It finally happened: Haley got to go to preschool. She’s only been waiting, oh, two years. We took pictures before I left for work, and then Jim took both kids to school this morning. He called and left me a voice mail: “Well. It happened. Both our kids are now at school.” We’re still pretty surprised about that. 🙂

Then I left for work and Haley got to choose breakfast: waffles. She helped, with an apron on, of course.

I left work at lunchtime to pick Haley up from school so I could hear all about her day. Here she is by her cubby…

…and outside the building headed to the car. She was so happy to be able to go to school today!

She loves her teacher (so do I) and it seems like she has a really great class. We are looking forward to a great year!

It finally arrived: JT’s first day of kindergarten. He is AM kindergarten, which, to quote JT, “was not our plan but it was God’s plan.” We requested to switch to PM so we wouldn’t have a pick up conflict with Haley’s preschool, but it was not to be. We will depend on the graciousness of friends to wait with Haley while we pick up JT and then head across town to get her from school, a few minutes late. Now JT is required to get up before his body’s natural time, and he’s having to find joy each morning at 8 AM. This also means we are committed to a 8 PM bedtime!

We started the day with pancakes, which was his choice. He wanted to help make them, too. 🙂

Reading a note from Dad, who was already at work

We took our annual garage-door picture and I asked him some questions when we got home later. I print these and put them in an album along with the school photo each year. (Here is last year’s.)

Back to day one… walking to school.

Haley waited patiently while the kindergarteners got organized and checked in. She just wanted to leave for our shopping trip!

He got a little upset right before they went in the class, and I was afraid I would start crying because I could tell he wasn’t happy. I stepped forward a little from the zoo of parents to ask what was wrong, and he said, “I really have to go potty!” Poor guy was waiting for so long and didn’t know what to do because they were told to “wait here in line.” So I told his teacher, and she took him straight into class. Phew!

When I picked him up, he was all smiles. He was tired but said he had a great day. We had a little snack at home (before heading to lunch at the lake with friends) and he just started talking. So I sat down next to him and listened. I had only brought in half the groceries from the car and left the car wide open, but I didn’t want to miss the chance to hear what he had to say! He told me all about the routines he learned, and recess, and what he did at free play time. He also said he was glad to have two days off. 🙂 This week he goes all five days, with a longer day on Friday. He’s going to be exhausted! I’m so glad he only goes half a day this year.

We are happily grasping at the last glimpses of summer. We went out in the boat on Thursday with friends, and Haley decided to ski. “Will you bring my ski?” she asked Jim earlier in the day. “I’d like to ski today.” I love how she just decides and then does it!

We spent Labor Day weekend driving, ferrying, and boating 500 miles (plus a three-hour boat ride, each way) to Young Life’s camp Malibu, in Princess Louisa Inlet, British Columbia. In case you’re wondering where that is, it is here:

Jim and I were blessed to run Kids’ Club each evening while the adults focused on their own talk and worship. We had an AMAZING time. Grandpa and Grandma Cole went too, so we had three generations at camp. And that, said a friend, is how it is best spent.

I have a whole album of photos with captions here: http://tinyurl.com/kjwgrpv. But some highlights are:

• The kids’ first night in a hotel.
• I ran the first ever Malibu Half Marathon with five other dedicated runners, in honor of Michelle Robertson and her 50th Birthday Weekend of Dreams. It was a blast!
• The kids LOVED the pool. We could barely get them out. The pool is heated to a very comfortable temperature and it was so fun to watch Haley jump off the diving board over and over and over and watch JT swim without his life jacket in the shallow end. 
• Foos ball, bead bracelets, treats at the Totem Inn, Super Hero night, fabulous food, friends old and new, kayaking in the rain, Dr. Science… the list goes on
• Our float plane ride to Chatterbox Falls and Beyond Malibu (!). Jim has known a very nice woman named Karen Stemwell for a long time, after meeting her through Jim Roberston and flying with her years ago in his piloting days. She flew into Malibu to pick up some customers and had to run an errand down the inlet. She said we could hop in and fly along… what a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to fly over Malibu!
• Eleven hours of travel home on Monday – no electronics, no movies, no books… a few color pages, a few snacks, a lot of conversation, no complaints, and some great family memories!

