September Recap!

I miss blogging.  Sure, I enjoy sharing little bits of my life with all of you (ie: Nonny), but even more than that, I miss having a regular journal to look back on.  The other day, the boys were looking at old pictures and videos on the computer.  It was so fun to hear them laugh at themselves and remember all of the fun they had on this occasion or that.  The moment reminded me why I enjoy pictures, scrapbooks, and yes, blogs, so much in the first place-- it's all about creating memories.

So, in that spirit, I'm going to try harder to keep this online journal updated more regularly.  And you, my bloggy friends, are welcome to read along.

It's October 1st-- I can't believe it!  This year is flying by way too fast!  We did have a very fun September, so I thought I'd document a few of our memorable moments tonight.

First off, the boys went back to school.  Well, Thomas went back and Gordon started for the first time.  Things are going really well in the school department.  I feel very fortunate that both Tom and Gord love to learn and that they both enjoy participating in their classes.  And look how cute they are on their first day!

 

Gordon was quite the celebrity on his first day of school, due in part to his charming personality, but mostly because of this...

Yep, that's right-- he broke his leg.  It actually happened a couple of weeks before school, but he wore his cast until a couple of weeks ago.  Despite the stress and anxiety, mostly felt by me, I think the whole broken leg mess may have actually taught us both a little bit of patience.   Funny how that works sometimes.

Having a broken leg was a bit of a problem for Gordon's soccer team.  I'm the coach (don't ask me how that happened, I'm still not sure!) and it has been kind of sad to have my own kid sitting on the sidelines.  Luckily, he's back in motion and has been okayed to play in his last two games.  Hopefully we'll get some good pictures to share!

Tom is playing soccer, too, and is on the "Meteors" team with one of his best friends, Nathaniel.  These two are a couple of peas in a pod and they have a great time together.  Neither is very aggressive when it comes to soccer, however, so we've resorted to bribing them for just kicking the ball.  No goals have been scored yet (that would equal a giant king-sized candy bar!), but at least they're both trying.  And most importantly, they're both having fun and being great sports!

 

As for me, I've been keeping busy with a few active outings of my own.  A couple of weeks ago, some friends and I hiked Table Mountain, a pretty grueling, not-recommended-for-children hike on the West side of the Tetons.  It was tough, and long (more than 12 miles total), but man, it was gorgeous.  I'm talking about take-your-breath-away beautiful!  

 

I did this hike once before-- I think I was 17-- so I  *kind of* remembered how difficult it is.  Even though I had seen it before, though, the view from the top of Table Rock was just as glorious and awe-inspiring as ever.  I am sure that I don't want to wait another 13 years to do it again-- in fact, these ladies are already talking about next year.  

Some of the same group also teamed up for Idaho Falls' 4th Annual Run for the Cure.  It was a 5K and my goal was to run (er... jog....) the whole time.  And yay-- I met my goal!  I felt pretty good, too, and I think I may have gotten a decent time.  I would post it, but the race organizers still haven't posted the results.  LAME.  It doesn't really matter, since my goal had nothing to do with time, but still.

 

That's about all I had time for this time-- it feels good to get a little bit caught up! 

Last year's first day (scrapped!)

Now that I have two kids in school in the afternoons and one kid who takes afternoon naps, I *think* I have enough time to start scrapping regularly again.  Yay!  It's really therapeutic and fun for me, plus I really think it helps me keep things in perspective.

I love designing at The Digichick for a lot of reasons, and one of my favorite perks is that I get to try out others' designs.  I'm especially loving templates lately-- they make it so quick and easy to put together a really classy page.  Today I used a template from the "Scraps to Go" collection by the amazing Jennifer Fox.  Love it!

Here's my page from Gordon's first day of pre-school last year:

All paper and elements from School Days by Jennifer Fox. Template from Scraps to Go 6 also by Jennifer Fox. All at The Digichick! Font is Pea Christen from Kevin and Amanda.com

While browsing for pictures for this page, I came across this little gem from September of last year...

