First day of school 2009

I had to add the traditional first day of school pictures. Emily started 5th grade, Abby started 3rd Grade and Claire is in PreK (Texas preschool) Emily and Abby are wearing outfilts they chose with Grandma and Aunt Heather in Virginia. They loved them so much! Notice they aren't loaded down with back to school items and supplies! I love the Charter school that they don't need backpacks because they only have homework on Monday nights with their take home folders. All the rest of their work is done at school because they aren't distracted with major behavior problems. They don't need lunch boxes because they eat family style in their classroom all together with school lunch. They love the new school and I can't be happier they go there. It is a better situation than the public schools for sure. I have a whole new appreciation for what they girls had in Utah too!

A few Virginia Highlights.

silly Claire at the beach (don't know what she is doing)

John and Harrison with the Cannons on USS Wisconson

Me with the kids in front of one of the many mermaids around Virginia Beach

soaking wet from the rain on the USS Wisconson

The family (our only family picture from the trip)

More Claire on the beach

Harrison playing trains.

Abby digging at the beach.

Mr Harrison at the beach for the first time. And I thought the pacific ocean would be his first beach!

"group" shot at the children's muesum. Harrison wasn't happy!

petting sting rays

nature walk. Emily was mad at Abby so she made an ugly face!

The beginning of August before school started we went to Virginia for our family vacation. My father went into the hospital right before we got there and ended up being in the hospital for 7 weeks with MRSA and complications from it. We spent most of our vacation at the hospital. We were glad we got to see him and help my mother because we almost lost my father on August 2nd. It was a very scary day. We did try to do a few fun things for the kids since the hospital and my parent's apartment weren't very exciting for them. Here are some pictures of a couple places we took them.

The Virginia Aquarium was fun and had a neat nature hike along the coastal water where we saw lots of crabs. The kids got to pet sting rays there too.

The Children's Muesum in Norfolk was lots of fun. They had a HUGE train display and play area Harrison just loved. He cried very hard when it was time to leave the muesum. He really had a good time there. I wish my dad could have watched him play. He would have loved to see him being such a little boy.

The only "historical" thing we were able to do was go see the USS Wisconson. The kids weren't too excited about it but John really liked and it was neat to be on the deck on such a huge ship and see the cannons and such. It started to pour rain when we were on board. The girls enjoyed getting really wet. We walked along the docks near by after wards and got to see jelly fish in the water.

We made it to the beach one afternoon for about an hour. The kids loved it so much we had to go back another day. The girls can now say they have played in the Pacific and Atlantic Ocean! We wish we could have seen Jamestown and Washington DC. I guess we will just have to plan another trip someday....

the amazing part of the whole adventure was John drove back two days to Texas alone with the kids so I could stay another week and help my mother. He is an awesome dad and good husband to let me stay!

Thanks for the reassurance!

Knowing I have a few friends that care I will continue with the blog!

I don't know about this bloging thing anymore.

Does anyone really look at what I post?

SFA Charter School open house.

Today was the open house for the new Charter School Emily and Abby will be attending in the fall. We are so happy they are able to go to this school and it is such a beautiful building. Abby was kind of sad to leave Carpenter (the only school she knew) until she saw this new school. She is very excited to be in a brand new school with so much to offer. A highlight that will be there in history for a while is the huge art piece in the foyer that is made up of art pieces Emily's 4th grade class made. It looks like a pretty permanant piece and Emily's name is on the placque! Her piece is in the bottom row of 3 on the far right. It has lots of brush strokes you can see. Each of the girls got to see their class rooms. One month left until they start school there on August 19th!

My ham, Claire!

On Saturday we had a pretty big rain storm come through between noon and 1:00. John was getting ready to do some yard work and the storm "spoiled" his plans. John and Claire were hanging out in the open garage tinking around and watching the rain. I saw claire out in the rain through the window and went to investigate. John and Claire decided to use the rin to their advantage and were washing the Land Cruiser in the rain. Claire was having a great time playing with the hose in the rain. She can be quite the "supermodel" and was working for the camera for me. She is at a fun, mischievious age!

Touch a truck

Our local library has special activities every Tuesday for the kids in the community. This week was "touch a truck". They had 6-7 different kinds of trucks there for the kids to sit in, walk through and stuff to see them up close. I was really excited to bring Harrison because he is so into trucks and cars right now. Last year he slept through the whole thing so I didn't even get a picture of him then. This year being that close to the real thing was too much for him! He starting to cry walking through the Swat truck and when I sat him in the fire truck with Claire he was crying to hard on of the firemen came running around the truck to make sure everything was okay. I just told him I was torturing my son and making him sit in the truck he didn't want to because I really wanted a fire truck picture! Claire seemed to enjoy it the most and climbed right up into all the driver seats and posed for a picture. It was a fun time nonetheless!