Quarry Quest!

Saturday the 12th was the annual Quarry Quest in Neenah so Mom and Sam decided to go check it out! Kids get to "drive" excavators, front end loaders, and cranes and then can ride in cherry pickers and a big dump truck.

Sam had a wonderful time, but the driving of the vehicles was not as high on his list as we thought! He didn't really like the idea of sitting on a stranger's lap (which Mommy guesses is an overall good thing). He did the excavator, and Mommy and Sam went together in the front end loader, but he didn't want to do the crane. Mommy got video of him in the excavator, and you can see him talking with the operator. 

Here's a look at one part of Quarry Quest. It is huge and so well run! There are tons of people but also tons of volunteers.

Sam liked driving the motorized jeep around. He was pretty good at it considering they had some sharp turns. His practice with his "monster truck" paid off!

 Here is a view from the upper quarry before riding the big dump truck.

Sitting on a pile of dirt in the big dump truck (with the gold he panned for).

This was Sam's favorite part. The GIANT sand hill! Mom and Sam were at Quarry Quest from 9am-3pm, and Sam was here for probably almost 2 hours total. He would have stayed longer!

Trying out the bike race track!

Making cement...

He chose the letter S to put his cement he made in. Smoothing it out...

He got to make his own road in a bottle. He was very proud of it!

On the way home. Tuckered out!

This will probably become an annual thing. They just need to make it before the opening weekend of bow season so Daddy can come with us!

Baby Maebel is HERE!!

Before we get to baby Maebel, Sam had a busy week getting ready to go to preschool! He had his Sneak A Peek on Thursday, and as long as he was allowed to just play, he was fine. When a teacher tried to talk with him, he stuck out his lower lip. However, when the one teacher started asking him about trucks and excavators, he started talking and smiling and being all animated. 

Sam also had to work on "fixing" his monster truck this week (although it wasn't really broken). He did a great job checking it all out.

On September 4th, Maebel came into the world! We got to meet her on Sunday the 6th. She is perfect and adorable.

Both Sam and I were SOOOO excited to meet her and hold her. We both did pretty well, but by the end of the visit we had some energy to burn off. Even though the hospital room was pretty big, it wasn't big enough for us!

We gave Maebel the same kind of bear that both Sam and I have so we had to sneak it in the picture with Mommy and Maebel.

After we saw Maebel, we went to Discovery World. We had lots of fun seeing everything there. We were there about 4 hours and could have stayed even longer, but Sam was pretty tired. He walked around to everything and he just can't make it quite as long as I can.

Pulling my weight with a pulley system...

We loved the cameras in the submarine. You could go to different "pods" and see the other "pods".

I got to try out a segway! It was great fun!

I laid on a bed of nails too! (Sam didn't want to try this one).

Sam really liked the water in the music area, feeling the sound vibrations in water.

Had to throw in some more pictures of Maebel, this time with Grandma and Grandpa Hyland!

Here she is in the bassinet that we both used and Mommy and Uncle Jay and Grandma Hyland too!

End of Summer and Start of School!

School is back in session (at least for me)! We had some fun though before I had to go back.

Daddy to us to Rockin' Jump, and we all had a blast! It's a great place for Dad to take us because we can wrestle and do all kinds of stuff together.

Wrestling...

Sam and I both really liked this foam pit.

The next day we went to Concerts in the Park and had just as much, if not more, fun than last time. We went up and danced a little bit this time. They also had a bouncy obstacle course which we went on at least 20 times each!

Last Friday we went to Mt Olympus. I really liked this sign at the entrance. It was a cool, rainy day so we didn't do much water this time, but we tried out the theme park for the first time. It was a success!

First stop, the swings!

I loved this ride at the indoor theme park. You went up kind of high and then they dropped you down partway then went back up and then down, etc.

Bumper cars! Me and Dad vs Sam and Mom.

We didn't get any pictures, but we went to see Uncle Jay and Aunt Amanda before Maebel comes and went to Dave and Busters. To say I was excited is an understatement! I won 500 tickets at 2 different games and was dancing each time I did. Sam had lots of fun too even though he was kind of little for a lot of the games. He really didn't care and tried a bunch anyway.

On to the first day of school!

Sam was sleeping so Mommy walked with me to school. We had fun talking and taking some pictures.

Outside school as a FIRST GRADER!

I get a locker this year!

At my desk ready to start the day!

Birthdays, Fun, Some Work and some MORE Fun!

We are entering the end of summer, and have started the busy Birthday season!

Here we are celebrating Grandma Rikli's birthday with confetti poppers! This time we did it outside :)

Grandma had 2 little cakes. One was chocolate and one white so both of us boys were happy.

Doing a little dance game on the Wii on one of the hot days we had.

Now it was time to celebrate Daddy's birthday! Another yummy cake!

We got to go to Legacy Academy again this year for the NMB event. Since it was on Daddy's birthday, Mommy took us and Daddy stayed home and watched a movie.

Sam and I had a lot of fun!

G&G Hyland brought some yummy peaches for us. Sam ate most of them!

The icemaker in the freezer was making noise so Daddy and Sam decided to fix it. Sam really did all the work. He got a bunch of his tools out and definitely worked safely (note the glasses).

Daddy took us to Play N Wisconsin and then we went out to lunch with Mommy.We were moving too much to get many pictures, but here was one!

The Corn Fest parade was last week. This was right at the start and the fire trucks were honking their horns so it was a little loud.

Sam was WAY too bold about collecting candy. We had to keep reigning him in off the street, and he had to sit on Mommy's lap for 5 minutes since he stopped listening, and he was very unhappy about that.

It was a perfect day for a parade, and they both had fun.

Last Friday Mommy got done with work at noon and we headed to Little Amerricka. I am definitely going to be the ride enthusiast out of Sam and I. I went on a bunch of things. Sam went on some of the rides, but loved the bouncy house the most.

I really liked this roller coaster!

Mom had to squeeze in the boat with Sam. They had fun!

Mommy and I went in these chairs that went up really high and then went up and down. You got a great view of the park.

Being silly on the carousel...

Mommy and I both loved the bumper cars. It was super fun!

Over the weekend, Mommy went to Minnesota for "baby" Owen's baptism (we still call him Baby Owen).

He is so cute, and Mommy had fun getting to see him and his parents and grandparents.

They went to the Minnesota Zoo, which Mommy said she will have to take us to someday.

Mommy thought it was funny that these camels looked like they were posing for a family picture...

Aunt Kate got us these NBA Championship t-shirts. We were very happy to take some pictures in them!

Next week school starts for me so we are enjoying a few last activities before it starts!