 

Haley turned four this past week. It was a pretty busy day! It started with breakfast and her “big” gift from Jim and me: a new Pinkalicious bike.

Then we had JT’s kindergarten assessment meeting, which went wonderfully. We find out this week if he has morning or afternoon kindergarten. We love his new teacher! Doesn’t he look old in this second photo?

Then we had Haley’s friend party. Two of her friends were out of town, which we know might happen with any birthday party, let alone summer time birthdays. But Haley had a great time with Abby and Gracie, playing Pinkalicious and eating pink pancakes with peaches (a la Pinkalicious and the Flower Hat Parade).

Then our friends the Schmalz family stuck around for lunch and boating, especially important since it was Elisa’s birthday as well. We went swimming and skiing on a nearby lake and got lucky with beautiful weather and hardly any other boats.

We came home and hosted Haley’s birthday dinner. We were glad to have the Schmalz family stay too, and celebrated Elisa and Haley together with Haley’s birthday meal request: roasted chicken, red potatoes and asparagus with bacon crumbles, bread, and fruit. She is nothing if not specific. 🙂 Grandma Cole’s Pinkalicious (and chocolate!) cupcakes were the best cupcakes I have ever had. Everyone agreed they were amazing… even three days later, when we ate the last of the leftover cupcakes with friends around a campfire, and everyone kept raving about them.

 

Haley got lots of nice gifts, of course, including an Elsa dress, new sparkly Toms, a ballerina tutu, and a pink remote control car, which she has wanted for a good year and a half.

Trying on the new dress… a little big so of course Grandma Keene ordered another one in the right size!

After all that pink, JT retreated into Lego land the next day and didn’t come out for awhile. 🙂

Haley’s new big is just an inch tall for her (just measured!) 38-inch tall body, but that’s perfectly room enough to grow this year.

 

We went to my cousin Alyssa’s wedding reception. It was really nice! Poor Jim had to get up the next morning at 4 AM for work and it didn’t start until 6 PM over an hour from our house… so we didn’t stay the whole time.

The kids came with me to pick out new running shoes!

I had a quick work trip to California. The rental car company had my reservation but no economy car. They only had two options left: a minivan or a Mustang. They said I could choose. It was tough, but I went with the sports car. 🙂

I flew down on our anniversary. My amazing husband had a dozen gorgeous red roses delivered to my hotel room to greet me when I arrived!

Then we got our new boat trailer! Jim had been dreaming of this moment for years. Our other trailer was defective but the company went out of business. Our boat dealer, Pacific Nautique, tried for years to fix it but it was just getting worse. Finally our salesman, Rob, came up with a very nice solution: they bought back our old trailer for what we paid, and we bought a new trailer with the money. Sold! It was pretty cool to watch them lift our boat off the old trailer and drop it on the new one.

We arrived into camp in the middle of a crazy storm. Visibility was so bad by the time we were parked in our site that we couldn’t see Steamboat Rock! We waited out the storm in Grandpa and Grandma Keene’s motor home and ate tacos until we could set up.

Once we set up, we got ready to play with friends!

 

The next morning, we were ready to hit the beach.

Grandma Keene hosting several children on a floatie 🙂

 

One of our favorite things to do is stay in the boat as long as possible: skiing, wakeboarding, tubing, swimming, and floating.

Headbands: Allowing you to feel put together and fabulous while everyone else sees your crazy hair.

I like how no one is paying attention while I wakeboard. 😉

 

Sometimes we get a little silly in the water. The kids had so much fun together!

Jim and his mom

Our favorite Mexican restaurant was closed but we still had a yummy dinner in town at PepperJack’s one night. Jim called ahead so they were ready with a table for 19.

 
One morning, the kids had fun running through the sprinklers at the campsite.

Check out those leg muscles!

One morning was a little overcast. The ladies (and Jim!) still made the most of the skiable water.

