First day of Kindergarten

It was rainy and overcast today- perfect for my mood. I may have shed a few tears possibly as I dropped off my oldest child at school but I did not sob. I may have shed even more tears when I picked her up all smiley and happy but I did not sob. So I would call it a success.

Allie has been so excited for this day. She was so ready. I tossed and turned and slept terribly last night. Our wonderful neighbors who are so good to us watched Wesley and Luke while I took Allie to school. We arrived on campus just a few minutes before the final bell as the kids were heading to their class. Allie was saying hello and waving to every kid she saw. After all they all go to her school. We arrived at her class, hung up her backpack and immediately she found a new friend named Haley. The PTO puts on a Boohoo Breakfast for the kindergartners and their parents on the first day so we headed to the cafeteria for juice and muffins. After that we hugged and waved goodbye and she was gone.

The boys and I missed her. Luke asked several times where Allie was. It is going to be interesting to watch the dynamics change at home. We were all excited to pick her up after school. Allie said it was great! I asked her about lunch since we sent her with a packed lunch and she said they have the coolest tables- they even fold up. That is pretty cool (now if I could just get one that clears itself off). And of course one of her favorite parts of the day was recess.

And just to drive home what a great day it was.... the symbol of good luck came crawling down our hall after baths tonight- a vinegaroon.

P.S. Happy Birthday Wendy! Happy Anniversary James and Lindsay. And we hope you had a good first day of kindergarten too Tía Mo Mo.

Reason #17 to not remove your diaper

We told several of you our trip would be on the blog Monday. Well it didn't work out that way. Monday morning we were unloading the last few things from Jason's truck before he went to work. Wesley was out there with us. He was right next to Jason when I heard Jason tell him "Wesley- don't take your diaper off!" Within seconds Wesley began to scream. Jason picked him up and ran for the house. Wesley had taken off his diaper and been stung by a bee- in the absolute worst place any male could imagine. It swelled up really really bad. REALLY bad! We called the doctor. A bee sting is one thing but because of where he was stung that can complicate things. They said to watch and make sure he could urinate. If not, off to emergency room. So we waited and watched. After about an hour we knew he was going to be ok when he peed on my lap. So Jason went to work and I held Wesley most of the morning. The swelling lasted all day and into the next. I took him to our neighbor's pool in the afternoon and the cold water helped a lot (he would not sit in the bathtub earlier). He is now much better but has NOT forgotten what a bad day that was. He hasn't tried to take off his diaper yet.

The Great Experiment

Oh beautiful Colorado! Which by the way means red or colored red in Spanish. We drove up and came home through the mountains and back ways which was so much fun. And do you know what one of the best parts of the trip was? The mini DVD player broke even before we pulled out of the driveway. That turned out to be the best thing ever. The kids were forced to look out the window, color and play with each other in the back seat (well as much as you can play being strapped into place). We really had a great trip. We spent 5 days in Ft. Collins playing with Aunt Lindsay, Uncle James and cousins Henry, Ellis and Clara.
Jason turned 33 on Tuesday August 11th. We had a special birthday party and birthday cake for him that afternoon before we left to go camping. He said he wanted summer cake for his birthday. And then he requested a "special shapes" cake. I did my best to oblige with a special shapes summer cake, a new challenge. Happy Birthday Jason- with his own personal Fourteener. Can anyone tell me how many mountains over 14,000 feet CO has (a little fact I learned on this trip). Jason's cake was to scale with each inch representing 1000 feet. Ok maybe not but that's the idea.
The Halgrens came with us up to Wyoming where we camped overnight and hiked around Vedauwoo (a very neat place of which we have no photos). While in WY we got to spend the afternoon and evening in Laramie with the Bluemels. Dave Bluemel and I were in the same MTC group. Do you realize I have been home from my mission for 10 years this past May? Crazy. And we didn't get any pictures of the Bluemels either.

We left Ft. Collins and camped for 2 nights in central CO near Glenwood Springs (after driving through Rocky Mountain National Park- highest paved road in North America). We splurged and went to the natural hot springs (turned resort with LARGE warm swimming pool). It was the perfect tempurature for the mountain air. Wesley swam non stop. In the "deep" end. Jason and I have learned to watch for the bubbles to know when he is ready to come up for air. He will rest for a second in your arms and then dives right back in. It is hilarious to watch and so inviting to strangers to comment and stare. Of course we have no photos and this is when we decided we really want one of those underwater point and shoot cameras that are almost indestructible. Perhaps then we would have more photos to share.

