Week 1, Check!

Well, I made it through the first week :). I have been having tons of fun with my kids, and we have been so very busy in class. Partly because they have so much energy, and partly because it takes them a long time to do everything right now. I am praying for a quick adjustment to our routine so that we can get more learning in, and if we get more learning in, then we have more time for fun things! I am not quite sure how I made it through the week without turning into a lump on the couch by the end... as I was up at 5:45 every morning, to school at 7:30/45, and didn't get home until 5 or 6! The excitement of everything must have kept me going. This week I am already much more on top of things, so hopefully, not quite so many late nights. The kids love the reading loft that I had our handyman build! And such a motivation for them to get their work done, too.

The reading loft is in the back corner

Backpack hooks (also new)
Front of the room

Today my school had their annual yard sale, pancake breakfast, and book fair. I was there bright and early at 6:30am to help with the yard sale (meaning... still had to get up at 5:45 :-P). It went really well though, and they raised a lot of money! A family at the school owns a furnature store, and they donated a few items from their store (that's right, new furniture, at a garage sale!). Most of it went in less than 5 minutes, but there were 2 lonely recliners that weren't selling. Matt and I said we'd take one recliner for $50 (was $100), and when still no one had claimed the other at the end, they said we could take both for $50, sweet! Now we have a chair in our office, and our bedroom.

Boring Blog Background

Somehow my theme/graphics in the sidebars are gone :(. And it is not working to put the same one or a new one on... hmm....

Hello Seattle and friends... the rest of our trip.

We were in town in time for Andrea's wedding :)

Went for a hike to good ol' Wallace Falls with
Dan and Christina, and Brian and Mallory

At the Millcreek street fair with Jordan, Al, and Evangeline!

Lucca's early b-day gift from Auntie and Uncle... pure 2-yr-old delight!

Auntie and Uncle play date at the park

One last time with the little ones before we had to say goodbye.
Endless entertainment with water, rocks, and a bucket!

This kid knows how to have fun!

The Fabulous San Juan Islands

While visiting my fam in Seattle, we went with my parents on their boat for a weekend in the San Juans. I haven't been to the smaller islands that I grew up camping on most summers, for like 7 years and 11 years. It's one of my most favorite places I've ever been :).

Going through the Ballard Locks

We stayed the first night on the boat in LaConner.

Day 2, a visit to Sucia Island!

As kids, we would climb in these wind caves.

Looking from crabs and other little creatures on the beach
This crab was my fav :)
Crabbies!
Sea anemones under the dock at the marina in Friday Harbor (San Juan Island).

On Saturday, the rest of the fam came on the ferry to join us :)
Lunch with the fam!
Lookin at the fishies
Love these 2 so much!
Sunday visit to Jones Island

Carissa and Brandon (who are now engaged!)
Tide pools!
My wonderful parents who gave us a great weekend :)
The ol' picture taking tree (we have many a nostalgic pic on here as kids)

It was a little cloudy the day we left, but by that evening it was crystal clear blue skies with abundant sunshine for the rest of the weekend :).

Working backwords... Jonkman visit.

Matt's family flew out our way and we met them in Fairfield (30-40 min from Napa) for the weekend. We spent a day seeing the sights along the coast at Point Reyes National Seashore, the San Andreas fault line, and a little drive down good ol' Hwy 1.

At Point Reyes we went to the light house, where you have to walk down 308 steps to get to it.

It was really cool to see all the crystals, and hear about the crazy people who had to travel down to the lighthouse every couple of hours to reset everything, and pretty much continuously feed it coal, 24 hours a day. They obviously don't use that one anymore (there is a new, electric light and horn right next to it).We spent a day going to a Brewery (Russian River) and a few wineries in the Sonoma Valley area.

And then one more day wine tasting at wineries in Napa Valley. We had beautiful weather (except for it was a bit cold and windy at Point Reyes), enjoyed the beautiful scenery, and good company.

Chateau Montelena from the movie, Bottle Shock

Berringer

A wine cave tour at El Dotto

Josh had to leave early on Monday, after Napa, but then Mel, Kathy, and Amy stayed at our house Monday night. They headed out to see the rest of Matt's fam and returned on Friday, before they left Saturday morning. We showed them around town, at our schools, went to In-N-Out, and enjoyed having an extra handy man and kitchen hand :)

Home, Sweet Home.

I am going to try to write a little on here this morning, since Samson woke us up with some kind of coughing/hacking noise at 4 am and I couldn't get back to sleep after that! Boo. Poor puppy though too; I don't know what the coughing was about, but he's been acting strange and sleeping and hiding a lot since Saturday morning, and I took a closer look last night and found dozens of tiny scabs/bumps all over his back :(. We are going to get him some special shampoo today, hopefully that will work so we won't have to take him to the vet.

Anyways, I go back to work today (in about an hour, actually), and I must say that I may not be quite ready for school to start, but I am ready for being home and settling into a routine again! I love weekends away, vacationing, and exploring as much as the next guy; but it's exhausting and a lot of work to be gone so much!