Ice Cream Social

Summer is coming to a close and the school year is right around the corner.  I've been up in my classroom off and on for the last month, tugging the boys along with me.  Meetings and training days have begun, which officially means summer is over for me!

And the ice cream social is the official welcome back for all of the students.  This was last night at school and I welcomed most of the kiddos coming into my classroom.  This always gets me excited to start the year!!

Cannon also met his first grade teacher, Mrs. Green.  Of course, Mrs. Green isn't unfamiliar to Cannon since he knows all of the teachers at Mt. Meadow.  And Mrs. Green was my student teacher four years ago, as well as my long term substitute when Colson was born.  And we went to her house this summer!  But even though Cannon IS NOT ready for summer to be over, he was excited for the ice cream social and to see his new classroom and reacquaint with friends. 

Cannon and Mrs. Green.

Cannon is reading the treasure hunt he had to complete.  He hunted for things around his classroom!

Colson hung out and got to check out Cannon's classroom, too!

Thank you to Grandpa and Grandma Anderson for bringing Cannon up to school and for Chris for coming up after work.  They all got to hang out as Cannon checked out his new room.  

Enjoying every moment!

Sunday Funday!

I can't believe that I am saying this, but I love that we can get pretty much anywhere around the Puget Sound in a day on the "white boat" (as we call it).  The cat is easy to ride in for the most part and take the rough stuff with ease.  It goes fast enough that we don't have to worry too much about time, either.

This Sunday, we took the boat out and headed south, en route to Olympia.  We put in at Point Defiance and cruised south, under the Tacoma Narrows Bridge, between McNeil Island & Anderson Island and past the south end of the Key Peninsula.  MaryAnne and Barney happened to be on a buoy at JoEmma State Park, so we tied up to them for an hour and spent some time catching up.  Then we continued down to Olympia.

It was lunch time by the time we docked and made it up to the Farmers Market, so we all shared some Mexican Food (lots of it...too much for us to eat!) and then spent some time walking the boardwalk, letting the boys play at the park and seeing the sand castles that just happened to be there that day.  We finished up the day with some ice cream (and a slushy for Colson).

Perfect day together.

Enjoying every moment.

Lacamus Fair

Saturday was a perfect day for a small country fair.

Great weather.
Great place.
Great people.
Great memories.

Last year Granny Joy took Cannon to the Lacumus Fair and they had a wonderful time.  So this year, Joy planned for most of her grand kids go and have fun all together.  We did have fun.  Especially the kids.  They enjoyed looking at the chickens, holding baby chicks, watching the horses, making some crafts, decorating cupcakes, walking the ropes, having lunch together, getting their faces painted and much more.  Both Cannon and Colson received a blue ribbon for their cupcake decorating 'skills' and Colson got a blue ribbon for the horse he made.  Lots of fun!

Lots of memories made!
Enjoying every moment.

What's Going On

Years down the road I will be glad I record some of the activities and everyday moments from out days. Here are some things that I want to remember...

I am changing grades this year.  I am moving to third grade and had to move classrooms.  Moving classrooms sucks.  It's exhausting physically and mentally putting together a new classroom.  But it's nice to finally have things in place and the room is looking good.

Cannon is NOT ready to go back to school.  He loves summer and lives for the weekends.  He is a home-body and enjoys playing at home.  He will be fine once school starts but right now, he is still happy that it is summer break!

Chris had to fly to Spokane for a day to their Truss Plant over there.  He worked with them to set up a plan for replacing all of their tables.  Chris will be going back in a couple weeks to oversee the process.

Colson is counting like crazy (but still misses the number 13) and I found him this morning lining up the number magnets in order.  He's been saying numbers that he sees at the store and every where we go.  I love to hear him!  He is like a sponge, learning so much all of the time.

The boys have been enjoying some ice cream, which was left by Grandma and Grandpa.  They love their chocolate ice cream after dinner!

Chris and Cannon rode the motorcycle to Mayfield Lake Friday night.  They stayed the night and then took the motor home to dump the tanks.  Then, they rode back Saturday morning.

We have a new principal this year at Mountain Meadow.  We are looking forward to getting to know Jeff Byrnes!  He seems like a great fit for our school!

Enjoying every moment!

This Is Life

There is never a dull moment when you have kids.
Life is full of craziness, messes, disagreements, stories, toys, tears, as well as laughter.

Here are a few photos from our crazy life with kids.

Colson swinging and climbing on the swing set.  The boys have been playing a lot outside and enjoying having some things to climb on.

Cannon hooked up the wagon to the lawn mower.  They continually amaze me and make me laugh.

Ice cream bar.  Yummy after dinner treat on a warm evening.

