Shootaround with the Phoenix Suns

In August, the Phoenix Suns hosted a "shootaround" event.  You could shoot hoops on the actual game court (it was actually the Mercury court set up that night) or the practice court.  They also had areas for younger, smaller, players to shoot as well as inflatables.  Ryan brought his friend Shawn for the fun.  They had a great time shooting and playing around.

Walkway leading to US Airways Center

The boys posing with the large basketball

Phoenix Suns Operation Orange

Ryan & Shawn on the big court
waiting to shoot

Ryan taking his shot

Having fun with the inflatable hoop

Shooting on the lower hoop

Ryan & Shawn with the Gorilla

I got to pose with the Gorilla too

With Dan Majerle (I didn't realize he was that much
taller than me!)

Going to play in the Gorilla Greenhouse

Ryan's ready for that rebound

And to finish off the evening - Ted's Hot Dogs!

Goodbye to summer

Ryan and Derek

Even though our temps are still WAY up there.  In the beginning of August we had to say "goodbye to summer" getting ready for school to start for Ryan.  The last full week before school started, we took Ryan and a friend of his to Big Surf for some water park fun.  The boys had a great time.  Doug & I hung out in the wave pool almost the entire time.  It was so relaxing.  So much so that when I went to bed that night, I could still feel the waves moving me around.  A wonderful day all around.

Ryan's Summer Visitor

Well, before my family came, we were able to have Ryan's oldest friend come and stay with us twice.  He now lives out of state and the boys have been able to stay in touch through texting.  It was good to see him.

While the two boys were together, they set up a whole photo shoot for me using some Halo figurines around the pool.  If you'd like to see all the photos from that day, be sure to visit my photo website - go to the blog and go to the entries from July 11-28.  Here are some of the ones I liked from that shoot.

Got Their Eyes on Me


Ryan & Adrian setting up another scene for me

The Picture of Relaxation

Water Slide

The Mountain Top



My Sam

The Path

Lazy Summer Days

 

Aaah . . . Xbox Fun

Ryan and his friend enjoying Xbox

And, apparently it was crazy hat day at our house.  Ryan has gotten into collecting some pretty strange hats.  The one Ryan has on is pretty normal for him.  Just out of the camera view there is another hat, like the large one that Derek is wearing, that Ryan got from the circus.

Hello June

June 2011 Calendar Page

Ryan's Birthday Part 3 - The Party

With Ryan's birthday always happening over Spring Break, we decided to have his party the next weekend.  He invited a few close friends to come over.  We took the boys to Jump Street and then came home for pizza and cake & ice cream.  We didn't stay at Jump Street for the full hour after Doug & I saw another boy, thankfully not in our group, break his ankle.  It was rather disgusting and I will not go into details here.  Let me just say, it left me feeling rather nauseous for a few hours.  Yuck.  The boys had a great time while they were there jumping.

Ryan compiled his collection of Nerf guns for
use towards the end of the party.  The boys all
had a great time playing war.

Eating pizza.  Ryan's the one in the crazy hat.  He bought the
hat at the Renaissance Festival and wore it constantly for
like a week after.

The presents

Here is the cake I made, vanilla with
chocolate frosting.

Ryan getting ready to blow out the candles.
He blew them out so fast I didn't get a picture.

Ryan received a Nerf gun and either gift cards or cash
for his birthday.  Which he loved.  This is all the
goodies he got after shopping at Walmart.  He
bought a Lego Harry Potter Quidditch set, and Nerf
weapons - sword, shield, axe and dagger (they
are so cool!)  He was one very happy boy.



Third Times the Charm!

On our third attempt, we finally made it to the zoo lights.  We got rained out the first two tries. 

On the Wednesday before Christmas, we went to dinner with our friends - Kim, Matt and Shawn.  We took them to Pete's since they had never been.  And literally on the drive over it started raining on us.  While we sat outside and ate, we watched the rain stop and start and stop and start and decided it would be a mess at the zoo so decided no for that night.

