First Day of School...August 26th, 2013

Paisley's first day of 2nd GRADE!

 And boy does she have style!

 Paisley could hardly contain her excitement to start school at Highland Elementary.  She had Mr. Milne but after a few weeks they hired a new teacher, and she was switched to Mrs. Smith.  This is the 3rd year she has had a "first year" teacher.  But I think she likes it, and easily adjusts to whatever she needs to do.  She is super smart, gets 11/10 on almost all of her spelling tests (with the bonus surprise word), loves to read, and loves to be the leader of her little group of friends at recess.  I love that she loves school so much.

 Noah's first day of KINDERGARTEN!!

 He is going to afternoon kindergarten, so he was really anxious while taking pictures, and he just wanted to go.  Rowan really wanted to go with him too!

Oh, I was really, really, really, really emotional to see my sweet boy leave me for school.  He is my little buddy that always plays superhero's by my side at home, and I am really going to miss him.  So glad the kindergarten is half day.  I was not ready for him to be gone so much.  But it makes me so happy to see him learning and growing so much.  He has Mrs. Wilkerson, who is also a "first year" teacher.  Every day he comes home and tells me what the letter of the day was, and what he learned about.  

I have a tradition that I always do with Paisley, where when she leaves for school or anything, I roll down my window, and make the "I love you" sign with my hand.  So on the first day, I did that to him too, and it melted my heart to see him try to stick the right fingers up, then finally give up, and give me the "UTAH U" sign with both hands.  I guess that was easier.  Then he proceeded to turn and run into his class room.  I bawled of course the whole way home!  How did they all grow up so fast?  Every day since, he has given me the "U" sign, and then the "I love you sign" after. (He has gotten better at it now after lots of practice, hehe).  It is our special little goodbye, and I treasure it.

The Long Awaited Montana Trip!!

It was a happy happy Saturday when we got to pick up AnnDee at the airport the day before we left on our trip to Montana!  Paisley couldn't have been happier to see her, we were all very excited to be able to spend the whole upcoming week with her!  Yah!!!

 That night, lefty and righty (the mexican bed time story telling socks) came out for an exciting bed time story.  Early the next morning we would be getting up for the long drive to Montana!  The kids laughed and laughed.  I sat back and thought what lucky kids they are to have such a cool dad.

 We made a quick detour that morning to let AnnDee visit her mommy's grave.  I was gratefully wearing sunglasses so she couldn't see my tears.  It warmed my heart so much to see AnnDee so happy to see where her mommy was burried for the first time.  I was shocked at her reaction, not sad.  Just SO HAPPY to finally see and know this is where her mommy is.  She kissed her grave and gave her a sweet picture of her mommy's favorite place on earth, the place with the mountains and the 3 waterfalls.  We would be headed there in a few days for real life, and AnnDee couldn't wait!

 Let the driving begin....

 We stayed overnight in Missoula, to break up the trip a little bit.  Our hotel had a pool with 2 big water slides and the kids loved it!  They had so much fun releasing all of their energy from the long drive, and screaming with glee as they went over and over and over down the slides.

Then we finally got to Glacier National Park.  We first went on the Avalanche Hike, where the 3 waterfalls are (Missy's favorite place), where we played in the water, fed the chipmunks out of our hands, and saw some pretty cool deer.  Then we checked into our lodge, the Rising Sun Inn.  And of course, hit up Johnsons Cafe for some amazing homemade bread and soup, etc.  What a great first day!  The next day we headed to Many Glacier, then went back to St. Marys lake by our lodge, and picniced by the lake and played in the water.  Then the last day in Glacier, we headed out of the park, and stopped alot along the way to take a bunch of pictures, and headed to the lake house!  From there out we were pretty much out on the lake the remainder of the 5 days there in Woods Bay.  Honestly, this was one of my favorite vacations ever.  It was so relaxing every day by the lake, and the kids were happy to play in the water all day every day.  We will repeat this trip for sure.  I miss it already!  One of my favorite memories was one night after the kids had gone to bed, we sat around the fire for hours talking while listening to the live band across the bay play.  Then we all walked out to the dock and spread a small part of Missy's ashes.  We all talked and remembered our favortie things about her.  I though that she would have probably been the one to jump into the lake right there in the moonlight.  It was such a great bonding and healing moment for us all.