We celebrated the return of cooler weather with a short hike in the arboretum. The rain wanted to celebrate too, so we didn’t stay out too long. The girls were more interested in playing than posing for their Mama.

The bridges are fun to explore and dance on.

Shy grins can be shared.

A short hike, lots of silliness, a few shivers, fresh air, and a fun visit.

How this little girls has grown! Today was her first day of Kindergarten! She has been pretty excited all summer. Last night she had trouble falling asleep because of excitement.

The backpack sure looks big, but from previous experience it will shrink during the year.

Daddy walked Julia to class this morning. We asked Emily if she wanted to join Julia and she wanted to. When we got to the class Julia was bold and answered the questions asked of her and didn’t try to hide behind anyone. She is ready for her new adventure.

Julia with her teacher!

Our summer adventure for 2014 was a long and ambitious one. It was first inspired by Robby and Rachelle’s desire to visit the state of Oregon (48th state visited). Then, Emily inspired some of the trip stops by being very interested in volcanoes. And the last inspirations came from Robby’s interest in the Lewis and Clark expedition and Julia’s desire to see live bison.

We took two weeks to make the trip by car. It is hard to pick a favorite thing from the trip, but introducing the girls to so many cool places and watching their reactions had to be it. Sharing some of our favorite places with them was amazing. Julia’s favorite thing was seeing bison. Emily’s was our visit to Mount St. Helens.

We had promised Julia a bison sighting. We found one in a museum that was stuffed and she was pretty excited to get close to it. When we arrived at Yellowstone’s entrance gate, we found three just off the road keeping the grass cut low. Her excitement was so much fun to watch! We continued to see them throughout our stay at Yellowstone. Some were close to our hotel and some with babies were off in a field we passed. Definitely the highlight for her.

Before the trip Emily would tell you that she was most excited to see Mount St. Helens. On the way she was looking forward to that day. When the day came and she could see the mountain from an overlook she was jumping with excitement. She watched a movie about the days surrounding the eruption and all the different destructive flows that were caused by the volcanic event, she saw exhibits about what happened, she saw the mountain top from different viewpoints, she saw the growing glacier inside of the crater, and she saw the destroyed trees that still remain high on the mountain, and at the end of the day she was still so excited she had come to see this volcano. Now that we are home it is still her favorite stop of the trip. She did tell us that while she likes to learn about volcanoes that she doesn’t want to be a volcanologist because they can die.

A few (hopefully funny) observations we made over the miles we traveled-

• When stopping for food or bathroom, a child will fall asleep just minutes prior to stopping.
• I have heard countless times that the kids have lost things in the car (shoes, stuffed friends, pens, toys etc.). I never heard them say that they lost their Princess Pez dispenser. I guess they do know how to keep up with some things.
• Drivers seem to obey speed requirements better as the speed increases.
• It is good sometimes that rabbits breed like, well, rabbits.
• When wanting to complain about not feeling well in the car, one can complain of being homesick instead of carsick in hopes of getting more sympathy.
• When all electronic play is being help up by timed reading time, one’s little sister becomes our biggest cheerleader.
• Any stop that involves space to run is a good stop. If a sprinkler happens to be watering grass there will be glee!
• Driving at night can be a challenge in the rain, but without rain driving at night can be a challenge with bugs insisting to inspect the windshield
• The pros and cons of driving east and west – Westward driving = gained time, but requires dealing with evening sun. Eastward driving = loss of time, but with a lot less eye squinting.

Another year has passed and we are saying goodbye to another grade and teacher. Emily has loved 1st grade and her teacher Ms. Johnson. This year has been full of learning addition and subtraction, learning new words, learning about writing, learning to love reading, and lots of fun time with friends in the classroom. It is fun to watch Emily use all the reading skills she has learned. She reads signs, books, and just about everything else. Now it is time for some fun days with sunshine and sister.

Julia has finished her preschool program. It was two days a week for several hours. Most days were filled with playtime and she enjoyed going with her friend Maeve. After several years of going to the same place, next fall will be really different, but Julia is excited about up-and-coming kindergarten.

Flashback look! My how that little one has grown.

This year we spent our spring break at home playing.

Our first day was spent just getting chores done so we could play the rest of the week. This involved a trip to the grocery. Lately the kids have been making trips in the car-cart a lot of trouble, but after lots of pleading and promising Mama gave them another try. They were angels and despite not fitting well together we finished the shopping with peace. Hurray!

The next day we met some friends at the zoo and braved a cold morning. By the time we make it to the playground area it warmed up and all the jackets were off. The highlight for the day was playing playing with our friends and the second highlight was playing together at the playground. Never fear, we did walk past a few animals.

All the girls can fit on the lion, kind-of.

The next day we had big plans … then we threw them out and just played at our friends’ house. The mamas sewed these Elsa dresses while the girls played. Once they got the dresses on they sang almost every song from Frozen while watching videos of the songs.

What is a week of play without ice cream? Of course we had to go! We sat at the soda fountain counter and enjoyed milkshakes. Emily had a pineapple/strawberry shake. Julia had a strawberry shake. And mama had a cookie shake. While we ate them we discussed a movie we recently saw that had a scene where the girl did exactly what we were doing.

Our last day of break was spent with an evening at Frozen Head State Park. We picked daddy up from work and took sandwiches with us.

We made it to a stream on our hike and played around the bridge. We also looked for animals in the stream. There was a frog we found waiting for a bug to float by. When the hike was over we enjoyed our dinner and then an hour at the playground.

While we love to travel we enjoyed our stay at home too. It was nice for Emily to see friends she misses while she is at school. Julia enjoyed having Emily home to play with, at least most of the time.