2nd Grade!

Luke started 2nd grade last week.  It's hard to believe he's old enough.  I'll admit I felt a little teary as the bus drove off.  I was excited for him, but I do hate to have him gone for so long everyday.  He was pretty nervous to start, but he has a great teacher and lots of friends in his class.  He seemed excited for the first time after we went to Back to School night.

He had a fun time choosing school clothes this year and was very picky about it.  He changed his first day outfit several times.

We have tons of kids that catch the bus at our stop.

There's my cute kid.  He told me he was just a little nervous because he didn't know his teacher or who would be in his class.  He's a worry wart like me!

And he was off.  He came home with a big grin on his face and said he had a great first day.  He also told me, "I'm growing up right before your eyes."  Isn't that the truth!

Cute Cousins

My boys are lucky to have such cute cousins.  They each have one that's almost exactly their same age.  They get along great and have so much fun together.  Luke has been dying to have the girls over for a sleepover, so they came and we had a fun night.  They jumped on the tramp and played outside, rode bikes, frosted cookies, and stayed up late watching movies.  The girls were so cute and helpful, and it was fun to have girls around!

We also spent a Saturday up at Cindy' house for Kelli's wedding, luncheon, and reception.  Cid did so much work and made it so nice for her.  I feel bad we didn't get a picture of the bride...she's been such a great babysitter for us.  The kids were so well behaved for a very long, hot day, and they looked very cute if I do say so myself.

 After it was all over and we were cleaning up I attempted to get a group shot.  Ian was not having it.

 We tried restraining him...

 he rebelled...

and he was out of there!  I think they were all pretty much done at this point!

Last Weekend at the Lake

I didn't take many pictures but a few weeks ago we had such a fun weekend at the Liechty's cabin.  We headed up there with the Liechtys, Jensons, and Hendricks to hang at the cabin and spend Saturday at the lake.  We ate at La Beaus which was an added bonus.  There were lots of kids and everyone had fun.  It was quite a crowd at the cabin so all of the dads and boys slept out on the deck Friday night.  Saturday morning the guys headed out on an early morning bike ride and then Steve cooked up one of his famous breakfasts.  Saturday we had to hunt for a beach but found a really nice spot on the east side with grass and sand.  The kids labored all afternoon to build the "hot tub" in the bottom picture.  The water was pretty warm, and they swam and played all day while the adults mostly sat and ate!

Saturday night the guys grilled up an amazing dinner, and it was just a lot of fun to relax and hang out with friends.  We stayed Saturday night and then made a beeline to get home and ready for church on time.  Saturday night it was just us and the Liechtys left.  We set up Luke, Seth, and Caitlyn on the deck to sleep.  Steve and Jer were going to go out with them a little later.  After we had been chatting for a while Jer went out and checked on them.  They were all sound asleep but there was a bobcat up in the tree watching them!  It ran away when it saw him.  He and Steve went back out with a flashlight and it was back.  I've never heard of a bobcat attacking a person, but we decided not to take any chances with out little people.  We moved the kids inside and told them we thought it might rain.  The truth in this case is the sort of thing that could scar Luke for life and make him never want to sleep outside again!

Goodbye Tonsils

Well, my cute Seth had his tonsils and adenoids out on Wednesday.  He has been such a trooper about it.  He honestly has not complained once or shed a tear until yesterday.  I had heard it got worse after it scabbed and then they started coming off which I think starts this week, so it may be starting to be more painful.  He woke up a pretty sad little camper this morning, but once he has his pain meds in him he does great.

He was so brave at the hospital to just walk back with the doctors to the operating room.  They said he was very stubborn about wearing the gas mask.  He did not want to breathe through it.  I guess they got it on, and he held his breath until he had to take a deep one and then it was lights out.  They thought he was quite the cute, brave kid.  Strangely enough Seth doesn't really like popsicles or ice cream, so I have  to almost force him to eat them.  He has gone through a lot of Jello but other than that his appetite has not been great.  I can't say I blame him.  We watched his surgery on closed circuit TV while they did it, and they gave us a DVD.  He and Luke have watched it a couple of times, and they think it's so cool.  His voice sounds different now, so it will be interesting to see if that lasts.  I'm just hoping we can get through these next few days without it hurting too bad.

