School Days

It is hard for me to believe but Luke started kindergarten this year! I'll admit I have been nervous thinking about this and both excited and a little sad at the same time. It's a little hard to let go and send him off into the big world without me, but the time has come. Luke has been excited about this all summer, so I thought it would go well and it did. Yeah! Jer took him down to tour the school on Back to School night and then I was able to go to class with him on his first day. They just had the kids go in small groups and bring a parent on Thursday for their first day. Luke's classroom is so fun, and I've heard nothing but great things about his teacher. She is a veteran teacher and seemed very nice. Luke knows about half his class because they are from our ward, including his very-next-door-neighbor-friend Max.


This is Luke on Thursday when we got to go to class together. What a handsome guy. He is wearing his cool new glasses. He got them in July but after wearing them for less than an hour they were destroyed in a pileup at the neighborhood fireworks. We now have the replacements and are attempting to keep them in one piece. I can't believe he's graduated from his behind the ear glasses too. All this change is hard on me. He's growing up too fast.


Friday was like the real first day of school because Luke headed off on the bus without me. Jer was able to stay home from work a while and see him off too. This picture features the "Big Luke" and "Little Luke" of our neighborhood plus Luke's fellow kindergartner Reese.

Max and Luke. (Yes, Max is pretty big and Luke is tiny, but the picture looks even more exaggerated than real life!)

Another neighbor friend Blake. Yes, that is a snake. I don't think it made the trip to school, but it did come over to my house later in the day where it proceeded to escape.

Our bus stop. With all the parents and kids there were probably 50 people there. We have 20 elementary school kids just in our little cul-de-sac. Then when you figure in all the younger siblings it is quite the kid crazy neighborhood.

Seth was having fun, but we he was still thinking he got to "ride bus" too. When the bus came, it was almost full before all those kids got on. When they left it looked like they were all piled up on top of each other. Luke just got on with the crowd and didn't even really look back or say goodbye. All we could do was wave. Sigh. (I'm so glad it went well though.) I guess someone was there to help them at the other end because they all made it back on the bus. Luke said "it was so fun." So I couldn't ask for more for the first day. I'm just hoping the enthusiasm lasts.

All was pretty quiet once the bus pulled away. Seth just kept saying "Luke gone." The find of a worm occupied Seth and Little Luke and saved the day. When Luke got home he gave Seth a huge hug...then started a fight over his race car. Brothers! I will miss Luke a ton, but I am looking forward to a little more quiet time and routine with the little boys in the morning while things are somewhat peaceful. I have tried to have structure this summer but a lot of the time it has been chaos.

Not to be left out: Here's "worker Ian." That's what Luke told me after dressing him up this way. We're hoping he survives his brothers! He checked out great at his 4-month checkup. He weighs 14 lbs. 7 oz. (50th percentile) but is in the 80th percentile for height. He is such a sweet baby.

Jackson

We went to Jackson this past weekend with my parents and had such a great time. I redeemed myself by taking tons of pictures on this trip...a huge selection posted below...feel free to quit reading now. I lived in Jackson from the ages of four to nine, so I have a lot of great childhood memories there. I have been back many times to ski, camp and run the river...and now it is so fun to be back with my own kids. The kids were all so good, and it was a really fun end to the summer. Luke starts school at the end of the week...yikes!


We began our journey with a stop at Lava Hot Springs. The kids had a blast, especially Luke. He has gotten so much braver in the water this summer and was quite the little fish. He is so stubborn and resistant to being taught things by his parents though. He did not pass his level at swimming because he wouldn't float by himself even though he swims underwater by himself a little. I tried to have him practice it at Lava, and he wouldn't even listen to me. I took a break with Seth and came back to the pool to see him doing front and back floats like a pro. He met a little friend in the pool, and she taught him how in about 5 minutes. Of course, this process involved him actually listening to her!


We stayed in a condo at Snow King and put the wet swimsuits back on to head out for a day's adventure.

We spent such a fun afternoon at String Lake. This was one of my favorite places as a kid. I spent hours looking for and catching frogs, and my kids did the same. Seth just liked to wander around in the water but Luke was a serious hunter.

This little boat was pretty fun. Be prepared for Jer's "old man hat" in all of today's pictures. The sun is not his friend.

Ian was so good as usual. The weather was constantly changing from sunny to slightly rainy and chilly, so his sweatshirt was on and off a lot.

Eating lunch during a slight shower.

Ian's nap spot in the weeds.

Just cute. Seth made a lot of trips to the cooler seeking "more turkey."

Jer and I way out in the boat. My parents took a spin too. There is only one set of oars, so I just sat back and let Jer do all the work.

Hunting in progress.

