The Vredeveld Crew

Ryan's first trip out of the country!

Yep, we took him to Canada. ha ha. It was actually our first real boating weekend of the summer and we went up the St. Clair River to Sarnia, Ontario. Sarnia is right at the Bluewater Bridge which is the gateway to Lake Huron. What a great time we had! We walked to the playground Friday night, then shuttled over to a beach on Lake Huron on Saturday. Ryan absolutely loves to play in the sand and whenever he sees one of his sand toys he immediately wants to go to a beach. Then on Sunday we went swimming in the marina's pool before heading back down the river to Lake St. Clair (home port). He had such a fun-filled weekend that he fell asleep for the entire 2 hour ride home!

Easter Egg Hunt in our backyard.

"Yes, Mommy, I am the King and you will do as I say."

Chillin' at home and at the park ...

Still more birthday party pics...

A few more pics...Of course Lightning McQueen was at the party. Ryan loved that his cake came with toys on top. Here they are later in the evening, settling down to catch a Disney flick.

Birthday Party

Ryan's two best buddies and their families came over to celebrate Ryan's 3rd birthday and boy was it loud! I think every single toy came out of the toy boxes too! He had a riot and then later they all sat on the couch for a movie together.

3rd Birthday!

So the opening of birthday cards and presents lasted for quite a few days. Some family shipped him boxes of presents to open on his birthday, then he opened some from Mommy & Daddy the next night, and then had a couple friends over on the weekend for a party. With birthdays lasting so many days, he is getting too used to this!

Fun time with friends over

MMM... milkshake.

Ryan had a vanilla milkshake for the first time yesterday (yes, we shelter our poor child). Okay, he's had chocolate ones before :-). You can see that he could not take his focus off that milkshake just for a picture. Anyway, we went to a game place called Dave & Buster's, had lunch, and then played some arcade games. He likes the classic kind that give out tickets! That means he can pick prizes! It was the best 2 hours spent on Saturday!

Sledding Video

This was on the small hill/burm on the cul-de-sac behind our house. It's great for young kids because it's small. Ryan was not too impressed with sliding off the sled and going sideways with snow flying in his face. Hmmm.... maybe next time.

My BFF!

One thing that makes Ryan most happy is playing with his best friend Jayden! They are about 9 months apart but play together like there was no difference in age at all (which won't matter later, but hey, at 3 years old that 9 months can be big!)

Little Bavaria

The few days after Christmas found us traveling up north. With a 2-night stop in Frankenmuth for a little fun and R&R. We stayed at the Bavarian Inn Lodge which had an indoor pool, game room (Ryan is now into arcade games BTW!), indoor putt-putt golf, etc. What a fun stop!