 Seth entertained himself while we waited by taking pictures of everything.

What a good kid.  I am just relieved it went well, and I hope he feels like his normal, spunky self soon.  Love you Seth.

Stinker

After much begging and pleading I took the kids to the fun park a few weeks ago.  (I hate it there..it's dark, nasty, has arcade games...yuck but I take them once or twice a year.)  Anyway, while I was watching the kids and their friends Ian did this....

This is a bad cell phone pic, but he climbed up into one of those arcade style basketball games.  He was up in past the arm thing that holds the balls until you pay.  There was no way to reach him, and the other boys were too big to go in after him.  After begging, pleading, threatening w/timeout...he was still in there just shooting baskets happy as a clam.  Luke suggested paying to get the balls to come down and then he might follow.  Of course it would not work.  The worker fiddled with it and said it might be because he was in there and then just walked off.  By now it had been a good 15 minutes...and then he decided he was done and came out on his own.  What a stinker!

Swim Lessons

Both of the boys took swim lessons this year and improved so much.  They are becoming little fish.  They both love going off the diving board.  Seth still needs caught or wears a life jacket, but it won't be long.  Luke has a great forward crawl.  He is also very good at diving down and being underwater.  He does not float like a cork.  Seth is the opposite.  He is very buoyant and floats like crazy.  He can do a sweet from the knees dive.  I wish they could take more sessions at the Campbell's pool.  They do such a good job.  My friend Cami's mom was their teacher this year and she was awesome.  They loved every second.

 Oops.  Sorry about your head Luke.  He wanted a diving board picture, and I didn't exactly come through.  Next time!  In my defense I was wrestling a wiggly Ian while trying to take pictures near deep water!

San Diego

At the first of July we headed to San Diego for about 5 days with my parents.  We had a great time.  The weather was in the low 70s and perfect, and it was great.  When the kids weren't swimming in the pool we were out having fun somewhere else.  They literally crashed into bed each night.

Our first day we went to Legoland.  None of us had ever been there before.  The kids had a lot of fun.  I think once was enough for me.  At first the lines were really long but by evening it was about empty, and the kids got to go on lots of rides.  Most of the rides are small, but they had a Lego Technic roller coaster that was pretty fun.

My dad and I took the bigger boys on this "ride."  You pull yourself up.  When we were about 15 feet off the ground Seth pushed this big, black button in between us.  It raised the lap bar up.  For the rest of the ride I kept telling him not to push the button.  Doesn't that kind of seem like bad ride design?

Luke waited forever to drive the cars on this course, but he thought it was worth it.

At the end of the day the boys got soaked in the fountain.  They had their shirts off, and we had to put them in the family dryer.

Our next day was a beach day, and we had a blast.  Luke was Mr. Kelp and for some reason Seth was scared of it, so you can imagine he capitalized on that.

Ian liked the sand but wasn't too interested in the water.  He was constantly wandering off and a bit of a pill!

Seth does not mind having sand in every crack and crevice.

I showed the kids how to find crabs when there were bubbles after the wave came...and sure enough they were still there...just like my San Diego beach days as a kid.  Luke was way into the crabs and Ian was pretty excited about them too.

The next day was Sea World.  The weather was not too hot, and the kids loved it.  Luke especially was totally amazed by the animals and took tons of pictures with his little camera.  I thought the dolphin show was way cool myself.

At the end we really wanted to ride the roller coaster, but the wait was 90 minutes.  We decided we didn't want to ride it that bad.

Our last vacation day we spent at two different beaches.  We first went to La Jolla cove and did a little snorkeling.  Both Jer and I love to snorkel and swim in the ocean but California is just not that great.  We've been here before and it was especially murky and wavy this time.

There were all sorts of crabs and critters to be found, and there were a bunch of seals out on "seal rock" that were noisy.

We also went to a beautiful state beach and played in the surf.  The kids had a blast.

Ian once again enjoyed the refreshments most of all.

As the tide came in Luke stayed and watched until every last bit of this sand castle was gone.

This is not a great picture because light was coming down through a skylight and I just had my little camera, but it's the only one we got with both grandma and grandpa.  We all had such a fun time!  Ian was so tired on the way home that he even crashed out on the plane, and we enjoyed some peace and quiet for a minute.