The toys at Walmart are always good for 10-15 minutes of fun.  They love pretending to play.  Free entertainment!

Working together to building a huge truck and long (really long) trailer out of legos.

We stopped and used Cannon's free ice cream cone coupons this week.  The boys each got a vanilla cone. They deserved it after spending the morning with me at school!

More building and creating.  This time with the train tracks.  Each day the track is changed and moved. The train tracks are Colson's "thing" but at times, Cannon joins in.

Enjoying every moment!

Mt. St. Helens

Our road trip took us around the back side of Mt. St. Helens on our last day.  We wanted to travel the back roads on the way home and ended up going through some more beautiful country.  The ride was awesome, however parts of the road were a bit rough.  Quite a few patches in the road that launched me off my seat!
Even so, it was worth it.  Sunny skies.  Warm breezes.  Great views.  Amazing.

Looking at St. Helens from the side.  

Spirit Lake, which after the eruption, grew in size and is 200+ feet higher 

than where it originally was.  All of the logs to the right were blown off the hills

and into the lake.  

We climbed up these steps (a lot of them) to the look out and

it was well worth the climb.  Our motorcycle is down there right

in the middle!  

View from the top.  You can see pretty far in all directions and can see the devastation

from the blast.  There is a great view of Spirit Lake and you can see Mt. Adams as well as the top of Mt. Rainier.   

This was a great way to end our trip!

Enjoying every moment.

Mount Hood

The best part about our trip is that we were on an adventure...meaning most of it was not planned.  So we went where we wanted to go, when we wanted to.  When we decided we were going to go west along the Columbia, Chris decided to take a scenic trip around Mt. Hood.  I'm sure glad we did.  It was an awesome ride in beautiful weather.  Traveling through the mountains on a motorcycle, you feel the warmth of the sun and the warm breezes.  However, as we rode past rivers and waterfalls, the temperature dropped instantly, and then got warmer as we rode on.  You smell every smell and can see so much.  The views of Mt. Hood were amazing.  Neither of us had been this close to Mt. Hood.

Such great new memories!
Such great adventures.

Enjoying every moment!

Happy Anniversary Trip

Happy 18th Anniversary to us!

This year we celebrated with a 5-day motorcycle trip.  It was A-MAZ-ING!

We left Thursday morning and headed east over Chinook Pass, down through Hermiston, Oregon, over the Blue Mountains and on to Bakercity, Oregon.  Friday morning, we headed to Hells Canyon and back up over the mountains, through Joseph and Enterprise into Wallowa.  Saturday, we backtracked and found a car show in Enterprise and then stopped in Joseph for a couple of hours.  We then headed north and enjoyed an amazing ride up to Walla Walla.  Sunday, we headed west along the Columbia River with stops at Stonehenge and Hood River before making a loop around Mt. Hood, which was so beautiful.  We ended up in Portland, finding a place to stay along Columbia. Sunday, we started our way north around the backside of Mt. St. Helens and up to Windy Ridge where we were fascinated with the effects still seen from the eruption 34 years ago.  We made it home by 5pm.

We saw saw so much beautiful scenery, went to many new places and made great memories!  This was a trip all about going on an adventure together.  It was definitely about us.  And that is a good thing.

More pictures and specific stories will come in later posts.

This was one of our favorite trips together.  We loved every part of it.  Let's plan the next one!

Enjoying every moment!

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Staff Room Painting

Our school is 20 years old.  It's still in great shape however the staff room is in need of a bit of a make-over. This past year, I finally decided to pull together some help and at least get it painted.  A wonderful parent who has an eye for decorating helped us choose some paint colors.  After a staff vote, we decided to go with a very calm gray on three walls and a turquoise on the fourth wall.

A couple of days ago we set out to re-paint over the old looking walls and bring a little bit of life back into the one place staff members can go to sit and catch their breath.  

A number of staff showed up to help and we were able to finish painting in under three hours.  It was fun to get together, see each other after the summer break, catch up and see some change happening as we were talking.  It's amazing what a fresh coat of paint does to a room.  

As soon as we can get some things pushed back to where they belong, we'll be able to see what else we need to add to the room.  The complete make-over may take all year to complete, but at least we got started.  

Enjoying every moment. 

Chickens and Veggies

At the last minute, we ended up taking a drive to Miss Penny's house to check out a chalk board she has for us to use in the staff room.  (Today we repainted and will be slowly re-decorating!)

The boys loved being there because they got to feed the chickens, help change the water and collect the eggs!  The boys brought home a dozen eggs that they collected!

Also, they found some yummy carrots to pull up and some tomatoes to pick.  Miss Penny also gave us some beans, cucumber and zucchini to take home too.  

An hour of great, unexpected fun!

Enjoying every moment!