Back to School

This Tuesday was the first day back to school after what has felt like a very long summer. The kids got out of school on May 22 and since then we have been house hunting, house buying, moving out, going to Utah, moving in, getting unpacked and so forth.

Sammy very much wanted to go to school as well. I think I may have found a preschool for her, but that is another post (hopefully).

After I registered the kids at their new school, I received the supply lists for each grade. I complained in years past, but Ashley's list this year tops it all for me. I am tempted to type the whole thing out, but I think the pictures below give the idea. Jon's list was much more tame.

Jon's supplies labeled and laid out

Jon's supplies close up

The rest of Jon's supplies close up

Ashley's supplies labeled and laid out

Ashley's supplies close up

Rest of Ashley's supplies close up (some overlap with above.)

Look how loaded down she is.

My cute kids ready to go to school

We live just under a mile from the school. This means we are walkers/car riders. Jon was briefly disappointed about not taking the bus, but that left quickly when he learned we got to walk. In fact, because I am fairly certain Sammy couldn't do the full mile each way quite yet, and because it is more fun, we drive and park in front of our friends, the Krajewski's, house and join them and others and walk from there (1/4 mile each way). We are quite a mob, but it is a lot of fun.

Meeting up with the group

Ready to GO!

Sammy and her friend Andy (and JAK in the stroller). Sammy and Andy are both 4 and made fast friends on the way to school. They held hands and told jokes the whole way. It was cute.

The whole group that walked together on the first day. This picture is only missing 2 girls who have joined us. It is a better picture than the ones I took

I have filled out countless forms this week and have a few phone calls to make, but everything seems to be going well. The school is a very good one, and the community seems great. I especially like that there are 4 first grade classes vs. 10 and 4 third grade classes vs. 13.

Frequent Visitors

I don't think our current neighborhood will be anything like Lake Monticello for various critters wandering through our yard. However, we have noticed some repeat visitors in the past 2 1/2 weeks. The black butterfly actually only came once or twice. The yellow one has been almost a daily visitor. The kids love to go out and "play" with it. It will fly off and come back or fly around their heads. It has been really fun. With the blossoms rapidly shedding to the ground, I think we will soon loose these visitors.

We also have little rabbits who travel through and eat our lawn. Every time I have attempted to get a photo, they get spooked and hop away. The kids LOVE seeing the "bunnies." They are cute, but I worry a bit. I was thinking of trying a small garden next spring. Rabbits will be an interesting obstacle.

Much much later.......

I promised I would post this picture later. Now that the scanner and Internet are hooked up, I scanned it in. This poor picture has been through a bit this summer, which is unfortunate. I am still going to put it up in our house; I am just so sorry it has scratches over Trent's handsome face. Oh well. Here it is almost 2 months later....

Our click it yourself family picture at the White House on July 4.

Our Summer Adventures at Home

Isn't it interesting how many different things "home" can mean? Right now, I am sitting in my home. It is my home in more sense than the house we lived in in Virginia or in California before, because we are buying and not renting this home. When Sammy was sick this Saturday and wanted to go home, this house is what she meant. The kids and I spent most of July in Utah this summer. We moved out of our house in Virginia in late June and then after the 4th of July had nothing to do but stay in a hotel or fly to Utah and visit family as we weren't closing on our new home until the 24th and wouldn't be moving in until early August. The choice was easy. We had not been "home" in 2 years. Our only regret is that Trent could not accompany us. We hope that it will be all of us next time. I have not lived in Utah in 6 years and yet, it will always be home. Anyhow, since I have not shared any of these as we went along, this is destined to be a long post. I will try and keep it as short and edited as possible. Here is a bit of a glimpse at our very busy month of July at home.

There was lots of playing with cousins:

































and sleepovers with cousins:

and riding the Front Runner train the the Gateway to play in the fountains (with cousins of course.) :)

Periodically, music would come on, and the fountains would burst and such along to the music. Jon thought he could conduct the fountains during these times as you can see above.

We visited the Dinosaur Park. (Thanks so much to Grandma 'Ora for coming along and making it extra fun. We would have never discovered the learning center without her.)

We made sure Grandma Linda had her first EVER (crazy I know) s'more.

We had another wonderful Warner family camp out. This one was up Logan Canyon. There were, of course, more cousins.







































What is a camp out up Logan Canyon without a day trip to Bear Lake?





























Ashley, due entirely to the efforts of Grandma Linda and Grandpa Norman, learned to ride a bike without training wheels. We are still so proud of Ashley.



We made the trip with my brother, super cute sister-in-law and their boys to Pagosa Springs for a 3 day weekend to see Grandpa Dude (my dad) and Grammy Muriel. All trips to Pagosa Springs are wonderful and all are inevitably to short. No shopping or hiking this time around. Still, I finally had the opportunity to participate in some of the really fun local events that always go on there. The Friday night we arrived, Tony kindly took all of the kids for the night, and Shea, Muriel and I trekked over to the tacky dance. It was a lot of fun. The DJ was amazing, and we were, without a doubt, the tackiest family present, though there were a lot of very funny and tacky outfits there. The bulk of pictures weren't taken on my camera. If you want to see more tacky dance pictures, venture over to M&M's Cool Blog.


The next day was the annual cruise-a-thong, which is a triathlon style race for the average Joe. The point is not to win the race but to come in with the most average time. There are also a lot of costumes etc. The head bands all have random numbers on them. My favorite was 8375309. I didn't see one with NCwhatever numbers the enterprise is, though I did look for it. The race involves a 2 mile(ish) bike cruise, a hundred yard dash in flip flops to the San Juan River, which the contestants then tube down. I took video this year, which is also available at M&M's Cool Blog. The kids played in the river, and we had a lot of fun watching the very average happenings.






I got to share the cabin with my kids. Jon didn't want to leave.


We spent our last night in Utah riding Tink the horse out at my step brother's house.
















There were, of course, many things I didn't get pictures of such as a fun day at Cherry Hill etc., but we were very very busy. I never got to the box of crafts I mailed myself. Guess I will have to get to those when I am finished getting our new house together.


We had a most wonderful month at home. 2 years was a long time. Hopefully, it won't be that long before we return again.