First Grade

Better late then never. Here are the pictures of Maddie's first day of first grade. She is loving school and doing really well. She is reading like a little champ. Of course when I ask her, "what did you do at school today?" Her answer is always, "lunch and recess". I think this is a very common answer for all school age children.

She is happy to be a big first grader and be at school all day. Peyton does miss Maddie during the day, in fact, Peyton cried when we had to leave Madison at school for her first day. Peyton is now starting to adjust too.

A Fun Weekend For All!

Over Labor Day weekend Bry, Caitie and I went up to Ellensburg Washington to visit some friends, go to a Dave Matthews Band Concert and go to a Rodeo. It was a great weekend with friends and we had a really fun time.

While we were gone, Maddie and Peyton were able to spend time with Grandma and Papa. My mom came and stayed at our house. They kept very busy! On Friday night they went to Cousin JoJo's first football game (she cheers). Then on Saturday they went to the circus. What a fun time with Grandma and Papa. Here are some pictures from their fun weekend! :)

Enchanted Forrest

We took a day trip, towards the end of the Summer Break, to Enchanted Forrest. We had taken Maddie when she was about 3 years old and now it was Peyton's turn. It is fun to see all of the nursery rhymes throughout the little pathway that you hike on throughout the park. The girls loved it so much we hiked the path 2 times. The first time through they were both a little afraid of some of the houses and characters, just because it is very dark inside and some of the characters are a little scary (the witches from Hansel and Gretel and Snow White.) The second time through they both knew what to expect and faced all of the "scary" characters head on. So, here are some pictures from our day. Sleeping Beauty's Castle
Jack and Jill

A slide that came out of a witches mouth.... Peyton wanted to go on this one over and over again.

We had this one taken for Uncle Chris, who shares his birthday with Abe Lincoln. This was a real person. We told Abe that you are his biggest fan Chis. ;)

Hansel and Gretel....the candy house
A slide from There Was An Old Woman Who Lived in a Shoe. It was a giant shoe. It was fun to race to the bottom.

Play Houses

A local outdoor shopping village, Bridgeport, had a display of neat play houses. The play houses could be won through a raffle drawing. The proceeds went to Doernbecher Children's Hospital. We did not win, but the kids did have fun climbing in and on the houses. They also had a story time. What a fun little outing. All of the houses were themed after children books. How cool would it have been to win one of these! A Fancy Nancy House
A Secret Garden House

A Magic Tree House

More Summer Beach Photos

Peyton really enjoyed the sand!
My Dad took most of these pictures while Mom and I ran to the grocery store. The girls were having so much fun on the beach exploring the tide pools and finding all kinds of treasures. The picture above makes me laugh! My dad tells the story that Maddie was standing in this deep water and continually yelled at him, "Papa I have a hole in my boot. My feet are getting wet." My Dad kept telling her, " Yes Maddie, the holes are in the tops of your boots." :) Maddie continued to insist she had holes in the bottom of her boots.

All of the wet clothes from a day of fun on the beach!

Breakfast Stand

Now, don't you wish you woke up in the morning to a breakfast stand set up in the middle of your dining room? Well, I guess I am the lucky one who did one day. Maddie decided to set up an breakfast stand to surprise us one morning. I got up and was able to order a bowl of cereal and a glass of water. She even made a sign for her stand. Future business woman?

Portland to Coast

Well...the Summer has been winding down here and the last big events were great! We had Portland and Hood to coast which went very well! Despite the fact that I was worried about the night leg, I actually loved walking at night and it was my favorite leg of the race! It was cooler weather, peaceful, and you couldn't see the hills ahead of you.

Our team all made it safe and sound to Seaside. We came in 86th place out of 394 teams. Not too bad for our first go at it. We had fun singing to girly songs along the way and meeting other teams from across the US and talking with other teams about our team name and their team name. I don't know if I mentioned what our team name was in previous posts, but we were "TEAM TWILIGHT"....for all of the Twilight fans out there... We had matching red shirts with "Team Twilight" printed on the front and on the back of them we had the words "Bite Me" with fangs. All of our team had read all of the Twilight books and are fans of them. It was fun to have one van be team Edward and one be Team Jacob.

It was a good experience and we would all do it again. I felt pretty sick in the end, due to not sleeping in 3 days an then walking within that time, but after I got a little sleep I was feeling much better. My body was tired.

Bryan ran Hood to Coast at the same time that I was walking Portland to Coast. He did well too. With 3 weeks notice he joined a team last minute. He said his team also had a great time and they came in 278th place out of 1023 teams! He was pleased with their placement and he ran his fastest times yet! His team name was No Speed Limit.

So that sums up our Portland and Hood to Coast events. I only have one picture because I have not gotten any others from the picture takers of the group. If I do, I may add them to the blog. But for now, here is the one picture that I do have. This is just my van from Team Twilight. We were waiting at the finish line for our team to come in. Tired but still standing and smiling! ( Sorry the pic is not that great...it was sent through a phone.)