The difference a year makes

Joel snapped this picture of Adam the other day while they were outside playing. We remembered that we had some pictures from almost exactly a year ago of him doing the same thing. I can hardly believe how different he is!

Already?

I think the picture speaks for itself. It is September, is it not? I must be forgetting, this is Laramie we're talking about. :) I'm not sure I'm ready to have this kind of weather yet, but I will be honest and admit that a tiny part of me did relish in the cold just a little bit this morning. I don't mind chilly weather, and it's always a little fun to pull out the snow boots, warm coats, hats, and mittens. Hot Chocolate, anyone? However, I know that I will be sick of the cold only too soon, and I think the snow could have waited until November to show it's frigid little face.

Visiting

I feel like I should have blogged awhile ago, but I realize that my last post was only about a week and a half ago. It's just that we've done a lot since then, so it feels long than that! However, even though we've done a lot I don't have any pictures to post, and there probably isn't much to say that will be interesting to the general public. Oh well!

For Labor Day weekend we went up to Lovell because Joel had seven days off of work. He headed up on Thursday the 3rd and he took Adam with him! I stayed here with Jenna and Will because they still had school. It was so nice to be able to get things done and pack the rest of us up for the trip without Adam's "help". It was simply amazing how easy things can be when the youngest in the house is almost five instead of almost two.

We didn't do anything too exciting in Lovell, but we had a good time. Joel got to go fishing in Devil's Canyon, which made him happy. We spent time hanging out with the fam and just relaxing. Jenna and Will got to have a sleepover at Grandma K's house, which was a hit. And Joel went golfing with his brothers and had a great time. I brought Jenna and Will home on Labor Day since they had school the following day, and Joel brought Adam home on Tuesday.

We had a nice treat Tuesday evening; my Mom came down for a visit! It was great for the kids to get to know their Grandma K a little better, and vice-versa. Joel and I also enjoyed being able to spend time with her. We played some games, watched some movies, and just hung out for a few days.

Joel has been back to work since Thursday. He started working nights the previous week, and it's definitely been different than days! It is nice to have him home more (while we're awake), but really we don't see him much more than we did before because he has to sleep, of course. As we continue to adjust to having him on nights we'll see how much we actually like it and/or dislike it.

Well, I warned everyone that there wasn't anything too interesting to say! But since this is basically my family journal, I like to document all trips and visits. We've had a fun and fairly busy few weeks, and I'm sorry there aren't any pictures to go along!

Preschool

Will started preschool today! He is such a big boy! It is half-day preschool, so he’s only gone for three hours. He has been more than ready to start school. This is his first your outside of the home; I did some at-home preschool with him last year. Even though he will be 5 soon, he’s not old enough to go to Kindergarten because his birthday isn’t before the cut-off.

He can already read, write with direction (he’s no good at spelling, yet), do some very basic math, and plays well with other kids. I know this year in preschool will help him in so many ways, as well.

His first day went well from all accounts. He had a good time, and he said his favorite part was playing outside. I have a feeling that recess will be his favorite thing all year! His teacher (who is amazing, by the way!) said he did great. He was extremely shy the first few times he met her: he wouldn’t talk to her and would barely look at her. But today he already started to come out of his shell and show them his true, fun, talkative self. It’s going to be a good year!

Changing Rooms

We made a few small changes in our house over the weekend. I decided that Will and Jenna were a little too old to be sharing a room, and that Adam was old enough to share, so it was time to have Will and Adam bunk together in a room. :)

On Saturday we moved Jenna into Adam's old room and Adam into Jenna's old spot. It was a pretty quick move, although we had to take apart Adam's crib as well as Jenna's bed frame because they couldn't fit through the door frames and hallway. But that wasn't too much work, and soon we had things switched around. Thankfully, Adam and Jenna have the same type of dresser so all we had to do was switch the drawers out.

On Sunday I noticed Jenna was writing something, so I asked her what she was doing. "Making a sign for my door," she tells me. I thought maybe she would say something like "Please Knock" or something, but of course her sign says this...

I loved that she added the "But Dad." as an afterthought. Too cute!

But of course since Jenna had a sign on her door, Will decided he needed a sign as well. So this morning I helped him make his sign (I only told him how to spell the words, he wrote it and cut it out himself).

I'm so glad that I am able to go in all of my children's rooms! Ha Ha!

2nd Grade!

