2016

2016

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Ben and I met in 1996, began dating in 1999 and married in 2001. Now 20 years and 2 children later, we have returned to where our life together began. Ben works for the Federal Reserve and I have the privilege of staying home with our two precious boys.

Tuesday, January 12, 2016

Monster Jam Weekend and a visit with Dottie

Our first week back at school proved to be a success! It was the end of the 2nd 9 weeks and Kindergarten awards were on Friday. One of the county initiatives that all schools participate in is called Habitudes, focused on fostering good habits with positive attitudes in children. There are only a handful of students in each class that received an award and Ethan was one of them. Our principal gave him a Habitude award for curiosity. VERY fitting for this child ;-)
 That afternoon, Ethan came home from school with the Top Pup of the Week bag. That means that he got to spend the weekend with Dottie, the class mascot. He has talked about Dottie since the beginning of the year and tells us each week who got to take Dottie home so I was very excited for him to finally have this privilege. Dottie immediately got a bath upon his(I thought it was a her but Ethan was certain it was a he) arrival. Once thoroughly cleaned, they were able to play together.
 He was so excited that Dottie got to sleep with him
 It was also a special weekend because Mimi got to come into town! We had tickets to Monster Jam and the boys were beyond thrilled! They became very upset and were afraid we were going to miss seeing the monster trucks once we got downtown and traffic came to a standstill. Mimi kept things under control, though :-)
Thankfully, we were able to find parking and we made it to our seats with time to spare. The boys started out wearing the foam ear plugs because it was so loud. Notice, Dottie got to go to Monster Jam, too.
 Such a cool night!
 Seeing this truck catch fire was Ethan's highlight of the night.
It was great seeing one of Ethan's classmates, Sife, there as well! Although we started with the foam ear plugs, we quickly realized they weren't cutting it. We stopped beforehand to get noise reducing earmuffs for the boys in case we needed them and I am extremely thankful that we did. Words cannot describe how loud it was inside the arena.

Then Ben got the boys cotton candy.
The cotton candy was inside these foam monster truck hats
 The show ended with fireworks...inside the arena.
 I honestly think both boys' favorite part of the night was the very end. We hung back for a bit to let the crowd thin out before making our way to the bottom. As we were leaving the arena, the dozers and excavators had come out to start breaking everything down in order to turn it back into a football stadium. Ethan and Caden were fascinated watching them move the dirt around. The drivers also left the trucks out on the dirt track and after the show they brought out smaller tires. The boys got to watch them jack up the trucks and switch the large tires with the small ones.  
 

It was an amazingly thrilling, very, very, late night for them...and they are already asking to go again.

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