Picking the perfect pumpkin...

Last weekend we went to a pumpkin patch to find some pumpkins for carving. Carter loved walking around looking and touching all the different pumpkins. We also saw a couple of horses and a huge stack of hay shaped like a crazy Halloween figure. The pumpkins were the main attraction for Carter though. He took his job of finding a perfect pumpkin very seriously, he checked out everything until he found his favorite.

Here he is checking one out, he rolled them around and looked them over good.

More looking...not quite the perfect one...

Found it! He sits proudly by his favorite.

Frederik Meijer Gardens

Dave and I joined a membership at Frederik Meijer Gardens about a month ago, the membership gets our family into the Gardens for free, discounts on the outdoor concerts, plus many other great perks. They have so many cool new things for kids plus awesome Christmas festivities and many other year round activities. We took Carter again a few weeks ago and he loved it. He especially liked the water feature which is a bunch of small pools and connecting "rivers" mapping out the Great Lakes. He also loved the big horse. He was fascinated by his hoof.

The comparison of Carter and the horse is amazing...you can barely see him!

Checking out the hoof...

Here he is watching a little fountain at the water feature. He tried to climb in about 20 times but we were able to deter him. Another little boy we saw got right in however!

Fall Sailing

We've been so lucky in the weather department so far this fall. It's been gorgeous and warm, very unlike Michigan. We took advantage of the nice weather two weekends ago by going out on Grandpa J's boat one last time before it gets put away for the winter. Carter still loves the captain's wheel and we also discovered that he absolutely hates life jackets. Last time we were on the boat, the life jacket Grandpa and Grandma brought him was too little and we couldn't fit it on him. This time we were prepared with the right size however Carter freaked out when he realized he couldn't move or sit comfortably in it. We had to eventually take it off, he was safe on the floor of the boat and the screaming that took place while it was on him wasn't worth it. Next year when he's moving around we'll have to put our foot down, but it just wasn't worth it this time.

Steering us around the marina

This was before he realized he couldn't move in the jacket...

Helping tie a few lines

Walking and Climbing

It's official, Carter is full fledged walking. This has been going on for about 2 weeks now. Even though we count him as walking a week before his birthday (he started taking steps) he is now walking all over the place without any help. His balance just seemed to click one day and he can stand up from a sitting position without the aid of another object.

He is also climbing into everything...the ottoman, his toy box, any table type toys that are off the ground...I'm seeing flashes of him getting out of his crib in the near future. Often when he's standing against something he'll bring his knee up like he's trying to climb over it.

We didn't get a lot of great "in stride" shots, but it's hard to try and take pictures while clapping and cheering.

Here is Carter playing inside the ottoman, one of his favorite things to open up and climb into.

And here he is climbing into the base of one of this table top toys.

Picnic

In early September we went to my company picnic at Post Family Farm. We had cool weather, which has been quite scarce this fall, but we had a great time despite it. Post Family Farm is a neat little farm out in Hudsonville with lots of animals, games for kids, picnic areas, tractor rides, and more.

Here he is trying out the "pumpkin car ride," which is basically these little pumpkin shaped cars pulled by a tractor. He liked it for the first 15 seconds and then decided he wanted to move on to bigger and better things (he told us by screaming VERY loudly). We had to get him off right before the ride actually started.

Next we moved on to the pony rides which he absolutely LOVED. When we took him off the pony he threw a fit.

Our little cowboy.

The last thing we did was go on a hay ride...we rode through some neat pumpkin patches and beautiful fields but Carter missed it all due to his impromptu nap. Oh well, it was a good excuse to leave and get home in time to watch our college football games!