First Day of School 2010!

I think we all could have used another couple of weeks of summer, but here we are: the first day of school already. Wow. The girls were both excited, but nervous, to start 3rd and 5th grades. I dropped them off, got to go on a run, and now am getting ready to start back to work at 11:30 this morning. Here we go!!

Morning Mood

Grace did a beautiful job at her first piano recital today. Cool as a cucumber, after beginning in the wrong hand position, she corrected herself and continued on un-phased. Aunt Jenn, Uncle Matt, Peter, and Sam were able to be there to support Grace, which was wonderful, because Daddy had to leave this morning for his conference and Anna had company dance rehearsal. I think Grace is proud of how she did--and relieved that it's over!

Happy Halloween!

We had a wonderful Halloween: great weather, warm costumes, good friends, and lots of candy! The girls looked adorable as a Quidditch-playing Ginny Weasley and as Harry Potter himself. Peter the dinosaur, Sam the pumpkin, and Tucker the red Power Ranger joined us to go to a Halloween open house at a friend of ours before going trick-or-treating.

Note: My mom and I knit the girls' scarves--SIX feet each and in the round: a true labor of love! :-) And, even though the girls sported USC colors all night, the Ducks still trounced upon the Trojans. Whew! (Thanks, Mom! Without you and the swine flu, I don't think I would have finished those suckers!!)

5K

Yesterday I ran my first 5K ever. Never having been a runner, I started on the "Couch to 5K" program about seven weeks ago. It was a really great program that kept me running, motivated, and without injuries. Since starting, I've run almost every other day at around 6:30 in the morning--and have felt great. I was really happy I signed up for the 5K over a month ago, because the idea of it looming also kept me motivated.

The race went well, although I did have to jump into some bushes (thankfully there were some!) and pee about a mile into it. I'm still flabbergasted that I did that, but it really was an emergency, and it seemed like everyone else was pretty focused on their own race to notice some crazy incontinent woman peeing in the bushes... Anyway, I finished in 32.10 minutes and placed 90th overall (putting me about in the middle of the pack). I was hoping to run in under 30 minutes, but now I have a goal for next time!

Here are some pictures of the run:

Starting the race:(Of note: Crazy waving woman on the right (286) is Adam's sister and one of my best friends, Jenn. She ran the race, too, and finished 8th overall out of the females. She rocks and I want to run just like her someday.)

Me finishing the race:

Videos of both the start and finish:

Although not every moment was "fun", the whole experience was really, really fun--and fulfilling--and I can't wait to do another one!

The girls, Adam, and I also ran a 1K Fun Run about an hour after finishing the 5K, and I'll post a video of that later. Both girls (and Adam) ran the entire way--including the big, steep hill at the end--and I was really proud of all of them.

Family

This picture makes me so happy, I can barely stand it. We have almost no pictures of all four of us together. Happy, happy faces. All of us. Together. :-)

First Day

Wow. My girls are now in fourth and second grade! How did they get so old?! There was no dawdling today: the girls got right up, dressed, did their hair, ate, and brushed their teeth with plenty of time to spare--for pictures!

Grace was very excited this morning. She said she felt nervous as we walked down the hill, and even held my hand the whole way, but walked into her classroom on her own after turning around for an extra hug (I did not cry...). She has really gotten so brave and independent over the past two years. She really seems like a big second grader:

Anna was pretty nervous this morning. She proclaimed that if she was feeling that nervous, she couldn't imagine how nervous Emma was feeling (her friend who is coming to Polk from a montessori school). I even got to hold Anna's hand walking down the hill today!

Even though the girls had plenty of squabbles this summer, they will miss having so much time to play together now that school's in. Anna is very, very excited for Grace to have her favorite teacher yet, Mrs. Blair, this year. This will be the first time Grace will have a teacher Anna's had.

Grace's best neighbor friend, Sam:

The walking group (I think Sam is wishing he had walked ahead with his big brother and friend, who are too cool to walk with the rest of us. We liked having Sam walk with us today, though):

Can't wait to hear how today goes!

The End of a Great Summer

Wow. I cannot believe this summer is already over. Tonight, my feelings are bittersweet, because I'm excited for this school year, but I love having us all home together; we quite enjoy one another really. Even though Adam has been back at work for a month now, it has still felt like summer around here. We've had a wonderful summer. Our summer began with a visit from Soley, her boys, and Mikaron; we had a great time drinking wine in the backyard and chatting as the kids played castle, webkinz wars, and Wii. We were then joined by Adam and Rich for a weekend with our home stuffed past capacity. I always love my time with Soley and Mik, and it seems to just get better as our children become close friends, too. After Soley's family left, Mikaron stayed for a few more days. As always, the visit felt too short; my time with my best girlfriends always fills me up, gives me perspective, and makes me wish we all lived closer to one another

Shortly after they all left, we left for our big summer vacation: we drove across Nevada, visited with my Uncle Mark and family outside of Sacramento, and drove to the Redwood Forest from there, where we camped for three beautiful, fun nights. The Redwood Forest was super fun: huge trees, beaches, AND banana slugs! Then we took two days to drive up the coast, getting us to Gramma and Poppy's home. We had a great time there, slip-and-sliding, eating delicious meals, going to a butterfly sanctuary and a world festival in Salem, and enjoying a huge family reunion. My mom, Oma, joined us there and took the girls down to Eugene, where they went to a children's choir performance, a wave pool, saw "Up," and fed some cute goats. While the girls frolicked with Oma, Adam and I got to spend two glorious days in Portland. I don't know who had more fun. It was really, really great. Then, Adam and I joined the troop in Eugene to play at parks, scooter along the river, play mini-golf, visit alpacas and goats, and dye yarn. After all that fun, Adam did the impossible and packed all our stuff back in the car and we headed back home.

Once home, we got to celebrate lots: July was filled with the 4th, Grace's birthday (7!!!), and Pioneer Day (Utah's holiday which is seriously bigger than the 4th around here). Grace's birthday was definitely the most fun. On the big day, we swam at our favorite outdoor pool, went out to her favorite sushi restaurant (is she cool or what?!), and had cake and ice cream back at home with Jenn, Matt, and the boys. A few days later, we had her hiking birthday party, which was really, really fun. A few kids couldn't come because of vacations, but she had a nice group of some of her best friends, the weather was surprisingly cool, and we didn't lose anyone. :-) We hiked home to have a water balloon fight and ice cream sundaes.

After all that was done, we settled into a really relaxing summer of mostly swimming, playing with each other and playing with friends, playing in the back yard, and going to the library. We didn't do a whole bunch of "stuff," but we had a really great time. Grace learned to ride a bike and swim this summer, Anna read countless books, I started running and my eye is doing better all the time, and Adam went on a short backpacking trip with one of his best friends and began his new position in July as the Director of Teaching and Learning at Weber State.

Now, Adam starts teaching this week, Anna starts 4th grade and Grace starts 2nd grade tomorrow, and I begin my training to be an Interventionist (tutor) at the girls' school this week. It will be 17.5 hours/week, which I hope will be just about perfect. We'll see how photography goes this fall; I had a couple of photoshoots in July, which went well, but I'm still taking it slowly as I still get headaches when I take a lot of pictures. So, I'm hoping to be busy, but not too busy... That's always the goal, isn't it?

Even though we didn't take pictures of a lot of what we did this summer, I put together a slideshow of the pictures we did take:

If you want to see these photos bigger, and much better quality, or if you want to order anything, go here.

I'll be sure to post Back to School pictures tomorrow! (sniff)