First Day of First Grade

Photos 1---Lanny after the tears and before school, ready to take on the world!
2&3---After school, with Afflerbach Elementary in the background.
4---The playground, obviously the best part of school, next to art class. (Yes, I know how dangerous leaving Kessie in the swing alone was, but I wanted her in the shot, don't worry, I ran like the Flash!
Holy Cow, I know. Lanny is already in first grade. We had some tears this morning, but we all made it. Lanny was all smiles when I picked him up, and plans on returning tomorrow for another day of learning. He even wishes that I was in first grade so that I could have his teacher Mrs. Jackson, who apparently is very nice. I asked him if she was nice, or if she turned into a screaming maniac when no one was looking. He looked at me as if I was a bigger dope than usual and said "Mom, she just talks, that's all." When I went to pick him up he informed me that he already knew the way to the playground and that he had asked and we were allowed to go out and play as long as I was with them. This is a new school for Lanny, the fourth in three years and I am very proud of how he adjusts. His school has over 500 students, almost double what his last one did. He is already making friends. He must get that from Aaron, because personally I started panicking when I saw all the people. It is a hard adjustment again having him gone, and the girls miss him, but we are all excited for the great adventure of first grade!

Trip

So I'm finally getting around to sharing our trip memories. My camera croaked, so sorry, no pictures in Salt Lake, but here a few that Grandma Karen took. The kids and I got back last week from a trip to visit the Grandma and Grandpa with the acorns (Evans) and then up to Star Valley to visit the Grandma and Grandpa with the horsies (Johnson). Unfortunately Aaron had to work, so it was just the four of us. Nothing too major happened along the way, thankfully, so I feel especially blessed to have had such a safe trip. We did so much that I won't be able to tell you about all of it, so I will just highlight a few things. The kids loved swimming in G&G Evans pool! They also loved to tease Uncle Brian, he is a great sport. First thing Lanny did when we got there was to find a snail and snatch it right up for his collection. He was thrilled! We also visited Uncle Clark and got to know a new friend named Logan (Clark's fiancee's son). Louie and Logan spent an amazing amount of time splashing each other in the wading pool. I've never seen two people hit it off so well. We went to Bear Lake with Uncle Derek and his friend. It was a bit chilly, but the kids were glad to spend time with Uncle Derek. In Star Valley we rode horses (Louie made sure of that), fished, canoed, ate hot dogs and marshmallows, and visited family. Since we did so much, I asked the kids what their favorite parts of the trip were.
Lanny liked---going under the water at the (Evans) swimming pool (for those of you who don't know, it is actually a hot tub, but the kids love the "little" pool), picking peas and carrots out of Grammie Karen's garden, and watching movies at both places we visited.
Louie liked---riding horsies (the minute she woke up she was asking to ride, and we had to say goodbye to all the horses before we left), picking carrots, and the pool and swimming.
Kessie liked---well, she still doesn't say a lot, but she did learn to say Grandma and Grandpa on this trip, I know she loved the horses (she now pretends to be a horse most of the time), and she loved it when Grandpa Evans chased her around the house.
I loved seeing everyone and watching my children enjoy themselves. I loved swimming in Palisades river/lake, having Lanny take me canoeing, watching huge smiles as Louie and Kessie rode the horses, playing baseball (even though I fell in a hole), and having the Evans clan all come up to see us. Even better was when we got home and got to see Daddy again. He had surprises for us. He had caught some frog eggs which had hatched into tadpoles and also a horny toad. He also made us a delicious homecoming dinner!
We love visiting our family, and wish we were closer, but it is always nice to be home. I have a new tolerance for Cheyenne after being away, and see now that it is not such a bad place to be!

Today

We just got back from vacation, and when I have time to write, I'll update everyone, but I just wanted to share a quick funny. I just went upstairs and found Lanny pushing and pulling, trying to get Louie's (clean, thank goodness) underwear onto Kessie's head. She was trying to be patient, but had finally had enough.
"What are you doing Lanny?"
"Mom, I'm trying to make Keston into a bank robber! I do it with my diaper all the time!"
So that's where he gets all that spare change!

Warnings

So I'm always grateful when people pass along information to help me keep my family safe. So I just wanted to pass along some to you. I have two warnings. Lanny taught me the first one. We were reading Disney's "The Jungle Book" and the children thought that Kaa (the snake) was a rattlesnake. I told them no, he wouldn't bite you, that kind of snake is very large and wraps itself around you and then squeezes you tighter and tighter until you die, and then you get eaten. Not the happiest of thoughts, but they took it well (hey, they asked the question, I wasn't going to lie to them.) I told them Kaa would have been a python, or maybe an anaconda (I'm sure I'm also mistaken about his identity.) Of course they love to learn, so as soon as Daddy came through the back door they ran over to him (after screaming, he'd startled us), and proceeded to impart to him their new found knowledge. They told him all about it, and they definitely imbellished the gruesome details. Daddy wanted to know what type of snake did such things. Louie was having a hard time getting the name of the snake out because she was trying to combine python and anaconda into one word, so Lanny helpfully jumped up and yelled,"They're called Leprechauns!!!"
Warning #1---Stay away from legrechauns, they are apparently more dangerous than we first assumed.
My second warning is about my own family. I didn't know that I was such a strict disciplinarian, but I am. Louie drew a picture and was explaining to Lanny about consequences. (She has been getting in trouble a lot lately, so this kind of stuff is on her mind.)
And I quote, "The first time you mess up, do you know what happens? You go to jail! The second time you mess up, do you know what happens? You get a coupon for an ice cream cone!" She didn't get any further, because something distracted her, but I was thinking wow, I don't want to mess up even once.
Warning #2--If you are going to come visit us and mess up in this house, do it twice. Maybe that will negate the first consequence!

9 Years

Can you believe it? Yesterday marked our 9 year anniversary (did I spell that right? oh well.) It has gone by so fast, and been more often than not happy and fun. I still feel like I'm 19 and if you ask me, Aaron gets better looking everyday! We have just been so blessed. I took a self portrait of Aaron and I yesterday and then promptly dropped the camera into the rocks. Aaron said he would have bought me a new camera if I had just asked. Somethings don't change, I still have no coordination. We didn't do much to celebrate. We actually both forgot, at least it was both of us. Our neighbors brought us dinner though, and even a cake that said "Happy Anniversary"! And seriously, what better way to celebrate than by not having to cook. It also meant we didn't have to go out to eat, which is a relief. When Kessie started giving Aaron raspberries at the dinner table we didn't get any weird stares!

Here it Goes

So I've decided to jump into the computer age. I have no idea what I am doing, but we'll see. I hope to be able to share the happy chaos in our lives with more family and friends through this blog. I'm not saying I'll update it regularly or anything, but hopefully enough to keep people up to date. As I learn more, I hope to make it prettier, but until I can get ahold of my friend to help me, this is it.
So here are some of our latest pictures from our camping trip last weekend. We got to use our new trailer for the first time, yipee! It is amazing how fun camping can be when you are able to get a good night's rest. We went west of Laramie into the Snowy Mountain Range. Lanny couldn't remember what they were called, so he kept asking when we were going to get to the "Icy's"?
Hope everyone is well, and here we go!