Maddy Loves Bounce!

Madelynn started gymnastics this past month and LOVES it! Her and I go every Monday night for 45 minutes and have that time together, which is very special for the two of us. We go to Bounce in Hartland, MI which is a very big gym with a ton of kids running around in cute leotards. It is so adorable! We've had 3 classes now and I've brought her to an open gym once extra and its amazing how much she is learning and improving already. She has really strong core muscles for her age so she does really well and the teacher really challenges her to do a little extra so I think she is going to get a lot out of it. She wishes she could just run and play on the trampoline the whole time and so she gets a bit frustrated with Coach Anne and I sometimes, but she listens most of the time and at least tries everything once. She unfortunately isn't very flexible and is so tall that I don't think gymnastics will be in her future for very long. It's a fun physical activity for her for the time being and she loves 'nastics!

Ta-Da

The Rings...one of her favorite

Excited to try the parallel bars

Back to the rings

Somersaults...another favorite

Two Year Photos

My good friend Tricia kindly took some time over the 4th of July to come out to my parents house to take some pictures of Maddy for us. We are always so appreciative of her doing this and she always manages to do a great job, especially since Maddy isn't the most cooperative toddler. Tricia has been extremely busy with two family weddings, one in Hawaii, caring for a toddler and infant, training new photographers at work, and working some on her own as she hopes to start her own business the end of the year, so getting us Maddy's pictures was obviously not a priority, which we would have never expected. I'll keep all my Wisconsin friends posted on the status of her business (Tricia Dewar Photography) for sure because I would definitely recommend Trish. Not only is she a great photographer but she is just so good and patient with kids. Here are a few of our favorites. They are especially special to me as I spent all of my life growing up on the beach in front of my parents house where these pictures were taken.

A Few More Labor Day Pictures

I found a few more pictures on my camera from Labor Day. I unfortunately didn't take the camera out much after our day at the zoo so I don't have a lot of the kids but a few. Enjoy!

Maddy and Jack were pretty good buddies on Sunday

Maddy helping Jaelyn balance on the logs
(These two were inseparable on Monday and for some reason found the outhouse entertaining.)

Addisyn never stops eating

Jack going skiing with Uncle Joe (his dad)

Good job guys!

DeYoung's Family Zoo

For our final weekend of the summer we went up north as its become tradition to do so. Labor day weekend up north is always a good time to get up north and enjoy the weather before it starts to snow and play with all the kids before they go back to school. We always have so much fun and this year was no exception! The weather was absolutely gorgeous the entire time. My sister and her family weren't able to make the trip because Izzy and John had tonsilectomies on Friday morning. It was a much quieter house without all her kids, but they were surely missed.

We started the weekend out with a trip to the DeYoung's Family Zoo in Wallace, MI. As my brother would say, "It's the most Redneck Zoo" you'll ever go to, but it is so cool. We just had a blast. Jason, Maddy, and I were going to meet our friends Casey, Cory, and Ava there but were able to convince the rest of the family to come too. We packed a lunch and spent most of the day there. We couldn't get the kids out of there. They just loved it!

Maddy and Jordyn held hands walking around all day

Ava petting one of the baby tigers

Jaelyn and Maddy petting the teething baby monkey

Jordyn holding the baby monkey

Jordyn trying to hold Reagen, a baby cougar

Maddy's turn with mom's help

Maddy feeding a billy goat

Maddy and Brooke feeding the donkey

Maddy and Jaelyn feeding the donkeys the last of the food

We had a lot of trouble pulling the kids away from the barn yard animals. Thank goodness we ran out of food. We would have been there all day otherwise. It was way past nap time too so we knew we needed to get going. Here's a picture of Maddy and Jordyn a minute out of the parking lot.

What a great day!

First Tigers Game with Daddy

I got the chance to take Maddy to her first baseball game last Monday. Mike had put in for tickets since the Tigers were playing his Indians and got them. We had a great time. I started warming Maddy up for a "baseball game" on Sunday night and then again Monday morning before I dropped her off at Karen's. So she seemed pretty excited even though she had no idea what for! :) But Daddy was really excited about taking his little girl to her first baseball game.

So after work, Maddy and I headed over to pick up Mike and Kendal and off we went to Comerica park. Part of the package was parking and food. So that was great! The girls of course didn't really know what was going on, but they were excited (and a little scared at first) when the crowd was loud. They clapped and yelled a lot and had tons of fun hanging on the railing.

Kendal and Mads with the Tiger

Excited and a little scared I think!

Playing on the railing

Mike and Kendal

Mads and Dads

The group

Thanks Mike and Kendal, we had such a great time at our first Tigers baseball game!!!

PS. The next morning I was getting Mads ready for daycare and we were watching Sportscenter. After seeing a baseball highlight Maddy perked up and said, "Baseball game Daddy! Baseball game!" I was a pretty proud daddy to say the least! :)