Apples

Last Sunday, we spent a couple hours at a local apple orchard picking Jonagold, Red Delicious, Golden Delicious, Candy Crisp (which I'd never heard of before), and who knows what else. Burke was in search of Cortlands, but we were too late for those. We'll have to try to get to the orchard earlier next fall. We visited this particular apple orchard, Jollay, in October 2010 right after we moved to the area. Then I started working weekends, and we just haven't been out to Jollay since. [I think Burke brought the boys one year, on his own, while I was working.] Anyway, the whole time we were there, I kept thinking back on that time back in 2010 and reflecting on how big the boys are now, and how quickly years are passing, and all the feelings that come along with those types of thoughts.

On the hayride out to the apple trees

2015

Ryan on the hayride out to apple trees

2010

Back to present day, Evan taste testing an apple.

Evan on Burke's shoulders, trying to reach the high apples.

Got it! 

Thanks, Dada.

Evan & Burke

2010

[Yes, Burke is wearing the same sweatshirt in 2010 & 2015. It's a good sweatshirt!]

I love this series of my little athlete chucking an apple as far as he can. Check out that form. See if you can keep your eye on the apple. 

Firecracker

Our haul of apples

Cutest corn I've ever seen!

Tractor time

I tell the boys this story all the time about when we came here in 2010, and enjoyed some apple cider donuts. Ryan was about 2-1/2 and Evan 10 months. I tell them how Ryan was eating a donut and Evan watched him intently, tracking the movement of that donut, with each bite Ryan took. I remember telling Ryan he could give Evan a little bite, so he did. He shared with his baby brother. We had to reenact that moment. 

The original moment

2010

Time is definitely moving quickly...

Art Prize 2015

We've been keeping very busy this fall, adjusting to the new school year and cheering at the boys' soccer games. We spent this last weekend enjoying a couple of our favorite fall activities, one of which is ArtPrize.

Last Saturday, we went to ArtPrize in Grand Rapids. Unfortunately, it was rainy, windy, and chilly. This made appreciating outdoor art nearly impossible. Thank goodness for the indoor venues. It was not as much fun as it's been in years past, when the weather cooperated, but it was memorable and we saw some interesting, lovely artwork. The boys' stamina for all the walking and tolerating the inclement weather was impressive. We were quite shocked at how well they coped.

I took less pictures than usual. I think because I was spending a lot of mental energy dealing with the weather. But I managed to get a few.

One of our favorite venues is the Urban Institute for Contemporary Arts (UICA).

One of Burke's favorite pieces was at UICA, Symphony of Gestures - link below.
https://www.artprize.org/sara-dittrich-and-benjamin-buchanan/2015/symphony-of-gestures

This is a picture of the boys with The Mortal Coil by Heather Brammeier. This is only a portion of the piece. It was quite vast, and covered most of the roof of UICA. This was our first stop, so we got to enjoy this outdoor installation before the weather turned nasty. 

Evan reported that this was his favorite piece, Technician 3 by Charles Jevremovic. It is built with salvaged technical equipment with lots of knobs and buttons for tactile exploration. Images of technicians were projected onto the structure. Honestly, this piece made me dizzy, but Burke, Ryan, and Evan really liked it.

Blue Giraffe

by Jim Neal

These big 3-D pieces are the ones I'm typically drawn to.

Seasons 

by Robin Protz

This picture does not do it justice, It's a tree, with each quadrant representing a season. 

It's a finalist in the 3-D category!!

We walked through DeVos Place Convention Center, a huge venue, where we saw a lot of 2-D works. Ryan's favorite was here. It is called I Am You by Ahni Sallaway - link below. The artist was standing by her piece and took a few minutes to talk with the boys about her intention/method. 

http://www.artprize.org/ahni-sallaway/2015/i-am-you

We were all losing steam at this point, but the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Museum is always a favorite venue, so we headed over for a quick visit. They always have neat pieces. Burke really liked Northwood Awakening, the boys and I got a kick out of Field of Brass. There were also some interesting outdoor installations and 3-D pieces including this one..

Troll Bridge

by Justin La Doux

My mom had looked into ArtPrize and a certain piece caught her attention. She described it to me, and it sounded interesting, so I wanted to check it out. The venue, SiTE: LAB, was WAY off the beaten path. But we found it. SiTE: LAB's location changes from year to year, as they transform otherwise unoccupied structures into an exhibition venue. This year SiTE: LAB was comprised of a whole street's worth of buildings. This piece, State of Exception is created with objects left behind by undocumented migrants as they journey into the U.S. When you see all these backpacks that once belonged to actual people, it makes the concept of "illegal immigrants" less abstract. It is a powerful piece humanizing the issue of immigration. 

On that thought-provoking note, we ended our ArtPrize 2015 adventure. We stopped for dinner in Holland on the way home, and checked out the newly demolished music building at Hope where I spent many hours as an undergrad. The boys quickly zonked out shortly thereafter. On Sunday, the day after we went to ArtPrize, we headed out to pick apples. Blog post forthcoming...