School Update

This is what we saw when we picked up the kids yesterday. Isn't he the cutest Clifford you've ever seen?!

Nathan is loving school! He's had a hard time going the last few days because allergies are making him stuffy. But a little medicine and he's good to go. He's made some new friends. Last year there were only 6 girls in his class, this year is the opposite, there are only 7 boys. Nathan has two very wiggly teeth. He'll be singing "All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth" for sure. At home he's working hard on his numbers, he loves to do math. He couldn't grasp that 100+100 was 200 though. It sort of blew his mind. It was pretty cute, the other day Nathan asked Teresa to tell him all the spanish words and then say them "humanly". He even gave her an example "adios amigos" means Good-bye friends. Nathan is excited to be "reading". He has a ways to go before he can read the books all on his own, but the confidence is there now. He read me a story the other night with a very small amount of help.

Teresa is suffering with allergies too, but beraing through it. Today they didn't start school until after 9am, she loved sleeping in a little. Then her and I had breakfast together after the guys had left. It was nice! Things are still moving along smoothly. They dressed out for the first time on Tuesday and today they will dress out and actually start P.E. She tells us all the new spanish words she's learned and has been inspired by her Enlgish class/teacher to start writing a book she has had in her head since 4th grade. She's always singing or humming her choir songs. She's loving it! She's the only Soprano 1 freshman, and she's felt a little out of place, but she's been able to make some friends already. Biology - she doesn't like the teacher and the class is a bit challenging. But she's glad to have only one teacher she doesn't like, and only one glass that she has to work extra hard in.

This weekend we're off to a family reunion in Anaheim and then a visit to the beach.

First day of school at new schools

Both kids have big years. Teresa is a freshman at Frontier High School, and Nathan is in kindergarten at Rosedale North.

Let's start with Nathan... his class starts at 7:45 ends at 11:10(same as last year) He is very excited to be back in school, it hardly matters what they learn, he just loves being in school. Yesterday he said he learned that his class is noisy, but assured me he wasn't part of it.

Here he is with his parent folder. They don't use backpacks in K at RN.
They'll get blue book bags soon

After school with his teacher, Mrs. Zauner.
She's making sure all the kids get to the right parent

Teresa's classes start at 7:30, we actually left our house at 7am on Monday. I was impressed. She was pretty nervous up until her LINK crew person sent her a text wishing her good luck on the first day, then she was fine. She had a great day! She had something good to say about all of her classes.

Per. 1 - Advanced Women's Ensemble - she is a soprano 1
Per. 2 - Biology - She hasn't met her lab partner, he wasn't there. They did a questionnaire about the teacher, completely guessing things about him and she guessed the most and won a candy bar. She thought that was really cool
Per. 3  - P.E. - They sat around, which was cool because she has it the same period as quite a few of her friends
Per. 4 -Lunch - She said their cafeteria is so cool, it has booths and lots of different food options
Per. 5 -English - It's the subject she loves
Per. 6 - Algebra - This is a repeat of last years course per our request. She passed it last year, but we didn't think she actually understood it, so she agreed it would be best to try again and this time she's pretty confident she'll get it. She was impressed with all the different ways you can get help with math if you need it at FHS
Per. 7 - Spanish - turns out she knows of her teacher. Her kids take piano from Marisha. Teresa said the teacher talked in Spanish most of the time and she sort of understood - that made her happy.

All in all a great day - AND to top it off, a super cute ID Card

Summer Vacation Day 8, 9 and 10

Tuesday we packed everything up said and both families headed to Williamsburg, VA.
First, here are some pictures of their yard and house. OH! I have to mention the first night we were there I saw my first every lightening bugs. Very Cool!

It was a long drive, but we stopped for lunch at Macado's and made it there about 5pm.

 

It's blurry, but proof I saw a cardinal.

Wednesday morning we drove to Virginia Beach, VA

It reminded me a lot of San Diego beaches. Very crowded, lots of buildings and warmer water. This was warmer water than San Diego, but also warmer temperatures as well.

I got lots of Seth cuddles

 Thursday we made a breakfast stop at Krispy Kremes(YUM!) And then on to the airport. The Norfolk airport was so nice. Small and Manageable, but the people were nice. One TSA guy greeted Nathan and game him some wings. Another was playing with him, wondering where his donuts were. We had a delay there, but still managed to get our connecting flight in DC to LAX. We flew there with Frontier and were very impressed. We flew home with United and ended  up a little disapointed. They just need to upgrade their planes a little.

We had a great time and loved coming home. We let vacation extend into the weekend at home too with some relaxing

Summer Vacation Day 6 and 7

Sunday we slept! We had been going and going - we were sore and tired. In the afternoon the Mattson's took us to Mabry Mill.

The cousins

Mabry Mill

Some good old fashioned  music

Monday we had a lot of fun hiking

The cousins at the Pond

The beaver lodge

We were hoping to see turtles sunbathing on the logs, but it was raining. Teresa spotted this one on the edge of the pond, and Jonathan grabbed it out so everyone could see it. It was a beautiful turtle

It was beautiful - Think Rain Forest, and to add to that it had rained

Nathan fell off a rock and into some stinging nettle.

Luckily I had packed the cortizone cream because we had mesquito  bites from the day before.

I smeared him in the stuff and by the time we got to the falls it was better

Cascade Falls

Swimming after a 2 mile hike to Cascade Falls 

Summer Vacation Day 4 and 5

Friday morning we picked up a car and started our drive to the Mattson's house. But first we stopped and had lunch in Maryland, unfortunately our original plans were cancelled. Then we stopped and toured the Shenandoah Caverns. They were very interesting, and the caverns were cool.

Outside the Caverns was another tourist attraction with lots of old parade floats.
We didn't go in, but this was outside the building - a huge Cutie

On our drive from DC to Dublin, VA we were in the worst rain I've ever seen. It was crazy! People had their hazzards on and some pulled over under overpasses to wait it out.
Friday night we arrived at the Mattson's house. We had a wonderful visit and a good nights rest.

Saturday everyone went to Chris's company party. There were a lot of fun things for the kids.

Bungee bouncing

Bounce Houses and games

Here is Seth, Jen and Chris' fifth. He's just 2 months old

Teresa and Seth (this wasn't an uncommon face Seth gave us)

The road to the Mattson's house

The Mattson's took us to their favorite spot on the river by their house. It was so nice!

Teresa was collecting sea weed - river weed?

Summer Vacation Day 3

Thursday morning we had another full day planned. First, The National Zoo. Everyone chose a spot they really wanted to go while in DC and Nathan's was the zoo. He enjoyed it, but I wouldn't recommend it(at all)

It was a very hot and humid day - so frozen yogurt for lunch sounded good

To get around DC we were using the Metro system. To get to the zoo you had to go up the hugest escalator I've ever seen. I was saying it was like 3 escalators in one. It was seriously impressive.(Teresa took a picture, but her camera decided to vacation a little longer in VA- it should be back soon)

Painted Panda

From inside the Metro

After the zoo we had the National Museum of American History and the Natural History museum on the agenda.

The original Muppets

Pardon the blur, but it shows a huge doll house

These are a few from the Natural History Museum

The Hope Diamond