New Sidewalk

On August 20th three city trucks showed up outside our house. One pulled a flatbed trailer carrying a backhoe. To our delight, they came to fix our broken down sidewalk. After Benjamin went down for his morning nap, Jasper and I went outside to watch them work. The foreman of the crew was a sweet man who diligently made sure they did not rupture our sprinkler lines under the sidewalk. Jasper and I watched in amazement as the backhoe operator skillfully lifted each sidewalk section with precision and dumped it into the waiting dump truck. It was cool! We enjoyed hanging out, watching the guys both outside and from our front window.

On the following day, the same crew returned to prep the area with more dirt and get ready for ... the cement mixer! Jasper was so excited. He would say, "it's a cement mixer, mommy!" He watched at the front window with eager interest, and his excitement rubbed off on Benjamin who watched with him with both arms banging on the window.

When it came time for the cement mixer to get in on the action, we three went outside for a close-up look. The guys on the crew were awesome. They were so nice to our boys and even encouraged us to come out later and put the boys' footprints in the new cement. Once the cement had been poured and cleaned up, the foreman came knocking on our door and said it was time. It turns out that our friends Debbie, Ellie and Luke had come by to visit by then, so we all went out to mark our place in history. Benjamin wasn't so much of a fan, but the rest of the kids thought it was cool. Later that weekend, the kids were able to pose for a photo.

Here are Luke, Ellie, Benjamin and Jasper - in order of their prints on the sidewalk.