The cutest Kindergartner on the block!!!

"First day of school, first day of school, wake up, wake up!!"

"Time to learn to get some knowledge"

Any of you savvy movie watchers may know where these quotes come from. Yay, we have high-speed internet again so you can all now view my little B all grown up and off to school. She has some really cute, sweet kids in her class and she is having so much fun and making tons of new friends. Her faves: the playground (of course), doing crafts, and eating lunch at school. She also enjoys music time, going to the library, P.E., math, art and riding the bus. They've already had their first field trip to the local college to explore trees and she loved it. She was inspired by the Olympics this summer and is now taking gymnastics and of course is doing very well in that. I'm happy too as it's only 1/2 the price of where we were living previously. :)

As tradition goes I love to take the other kiddos not in school somewhere fun on the first day of school so the school kids aren't the only ones to have something exciting going on. So, we took little J and Bug-a-boo to a new park that looks like a castle. They had fun, though the park is obviously for older kids and were excited to tell big sister all about it! The tire swing was a hit -- one of my old favorites for sure!!

Bitter Sweet

BIG boy!!

TODAY is the day! For good and for bad. Let's start with the good news. Little J went on his first outing keeping his underpants DRY since our major project began last Friday! Go Little J!! Our excursion was to the library and he went potty twice during the 45 minutes we were there but I was more than thrilled! This 'major project' was delayed due to moving and transition and if it goes well then we'll all be happy--including our budget with only one in diapers!
Now, for the not-so-good news. I no longer have a husband. Well, I do, but an absentee husband. No husband to hold my hand or snuggle with or watch movies with or do the dishes, make dinner or handle the yahoos. He's on his way. Poor guy has to spend 11 hours in the JFK airport today, unless he ventures into NYC. But, I doubt that as he only got 2 hours of sleep on the plane last night. Then tonight, he's off to Germany for a shorter layover then to Manchester for his conference before "settling" in Moscow in a couple different apartments. What am I going to do without my favorite person in the whole wide world?! Well, my plan is simple. Get trim and not go insane. Luckily, we live in the age of the internet. Ahh, what would we do without the internet. We can instant message, we can send emails and pictures and videos and even webcam and talk for FREE!! All making those long-distant relationships a little less distant.
So, today HOORAY for the internet and public restrooms!!

The chain the kids and I made for the 88 days big J is gone from us + 12 extra red and green links for the time between when he is home and Christmas!!

....The Rest of the Story

OK, so, one of the bonuses of big J being in school--SUMMER is as we knew it as children--lots of play time. Man, we're going to be so spoiled though that his leaving is going to be truly rotten. That's the downside. B and I were talking about how long the chain we'll be making, as we've always done, will be and that it may need to span more than one room. In the words of little A, BLEH! So, back to happier thoughts--the rest of our summer vacation.........

Our first time on top of the Conference Center!! We got to show the kiddos where the apostles and prophets and other leaders of the church speak during conference and walk around Temple Square and visit the Church History Museum. Big J even got to practice a little Russian as a couple from Russia were there and knew little to no English. So, that was good he could help them find out a little about the church in their own language. Where else, other than NY perhaps can you find someone within minutes who can speak any number of languages??!

Bowling in Bountiful. Little A really wanted a piece of the bowling balls.

I let her end my round and she was estatic

The cats were out early in the morning at Hogle Zoo

This Amur Leopard wanted to eat us for breakfast and the kids got a huge kick out of it looking for a way out. Of course they're tough with glass between them

We even saw some monkeys at the zoo ;)

This is B riding a horse at Gardner Village where we met up with a college friend and her cute kids. Little J opted out

We stopped in Teton National Park on the way to Yellowstone and took a ferry across Jenny Lake before doing this short hike to Hidden Falls. The kids did another fantastic job hiking

Castle Geyser on the Old Faithful path. We saw 3 big geysers and several smaller ones.

Little A enjoyed this little photo op with Dad. What a doll!!

The bison were in rare form while we were there. Apparently hot and bothered they rolled in the dirt quite a bit and refused to get off the road for anyone. Although Big J did rough up several when we were in a hurry to get back to camp before the little ones fell asleep. Ahh, the things we do for sanity sake :)

After Yellowstone we hooked up with my grandparents in small town Montana where we also met up with my parents for a night before we took off for Glacier. Here we are stopped at Flathead Lake and Little J is suprising us yet again by being a dare devil

Glacier National Park proved herself beautiful. Here we are hiking up to a lake above Logan Pass on the famous Going to the Sun Highway

The kids really enjoyed this well-named "Weeping Wall"

Glacier's popular Avalanche Lake hike. This 5-mile round-trip hike took you up into this basin with mountains on just about every side, this lake and beautiful, long waterfalls. B hiked the entire way and Little J did all but about a mile or so of it--what amazing hikers they are!! (We did run on the downhills, which made it go quicker and kept up the excitement!)

Grandpa and Grandma took Little A on a boat ride around McDonald Lake while we did the hike. She LOVED it!!

After the hike/boat ride we took the kids in this river going into the Lake. The water was absolutely freezing but it was 100 degrees outside so wasn't so bad. Big J, my dad and B were the only ones to brave a complete submersion--I only got shoulder high and don't regret it

Little J was in heaven with the rock island we waded to

Rocks + water + Little J = one giddy boy

Even Big J had a hay day in this river with a bit of cliff jumping. He went several times and discovered he could ride the canal leading into this deep pool. I just love him!!

The condo that we stayed at during our time in Glacier was pish-posh and this was our jacuzzi tub. The kids had a blast in it! (btw, check out little A's tan line--what an outside baby!!)