Jennifer's 365 Project

With the weather getting cooler, evenings in the park are pretty nice. Having awesome company certainly helps. These guys are great.

Tuesday night a large branch off of a neighbor's tree fell and crashed in our back yard. It landed on a few smaller trees we had back there but didn't do any real damage. It did need to be removed so that it would stop pushing on the other trees and potentially kill them.

So Chris's dad came out today with his chainsaw and cut the large branch into smaller more manageable chunks. Quinn and I spent our time watching from the deck.
After the majority of the work was done we headed out for a quick bite to eat. Quinn is definitely still not ready to sit still in a restaurant. He was ok for about 5 minutes but after that he wanted to get down, run around, climb on the table, and in general just explore everything!

He did enjoy some mac and cheese once food arrived. Progress on that front! I look forward to hiding vegetables in mac and cheese in the future.

Earlier this week I finished sewing up some slippers for Quinn. He really likes shoes so I thought it would be a fun thing for him to play with in the house. I pulled the pattern off of Darling Diapers after watching a video tutorial.

He thinks they're ok and will occasionally ask for them. I consider that a minor success.
We also made a few magnets for him yesterday. We were at Joanne Fabrics and they had a bunch of wood figures for 50 cents, so we picked up a few figures and a pack of magnets. We have a small bird magnet for our fridge so he's been especially enamored with the parrot figure.

It's been a few years since we've been to Frederik Meijer Gardens and quite a while since I've actually been anywhere outside. I've actually only been to the sculpture park and part of the children's area, so I wanted to take Quinn and see more of the gardens.
It's still the first week back to school for most kids so this was a perfect day to visit. The children's area wasn't too busy and the kids that were there were on the younger side.
I was really surprised at how much there was to the children's area. Aside from the water area there was a log cabin...
...And quite an elaborate tree house. I think we will definitely be coming back several times over the next few years.
They also have the sculpture from Northland Mall since that's now closed. I grew up going to that mall quite a bit and I loved this thing. I remember my mom yelling at me all the time not to climb it. So now I guess if I ever want to see it I can just go to the gardens.
After two hours of running around Quinn was doing so well we even went through the Japanese Gardens. It opened last year and I was curious to see what it looked like.
It is definitely not as kid friendly as the children's area, so we could only linger at certain areas briefly before the whirlwind of energy hurled a rock into a perfectly manicured area.
But all in all I really enjoyed it. It was pretty peaceful since there were only retirees out and about. And Quinn did really well for nearly three hours we were there. In fact, he napped for three hours after we left. That alone made the trip worth it!

This afternoon we headed out to Grand Haven to visit Corinne, who works downtown there. Quinn fell asleep on the ride over there and was pretty committed to his nap, even after we'd parked.
Once he woke up he was ready to go. He enjoyed pushing his stroller around on the boardwalk along the water. We had a great time catching up with Corinne and enjoying the outdoors.

Today is the day! I've been waiting weeks, months, ages! I'm super excited to go to the Detroit Zoo. I haven't been there in about 10 years, which is a shame because my parents live 5 minutes from it.

Today was senior day (where admittance is free for the tri-county area), so there was a lot of traffic getting into the zoo.
I was most excited to see the new Polk Penguin Conservation Center. I loved the old Penguinarium so I wanted to see what the new penguin exhibit looked like.

It's amazing! It was very crowded, but it was still amazing!
We took a break so Quinn could have a snack over by Amphibville. That section of the zoo today was not as popular as others (bingo was going on in the picnic area) so Quinn had the whole building to himself. It was a nice break from people for him and he really enjoyed the building. I was never very big on it myself, but its definitely going to be a place I make a point of stopping at for him since it's great for little kids.
It was nearly 90 degrees and sunny, so a big part of our visit was bouncing from air conditioned building to air conditioned building. We of course had to hit the classic reptile house.
 The Arctic circle with the polar bears and seals was a nice pit stop on our way to the train.
Quinn did really well on the train ride. He started to freak out a little bit but after a muffin to munch on he was fine for the ride. It was a great day and I'm already looking forward to our next visit.

In the morning we headed out to Millennium Beach. It's a sunny day and perfect beach weather. The water was a little chilly, but Quinn still had fun.

Deer Tracks Junction is about 20 minutes north of our house. I've been seeing ads for it on a kids activity website all summer and today we decided to visit.
The entire facility is very clean. With so many animals there are bound to be accidents all over the path but we didn't encounter any. They have staff out and about cleaning up constantly. They also offer baby bottle feeding for the different animals.

A few months ago we picked up a power washer on a good deal but we've been so busy or it's been raining that we haven't had a chance to try it out until this weekend.

We've lived her for four years and never power washed the deck, so it needed to be done.
We took turn, although Chris did most of it. Quinn really enjoyed his entertainment during lunch.
After 5 hours the deck was done. It looks a lot better. Hooray for finally getting this done!

This afternoon after Quinn's nap we headed over to Blanford Nature Center. They have a lot of little trails, rescued wildlife...
...And a farm with chickens!

 But sometimes Leki will hang out with Quinn. Let him hug him, let him headbutt him...
 And in general let the kid do silly things to him. As long as there are sunbeams to bask in.

Quinn is afraid of our vacuum but obsessed with it. So we thought we'd try getting a toy version for him to get more comfortable with it. He loves the toy but still hates the real thing.