How blessed we are to have this special boy in our lives!
Hello Third and Second Grade!! And so Lord, once again I pray for a good year for my boys, a year where they learn to soar with both their imaginations and their academic skills; a year where they make lots of new friends and are treated kindly by others; a year where there are opportunities to work independently and with others; a year with loving and encouraging and just the right amount of challenging teachers; a year with lots for good than hard; and a year where they grow in their relationship with You, learn to trust and talk to You more, and build on their reputations as godly young men.
We ended our time in Green Bay this year at Bay Beach Amusement Park. This has been a stop every year we have vacationed in Green Bay. The Park has carnival style rides, ride tickets are 25 cents each and most rides cost only 1 or 2 tickets (with the exception of the Zippin Pippin which takes 4 but was the male members of this households favorite ride.) Ryan was tall enough this year to go on the giant slide ride by himself, a fact he loved! He was also tall enough now to go on all the spinning rides and the bumper cars. But that said, both boys still wanted to ride the planes that make shooting noises and the cars that drive in and out around the track. Although John is now too big to fit in the back part of the plane and was just barely able to cram himself into the car! Kind of a right of passage form him, moving from the little kid rides to the big ones. After the day at Bay Beach, which in addition to the rides included an ice cream snack, lunch, more ice cream and root beer floats, and playing on the playground, our getaway came to an end all to soon. We hopped in the car and headed for home.
Another wonderful time in Green Bay! Wonder what we'll see and do next year? After a meal at Applebees and a little Disney Channel in the room, we were off to see a water ski show. I read about the Waterski Warriors in a magazine and it was truly a treat!. This is how they opened the show and they were amazing!! In addition to different pyramids and lifts they did some trick wake boarding and water ski jumping. I highly recommend this free show if you're in the area or planning a visit! Now you might be wondering why is this picture included when we were seeing a water ski show. Well next tot eh river where the show took place there was a park with a play ground. You still might be wondering why this picture is included. It would be because of the way Ryan reached the top of this swing set - by himself. Mike and I stood in awe as we watched him pull himself up one of those chains that hold the swings (and it wasn't the swing in the picture - it was the one to the left of it.) Next he shimmied himself over to the end blue pulls. Then he used his feet to walk up the back blue pole until he could pull himself over and sit on top of the bar. He looked at us like, what, piece of cake! Then he and his brother continued their game of Frisbee.
This is the day Mike lives for - watching the Packers in action! After breakfast and a bit of swimming at the hotel we headed over to Lambeau Field. We saw all the kids with their bikes lining the sides of the road from the locker room to the practice field, waiting for the players to come out and hopefully chose their bike to ride. A great tradition! After seeing a couple players come out, we decided to head down and get some seats. Apparently Packer Training camp has grown in popularity since we were there two years ago = there was a line to get in and practice hadn't even started! But we had a positive attitude and after about 40 minutes had moved onto the ramp and could see: Then after about another 40 minutes of waiting (the boys were SOOO good!), Alanzo showed us to four seats right in the front row just as the offense was running plays right in front of us! After watching practice for a while, the boys took turns at throwing the football at an area sponsored by Kemps, who were also giving out ice cream sandwich samples - yum. Then a stop in the Packer Pro shop to spend souvenir money from Gramma and Bompa. Ryan really had his eye on an electric guitar shaped like cheese but it was a bit out of his price range. They settled for Packer chapstick (I have boys who seriously LOVE chapstick and if it's flavored like root beer or chocolate, even better) and foam #1 fingers - the $6 ones not the $35 ones. And before we paid, Ryan looked at the #1 finger and told me, "Don't worry Mom, it's not the bad finger."
We were back to Green Bay, Wisconsin and Packer Training Camp this year!
First stop was the NEW Zoo, a really nice little zoo with lots of animals native to Wisconsin plus a few native to Africa~ It was another great year at the Fair! This year we went with our freind Ms. Alison as well as my Mom and Dad. Our morning began with the usual tradition: creme puffs for breakfast. Then it was off to the giant trampolines for the boys. We give them "fair money" each year and they can decide what they'd like to spend it on. We have does this since the first year, and since they both are very careful spenders (praying this trend continues), they don't spend it all right away. But this is one of their favorite things to do: Then it was on to a magic show and deep fried brats for Mike and John. (Mike has talked about these brats since last year!) Next we were strolling along and Ryan heard a call for volunteers - the boys turned out to be the only volunteers and we were about the only audience members so this Wisconsin Energy presentation. But these guys were hilarious! And the boys got parting gifts for playing - night lights that plug in and go on when its dark and off when it light. (The boys had a blast trying them out at home: lights on, nightlight off; lights off, nightlight on;) We took in the Kids from Wisconsin show (always amazing!); coconut shrimp, deep fried cheesecake, and a gyro; animal barns and children's Discovery Barn; little bit of Irish dancing and an Irish brat (brat with sauerkraut and thousand island dressing on a pretzel bun); physical comedian Kenny Ahern (great show - we saw it last year and I recommend him) and stuffed pretzels; a bit of a rain shower so we visited the products building and saw some AMAZING umbrella cakes among other things and the boys played for about a half hour with photo prop mustaches, hats, etc; rain kind of stopped; beef burrito and chicken quesadilla; bid good night to Gramma and Bompa; red velvet funnel cake (as good as it sounds); and watched dog jumping - super fun. And to top off the evening, the giant slide had been dried off and reopened! Until next year!!
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AuthorI am a forty something daughter of God, wife of 11 years, mother to 3 boys, Chicago Cubs fan, child care provider, who is choosing to follow hard after God. Archives
January 2016
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