Life just before and during Quarantine

Joey had another orchestra concert. It was amazing to see how much they had learned just since the previous concert. 

Joey and Sam both started the second half of basketball season with new teams. They only got a couple games in before everything was cancelled due to Corona virus. They were both bummed. John was coaching Sam's team, which Sam loved.

The last game Joey got to play the entire game. They were short one kid, and instead of rotating, the coach kept Joey in the whole game. His stamina and endurance had really increased over the season, and he did really well playing the whole game. At the beginning of the season he would not have been able to do that. 

I wish I would have gotten pictures of John coaching Sam. I thought I had a few more weeks to do it!

Joey had his Arrow of Light ceremony for scouts. He isn't moving on to boy scouts, but this was a nice recognition of what he's accomplished in Cub Scouts.

The boys from left to right: Ben, Declan, Aiden, Colin, Kyle, Joey, Owen, Matt (leader) and John

We spent several weekend days in the woods to escape from the house during the "Safer at Home" time of the virus. 

The boys did some physical labor...

Then they had to rest...

They got in some shooting practice of clay pigeons...

There has been lots of basketball and pajamas during quarantine. Until the weather got warmer, Sam wore pajamas all day every day. 

We've been grilling pineapple a lot with cinnamon. 

Sam had trouble sleeping one night and ended up falling asleep on the couch...

We practiced baking with yeast since we had plenty of time to wait for dough to rise. This was our first attempt at making cinnamon rolls. Not as good as Grandma Hyland's, but they were still tasty.

We did Zoom meetings with G&G Hyland and Amanda and Jay & kids. 

The boys were in charge of supper one night. BLT's with a special strawberry treat Sam made. Sam cut up the lettuce for the BLT's. 

Another trip to the woods and Joey being silly...

We made campfire nachos. They were pretty tasty and we've made them a couple times since.

More clay pigeon practice...

When we got home from the woods, we had our driveway decorated by G&G Rikli!

We took a family picture for Easter to send to the Grandparents. Here are some outtakes...

Easter egg hunt! We did an indoor hunt a few days before Easter to spread out the fun.

Westside had a car parade so we could see all the teachers. I got one picture of Sam's teacher's car. I was spending too much time waving. 

G&G Rikli came and did a socially distant outdoor egg hunt. 

Easter weekend was turkey hunting weekend too. I went with Joey since we couldn't have Grandpa R come in such a confined space. Joey napped a bit in the blind since we were up so early. 

Decorating Easter eggs...

This picture makes it look like our Easter basket hunt was early morning, but Sam went turkey hunting so we didn't do it until about noon. Joey got antsy being at home and having to wait to go find his basket. 

Sam got Fiona the hippo (from a book he has based on a real hippo at the Cincinnati zoo) and Battleship (the ball version).

It's hard to see, but Joey was playing basketball in the snow...

Some school work being done here...

Sam built lots of forts during the colder days of quarantine. Here is one of many in our bedroom. 

Here is a story Sam wrote for school. He retold the story of the three pigs but with turkeys and a big, bad human!

I did a bingo contest for Sun Prairie, and had Joey come with me to get a picture at the park. I won the contest and got about $250 in gift cards mailed to me for places in Sun Prairie!

We had the big tree in our front yard cut down since it got Emerald Ash borer disease. It provided for some great entertainment. 

Sam rediscovered his Elmo blanket and had some fun with that. 

Here is a look at the wood stacked on our sidewalk before we split it...

The boys both usually had Zoom meetings with their classes on Friday mornings at 10am. They loved to do them together in the game room. 

It finally got nice out, and Sam helped by washing the car.

We did a sleepover/campout in the living room for a whole weekend. Sam designed the fort and sleeping arrangements and helped plan the meals. It was fun!

We went to G&G Hyland's to celebrate Mother's Day. They made a nice space in the garage so we could visit, have cinnamon rolls and give Grandma her presents. It was so good to see them after so many weeks!

This was all the wood after we split it. John stacked all of this in 2 1/2 days. 

We have done lots of fishing already this year and will do much more I am sure!

January and February

We had a good January and February. I've gotten bad at taking many pictures though! 

We had the Hyland Family Christmas.Sam had a basketball game, so we came to the party straight from that. 

Joey got Red Carpet Reader. Last time..sniff, sniff. 

For Christmas, we got a family one night stay at Great Wolf Lodge. That was the one larger waterpark that we had never been to before. 

We went to Famous Dave's for supper. Sam loved the wolf ears. He wore them for days after we got back. 

Testing out the wave pool. Joey is in the middle of the picture and Sam is on the far left. 

They had a thing to pump and spray water. All 3 boys had fun doing that.  

The boys and I went to storytime at the clocktower. We were a little old for it, but it was still fun and something different!

We got a treat before we headed back to the room to get ready for bed. Sam chose ice cream and Joey chose a caramel apple. 

The next day after we checked out...

We got out sledding a few times this winter. I think this was the first time. The hill was really slippery so you kind of had to walk up the side through the brush to get back.

We did two moonlight hikes this year at state parks. This is something we are going to start doing every year. The pictures didn't turn out great, but I wanted to remember that we did this!

We had lots of basketball this winter. G&G Hyland made it to a bunch of the boys' games, and Grandpa Rikli got to a couple too on his weekends he wasn't working (right before he retired). 

Joey had a real mix of playing teams that were pretty equal and then some really good teams (they had mostly or all 6th graders). 

One of the games he had to guard the very tall boy in the middle of the picture. He tried his hardest against him, but there was definitely a height advantage. 

This was Sam's first team. He had Coach Werwie. John coached his second team, but they only got to play a couple of games before the virus shut everything down.  

This was at the end of Joey's tournament with his first team. He had Coach Greene. 

We went to Barnes and Noble for Sam to pick out a book, and he had fun setting up the stuffed animals for pictures. 

At Scouts, Sam's group had to all try to fit on the piece of cardboard at the same time. 

They also wrote to a famous person. Sam picked Anthony Davis (basketball). We haven't heard back from him yet...

More Scouts! The boys went tubing at Cascade Mountain. It was impossible to see when they were coming down the hill so I had to make do with pictures of them waiting in line.

 Waiting in line with other brothers in Scouts...Colin and Griffin. 

Here is the letter Sam sent to Anthony Davis. He sent a picture that Joey drew with it.