Lots to post!

We have so much to update. Hard to believe that summer is almost over, and school starts in less than a week!

Here's a look at what we've done the end of June through end of August...

Joey learned how to ride his bike on 2 wheels at the end of June. I was mowing the lawn, and Matthew came back and told me, "Joey is riding on two wheels." I went out front, and sure enough, he was. Laura had helped him stay steady and then it just clicked with him!

One of Sam's projects from Tot Lot. The directions were to put the paper ON the elephant. We are in trouble with this one!

Maynard the Mallard came to my work. I had to take a picture with him outside my office to show the boys.

We had a birthday party for Grandpa Rikli. The boys made him "poop" cards. They were nice poop cards (if that is possible).

G&G Hyland were in Canada for the 4th of July so we were left to our own devices instead of going to Monroe. We tried out Deforest on July 3rd, and it was a win! I think it was good to go the day before the 4th instead of on the 4th because I'm guessing it would have been a lot busier.

They had free pony rides, bouncy structures and then some games to play too.

We roasted hot dogs for the first time in the backyard. Of course, smores were up after that!

We tried out fireworks on the 4th of July. We stayed at the truck instead of going to a park, and once we found a spot, it was great. The boys enjoyed the whole process!

Joey and I took a little walk down the path while we were waiting...Joey danced a little more than walking.

We went to Concerts in the Park, and discovered it had been cancelled because of a chance of rain. We ended up going to another park to eat our picnic and then going for a little hike at this park.

We tried out the Deforest splash pad. The splash pad was pretty small, but it was attached to a nice little park.

We went to the pool a couple of times. Mommy didn't get pictures at the pool,but this is in the play area attached to it.

We celebrated Grandma Hyland's birthday!

Another Concert in the Park, another face painting. This was zombie face.

Sam chose pink flowers.

Maebel and Uncle Jay came to see us and we went to Taste of Sun Prairie. We only had about 45 minutes before the rain started, but that was enough time for Maebel to get to try a crepe.

Here comes the rain!

Joey got his face painted like a gorilla there. The rain and heat were a little hard on it, but it still looks cool!

We took Maebel to see our library. She seemed to like it!

Sam put on a puppet show for her.

We went to the farmer's market with G&G Hyland. We had to make a visit to the Capitol like we always do. See Joey and Sam?

We went to the observation deck for the first time. Here is Sam checking out Lake Monona (I think).

Joey was a little nervous for this picture.

Joey and I went to a Mallards game through my work. Even though it was super hot, we had a blast!

Joey and Landon tried out these bubbles that then went into a pool to run and spin around in.

Joey was a goofball in them!

Joey got to run the bases at the end and got a ball from an umpire as he was leaving. Pretty good day!

We made our now annual trip to Little Amerricka. It was a great day to go. Not super hot and not super crowded. Win!

Daddy and Sam being cheesy!

John and Joey are in the last car of the roller coaster with their hands up!

Sam wanted to recreate a picnic from one of his Mickey Mouse books, so we did that one night. Hot dogs, sweet corn, fruit salad and a special lemonade drink were on the menu.

We went to Legacy Academy for the annual NMB party there. Sam jumped off the platform for the first time.

The boys really like shuffleboard!

Last Concert in the Park. Joey went for Pirate face this time.

Sam got purple flowers and an extra on his arm!

Costco got their costumes, so we are set for Halloween already. They happened to have exactly what the boys had wanted to dress as. Kylo Ren and a Stormtrooper.

We surprised Aunt Amanda at her work and took her lunch and flowers on her birthday. Here we are in the conference room in the back.

Maebel loved following the boys down the long hallway crawling...and then stopping to play with the mini blinds a bit to hear the cool noise they made.

They had 2 pig puppets so Sam was very happy.

Maebel got a little rowdy :)

They also had Lego club that day so the boys stayed to participate in that. Here they are standing in front of their creations.

I had to travel for work to Phoenix. I had a great hotel room!

This was the view from the balcony off my room.

I also got to see Amanda, Pete and John while I was in Phoenix. John climbed up on my lap before dinner. He was so cute!

We've had a great summer! A couple more fun things, and then it's back to school!

Grandparent Camp 2016

What a fun time we had at Grandparent Camp again this year!