The kids stayed at the campsite and played… although Brady and Carson spent some time hiking up Steamboat Rock with their dad.

The afternoon was sunny again and we got to play some more. Haley did a great job tubing, up to 23 mph!

We took a family boat ride to lunch in the cove and the marina for dessert. Yum!

Haley skipped nap for the marina trip… until on the way home!

A trip to Banks Lake can’t be complete without some rock jumping.

We ended the week with an injury for JT. He fell off his bike, hitting his head (in his helmet, thank the Lord!) first and then scraping his shoulder, forearm, knee, and hand badly. He lost skin and had bad road rash. We are so thankful for our family’s strict helmet policy and the fact that he was wearing it correctly, not back on his head or loose. He could have had a very major injury and damage to his face. Instead, we were scrubbing gravel out of his four other deep wounds. JT was very brave and felt special to be visited by his friends during his recovery, who brought get well cards and a room full of smiles.

The end of the week brought a little sadness as we go back to home, chores, work, and routines. We are grateful for the opportunity to live like this, a little piece of wonderful at a time.And we are super thankful for fun friends and family to do it with! Until next year…

We have had such a great week of beautiful weather and fun with our friends.

Monday we visited the river with the Bonnell crew.

Can you say cold?

Tuesday we invited the Bonnell boys and our friend Piper over to play in our pool and slip-n-slide.

Wednesday we had the Keefe family over for dinner and s’mores.

Today we have had some good family time… cleaning up from all of our fun and doing some errands around town.

Blowing bubbles on the deck after breakfast

Scrubbing the chalk off the deck from little footprints 🙂

Eleven: the number of hours the kids and I were traveling this weekend. First we drove to Port Orchard for my cousin’s bridal shower. She and her fiancee are really into penguins and my mom made these adorable penguin appetizers!

JT spent the shower doing projects with Grandpa Cole, including using a hack saw and a nail gun. They are putting the finishing touches on the play house.

Then we got in the car around 7 PM for the three hour drive to Portland. Haley wrote this note to Grandma Cole in the car. “I love you Grandma” with the letters a bit out of order. 🙂

We got to Grandma Hall’s house around 10 PM and crashed. Haley didn’t want to sleep on the floor because she was a little nervous about Grandma’s dog tackling her in her sleep. I told her I’d move her to the floor when I came to bed, and this is why. Who wants to sleep next to this crazy girl?

In the morning, the kids enjoyed riding bikes, picking fresh tomatoes, and playing with Sweetie Pie.

We went to my nephew Russell’s meet-and-greet and left Oregon City about 3 PM. And then we hit a huge amount of traffic for no reason at all. We got off and stopped for a dinner break to wait for some of it to clear.

When we got back on the freeway, it hadn’t let up. Bummer. The kids were awesome in the car. We usually don’t do movies, bring tablets, or play with phones in the car. Each child brings a small basket of toys if the trip is longer than a couple of hours, and off we go. They colored, read books (out loud!), played with planes and cars, and just looked out the window. I am proud of my little travellers. They did not complain once.

By the time we were a few miles from home at 9 PM, we had gotten a little silly. I turned on the radio for the first time the whole trip and we sang “Do You Want to Build a Snowman?” super loud as we pulled into the driveway at home. Hooray!

And then JT turned six! On our last day at Banks Lake, he woke up a year older. He pointed out that maybe he should be seven since you are born at zero, and then when you turn one you are actually finishing your first year. We talked about how he is starting his seventh year. Wow!

We filled his side of the tent with balloons for a surprise when he woke up. Haley saw Jim putting the balloons in there, but she went back to sleep without making a peep and kept quiet about it in the morning so JT would be surprised.

We stopped at DK’s on our way home, an annual tradition, and JT got to open some presents.

Then on Thursday we had his parties: one with friends and one with family.

Airplane theme

Laughing at Jim

The boys!

 He was so cute opening his presents: truly happy and excited over every single thing.

Blowing out his candles – cake from Grandma Cole

His cousins Russell and Travis came to the family party. Our children just love “taking care of” Travis and Russell!