Owen's birthday was pretty awesome and pretty unique. We started the day with Owen opening his presents from Mom and Dad and he continued the fun while I went off to work. Jim and Phyllis treated Owen to a pretty serious wagon for his birthday and they spent the afternoon exploring the village in style. I came home early from work and Jim and Phyllis (Mary's parents, more on their visit in a bit) joined Mary and I as we admired the masterpiece of a cake Mary made for him and trained Owen how to open presents in advance of the big show later that night. We enjoyed a nice dinner and then I went to work setting up the birthday party seen round the world. We arranged a series of Skype/Face Time sessions with the family back in Oregon so that they could see Owen open their gifts, sing him happy birthday and watch him blow out the candles. It is truly amazing what you can do with technology these days - while it doesn't replace being there in person it is awesome to see your loved ones on the screen and Owen absolutely gets a kick out of it. Owen proceeded to put the tractors on his cake to work and made quite the mess. We eventually turned the bath water brown and put him to bed. It was an awesome day and I'm pretty sure he enjoyed it.
We were really excited to have Jim and Phyllis out for the week to share Owen's birthday as our first Wisconsin visitors. Mary and Owen picked them up on a Saturday while I prepared an official Wisconsin Brat Fry (yes, even though you grill them they call it a fry, don't ask me why) to welcome my favorite in-laws. We took them to see the Sheboygan sights and they spent a lot of time sitting with Owen (at his direction --> "Grammy...SIT!" while pointing at the floor). They were lucky enough to witness Owen's Lake Michigan baptism on Sunday as he accidentally did afaceplant while we were wading around. While I was at work the fab-four went on to enjoy a week of walks in the village, daily naps, carpet time with tractors and countless other good moments spent together.
Sadly, the visit came to an end and we drove down as a family to drop Grammy and Poppa off at the airport. It was sad to send them back to Oregon but it was a great week. The sadness didn't last long though as we had a new mission as a family - taking Owen to "Quarry Quest" where all of his wildest dreams would soon come true.
Quarry Quest (www.quarryquest.com) is a working limestone quarry that opens up from time to time to the public to give tours and give kids the opportunity to see all of the cool tractors in action. It absolutely exceeded our expectations and left Owen in complete shock. To be honest, we probably could have stopped after the bus ride from the remote parking lot to the quarry and Owen would have been as happy as it gets. But we did him one better by paying admission and showing him all of the tractors. They had cranes and lifts moving around and lots of tractors. We stood in line for a bit so that he could sit on the lap of an excavator operator while he moved some dirt around. Owen was in heaven, sitting on the ground with his own tractors while he waited in line to ride in the real thing. From there we looked at some other tractors and waited to ride in the back of a huge dump truck for the full quarry tour. We ended up the day with some digging in the sandbox before riding the bus (oh boy!) back to the parking lot. Owen was classic and was reeling from sensory overload for sure. I'm sure it was like when kids go to Disneyland and meet their favorite characters for real. Needless to say it was a hit and the Hedlund's will become repeat visitors for sure.
Frankly it has been pretty quiet since, back to normal life. We're planning our next adventures - a corn maze and hay ride this weekend, a visit from my parents in October and our own trip back to Oregon around the holidays. Enjoy the photos and video and stay tuned for our next update.
PS - I just found out that Mary got a fish today. I would say she got it for Owen but I know better. Now we have 6 creatures under one roof to worry about keeping alive. The fish was briefly named "Big guy" this evening, but is now back to being known as "Fish". More to come on Fish in future posts I'm sure.
Having fun with his tool bench the morning of his birthday.
Owen's tractor cake - before the mayhem
Quick family photo as light bulbs were going off in Owen's head of what to do with his cake.
After Owen wrecked shop...At least he knows what tractors should be doing on a jobsite.
The virtual birthday - pretty amazing what technology can do.
Owen playing tractors with Harley.
Birthdays are apparently hard work for dogs...
The Wisconsin welcome wagon greets Jim and Phyllis in Milwaukee.
Owen and Papa checking out the drawbridge. There was a big sailing race going on in Sheboygan while the in laws were in town.
Breakfast with Poppa.
Going to the beach.
Owen had to hold Grammy up all day to keep her from falling in the water.
Owen and Poppa enjoying his birthday present in the 'hood.
A Kodak moment in front of the house.
Owen getting up close and personal with the wabbit. Unfortunately for Har he didn't get so close. Needless to say they were both happy to be able prove the wabbit's existence to Grammy and Poppa. Unfortunately for Har he didn't get so close to the wabbit.
Apparently he likes these guys...it was a great to have them out for the week.
The fun is just beginning, this is just the bus ride to the quarry. He was beside himself already.
This is the view from the entrance to the quarry. It was amazing how many people turned out for this and all of the activities they had set up.
Owen was inspired to play with his diggers while waiting in line to ride on a digger.
Jackpot. Owen's first excavator ride.
Getting a better vantage point to assess the situation.
Taking a dump truck ride on the quarry tour. We sat in the back on a pile of gravel.
The end of our quarry visit with the dump truck in the background.
All smiles with mom on the bus ride out.
And now our first attempt to post video:
Pretty excited at the start
Taking it all in
Ridin' Dirty
No comments:
Post a Comment