the treehouse in the children's area. They were labeled with the type of tree that they were. The kids loved being able to touch all of the different types of bark on the trees.
They have these pools of water set up in the shapes of the Great Lakes for the kids to play in. Brayden loved driving the boat around all the different lakes - maybe he is going to end up being a sailor?
And this is where my child really got into the water - literally. He loved trying to drink out of the fountain - looking back on it probably not the best idea. Luckily Heather had warned me that these fountains were around so I was prepared with a change of clothes.
We had a great time at Frederick Meijer Gardens and probably would have stayed much longer, but the place was closing (at 5:00 on a Friday, seriously) and they started kicking us out. It was a great playdate, until we got to the parking lot. Ms. Grace here had a hard time walking from Heather's van to her car and took a tumble over the parking curb and onto her knees. Almost pulled a Brittany Spears, except I managed to save Brayden completely. Just totally jacked myself up. But hey, that is what I get for being a klutz!
