Where are we going?: PRE-SCHOOL!

Much to Paityn's delight, the day FINALLY arrived. Jace started school two weeks ago and Paityn has been asking every day since when she gets to go to her school. Having new school clothes and shoes and not being able to wear them is almost too much for the poor girl to handle :)

She was so excited that she couldn't go to sleep last night. She even got to get a new backpack to put all of her school work in, and of course she chose Dora (thus the title of this post just in case you didn't get it).

P.S. The spots on her dress are water from brushing her teeth and I didn't have time to let it dry before we had to leave. It's always something with this girl, she is seriously testing her mother's perfectionist character issue. I'm just glad it doesn't bother her as much as it does me ;)

Hat Day

Once a month at Jace's school they have what they call "East Rocks! Day". This time the theme was "hat day", so Jace chose to wear his cowboy hat. I knew it wasn't going to be a good morning when he threw a fit over the shirt I told him to wear, but it looked really cute with his hat and I thought he NEEDED to wear it. Anyway, he looked so cute that I had to get a picture, but he was NOT in the mood. Here's what I got...it's a good thing we were going to be late for school or he probably would have endured some form of punishment for his "delightful" attitude. :)

Jace's Big Day

Today was my little man's first day of school - the big "K". I thought I was ready for it and had no problems at the orientation yesterday, but today when he ran across the playground to get in line with his class all by himself, it did pull my heart strings just a little. He looked so grown up in his new school clothes and he acted like he'd been doing the school thing for years. I am so proud of him.

Jace hates to have his picture taken so I had to force him to stand for a minute so I could take one. Then I had to make him laugh because he won't smile and his fake smile is so silly. Here's what I got...




In the car on the way to school...



Walking with all of his classmates at the end of the day. If you can't tell which one he is, look for the giant...




He said he had a good day and even got to sit by a "pretty girl". Way to go buddy, we love you!

Summer Vacation 2010

How much fun can one family have on a 2-week vacation? A LOT. We had such a great time, I can't even begin to list ALL of the things we did and I don't have pictures from everything, but here are quite a few.

We started off with a train ride that took us up almost to the Canadian border, complete with train robbers.

This first picture is from on top of a bridge that crossed over the river below us. They stopped the train so we could take pictures and look out over the edge.



The next two pictures were taken when we were going through a tunnel that was pitch black. I don't think Jace was too concerned about the darkness as he was chowing down on his popcorn.






A few days later we went to Silverwood Theme Park. I love taking the kids to amusement parks because they are both little dare devils that aren't scared of anything. Poor Paityn would love to go on all of the rides but she's not tall enough yet. Jace on the other hand, is tall enough to go on anything and is willing to go on the scariest of the scary. I took him on a roller coaster that scared me a little and I don't think he took a breath the whole ride, but at the end he said it was the "funnest thing ever". I can't wait until we can all go on them together.






These next pictures are from the property we bought this spring. The pond has a little algae problem and someone told Tim that if he threw some rock salt and a straw bale in it it would clear it up. So Tim, Jordan and Jace hopped in the canoe and threw out some salt.





The days that we didn't have scheduled activities were spent on the boat. It was really hot and the water couldn't have felt better. We swam, dived, flipped, tubed, and skied for days. Now we want a boat :) We had a great vacation, I wish it didn't have to end.

If at First You Don't Succeed...

We packed up and went camping again this last weekend. I think this has been the busiest summer I have ever had, it seems like every single weekend we have something to do. It has been a lot of fun, but it is making the summer go by WAY too fast!

Once again we were able to find a great spot that was far from other campers so the kids could be free to run around and play wherever they wanted to. We took their bikes and I think Jace spent 90% of his time riding his. Poor Paityn can't ride without training wheels yet and hers won't go on uneven ground, so she spent most of her time cheering on her brother. It was so nice to be able to just sit around and relax and still be able to watch the kids at the same time.

And of course, boys being boys, Jace and Tim found a little trail that Jace labeled a "racetrack" and he literally spent hours trying to make it down one side and back up the other without stopping. There were a few crashes and several tears shed, more out of frustration than anything, but with his mommy telling him not to give up until he defeated it, he finally did it! He was so proud of himself, and that it the greatest thing to see. Once he had confidence that he could do it he did it several more times, although not in a row, but he never gave up.

Most of his attempts ended up similar to this first video, although in this one his chain came off. Most of the time he was able to get really close to the top, just not quite over.