Central States Fair

Sunday was "Buddy Day" at the fair where you got 2 "all you could ride" wrist bands for $30.00. A wrist band normally is $27.00 per person. Tyson loves the fair and had been asking every day when we were going to get to go. We figured this was the perfect opportunity, so we left the house a little before 11am to grab a quick bite to eat and then we were off to the fair and ready to go when the rides opened at 12:00pm!

Aiden wasn't too sure at first, and so we weren't going to get him and I a band, but after he saw some of the more "little-guy friendly" rides he was all in!

Getting ready for the "taxi-ride".

Safety first...buckle up!

Our head taxi-driver...Tyson.

Aiden thought it was fun to "race" when we were on the carousel. He kept repeating as we went around: "I beatin you, I beatin you!" All the while with a huge smile on his face!

We ended up splitting up for a lot of the rides, so Tyson could do more of the "big kid" rides with Dad, while Aiden and I kept it safe with these rides....

He thought he was so big...and he really was, running right in to find his "ride" when they opened the gate. He even buckled himself and sent me a big wave as he went round and round!

Look... I think Aiden is "beatin me!"

Both boys' favorite ride had to be the bumper cars...or as Aiden fondly refers to them..."Bumpy cars"!

I ran the gas while Aiden controlled the steering wheel. Let's just say there were many moments where we were just doing cookies over in the corner by ourselves...and I thought this would be the one ride where I couldn't get motion sickness. :)

Tyson was all over it and had a blast driving by himself. Him and Dad had some pretty good collisions. In fact, poor guy woke up last night in tears because his chest hurt when he went to pull himself back up in the bunk bed. As you can see from the picture-the bar goes right across his chest and they hit pretty hard a few times. Pretty sure he bruised that area, and probably even pulled a few muscles while holding on to the steering wheel and being jerked back and forth after each collision.

Look at them go...

After 2 and 1/2 hours of rides, we walked over to the stage for a Magic Show at 3 pm. Aiden wasn't all that impressed, so him and I ended up hanging out with all of the animals! They had a chicken and bunny barn as well as a barn with some baby sheep, pigs, goats, etc. He loved sticking his little hands through the crates to pet all of the soft bunnies.

Both boys noticed these cute horses and begged for a ride, so what were we to do? :) It was worth it...they both loved it and did it all by their "big-boy selves!"

When they were finished with their ride we made a quick run through the exhibit booths, and were finally making our way back to the Jeep at 5:30pm...exhausted, thirsty, and hungry! We decided to go to On the Border for supper before heading home. Talk about a long day! We all had soooo much fun, though! It was a great way to spend a Sunday!

Soccer Season Kick-off

Today was Tyson's first soccer game for the fall season. It's amazing how just a couple years makes such a huge difference!! To think that the last time he played they all just seemed to run around in circles while spending more time kicking the ball out of bounds than towards the goal.:)

Not today, though...they were playing hard and really did a good job of going after the ball and keeping it in bounds!

It had been a couple years since Tyson last played soccer, but you would have never known by the way he played! In fact, one of the other Dad's made a comment about how he was surprised they didn't bump him up a league. Yep...that's our boy! :)

Look at the determination in his eyes! GOAL!!!

Tyson's team won 8-3, and Tyson scored 5 of them! It was a great start to the season! Way to go buddy!

Reptile Gardens

With only 2 more weeks to enjoy both of my boys on my day off before Tyson starts 1st grade I decided we better go check out Reptile Gardens.

They love all 3 shows: Bird, Alligator, and Snake. We started with the alligator show.

Giving "Fluffy" a little love.

Aiden thought he would try his skills at "wrestling a crocodile"!

Tyson...such a bad boy! :)

Next on the list was the bird show.

The boys checking out their "wingspans".
We watched the snake show last, and I forgot to take any pictures of it...whoops!

Aren't these 2 cute?!

Tyson and Aiden... the snake wranglers!

Aiden is just a tad short, but he gave it a good jump.

It was a beautiful day, and we were there for about 3 hours enjoying all of the sites. Down to only 1 week left with both of my boys! Sigh... :(

Tyson's B-day Weekend

Grammy, Poppy, Aunt Jessie, Uncle Brian, Aunt Jean, Lexie, Kyra, and Cade all came up for the weekend to help Tyson celebrate his birthday. Aiden, as usual, snuggled right up to Poppy.

Tyson made sure to get in his loves, as well...

It wasn't too far into Saturday before Tyson was begging to open up his presents, so we let him go to town.

We got him a remote control monster truck...I think he liked it:)

Aiden has also become fairly fond of Uncle Brian... as a matter of fact...he barely left him alone the entire weekend! :)

Tyson wasted no time trying out his new toy...

Getting some more Poppy lovin!

It's become bit of a tradition to take the kids to Chuck E. Cheese when Jean and Brian come up, and this time was no exception. Tyson thought that would be a great time and chose that as his fun thing to do for his birthday with his cousins.

Playing a little air hockey with Cade.

Aiden loves this darn car! Every time we go there we come home with at least 5 pictures of him riding in it (for those who don't know...it snaps a picture of him driving the car and it pops out at the end of the ride).

Grammy gathered quite the crowd to help cheer her on at Deal or No Deal. Not so sure how successful she was, though! :)

Most of the games Aiden has no idea what he is supposed to do, but that certainly doesn't damper his excitement to play them. In fact, one of his favorite games was a boat race video game. He sat there for a good 15 minutes "driving" while it kept repeating through it's demo mode...talk about a cheap date! :)

Flyin high!

Cade and Brian trying their skills at Guitar Hero.

2 hours and 360 tokens (no, I am not even joking!) later we decided to head back home...

but not before we loitered for a few minutes outside the front door deciding who was going to go with who to do some quick shopping on the way back home!

I think Grammy is excited to go:) Notice Aiden beating the tar out of Brian with his newly won blow-up hammer! Cracks me up!!

Saturday after supper we enjoyed the beautiful evening outside watching the kids play.

If that doesn't look like trouble!!

We then came in to enjoy Tyson's Chocolate Chip Cookie Cake that he picked out. Since there are several family birthdays all around the same time, we re-lit the candles each time and sang Happy Birthday to each person who had a birthday or will be having a birthday in recent weeks...then each person got to blow out the candles.

Talk about some handsome boys!

Aiden helping out Big Bro!

Aiden was having a great time...he would clap and cheer like crazy after we sang Happy Birthday to each person! It was a good time!

Sunday morning we ran up to Sturgis to each get a Sturgis Rally shirt. Grammy and Poppy stayed home and made Tyson's requested biscuits and gravy, so it was all ready when we got back home. After the delicious meal, everyone loaded up and headed back for home.

The weekend went by way to fast as usual, but we all had so much fun. We can't wait til we're all back together again for some more shenanigans! Thanks again, you guys for coming up to share in Tyson's special day with him! It meant a lot!! Love ya!