We decided to go on a hike that turned into a little more than we bargained for. We left from String Lake and hiked over to Jenny's Lake then up and down to Inspiration Point, to Hidden Falls, and to the boat dock. I didn't realize how far it was the way we went, and we didn't have the backpack for Seth. He was so sleepy tired from the partying he did our first night at the condo that he actually fell asleep riding on Jer's shoulders. He was all hunched over on Jer's neck. He was out. When he woke up from that he was a total champ hiking the steepest part of the day with Jer's hand for help. I carried Ian for about 3 hours in the front pack, and he hardly fussed at all. Luke is a great little hiker, but I kept promising him we were almost to the waterfall. When we finally got there, they had it blocked off to preserve vegetation and you could hardly even see it. Seriously? I think by that point Luke had forgotten about the initial goal, and the ring pops were reward enough. By the time we got to the boat dock it was time to feed Ian and we had already gone over 3.5 miles. I was a little concerned about meltdowns from the kids so Jer and my dad hiked the 2 miles back to String Lake, and we took the boat across and waited for them to pick us up. It was a great little adventure, and the kids could not have been better. (Good thing Luke has his fake cell phone along.)

Here we are at Hidden Falls, which truly were hidden...almost completely. Oh well.

Jer and I at Jenny's Lake. (I thought it was named for me as a kid.) It was nice to have time to actually talk to Jer while we were driving...in the mini van...which was awesome for a road trip. We also made ourselves go running Friday and Saturday mornings. I'm not usually much of an exerciser on a short vacation, but I'm signed up for this silly half marathon in a few weeks so it was not optional. It was nice to have a partner for a change.

My mom bought the kids cute cowboy t-shirts but getting them to pose was another story. This is at the Jackson Lake Lodge. That night Luke got to stay up late, and we headed over to the condo swimming pool with him at about 9 pm. He thought he was so cool being up late with mom and dad alone. It was cold so I was a wimp and stayed in the hot tub, but he had Jer making lots of trips to the cold pool with him.

On our way out of town we stopped for a few pictures in the square. These boys love their grandma. They are so lucky to have her.

Me and my boys.

One last family photo op. Seth was pretty done with this process!

Thanks mom and dad for inviting us on such a fun trip. We all made some great new memories at one of my favorite places!

July In Review

Since I do use this as our family journal I thought I'd try to give a quick rundown of what we did the last few weeks. (I made last year's blog into a book...very fun to have.) I have been a real slacker about taking pictures lately, and I'm continuing with that. Last night we went to the county fair and neither Jer or I wanted to carry the camera, so we just didn't take it. Oh well! Here's what we've been up to.

Quite a bit of swimming....

We've had lots of backyard "swim parties" as Luke calls them with pools and slip 'n slides. It's been a good way to beat the heat. I also went along with Luke on his "Fun in the Sun" field trip to the pool, and we had a great time. We even braved the pool with the whole family for Luke's reward when he filled up his good behavior jar. The boys loved swimming with Jer. I spent about half my time with Ian, so I won't be taking the kids alone anytime soon. Seth has some serious bouyancy issues. If he gets off his feet, his bum goes straight up in the air and his head goes under. Luke just finished his last swimming lesson, and he did great. This is the first year he has really liked it and cooperated. Thank goodness.


Lining up for a run at the slip 'n slide...check out that physique.


We hit the 24th of July parade...

Seth was not aggressive about getting the candy...he just went straight to eating it.


We also barbequed and did fireworks with the whole Dattage fam and had lots of fun.



Jer did some fishing in Alaska...



Jer got the chance to go fishing in Alaska as part of a trade at work, so he only had to pay for his flight. He had a great time. We missed him like crazy, but I'm glad he was able to go have fun. He works really hard. That week is a bit of a blur because Jer was gone, I was finishing up my master's class, I had to bottle feed and pump for Ian...craziness. We did spend some quality time at my parent's house including Razor rides and a trip to the Dinosaur Park. I also took the kids up to Jer's hometown for that Famous Preston Night Rodeo. We hit the parade and then Jer's parents and TJ took all the big kids to the rodeo. They loved it, and I'm glad we didn't have to break tradition even though Jer was gone.

We are now enjoying all the fish Jer brought home. We finally invested in a freezer which we have needed forever. (You know you're old and boring when you're excited about a freezer.) The other night we ate salmon cooked with fresh veggies from our garden, and I was feeling so self-reliant!

Giraffe Babies

Wow, July is gone and we were crazy busy. One of these days I hope to put up a quick post showing what we've been up to the last month...but in the meantime here are my cute giraffe babies. Luke was given these giraffe pjs and stuffed animal at a baby shower and it has been fun to take a pic with each of my kids wearing them. Ian is not quite as old as the other boys were, but he is so long I couldn't wait any longer and get them on. These jammies are built for really skinny babies which mine are not. Here's to my cute chunky babies.

Ian August 2009

These older pics of my big boys are pre nice camera, so they are kind of sad quality.


Seth August 2007

Luke September 2004

And here are a few more of Ian because he's so cute and changing everyday. He laughs and is almost rolling over and is such a sweet baby.