1st Day of 1st Grade

Sam was a real trooper, going to a new school this morning with new teachers, new kids, new classrooms without even batting an eye. I was a bundle of nerves and I just had to drop him off, grab a bagel and leave! I think he's going to do great this year, and though he misses his friends (especially Garrick), I watched him start making new friends and putting down new roots. Thank heavens for the resilience of kids!

Images of Summer

Send it Soaring

Last weekend was our annual trip to the Kite Festival. We had a great time and are so grateful to Grandma for taking us! Here are some picture highlights of the trip:

And now summer is over. Sad! Sam starts school on Thursday, and Grace starts a week from today. Whatever will I do with only one child at home?

Rick's Birthday

This last weekend we drove over to the west side of the state to celebrate Rob's brother Rick's birthday. We left Friday and decided to stop for lunch at Snoqualmie Falls. This is just over the pass through the Cascades; about an hour from Grandma's house. The view at the top is stunning, and there's a nice little 1 mile hike down to the river at the bottom of the falls.

Sam and Grace both enjoyed the river and climbing all over the rocks. Sam's grey shirt was almost the same color as most of the rocks there so he blended in very well which made for some heart-stopping moments for me when I couldn't see him anywhere!

Eva was pretty tired by the time we were at the bottom so we didn't stay long.

She was asleep within minutes of the hike back up. Though the trail is short, it gets pretty steep at the end. It isn't easy with a babe in arms. The trail is lined with wild blackberry bushes which were just beginning to ripen. Sam and Grace loved looking for the black ones and we ate quite a bit.

We got to Rob's mom's house about dinner time and got the kids settled in and to bed. It had been a long day so we were all pretty tired. Rob and I had just gone to bed ourselves when Karen, Rob's sister poked her head in the room and told Rob there was a policeman here to see him. Turns out some kids thought it would be fun to throw rocks at windows as they walked down the street. Our car got hit, as well as quite a few others. We didn't get a picture of the window right after it was hit. This is what it looked like after Rob knocked all the broken glass out. We were lucky to find someone who could fix it on Saturday.

Saturday we went to Rick's house for a crab boil. I'm not very fond of these since I don't like seafood, but Rob's family are all quite keen. They are very expensive though so its an only-for-special-occasions dinner.

After the food is all cooked, you dump it out down the center of the table. Everyone has their own dish of melted butter and you just dig in. I had grilled chicken. No butter.

Everyone looks bored in this picture, but it really was a lot of fun. That's the birthday boy in the back in the blue shirt. And I don't think he's really picking his nose.

Eva was very well behaved the entire weekend, except for when we were driving, when she did a lot of this:

And finally, here's a picture of Grace with Auntie Kathryn, and the quilt that she made for Grace. It is even more beautiful in person and Grace loves it!