First Day

The day has come.

Johnny went to his first day of school.

He knew the drill,

he's been shadowing Alex for the last couple of years.

My kids were ready to head to the bus and hour early. I think the bus was a great distraction for Johnny so he didn't have to think much about starting school. All he could think about was riding the bus, without his Mom, on his way to school, that he was going to be attending! To him, it doesn't get much better than that. He has asked at the beginning of each year if he could go on the bus with Alex and now his day had come. To save on funds, our convenient bus stop a block from our house was taken off the route. So the kids couldn't see the bus stop and were convinced everyone else was out there waiting and they were missing out on "all the fun". I could only hold them off for so long so instead of waiting at home we waited on the corner in the front of the subdivision. First ones there of course. A tad too cold to be wearing shorts and standing still. Oh course I followed them over to the school and was there when they got off the bus. Johnny quickly lined up against the wall next to his classroom and Alex took off to find her own. I called out to my independent daughter and asked for a goodbye hug which she willingly handed out before she raced back off to join the crowd. I barely had time to take a few pictures, all of which Johnny was wiggling too much, obviously wanting me to stop taking pictures. So I put the camera away and watched as this monumental event became quite anticlimactic. No puppy dog eyes, no final hug before entering the classroom door, only one big grin through the doorway as I worked to make eye contact. He was excited and knew it was his turn to finally grow up. I wonder if he's always acted so insecure and immature because he thought it was expected of him. But now that people are calling him a Kindergartner there is a feeling of expectation that he can't deny.

Oh and can I say, "sweet sweet freedom".....

Summer is over?

I know, summer is gone and I am just now getting around to posting some pictures of our adventures. I am only making time for it now too because in a couple of days Johnny will have his first day of Kindergarten and I know I will want to post about that. So here is one big squished post from our family's summer, 2010!

We started it off with a trip to the Oregon coast with Brad's family. We drove out on my birthday (July 1st). Brad woke us all up at 4am, tucked us into the car and just drove. It really helped pass the time for the kids. I caught a little nap in at the hotel while family entertained the kids and then Brad took me to the Portland temple for a session (we were the witness couple and my poor chauffeur was having a hard time keeping his eyes open). It was the first time we had been back there since our wedding day. What a great way to spend my birthday! We topped it off with dinner at Chevy's, yum! Wish we had one in Idaho, I miss it.

We spent one of our days there, next to the ocean, at Yachats visiting some family burial sites. It was nice to be able to talk to the kids about family members that are dear to our hearts but that they never had the chance to meet here on the earth.

The fourth found us with all of the cousins in a field, overlooking one of Portland's big firework shows. The kids played soccer, ate junk food and waited for it to get dark so they could light their glow sticks and enjoy the show.

Then to top off our week we hit the Portland Zoo the day before heading home. I've never seen a more beautiful zoo, tucked up in the mountains, surrounded by trees. The kids got to see Alex's favorite animal, the elephant, and Johnny's favorite, the hippo, for the first time. As well as a real BYU cougar!

Luckily we were able to fit in a couple of trips to the lakes with Jason and Tiff this summer on their new boat. Alex had fun on the big 4 man tube but Johnny was happy to hang out on the boat most of the time. Luckily his cousin Ethan was happy to keep him company. Johnny's favorite part was actually peeing in the lake and "had to go" every time we stopped. Go figure.

Between packing and unpacking from trips, Alex was in volleyball camp and art camp. She learned how to draw all sorts of zoo animals as well as some crazy cartoon faces. Both camps are on our to do list for next summer. She had a blast and learned some fun new skills. Speaking of skills, we spent a couple of weeks over at Suzy's pool for swim lessons. Alex moved up a level and Johnny is more confident than ever in the water (it helps that he can touch a little better in the shallow end now).

We spent more time in the water this summer, once at Roaring Springs with Brad. Johnny's still an inch too short for the bigger rides. We tried to fake it once to go on one he thought looked like fun and then we had to make the walk of shame back down the stairs after a good 10 minutes in line on the way up. Alex is of course tall enough, but doesn't have the guts to go on them. Too bad they can't switch places.

And then we hit the water again on a trip to Lagoon with Auntie Jo jo. We took turns picking rides to go on. Alex and Johnny would each pick a ride that the adults were too big to ride on, then we would have to force them to stand in line for a little faster ride for ourselves. We didn't really go too far out of kiddie land but they usually ended up enjoying the rides we had to encourage them to go on. Except of course once when Johnny ended up upside down in a rock-o-plane cage with Jolene. Alex was glad she was with me at that point in time. Then Alex hated the haunted house Terroride, which Johnny LOVED. So he went through Dracula's castle with Jo while Alex hung back with me. He enjoyed being "tougher" than his older sister when his height didn't hold him back. We enjoyed cooling off in Pioneer Village on the Rattlesnake Rapids and helped ourselves to some ice cream before splashing into Lagoon-a-Beach. I told Alex that we aren't waiting for Johnny to be tall enough before we go to Disneyland anymore, we're waiting for her to be brave enough to ride a few roller coaster rides.

Then our last adventure, and probably my favorite, was our trip to Yellowstone for some good old tent camping near the lake. The kids were troopers, hiking around old faithful for an hour while we waited for it to go off. I gave them a pocket camera of their own and they had fun photographing all the many springs and geysers along the paths. I think they were a little amazed when Old Faithful went off, they weren't expecting it to be so big.

We spent another day hiking to a bunch of different look out point for some of the water falls along the Yellowstone Grand Canyon. They did great, even though they each took a turn scraping their knees and we had to bum band aids off the passing hikers.

Although we did see lots of deer and elk and even one moose, one of the coolest experiences was having herds of buffalo walk right through our campsite, inches away from our tent and car. The kids were quite anxious at the closeness of these huge creatures but they pretty much kept to themselves. Luckily, they didn't decide to campout in our tent site with us like they did with some of our neighbors. They did however sing us to sleep one night with their moaning and bellowing. Luckily, once the kids were in their sleeping bags, they were out. They pretty much were begging us to go to bed every night once it started getting cold out.

They days however were pretty hot and we found a couple of different hot springs to swim in on the days we didn't spend the money on the showers. The kids collected kindling every day and we roasted marshmallows every night before bed. I'm glad we took this time to be together as a family, doing something Brad and I have always enjoyed. I hope our kids grow up with a love of the outdoors like we did!

Aside from all the things they had done this summer, the kids have grown leaps and bounds. Alex learned how to skip a rock in the lake, braid her doll's hair and blow a sizable bubble with her gum! Johnny has memorized the first Article of Faith, can produce a faint whistle but a whistle none the less and rode a 16 inch bike all the way to Albertson's and back (that's almost 4 miles round trip). He started off very unsure about himself. I ran next to him and he insisted on me touching his back or arm the entire time so he knew I could catch him if he fell. We didn't get too far before he wanted to go home. I hollered at Alex to turn around because we were going home and reminded him that he wasn't going to get the monkey I had bribed him with if he made it all the way to Albertsons. They come out of the 25 cent machine and are less than an inch tall. Boy does he love his little monkeys. He hopped back on that bike and shouted "I can do this!" and "Eye on the prize!" the entire way there. Then on the way back he was peddling faster and telling me I didn't have to help him anymore up and down the curbs. He just needed the practice and a monkey was just the incentive he needed to keep him going.

Next summer Johnny will be popping wheelies on his bike, Alex's hair will probably be down to the middle of her back and Brad will be DONE WITH SCHOOL! We already have some plans simmering in the back of our heads. Summer 2011, I'm looking forward to you, but for now I'm happy to get back into the routine that school provides. Till Monday!