First Day of Kindergarten

Eli didn't want me taking his picture at school, but he was so anxious to get to class that he was willing to smile if I would just let him go.  Don't worry, I wasn't the only mom with a camera. :-)

They have to line up in their classes outside, and then the teacher (Mrs. Cady) walks them inside to the classroom.

Today Eli started full-day kindergarten, and he was as happy as can be.  He was so excited he couldn't even eat breakfast (I had to tell him he couldn't go to school without eating), and that's usually his favorite meal of the day.  Of course, it was one of those bittersweet moments for me.  I'm so happy that he's so excited, and I know he'll do so well, but it wasn't easy.  I cried last night before I went to bed and again this morning after I said good-bye, and I'm getting teary-eyed again just writing this.  Boy, if I'm this bad now, I'm going to be a mess when he graduates or goes on a mission or gets married.  I guess it's all part of being a mom, huh?   I would say parent, but Josh seems to be taking it a lot better.  I'm definitely the crier of us two. 

I've had those panic moments where I wonder if I've taught him enough in just five short years (four, technically, because he probably didn't understand much the first year).  And by teaching him enough, I mean morally and spiritually because it's scary thinking about all the things he will encounter in school.  Kids are exposed to things so young now that they have to be incredibly wise even in elementary.  We've encountered things on the playground at parks already, but at least I've always been there to supervise and help him make good choices. 

I'm so grateful for Eli--who he is and who he's becoming.  I'm grateful for the time I got to spend alone with him during the day.  I have been thinking a lot about that the last week or so.  This whole infertility thing has been an incredible challenge in my life, but by not being able to have more children, I got to spend all my time with Eli.  I didn't have the stress and worry of dealing with other children, so I could focus on him.  What a great blessing that has been!  It definitely makes it harder sending him to school, but I will never regret all the time I have invested in him and him alone.

"Sometimes what you get turns out to be better than what you wanted in the first place."

--Eve Bunting   

August Travels, Part 3

After leaving the San Fransisco Bay area, we traveled up to the Redwoods.  We camped there for two nights--one in Humboldt Redwoods State Park and the other in Del Norte Coast Redwoods State Park.  I hadn't been camping since we lived in Texas, so it was surprisingly more pleasant than my last several camping trips.  This time the weather was perfect.

The Redwoods were beautiful!  We took a couple of short hikes and played in the water.  There was so much more we could have done, but sadly, we didn't have enough time because we wanted to drive up the coast of Oregon on our way home.

We wished we had more time to spend driving up the coast.  Like the Redwoods, the Oregon coast is beautiful with so many things to see and do.  We only spent one night in Newport, Oregon before heading home to Aberdeen.  On the way, though, we saw breathtaking beaches, tide pools, and a glass blowing demonstration.  We stopped at some quaint ports and shops, and we toured the Tillamook cheese factory.  

This is called the drive-thru tree, but it's really just a tourist trap.  It costs $5 and only small cars can get through it.  As you can see, we had to walk through it instead.  However, it was entertaining to watch other cars try to squeeze through and hope their car didn't lose some parts.

Setting up camp in Humboldt Redwoods State Park

Eli is happily roasting marshmallows by the campfire.

This was a large banana slug that we saw in the morning. 

This was the base of a fallen redwood tree.  As you can see, it's huge!

This was a short hike that we took while in the Redwoods.  The area is called the Avenue of the Giants.

The hike led to a small stream, so we played in it for a while.

We saw a number of elk in Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park.

This hike is called Fern Canyon, and it is gorgeous.  There are ferns growing all along the canyon walls.  Apparently some of the second movie of Jurassic Park was filmed here. 

The hike was somewhat difficult because there were a lot of downed trees that we had to climb over.  There were also numerous places where we had to walk across boards or trees in order to avoid the water.  Eli fell in the water three times.

Eli and Josh went swimming in the Smith River in Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park.

This is Lone Ranch Beach in Brookings, Oregon.

We stopped at Lone Ranch to see the tide pools.

Here is the Tillamook cheese factory.  It was a bit crowded while we were there, but we got to sample some yummy cheeses.  I had never tried Tillamook's smoked cheddar, which I thought was delicious.  Josh liked their garlic chili pepper cheese.  Eli liked the fudge and ice cream, which Tillamook also makes.

We had so much fun on our trip.  The weather was beautiful and so was the scenery.  We are blessed that Josh can take that much time off from his work!

August Travels, Part 2

After going to Utah, we were home for about a week before taking off again.  This time we headed to Northern California.  We left Aberdeen on Friday night and had to be in Oakland for a wedding by Saturday evening.  That left no time for sightseeing on the way down (12 hour trip).  We couldn't leave any earlier because of Josh's work.  We booked it, but we made it there in time to enjoy Josh's friend Jonathan's wedding.  Josh got to see a lot of his high school friends (and once again, we forgot the camera), and I got to meet many of his friends I had never met before and see some that we've enjoyed time with in the past.  We had a good time, and we owe many thanks to my sister Bronwyn for taking care of Eli while we were at the wedding.  In fact, she had just moved to San Lorenzo (about 15 minutes from Oakland) a week earlier, so we were very blessed.  We got to go to a great wedding, and we got to see her and her family.  It was perfect!

