Joey and Sam's Blog: Summer 2021

It's amazing how summer always flies by. It's been a great summer.

First we have to catch up with the end of Spring before we get into Summer.

Sam has been playing with the neighbor kids a lot this spring/summer, especially Brody and Xavier.

They have done many zombie battles, nerf gun fights, basketball games, time in the pool, riding scooters and some Pokemon hunting thrown in there as well.

Matthew across the street moved away, and a few weeks before they left, he made us some cookies and then gave us a recipe for a different type of cookie. We made those cookies, and then Joey wanted to make something for Matthew and write the recipe for him. He did that one day, and here he is dropping them off to him.

It was G&G Hyland's 50th anniversary! We took them out to lunch and then had cake back at their house.

With all the grandkids...Joey and Sam had been turkey hunting that morning so that is why they are dressed all in black.

We did a "hot chocolate" walk on a nice Spring evening. Sam had to take the Fluffy's.

We went to the square to walk around a bit with Linus and Maebel and Jay.

We got a new truck and got to go pick it up the day that Aunt Mary visited us. She got to watch the boys with G&G Hyland while we were picking it up. It was great to see her!

We got a volleyball/badminton net. We played quite a bit in the spring and plan to bring it back out in the fall.

Linus had a bouncy house for his 4th birthday. Grandma had to try it out too. The kids (and adults) had so much fun with it!!

The light was coming through the neighbor's tree really cool one night while we were playing volleyball so I made the boys pose.

This was Joey's Mother's Day card to me. It is a very Joey card :)

For Mother's Day, we went to Middleton to get dinner at Cafe Zuppas and then walk part of the Pheasant Branch Trail. The boys enjoyed the rock path across the water.

For our anniversary, we got a date afternoon so we did a couple of bike rides, went to Wollersheim Winery and ate bbq for supper. It was a fun day!

We did a 5 park challenge for Sun Prairie two different times over the summer. This was the first time. It was a kind of gloomy day, which apparently made Joey more silly. Sam had to bring his friends to the parks.

The next day of the weekend was WAY nicer and warmer!

We got ice cream one night and went to Tenney Park. The sun was so cool over the water. We got some fun pictures with the rocks and water. Sam was loving giving me lots of poses. Joey was not.

We got the pool set up for the year. Everyone helped put it together this year, and it went overall really smoothly. No leaks in the pool at all, just a few leaky hoses over the course of the summer.

We went camping in June for 2 nights at Indian Trails Campground. The weather the first day and most of the second was perfect. We stayed in a tent so we were hoping for great weather. This summer has been extremely dry, but of course we had thunderstorm warnings for the second night so we decided to come home at about 6:30pm to sleep the 2nd night (we were only 30 minutes away from home) and then we went back up the next morning to continue to enjoy the trip.

Sam packed a lot of friends, as always. Good thing we had a big tent!

We spent a lot of time in the pool. We went to the outdoor pool 3 times while we were there and the indoor pool once.

We had a fun time playing mini golf.

We went to Strawberry Fest in Sun Prairie. It was a little different than past years but still fun.

We celebrated Grandpa Rikli's birthday! Not much for dessert :)

4th of July came telling us that summer was 1/2 over. We got some fireworks for at home. We tried to find a spot in Sun Prairie to watch them come from the racetrack, but that plan didn't work.

Joey was very silly while we were doing our fireworks.

We went to 4th of July in Monroe with G&G and Jay, Amanda, Maebel & Linus. It was hot, but still a good time. The boys found a tree to climb, and Sam especially loved that!

We got to celebrate Grandma's birthday while we were there too!

This was the 2nd five park challenge...

Sun Prairie did a month of July bingo activity. We biked to the Nitty Gritty to have dinner on the patio one night. It was a fun night!

Another activity was bowling. We went with G&G Rikli and were the only people there (we went on a Saturday noon when it was nice outside). The boys thought it was hilarious that they named Grandpa "high socks" for his name on the screen. :)

The boys tried pickleball for the first time. Sam really liked it, and Joey said it was for older people.

We got to go to Grandparent Camp this year! It was later in the year so the anticipation really built up (especially with Sam).

I can't remember what Sam was explaining here, but it was pretty funny!

Sam slept in the trundle bed. This was the first year that I didn't have a boy coming into bed with me while we were there.

Joey and the other teen boys are being "thorns".

Sam was a seed...

Sam loved the wiggle mat this year. He had two friends, Sam and Carson who he hung out with a lot while we were there.

This is always a favorite at camp.

Sam tried kayaking and paddle boarding this time. He didn't go very far out, but I think next year he will!

Joey stole Grandpa's chair to read his book. He is not a fan of lake water so he didn't want to go swimming. We did quite a bit of the paddle boat though.

Here is Sam's friend he picked for the weekend.

Here is the last day blessing at the lake picture. I love this picture!

Sam forced me to come on the wiggle mat with him on Sunday. I think it was only 72 degrees, but it wasn't as cold as I was afraid it would be. I was kind of boring for Sam though.