We drove home and stopped for dinner in Creede. It is a cute little mining town tucked back in the mountains. The city park had a little mine train and cars. You could barely pull Luke away to eat and bite and then he was right back at it.
A close-up of Wesley's new thumb and scar in case you haven't seen it.


And what was the great experiment you may be wondering? We never ate out- no restaurants, fast food, nothing. All meals came from Lindsay's kitchen and the back of the truck (so ok, the grocery store). It was great. What is funny is that is how I remember traveling while growing up so it really shouldn't seem that novel.

Nature provided some treats of her own. Fresh mountain raspberries. Yummy!
A baby moose we saw while driving home. So cute. But where is mama?

Lindsay and her amazing yummy swiss chard from her gorgeous garden.
We had a wonderful time. When we asked Allie what her favorite part of the trip was she said "Playing with Henry". Aw - cousins. So fun!
The end.

Channeling John Denver

We left Albuquerque about 11:30 Friday and decided to take the scenic route to Ft. Collins. We had a goal to not stop at a restaurant on the way up and almost didn't succeed. Our first stop (pics below) was about 5 miles north of Tres Piedras, NM. The kids didn't want a bell pepper and Swiss sandwich w/ some some kind of tomato/eggplant ooze from Sunflower market, so Joy and I had seconds.

(Pardon the unfocused pics; we need a new P&S camera...)
We picked a random dirt track off the side of the highway and wound up finding a cool rope swing under a tree where we stopped. There was a huge puddle along the way that made a good splash and got the kids wet through their windows. That was a hit.

Our second stop was about 10 minutes south (and above) Breckenridge, CO. We stopped again off the side of the road and Allie was starving, begging to go to a drive through. I promised her she would love dinner. We made an instant hot water meal (freeze dried backpacker food)- Pad Thai noodles with real peanuts and peanut butter. Yummy - I was OK in her eyes again.
We were next to a stream and with sun setting were being eaten alive by mosquitoes. So we packed up and drove up near a pass, 11,600 or so... The sunset and the snow fields on the mountains made for a great view. Thai food doesn't quite match, but oh well...
Wesley's hair is crazy from a little run in with a tub of Vaseline. We have tried washing it with shampoo, bar soap, Dawn and have probably tried each a million times to no avail. Finally our neighbor E. Hedrick put some corn starch in his hair which seems to have worked reasonably well after we washed it.

Joy and Lindsay have taken the chance to get some girl time in so James and I have been playing with the kids and eating peas all day in their nice back yard.

Halgrens here we come!

Off we go on a much needed vacation. Here we come Lindsay, James, Henry, Ellis & Clara! We leave tomorrow to go visit Lindsay and James in Colorado and not a moment too soon.

I'll leave it to Allie to demonstrate that it is time to get away as a family for some R&R. (Maybe I shouldn't do this; she'll kill her Dad when she gets older-- good thing this is a private family blog). This is what happens when your mom takes you to the bathroom at 10:30 after you have already fallen asleep. Luke's undies were on the floor and Allie, not awake kept reaching for them for some reason. Joy just finally gave them to her and she must have thought they were a shirt or something.

You may now proceed to call CPS...

Summer Fun

So where is the picture of the kitchen? Well, we installed most of the drawer pulls yesterday, so not quite yet!

However, here are some summer fun pics. I (Jason) joined my family at the free lunch park. It actually brought back a bunch of memories of soggy free lunches in Farmington as a kid- no great culinary memories, but a lot of fun memories being with my brothers and sisters. Joy takes the kids to free lunches after swimming lessons. We found a cool seesaw at the park. The other girls are the kids of some friends of ours.

(Pardon the defocused pics in this post- our old point and shoot has about had it again).
Can you see the surprise in the picture below? I heard it before I saw it out field testing for work. How miserable- being outdoors for work- wo is me.
Here is Lukie working to find buried treasure in the kiddie pool. He is so excited to swim now; when he was Wesley's age he would just Velcro himself to you and not want to do anything but get out.

Allie has progressed substantially over the four weeks of lessons. She can now dogie paddle from one edge of the pool to the other.
One Saturday they wanted to show off for their dad so we went to the Montgomery Pool in Albuquerque where they were enrolled.

Wesley missed out on lessons, he is too little- you need to be at least 3. Joy talked to me about what you'll see in the video below. Umm... Well... Joy just said I needed to see something. The life guards were freaking out along with all of the other parents in the pool including this one. I got the hang of what it takes to be around this little guy and the new habit he picked up on his own.

See for yourself.