Plaza Art Fair

Our favorite weekend of the year... the Plaza Art Fair! We just spent a great weekend strolling the streets of the Plaza, checking out really interesting, but totally out-of-our-price-range art, grazing on good food and drink, seeing lots of friends and having a wonderful time. As much as we love it, I think Callie likes it more because she gets so much attention and can't walk a few feet without getting petted by friendly strangers. Ryan was old enough to enjoy the Art Fair this year and had lots of fun playing with his red balloon, stomping in puddles, petting other dogs and dancing to the music. When I say dancing, what I really mean is running around like a mad man while a good band is playing but stopping to clap when they finish a song.

This weekend we also picked up a great passed-down toy from his other cousin Jon, a battery-operated Jeep. He's tall enough to reach the pedal but doesn't understand how it works so instead of driving it, he's content just sitting behind the wheel pretending to drive it, and getting in and out of it repeatedly.

He's a sweet, spirited little guy these days. He's a typical, physical little boy who loves to climb and has no fear which is a challenging combination from a parental standpoint. This weekend he was demonstrating his newest talent, jumping. At least he only jumps in place and hasn't yet endeavored to jump off things down to the ground

he loved his red balloon at the Art Fair

trying out his new ride

look at the picture on the wall behind him;

someone looks like his daddy

Fun with Friends & Family

I've been a little behind on posting, but it's not for lack of content. We went to the lake last weekend and stopped in Cole Camp with the Koons on our way through for their local fair. They close off their main street for the carnival rides and food booths and have a great little beer garden with a stage an authentic German music. We had a great afternoon and Ryan loved following Henry's lead. Henry was especially helpful and a good sharer; he let Ryan join him on a couple rides, won him a prize and let him eat his ice cream, popcorn and cotton candy. The weather was beautiful and we made the most of our lake trip since it's our last one for a few weeks.

Our friend Therese was in town from San Fran so she and several friends came over Friday to hang out. While we enjoyed a great night on the porch having drinks and getting caught up. There were some older kids here that night and Ryan was very interested in them and wouldn't leave their sides.

Saturday he got to see his cousins and lots of other kids at my sister's 40th birthday party. He had a ball playing with balloons, eating ice out of the drink buckets and getting into everything humanly possible. He got to spend the night with Popo and Grandma Marcia while I joined Todd in Lawrence for a big event he had earlier in the evening. Since we were in Lawrence, we went to Grant and Kristen's for brunch and the kids did lots of playing. Ryan loved all the different toys at their house and because they're so generous, we left with a car full of them to add to our collection. Jack is the best sharer of any kid I've ever known and picked out a book, clothes and other special things to pass onto Ryan. He especially took to their basketball goal and insisted on being picked up so that he could shoot a basket. He would have done it all day long if we had had the energy to continue. He also became quite attached to a small dog that wiggles and makes noise, didn't want to give it up and hasn't put it down since we got home.

Riding with his buddy Henry

Getting a ride from Aunt Kelli

Grandpa Ouchy

My Grandpa Ouchy passed away last Sunday so we spent several days in Clay Center over Labor Day weekend. He lived 97 good years, didn't fight any illnesses and everyone got a chance to see him at the hospital so it was as good a passing as one could have. My cousin Cassie and her family from Denver were back and her little boy Ethan is 8 months older than Ryan. They had a fun time playing together and Ethan is such a good talker we hope that Ryan learned how great it can be to "use your words." The stairs at my mom's house are shorter and there's a place to hold onto so he became very independent at going up and down them by himself. He loved climbing up the slide and going back down and did agreat job; not falling once. There was tons of food which we all enjoyed, and I think he ate his weight in grapes.

Callie went with us, too and got tons of attention, especially from my Uncle Doug, Aunt Mary, and the kiddos of course. My niece Olivia and nephew Jack even taught her how to jump over obstacles on a course.

To answer a good question from Ann, this is Grandpa Ouchy got his name. When my sister was learning to talk my grandma had a broken leg so she called her Grandma Ouchy. By default, he became Grandpa Ouchy and since Michelle is the oldest of the grandkids that's what we all called the two of them.

Peek-a-boo

Playing with my cousin Cassie's son, Ethan

This slide provided hours of fun for the little boys

Callie and Ryan with cousins Olivia and Jack

Ryan was the happiest we've ever seen him

when Jack and Olivia arrived and started playing with him

Harrison & Clifford

With Tom, Amy and Harrison Seymour

We had a wonderful time at the lake last weekend with the Seymours and are so glad they could join us. Harrison is such a sweet, smiley little guy and it's going to be especially fun when he's a little older and can play with Ryan. He had his first baby swim in the pool this weekend and we all enjoyed getting caught up with one another.

Todd and I celebrated our 8th anniversary this week so Mimi and Papa brought Ryan down to the Clifford the Big Red Dog exhibit by my office so we could spend some time with him before he spent the evening at their house while we enjoyed an adult dinner and night out. He really loved climbing on all the toys and playing with everything. Ryan especially likes putting shapes into the matching holes and his favorite by far was the dog house which had shape holes and shaped objects. He's find shapes elsewhere in the exhibit and promptly take them back to the dog house and place them in their matching hole.

He had his 18 mo. appointment this last week and was 34.5 inches tall and 27 lb, 11 oz. He's proportionate so he doesn't seem oddly big to us, until we went to the Clifford exhibit and met 3 other kids within one month in age and he was seriously a giant in comparison. It made him look so old.

sitting at the counter like a big boy at the Clifford "kitchen"

After he tooks notes from the older girl on how it was done,
he took a stab at playing server/chef

his favorite part of the whole exhibit

loving on Daddy