Kirsten's 1st Day of School

Well, we made it through her first week of Kindergarten.

Kirsten with daddy before leaving for the big day.


With brother outside of the school. (Colton is a little sick here)


Putting her stuff in her cubby.


At her desk.


She was pretty nervous and anxious. She asked me if I could stay out in the hall until she is happy. She said it was going to take a really long time to get happy. At that point I had to leave because I was about to cry. I must admit I cried the whole way home!
I could not wait until 3:30 to go pick her up and find out about her day. She had so much fun. She loved her teacher Mrs. Miller. She loved P.E. and recess and learning. They had a gingerbread man hunt which she could not stop talking about. I was so happy things went so well for her.
She goes to a school that is half regular school and half home school. So I was very grateful to have her home the next day. She goes to school Monday, Wednesday, and half of Friday. On Tuesday and Thursday we have about 1 1/2 hours of home school. I am so grateful that I didn't have to say goodbye to her everyday all day. She's my little pal and I'm so glad that first day is over with and that it went well!

The last days of Summer

Well the end of Summer is approaching. My little girl starts kindergarten tomorrow! So here's what we've been up to the last few weeks.

Lots of this...Swimming that is. Our friends let us use their pool while they were out of town for a couple of weeks so we went almost everyday.


Kirsten also took swimming lessons. It was so fun to see how much she improved in 2 weeks. At the beginning of the class she didn't even want to stick her face in the pool when she swam, by the end she was working on her strokes and starting to swim pretty fast.


We've done lots of baking. Grandma Townsend asked if I had made any cinnomon rolls lately, I told her I had a couple of times and she asked if I had her recipe. When I said "no", she told me they must not be very good then. Which is true. So I wrote down her recipe and have attempted them twice. The first time was not good but the second time they turned out pretty yummy. Not as good as grandma's, of course. I love to make my grandma's recipes to remind me of her and the good old days.


We've been attempting to get Colton used to sleeping in a bed before the baby comes. So far I've woken up to noise in the back yard at 11:30 at night to find Colton playing back there, I've found him playing in Kirsten's room, our room, the family room and one morning I found him under his bed. He's learned that if he goes to the bathroom I'll let him get up and change his diaper. So his new thing is he'll get up and say "I poop, I poop." Whether he has or not he figures it buys him some time.


Kirsten built this block tower and had to have a picture of it to show daddy before Colton destroyed it.


We've spent a lot of time cleaning up after and trying to keep this crazy boy in line.


We've been going to the gym. One day the ladies there decided to let the little kids watch Marley and Me. When I went to pick Kirsten up I could tell she was trying to hold back tears. I asked her what was wrong and she told me the dog had just died in the movie she was watching and the people buried him in their yard. She was near tears the rest of the day and spent most of it snuggling with her dog.


We've watched some cake shows. Kirsten loves to bake with me. Actually I think she'd prefer doing it alone but I'm a mean mommy and I don't let her.


She also loves to pretend like she is making cakes with play dough. I have to admit I've let her watch Cake Boss a couple of times (I know I'm a bad mom). When she was "making cakes" the other day she kept saying "I mean this cake is going to be awesome (awesome said in a very thick New Jersey accent)" It's pretty funny,


We've gone to Kirsten's school to meet her teacher, which was a little nerve racking for Kirsten and me. But she is very excited for school tomorrow. I was feeling nostalgic thinking my kids are growing up so fast so I had to take some pictures of them this morning.






We had a little back to school party tonight. We had some yummy Papa Murphy's pizza, ate some birthday cake ice cream that Kirsten picked out, Kirsten picked out her outfit for tomorrow...we are pretty much all set. We'll just have to try to hold it together tomorrow.

My last vacation post...I promise

Then my Mom, Dad, Eric and Emily joined us. We climbed rocks at the beach.




And threw rocks.


Played in the cold water.


Tried to keep Colton contained.


We went to a state park


And played on a huge log.


Daddy Jumped


So of course Kirsten had to too (after some coaxing)




Then was Colton's turn.


We went up to Mount Erie again






Kirsten checking out the sights




We went to the town my dad grew up in to watch the 4th of July parade.






The house my grandpa built.


Besides the fact that it was really cold, the 4th of July was amazing. It was so cool to sit on my parents back porch and watch the fireworks over the water.




The kids did not think it was so great. They were both terrified and lasted about 5 minutes.




Colton just relaxing reading some books.


On the way to take Jonathan to the airport, we went to REI so Kirsten could climb the rock wall. She was really excited until she saw the wall again. We told her she didn't have to climb all the way to the top and she said, "but Eric told me too."


It was so fun to watch her climb the wall.


She just kept climbing higher and higher without saying a word.


Then she looked down and she did not want to go up to the top anymore no matter what Eric said. So she came back down. She did so good and it was so fun to watch her. We were pretty proud parents.


The day after Jonathan left we took a ferry over to Port Townsend.


We walked around the town, had ice cream and pizza, looked out over the dock.


Played with the little boat.




We went to Bowman's bay a couple of times to have a picnic and roast marshmallows.




We were pretty disappointed in our eagle scout when he couldn't get a decent fire going. But we did manage to get enough heat to roast some marshmallows.






The kids had races down the slide. Eric and Emily pretended to put Kirsten in jail and then she would escape. They had so much fun together.








Ever since Colton was little he hasn't been very nice to Emily. Biting her face, head butting her...I caught him during one of his sweet moments. He really does love her.


Playing at the park


When we left we were really sad to have to say goodbye to Uncle Eric for 2 whole years! He left to go on his mission a week later. Kirsten and Colton had so much fun being crazy with Eric. Colton would throw himself on the floor because he thought it was funny so Eric would do it with him. He chased them around the house and played with the kids at the park. We're going to miss him so much but are so happy for him!


Then we finally headed home. We didn't make as many stops on the way home because we were very anxious to get home. We stopped at my grandparents for a couple of days. We just played and hung out and had a great time.
Then we stopped at my best friend, Rachel's house in Idaho. It was so great to see her and her kids. It's always so fun to get together and reminisce about the old days. We even made some marshmallow brownies for old times sake. The kids had lots of fun in their huge backyard.


Maggie and Colton could not stay awake after swimming and playing all day.


We found all the kids on the top bunk watching a movie.


The next stop was Provo to stay with Geoff and Alayna again. We also got to see my other grandparents which was so great. Kirsten did a puzzle with my grandpa and Colton ran around the house like a crazy person. It was so fun to see them.

Next stop, Moab.
Playing in the hot hot sun in Moab.


Our very last stop was with my friend Lauri again. We decided on the way home to stay longer. I'm so glad we did. Kirsten and Jocelyn had so much fun together. We went to a really fun place with a big jungle gym and lots of bounce houses.


Last time Jocelyn was here she broke her elbow jumping off the bottom of this slide so the girls were convinced that she was going to do it again. Luckily everyone ended up just fine.


Colton climbed this thing and went down the slide over and over again. It was really funny when he and Kirsten would go down together.




Then we finally got home and we were so happy to see Daddy again. It was such a wonderful vacation. We got to see so many people we love and we are so happy we did it. And we were so happy to be home.