First Day of School 2011

That's right, the boys first day was yesterday. I was nervous how Nate would do going all day since last year he continually stated "I'm going half-day for the rest of my life!", but when the time came to start first grade...he was excited. He had no problem going into class, especially since one of his good buddies from kindergarten is in his class this year.

He did say afterwards that he liked first grade, but the day was too long. Mac quickly assured him that he thought the same thing when he was in first grade, but he got used to it. That's all the reassurance Nate needed.


Here's our big first and second grader!


They no longer have a bus stop right in front of our house (I knew that was too good to last long!), we now have to walk about a block. The boys are excited that they now ride with three of their good buddies. I'm also excited that these gaggle of boys ride together instead of the boys being on their own like last year.


Another year has started...

One Summer Trip to Remember

I'm getting a little behind...but I'm going to see how many posts I can cram in before school starts on Monday! I'm going to start with our trip to Washington. My whole family (all siblings w/families) made it out to Washington to help my Grandpa celebrate his 80th birthday. It was awesome. These pics will show you why....


My Grandpa's in the middle surrounded by his 4 grandchildren and their spouses, 9 great-grandchildren and of course my parents. We're all accounted for!


Every night, this is where we hung out. It's a tight squeeze inside the house, but fortunately we had beautiful weather and were able to sit around the firepit every night.


Here are the sleeping quarters!


Our eating quarters...hey, how come we're still at the kids table?!


Mac, Nate and Morgyn went to VBS each morning at the church I grew up in...so we started the day with a leisurely walk up the road. Other than that, there was no agenda, just great time with family.


Mac, Morgyn, Nate and Carter feeding the horses. This was just down our road.


The younger ones. We figured out that Elly, Katie Ann and Carter will all start kindergarten at the same time.


My mom collected a bunch of stuff to do in the backyard, including playing some baseball.


Watch out grandpa!!!


Elly and Katie Ann. Katie Ann is almost a year older than Elly and lives in Georgia. We're thinking they'll be great pen pals!


We went to the beach one day.


Sam and I realized that this was the first time we'd been to this beach since our wedding reception 11 years ago.


It was a lot of fun.

More pics from the beach...



Beth and I


Nick, Marianne, Katie Ann and Harrison. They travelled the farthest...from Georgia.


Elly just got a little dirty


Found the warm sand with Grandma


Nate agrees the warm sand is the place to be.

At the end of our trip, my grandpa treated us to a stay at the Great Wolf Lodge. It's a big indoor water park that I'm pretty sure we all enjoyed. I don't have any great pictures of the waterslides...but let's just say they were awesome! My parents even hung out with the little ones while they napped, so all the adults got some time on the big ones.

Here's a pic of my grandpa with his 9 great-grandchildren at the Great Wolf Lodge...a few have their ears on.

We had such a great time with the Glasers. It's always hard to say goodbye, but I guess that just shows how much you love everyone and are going to miss them. I am so blessed and extremely grateful to belong to a family where we all LOVE being together.

After we left Washington, we drove East to Montana to visit some more family. We were able to see one of Sam's cousins in Missoula, stay with another in Bozeman, then finally spend some time with Sam's grandma in Billings.


In Bozeman, with Sam's cousin Paul and his family


Grandma Marge with the kids.

It was a great trip. A fine way to end our Summer.