Then, we made plans to go the next Wednesday.  Well wouldn't you know it, it rained that day too!  So, instead we wound up at their house because they were having router trouble.  Doug got them up and running.

And then finally on January 7th, we made it to see the Zoo Lights.  They were beautiful as usual.  The weather was great and it wasn't that crowded so maybe it was a good thing we got rained out two times before.

One of the new displays this year - a dragon!  It was
animated showing it's belly getting larger as it got ready
to blow smoke.

Can you figure this one out?

Here is what the image really looks like.

They were handing out these glasses at the door
and when you looked through them this is how
the light displays looked.  The blue is one tree.
They were really fun to look at, but hard to walk
around in.

The Carousel

Another newer display - a giant ball floating over the lake.  It
changed colors.

The highlight of going to Zoo Lights for Ryan is getting to pet the
stingrays.  We always save it for last - not because we are mean
(although Ryan might tell you differently), but because you cannot
help but get pretty wet when petting them.  And that is not fun
for the rest of the evening.

Ryan, Matt and Shawn sporting their super cool glasses.

A Christmas Treat

We received a wonderful Christmas treat on December 27 - Ryan's friend Adrian came to stay with us for two days.  He moved to Texas over the summer.  The two boys have been in touch since then texting and calling each other and have been planning a Christmas visit.  It was so fun to hear all the laughing that was going on as they played and talked in the same way that they always have - since they first became friends in kindergarten. 

We took them to this really fun place called Airworx.  It's full of
trampolines.  They have an area for dodge ball, slam dunk and
free jumping.  The kids love going there.  We don't mind taking
them either - it wears the kids out and it's not very expensive.
Win/win.  The only problem, Doug took  his laptop and we
were going to try to watch a show on Netflix but their
Internet wouldn't work.  Oh well, we just had to have fun
watching all the crazy kids instead.

Ryan in the slam dunk section.

The two boys waiting for their turn in a game area.

Adrian and Ryan

Megamind in D3?

The weekend before Thanksgiving, we joined some friends at the movies to go see the new animated movie Megamind in 3D.  It was a very fun movie, with lots of laughs from the adults and the kids alike - just not always in the same places.  Plus it had a really great soundtrack!

We had no idea that we were seeing the special D3 version.

Ryan with friends Shawn & Matt sporting the very cool
3D (or is it D3) glasses.

State Fair

On the last Saturday it was open, a friend of mine and I took our kids to the State Fair.  We headed out on a Saturday in search of anything on a stick to eat and fun games and rides!  They were having this great buy one get one free on entry fees.  So, that saved us some money on getting in.  I think we were both prepared for it be pretty busy.  And would you believe it wasn't.  The weather was perfect, not too hot and not the least bit cold.  All in all a great day!  Thanks Kim for inviting us to go with you. 



Ryan with his friends Shawn & Matt



Ryan & I.  Doug was at home with a sinus infection.

One of the biggest cows I have ever seen.  They were just huge.

They had had a pigeon competition earlier on .  I never knew there
were so many varieties of pigeon in the world.  I just know about
the ones that like to hang out people's roofs.  This one was pretty
neat, it had feathers on it's feet.  You could not see it's feet all.

Ryan and Shawn went on the bumper cars.  Ryan wanted to get the
Vikings colored car - and he did!

Matt playing a basketball carnival game.

I loved this huge pickle!  The boys humored me by letting me take their
picture with the pickle.

And of course at the fair they have some of the
strangest things to eat.  This is one I had not heard
of before.  I would have tried it but no one else was
game.

Funnel Cake!  One of my favorite reasons to go to a fair.

Shawn giving me the thumbs up on his very first
funnel cake!

Ryan won a fish at his very first carnival game.
Everywhere we went after that so many people
kept coming up to us wondering where we won
the fish at.

Ryan saved his money (mostly because I made him) and bought this
really cool bow and arrow.

Ryan won this basketball at one of the carnival
games.