Fall has come and with it comes our littlest’s birthday. This year marks the sixth celebration. Wow! Every year there is such a change, but this year has some of the biggest we have seen. First and foremost is that Julia is a school-girl. Kindergarten has been a joy for her. The second and just as huge is the explosion in communication we hear from her. She asserts herself into any conversation she can, she learned the art of interrupting Emily’s stream of words, she is learning the first sight words, and big words are no longer intimidating. Just yesterday she informed her mama, "you misunderstood what I said". For our late verbal bloomer this is such a big deal!

She loves picking out her own clothes and has learned the love of all things shoes. Her play involves a lot of imaginary play and involves small figures. Her collection of homes, schools, playgrounds, and clinics for the figures continues to grow and brings her delight. School has been incorporated into this play and there is a lot of learning, rules, and lines.

Facial expressions are also a difference between the girls. Emily seems to have her normal mood faces, but Julia has those and more. Taking photos of her is a challenge when she is wanting to pull from the less standard smile face. But on the other hand having a collection of different smiles, pouts, grins, and pure silliness is fun too.

We love our girl for all of her new skills and years we have been blessed to have her with us! Happy Birthday, Julia!

We enjoyed a beautiful and a bit muddy morning at the pumpkin patch. The girls love the extra fun games that go with the maze and pumpkin patch. They rode the slide and bounced a lot. It is a wonder they had energy to do anything else. We did half of the big maze with the girls taking turns leading the way. Each girl searched the pumpkin patch for the perfect pumpkin. Emily wanted a small one and Julia wanted one she could carry. The sun shined on us and a breeze kept us cool. It was a perfect way to spend the morning with Grandma and Grandpa.

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.