Where has my long-haired emo baby gone?  Don't you just want to run your fingers through that luscious hair???  Ugh, me too!

Oh summer, leaving so soon?

I just returned from back-to-school night, where I met the two fabulous women who will be spending a lot of time with my two fabulous boys for the next nine months.  We've been lucky thus far with our great schools and great teachers, and I'm feeling very grateful that my children are being taught and cared for so well.  I'm excited for their new adventures in learning!

I'm pretty sure that I say this every time I post, but life is just so busy!  I find myself worrying frequently about overdoing it with the lessons, sports, scouts, activities and whatever else it is that finds its way onto my packed-to-the-gills calendar.  Then, of course, I worry that I'm not giving my kids enough opportunity to discover talents, meet friends, and have fun.  I'm sure it's a classic double-edged sword of worry that most parents deal with.  For now, I'm letting them do the things they want to do, pushing them a little bit, and trying hard to relax as much as possible.

Life is good.  Busy, of course, but good.

Summer 2010 (part 1)

I got that "memory card full" warning when I was trying to take some pictures the other day, and it made me realize how terrible I've been at updating this blog with our summer adventures!  I don't feel too badly-- hopefully you're so involved in your own summer fun that you haven't noticed my little hiatus.

We're always busy, of course, but we've been having such a great time this summer.  I have been doing my very best to battle the B-word ("bored") and with the help of our fun neighbors, friends and a visit from cousins, we're not doing too bad.  And rather than give you a big long travel log (even though I know some of you like that kind of thing...), I'm just going to post some postcard shots of our Summer 2010 over the next few days and catch up.

Today:  Part 1-- from top left corner:  Sprinklers! (and slip & slides, and little pools); (top middle) relaxing in the hammock at Chris's parents' house; (bottom middle) Thomas LOVED watching all of Gordon's tee ball games;  Gordon and his cousin David are two little peas in a pod-- it's so fun to watch them together (and only a little bit rowdy)
Bottom left:  Thomas and his cute cousin Audrey; Gordon and Mom spelunking at Craters of the Moon; two little buzz-heads and their buddy Nicolas at the sand dunes

Happy Summer!

Last day of school recap!

Blogging is a lot like laundry-- the longer you let it go without doing it, the harder it is to do!  So, here I am, catching up again!  Grr!

Summer has been in full swing here and we've been having such a great time.  Before the great time, however, we were getting rained out of pretty much everything.  Let's start with Tom's last day of school, when I had volunteered to help with their field day:  rain, rain, rain.

First off, I should say how much Thomas has loved Westside.  We were a little bit (okay, a lot!) nervous about switching schools-- our school in Logan was so wonderful and I had a hard time imagining that we could like another school even half as well.  While there are still a lot of things that I miss about EBLS, Westside has exceeded my expectations.  Tom had a darling, energetic teacher, made lots of new friends, and most importantly, really loved going to school every day.  And, I must brag for a minute, he did end the year with straight A's!  ;)

On the last day of school, the field day was rained out and moved inside.  We still managed to have a great time, though.  My favorite parts of the day included playing a game with the kids that involved holding hands and getting a hula-hoop around the circle of kids, the absolute hilarity of "Extreme Simon Says", and hearing the whole elementary school sing along to "Fireflies" during the end-of-year slideshow.  

Thomas was a little bit emotional, but I promised that we'll meet up with some of his friends this summer and we'll see them all next school year.  He'll definitely miss his cute teacher, Mrs. Cassidy, but I'm sure they'll say "hi" in the halls.  He had a great 3rd grade year!

For the last day of school, Chris had promised the boys that they could sleep out in the tent in the back yard.  The rain was too heavy, but the boys were sad not to sleep in a tent, so Chris compromised and set the tent up in my parents' large shop.  We had an indoor BBQ with hot dogs and hamburgers cooked on the George Foreman grill, and s'mores made with marshmallows roasted on the stove top.  

The kids and Chris were really comfortable in their indoor tent-- they actually slept in pretty late!  What a great way to kick off the summer!