First week of school

Jack started preschool this week! He attends a special education preschool at a local elementary school as a "peer model". He attends 4 days a week for 2 1/2 hours in the morning. It's been a bit of an adjustment for us as we did our own thing last year, and we now have to be out of the house by 9 am every morning. He loves it though and it's been nice (?) to spend some one on one time with the second child.



The second child now has mom's undivided attention every morning.:)


We have still been enjoying some beautiful weather this week. Every chance we get, we head outside to soak up some rays. I seriously think I am living in the wrong climate- I love the sun too much to live in Seattle. :) Friday, we headed to the ocean (well, puget sound) to play in the sand and breathe in some healing ocean air.

Bend it like Jack

Jack is finally old enough to play soccer! He started practices a few weeks ago and yesterday the team had photos and their first jamboree game.

The team photo. The 2 men on the ends should look familiar. Papa (my dad) is the coach and Clint is the assistant coach.

There is a wide variety of skills on the team as the kids are ages 3-5. Not to be biased or anything, but Jack has been blessed with some serious athletic skills. He was the fastest one out there and made 2 real goals while the other kids ran around throwing the ball into the goal and/or running to the sidelines to hang out with mom. Okay, that's enough bragging. :)

The speedy little soccer player.

The Last Days of Summer

My favorite season is coming to an end. The long gray months are quickly approaching. Fortunately, we have been enjoying a beautiful September. We are trying to spend every possible moment we can outside soaking up as much sun as possible. Jack's preschool was delayed a few weeks due to a teacher's strike, so we've had a little more time to play. Here's what we've been up to....

A girls biking trip to the beautiful San Juan Islands. Oops, forgot the camera on the trip, so you'll just have to use your imagination. 3 days away from the kids, yummy food, gorgeous weather, great company, hard core biking (uh, just kidding- we probably biked a total of 20 miles :)).

Ringling Brothers/ Barnum and Bailey Circus:

It was a fabulous show and kept both children and parents totally enthralled for over 2 hours (this was nothing short of a miracle for Lindsey).

Doin' the Puyallup (Fair, that is) :

Lindsey was wwwaaayyy into milking the cow.
Jack? Not so much.
Our favorite ride of all time.
Sliding down the mega slide.
Poor Lindsey is so small, she couldn't "legally" ride any of the rides. Somehow, she slipped through the gate on the swings and rode with Clint. She is so small up there, you can barely see her sitting next to Clint. She had the biggest smile on her face the whole time. The girl loves to swing.
Another "illegal" ride. The boats were so bumpy, it was a wonder the two didn't have whiplash after the ride.

Clint got put in as Elder's Quorum President at church (which means he's in charge of making sure a lot of things run smoothly in the ward). He's been in for 2 weeks and I miss him already.

Sunriver, Oregon

We took a family trip to Sunriver, Oregon (right outside of Bend) a few weeks ago. We caravaned down with my mom and dad and Chad (who was on break from BYU) and Erin and Spence met us down there.

We stayed in this cute little house complete with a hot tub, foosball table, ping pong, bikes, bbq, and room for all of us to sleep!

We did a lot of biking around the many trails the community had to offer. Jack loved showing off his 2 wheeler skills to the family and Lindsey stayed fairly quiet on the back of my bike.

We spent nearly every afternoon at the pool. We all loved the water slide, including the little ones. Lindsey especially loved the baby pool, until she got a little too relaxed while swimming (aka poop in the pool). She shut the whole pool down for the rest of the day.

The criminal and her parole officers.

At the scene of the crime. We returned the next day wearing different bathing suits and calling each other different names.

We floated down the Deschutes River twice. We didn't take any photos the first day, but the highlight was my dad almost getting hypothermia from the cold water. The second day, my mom and I hit the water by ourselves.

We ate lots of yummy food on our spacious deck, and even had the opportunity to feed the deer that came right up to visit.

And what's a family vacation without family pictures?

Umm....not sure who taught her flashing skills?

Can't wait until next year!!

Mommy got shot....

I've always prided myself on never receiving a speeding ticket. Today, however, I lost that pride. On the way to the park, a radar gun pointed by a motorcycle cop found me going 38 in a 25. I was shocked. I didn't even know what to do or say when he motioned me over to the side of the rode. Jack sat silent, while Lindsey yelled "Go Mom Go!" ( I'm a little worried for when that girl is on the road). I am somber tonight as I contemplate all the Christmas gifts I could've bought with $154.

As we drove home, I asked Jack what he thought of the whole situation. He said "Mommy, I thought he was going to shoot you and take you to jail. And I thought he was going to turn down the music when he walked up to the car window. " (I was listening to the Wicked soundtrack in preparation for going to see it next month). I asked him if I was a bad mommy for speeding. He said, "No, you aren't a bad mommy, but you were driving too fast. " True, True.

Re-enacting the crime. Isn't Jack a mean looking cop?

P. S. More photos to come of our fun vacation we had a few weeks ago....