Jenna's first day of school was today. It's hard to believe our little girl is in 2nd grade, but time of course time just keeps ticking on and everyone just keeps getting older! I think she was excited for school to start. I was both excited and nervous for her; I'm not sure why. It's her third year going to school, more if you count preschool, so I should be used to sending her off into the big, bad world. But dropping her off at school this morning still made me a little emotional. I just couldn't believe how grown up she's getting. She sure was cute this morning, too! Her new shoes match her new backpack! :)

They only had a half day of school, so before we knew it it was time to pick her up. She said she had a good day; they mostly talked about rules. :) She is sitting right next to her best friend, so hopefully they won't get into trouble! Last year Jenna had to be moved to a different table because her and another girl talked too much! (Not hard to believe, that Jenna can TALK) So before school started this year we had yet another talk about listening to the teacher and only talking when you are supposed to. Hopefully it will be a great school year!

South Dakota

We decided to take a quick trip before school starts next week, so we thought we would take advantage of our proximity to Mt. Rushmore while we still live here. We took off pretty early Thursday morning and went up through Torrington and Lusk because Joel and I have never been on a lot of the roads over through there. The kids did pretty well, and by the time we got to South Dakota we were ready to have some fun! The first place we stopped was Wind Cave...

This is a picture of Boxwork, one of the main attractions in Wind Cave. 95% of the boxwork in the world is in Wind Cave. It was a very interesting tour. There are 132 miles of discovered cave, with more being discovered all the time. They did the classic cave thing where they turn out all the lights so it is completely dark with no light at all. The guide told everyone to turn off their cameras and watches and anything with a light on it, then as he was walking over to flip the switch he saw Will's shoes. He said, "Uh oh, put him in the back or something." Will's shoes are Lightning McQueen, with glow in the dark eyes! Ha! Joel picked him up and tried to hide his shoes, so they didn't ruin the experience. :)

After Wind Cave we continued on to Custer and checked in to our hotel. We weren't disappointed there, thank goodness. After settling in we went out to dinner, which was....... an interesting experience. :) Adam was being absolutely crazy! We couldn't put anything within his reach, unless we wanted it thrown all over the place! I won't include all of the details of the restaurant, but by the time we were done with dinner Joel and I almost couldn't stop laughing because things were just so ridiculous.

After dinner we went swimming at the hotel, and I think that was probably the kids favorite part. :) We bought some floaty toys so we wouldn't have to hold the kids all of the time since it's a deep pool. I'm sad I didn't get any pictures, because we all really had a ton of fun in the pool.

Friday morning we headed over to the main attraction, Mt. Rushmore. Here it is... :)

In a tepee...

We had a nice time walking along the trail, seeing a wild goat, checking out the visitor's center, and running around. I am the only one of our family that has been there before, and that was when I was quite young. So it was kind of like the first time for us all, and it was a good time.

After Mt. Rushmore we went to Keystone, which is only 2 miles away. We went to the alpine slide that they have there. If anyone has been down an alpine slide before, you will know that they are pretty fun! This was another first for us all. We had planned to have Jenna ride down with me, but they prefer that children over 6 ride by themselves. After some pep talking and reassuring, she did ride down on her own sled and Will rode with Joel. (Adam couldn't go, he is too young) No pictures of the slide, unfortunately.

After the slide we really didn't have anything else planned for the day, so after lunch in Keystone we headed back to Custer to let the kids rest. Adam had a nice nap, and the rest of us just layed low. Later that afternoon we went to the mini-golf course that was across the street from our hotel.

We ALL had a great time with the mini golf. I was especially pleased with my hole-in-one shot! However, I made up for that on the holes that took me a good 10 shots (or more!) to make it in! Joel hit his ball in the water once (luckily just in a little stream and not the large pool they had!), and Will banked his over into the parking lot. The whole thing was a hoot!

After dinner that evening we went swimming again, and again had a great time. We had a yellow inflatable sled type thing that Will could hold on to and kick around the pool, and he loved that. Adam liked the yellow sled as well, so we had to do some trading back and forth. Jenna had a great time practicing her swimming and cannonballs. :)

When we left this morning the kids were wishing that we could stay "for just one more day". I think what they really wanted to stay for was the swimming pool. :) We had an uneventful trip home. We stopped shortly in Cheyenne to do some last minute shopping for some clothes and shoes for school. It was nice to get home, as always. It was a fun quick trip that we all enjoyed. Hopefully we'll be able to have more of these little trips!