My sister Bronwyn with Paxton and Cadence.

I love this picture of Paxton!  He and Eli enjoyed playing in the backyard together.

While spending a couple of nights with Bronwyn, Toni, Paxton, and Cadence, we went to church in Fremont where Josh grew up.  Since Josh's parents moved to Gig Harbor before Josh and I were married, I never had the opportunity to visit Fremont.  It was interesting to see the house Josh grew up in and the schools he attended.  Since we went to his old ward on Sunday, I also got to meet some of the people that he knew.  I could tell that Josh especially enjoyed it.

Since I had never been to San Fransisco before, we spent a couple of days touring the city, one of those days being my birthday.  It was a lot of fun.  I think I'll let the pictures narrate some of what we did.  

This is Pier 39.

Eli had a good time in the mirror maze until he smacked his cheek into one of the mirrors.

Josh got called up to the stage during one of the juggling shows.

The sea lions were fun to listen to and watch.

It was funny to watch this guy with the foreigners, who didn't understand that you had to pay if you wanted a picture with him.

This is inside the Musee Mecanique, which housed hundreds of antique arcade games.  Eli chose to play whac-a-mole.

This is the only picture we got of all of us together, and Eli decided to be a little silly.

We walked part of the way across the Golden Gate Bridge. 

On the second day of touring the city, we took a ferry from Alameda to San Fransisco.  Eli loved it, and it was much quicker than driving across the Bay Bridge.

Here we are in Chinatown.

The lady behind Eli is making fortune cookies.

Grant Street happens to be the main street of Chinatown.

We went to the Conservatory of Flowers in Golden Gate Park.

Josh said he used to ride this carousel when he was younger.  It's located inside Golden Gate Park, and Eli chose to ride the ostrich.  Later Josh told us that he used to always choose the ostrich too.  It was actually Eli's second carousel ride since he also rode one at Pier 39.

They had some concrete slides in Golden Gate Park in which the kids rode down on a piece of cardboard.  Eli had a good time doing it.

A picture of the Bay Bridge at sunset.

We took so many pictures and there were so many more details I didn't add, but this will have to suffice.  We had a very enjoyable time, and I appreciate all the calls I got on my birthday.  I'm sorry I didn't answer most of them, but at least you now know I was having a good time. :-)

August Travels, Part 1

We were out of town for at least half the month of August, and we had tons of fun.  In fact, we took so many pictures, it's hard to know which ones to post.  Our travels took us through Oregon, Idaho, Utah, and California, and you wouldn't know our new car is only a month old given the amount of miles it has on it already! 

We first traveled to Utah at the beginning of the month.  Josh's sister Megan and her husband Matt had fraternal twins (boy and girl) in June, so we drove out for the babies' blessings.  While we were there, we not only got to see Josh's family, but mine as well.  We stayed three nights with my brother Spencer and his family.  Then we stayed one night with my brother Nephi and his family. 

On the way home we stopped at Hagerman Fossil Beds National Monument in Idaho, and then we drove around the Fruit Loop in the Columbia River Gorge in Oregon.  We picked tons of peaches, which I turned into jam, sorbet, and cobbler.

This is Multnomah Falls in the Columbia River Gorge in Oregon.

While in Utah, we went to the Eccles Dinosaur Park in Ogden.  Here, Eli is pretending to be a paleontologist and uncover a dinosaur egg.

Here are the new parents and their twins.  We took a small hike up to a waterfall near Farmington where Matt and Megan live.

We went to Red Butte Gardens with Spencer, Mindy, Sophee, and Logan.  The kids played in the water and fed the ducks and had a good time.

Eli adores his cousin Sophee and told me he is going to marry her when he grows up.  :-)

Eli is playing with his cousin Dieter and finding it necessary to "instruct" him in the way things are.  Aren't five-year-olds great at knowing everything, or is it just mine? :-)

Here we are with my brother Nephi and his son Dieter.  We let Aubrey take the picture since she insisted she didn't look good enough to be in the picture (she was pregnant at the time, though now she has delivered). 

 

Unfortunately, we didn't take any pictures on the way home.  I guess we were just having too much fun and forgot about the camera.  Josh's sister Tana and her kids traveled home part of the way with us and accompanied us to the Fossil Beds visitors center and Eli rode part of the way with them.  He would much rather be with his cousins in their car than with us in ours and wishes he could have done it the whole way.  Poor Tana had her five kids plus Eli in her car.  I turned to Josh and said, "Isn't there something wrong with this picture?  Shouldn't we be taking one of her kids instead of giving her ours?"  But in truth, our car wasn't as much fun. :-)