These pictures are not in order, as I took pictures with the camera and my phone so they got all out of whack.

Meeting the animals this year. Sam chose not to hold them this year after the little lizard escaped across his lap last year. 

The friends they shared their weekend with this year. Joey got Kicks back, who he had last year and Sam chose Gigi the French poodle :)

This was a new game they had this year. This was one of the very last things the boys did at camp. We were the last ones to leave this year. It was amazing how much more mature Sam was this year compared to last year....we still have more room to grow, but there wasn't the emotional breakdown on Sunday this year thankfully.

This was the first night. Can you tell Joey is super excited to be at camp?

Joey got to read stuff this year and did really well with it. He was much more outgoing for that part than he was last year.

Sam was the "wind" in a song they did. He got a whistle and man did he own that role!

They had a family kickball game. Sam and I watched from the swings. Sam spent literally hours swinging over the weekend!

Beach carnival time!

Sam really loved digging holes and bossing around Grandma about how to dig said hole!

Sink the canoe! Sam and Joey were on different teams for this one.

I am going to try to get the pictures the camp counselors sent into jpg's so I can post those here. I realized I didn't get any pictures of the kids with their grandparents, but there were some that were sent to us. We had such a great time and were very grateful for the opportunity to go again this year.

June

We've been having a great summer and enjoying so many activities, as usual!

At the end of May, we went to Summit Fest for the first time. It is a big picnic with events for the kids that they have at the Mallards stadium...and it's free (just for Summit members)!

The boys participated in the obstacle course races. They each got to choose what color shirt they wanted (Sam chose pink). Sam had to jump in the potato sack, go through the inflatable, run back and crawl through a giant tube. He had lots of fun!

Joey (orange shirt) did almost the same course, but they added a climbing wall for his age group. He really enjoyed it too.

Visiting with Maynard with his medal and balloon sword...

The boys got glitter tattoos for the first time. Sam chose a penguin, and I didn't influence him at all in that decision :)

The Mallards zip line was open for the kids to do. Joey did it last year, but Sam had never tried it.

John took the boys around on the 4 wheeler through our yard. Their smiles were HUGE!

Joey and I went to the Green County breakfast on the farm with G&G Hyland. Sam slept in with Daddy.

Joey loved the corn pit they had. He did stuff like this the whole time he was in it :)

Pretending to be a cow...

Holding a chick...

I got the boys some beach towel wraps. They were pretty excited!

We got the pool out! The boys have enjoyed it a few times already.

Maebel came to visit, and we introduced her to the water table. Can you tell she was excited?!

Two goofballs...

Maebel loves to look at Sam.

Maebel was baptized on June 5th. Here are some pictures from the occasion...

After the baptism, we had to check out the superheroes around the square in Monroe. We recognized almost all of them!

Joey went bowling for an end of the school year event (they were supposed to go swimming but the high was like 68 degrees that day). I went along to chaperone.

They turned on the black lights and turned up the music!

Sam had his end of the year picnic for school. It was a beautiful morning, and he really enjoyed playing outside with the hula hoops and balls they had out there.

The boys and I did our first picnic in the park. The boys picked Fireman's Park in Sun Prairie.

Goofballs!

This was their favorite thing to do that day. They sat on top of the slide, and when a kid came down they would say "boo". Of course they were so giggly and excited that I think every kid knew they were down there before they even came down the slide...but they had fun anyway!

We had the first Concerts in the Park! It was the Soggy Prairie Boys, and unfortunately it got a little soggy not too far into the concert. Luckily, we got there early so the boys got to do the bouncy house, get a balloon animal and play at the park for a little bit before the rain came.

There was also an artist doing caricatures so the boys sat for that.

Here they are at home and dry with their balloon animals. Joey chose a zombie and Sam chose a pig.

Jack's family had a party at the Aquatic Center that we got to go to. Sam was the very first person in the pool. It was very cool to have the pool open for about 40 people. We got to go down the big slide and everything!

Sam went to his first movie, and we went to see Horton Hears a Who.

He really enjoyed the chairs a lot. It was pretty funny at the beginning because he thought that he had to get out of the chair to adjust it. He did a lot of getting up and down!

Next post will be Grandparent's camp and the 4th of July!!