Skip to main content

Diggers and Dumpers

Like most young boys, Nathan loves trucks of all kinds, dump trucks, garbage trucks, and any other sort of heavy equipment.  He has multiple PJ's with both diggers and dumpers on them, and one of his favorite books is called Diggers and Dumpers.  One of our best purchases was $4 worth of beans that we placed in a plastic bin for Nathan to use with all his dump trucks and bulldozers.

Last year friends of ours told us about Dozer Day, an event in Clark County where kids get to ride on heavy equipment.  In past years it was a small event and often sold out, so we scooped up tickets months ago, knowing that Nathan would love to take a ride on some large equipment.  We were pleasantly surprised to find out the event had expanded to the fairgrounds this year and increased their number of attractions.

There really was quite a bit to do.  There were at least a dozen or more excavators, bulldozers and bobcats for children to ride on.  Each ride was about 2-3 minutes and they would drive the equipment back and forth and move some dirt around.  Nathan was so excited that he didn't even mind the half hour wait.

Outside of the activity area there were various venders who would give out stickers to the kids who could then decorate the plastic hard hat they were given upon entry.  There were firetrucks, ambulances, garbage trucks, cement trucks, just about anything you can think of for kids to climb in and play with.  There was even a skills challenge area just for adults where one of the challenges was  to pick up a soccer ball with an excavator and then place it in a garbage can.  The lines were much shorter for the adult only area, but we were far too busy keeping Nathan busy to try.  Maybe next year.


After having his hat blow off once, Nathan's hand never left the top of his head,
ensuring that he did not lose his new hard hat.

Nathan's first choice happened to be the excavator with the smallest line,
next year maybe we'll wait to go on one of the larger diggers.


Nathan in front of a firetruck.

If you look just right Andrew is there on Erin's back.  He came too,
and despite not really knowing what was going on, he was great.
Big props to Erin for carrying him on her back for 3 hours too.


There were giant tires all over the place for kids to play on.  Nathan was
initially hesitant, but quickly figured out it was just one big playground.

Nathan's second ride was on a bulldozer, he seemed to really enjoy this one.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Christmas 2020

Have yourself a merry little Christmas Let your heart be light From now on Our troubles will be out of sight As a result of the pandemic, the model train festival we typically enjoy this time of year was canceled (thus no pictures with Santa). We missed family and friends this year. The fun energy of the last few school days before Winter Break was not quite the same over Zoom. I missed singing carols in church during month of December.  As the season progressed, I couldn't help but reflect on other times in history where celebrations were small and often just a nuclear family. Times and places where travel was too difficult or too expensive to justify leaving home. For those generations of families, the traditions were as simple as reading the Christmas story together or baking a special bread. In so many ways that was our Christmas this year and by seeking the joy in each moment, we found our hearts lighter.  We visited our favorite local tree farm to find THE TREE.  We...

Embracing Joy

I made a goal not too long ago to write something about once a month or so.  As November winds to an end, I have been feeling pressure to put something down.  Trying to steer clear of a simple Thanksgiving post, I've noticed something else that has stuck me as we head into the Christmas season.  The joy, excitement and wonder that children bring to just about everything.   Photo courtesy of Erin's Instagram page We hosted Thanksgiving this year and in order to make room for everyone, and have everyone at least in the same room for dinner we did some serious rearranging of furniture.  We moved a couch basically into our kitchen and used our front room, our library, as we call it, to add a couple tables so everyone could eat more or less in the same room.   While this chore was not at all remarkable, the reaction to it by Nathan and Andrew has stuck with me.  We had moved all the furniture prior to the boys coming home from school....

The Time is Right to Write

 Hey. Remember me? I know it's been awhile. A whole year, I think.  It sure has been a year. I cannot count the number of times I considered writing reflections on the year here. Surely, this was a year to record our place in a history-making pandemic? But just as often as I thought about writing here, I stopped myself; after all, what makes my experiences different or worth noting? We have collectively endured a year of loss, struggles, pain. So, I'm not going to write a long recap of our entire year here.  Instead, I want to write about writing. I know I have another post on the subject but this one has a different purpose. Jeff recently sent me an opinion piece from The Washington Post that immediately resonated with me:  Journaling for kids: How (and why) to start a journaling practice with kids  Like the author, I was encouraged to journal as a kid. As the author notes, journaling helped me process the most significant events in my life, such as the loss of...