our last first day of kindergarten

spencer started kindergarten yesterday. elijah started 2nd grade, and jake started 5th. everything went well. the teachers seem great. we are looking forward to a great 5th, 2nd, and kinder year.

It seems harder every year to get them to take a decent "first day of school" photo. here are the attempts:

hmmm, eli is not looking and spencer is "posing"

eli is looking, but spencer is still posing, and doing his weird lip curl.

????????
close enough.

off to lunch
mmmmm, pb&j with all the trimmings.

san francisco

pier 39. there are sea lions in the background . . . look closely.

alcatraz
pier 39's double decker caurosel
a crazy twisty tree in golden gate park.

eugene (i may be in love with oregon)

reno

We celebrated the 4th of July in Reno this year. On Saturday, we were in a parade!!!

We spent the afternoon in Virginia City NV. They love gold, gambling, and Mark Twain.

On Sunday, we enjoyed a lovely barbecue with family. There were s'mores:

homemade ice cream:

and some badminton. We had a fabulous Fourth. Hope you did too!!

lake tahoe

We got to spend a week in Lake Tahoe with almost all of Brent's family. The weather was amazing and we had a blast. We hiked to Vikingsholm in Emerald Bay:

There were some very friendly geese there.

About 2/3 of the way through the hike, we stopped at a small beach and there was a lovely little lean-to in which to rest our weary feet.

There was a waterfall.

Spencer was an awesome little trooper. He was my hiking buddy and did a great job telling jokes and singing songs to keep things interesting.

I'm still learning how to take sunset pictures: Here are Brent, his brother Dave, and his mom Camma.

We spent a full day at the beach and though the water was chilly and there was a little wind, we had a great day. I'm not used to seeing snow-capped mountains across the water when I go to the beach.

Nor am I used to seeing entire lady bug colonies on a log. It was a day full of new experiences.

We also did a little kayaking and jet skiing.

We loved Lake Tahoe.

happy valentine's day

I know I'm a bit early but I thought these were so cute and if you wanted to use the idea, it would be nice to see it before all the school parties on Friday. My friend Shannon showed me this blog, who "borrowed" the idea from this blog. They came out so cute and they were SUPER easy. Start to finish (take photos, upload to costco, pick up photos, grab lollies, cut, insert lollies) for 3 boys; 3 hours. Amazing, and pretty cheap.

mission model

jake has finished his mission model. he did a great job and i think he learned a lot. it was fun to see all the other kids' models in his class. they were each very creative. go 4th graders!!

tales of a fourth grade california mission project

Jake will be making a model of the Mission San Fernando Rey de Espana for his fourth grade project. So we took a little field trip to check it out. It has been beautifully restored.

we giggled when we saw the "beware of dog" sign. Totally authentic.
Original adobe, left exposed for us to enjoy.


We'll post photos of the project when its finished.