It's that time again

We are all so excited to be back in school. We're a little sad that best friends are in different classes. Thank goodness for recess. Grayson has been a great big brother. He's been greeting Lydia at lunch with a giant hug every day.

2nd Grade

1st Grade

Kate's a lost soul, dying to go to school. I don't know if she can wait until her school starts in a couple of weeks. I'm pretty sure she asks me 100 times a day to go to school. She's also told me numerous times that her school is ready.

I'm excited and sad to see how much they will learn and grow this year.

Hunger Games

With the third book coming out last week my sister Shelly and her friends threw a Hunger Games party. It was the perfect way to refresh my memory before reading the final book.

Shelly lives down the street from the capitol so we had to take a walk up there for some pictures. I'm sure people thought we were crazy with our costumes and signs.

These four are from the "Capitol"

Shelly and Melissa both dressed as Katniss. Shelly was Katniss on her way to the games and Melissa is Katniss while hunting.

more friends from the capitol and a miner from district 12.

This is my lame attempt to dress up. I'm suppose to be Katniss's mom. I'm holding tree bark and a jar of healing leaves. i also have a medicine pouch around my neck.

It was a fun night. We played a trivia game, ate hunger games inspired food like pita's and goat cheese, fought over prizes from the cornucopia and talked about what will happen next.

I'm so glad I didn't give into peer pressure and stay up for the 12 am release. Instead I had a good nights sleep and enough energy to spend the next day reading.

I also made these cookies, they were hit.

Flying Solo

My nephew Porter has been at our home for the last six weeks. Yesterday, He and Grayson flew to his home in Maryland. Delta, recently changed their policy and now allow unaccompanied minors over five to travel with buddy passes. The boys were thrilled to travel alone. I have to admit, it was a little scary for me. I don't like these boys growing up.

Here is Grayson finding out that they got first class seats.

The little punks, how come there aren't any first class seats when I travel.

Oregon Coast

This was the kids first experience with a "cold beach". We spent our first day at Pacific City, which I think is my favorite beach ever. It wasn't hot and there was so much to do.

The giant sand dunes were fun to play on and offered amazing views when you climbed to the top.

Grayson loved climbing the weathered rock walls.

Tide pools are always fun.

I wanted to cut my legs off by the time I got to the top but it was worth the view.

The next day their was a slack tide, so we were able to explore some rocks that are usually covered in water.

The bonus was that since we had shellfish licenses for crabbing we were able to collect some starfish to take home.

We had to wake up Kate before the tide came back in. She was to tired and spent most of the time like this.

Later that day we went crabbing for our dinner.

Jared reminded me several times how much I owe him. He hates seafood and anything to do with it. It was killing him to hold this crab. He and my uncle Mike caught the most.

We spent the last day relaxing, playing games and visiting with family. I can't wait to go back again.

West Coast Game Park

On our way to the Redwoods from the coast we stopped at the coolest petting zoo.

Everyone's favorite part was petting the baby tigers. The kids got to feed and play with the cubs.

Kate was thrilled to be attacked by one of them who started nibbling at her neck.

We were able to feed and pet any of the free roaming animals, which included goats, sheep, lamas, donkeys, deer and ducks.

Kate would hug any animal that would let her.

They also had a nursery with other babies to hold.

We were most smitten with the possum.

The Redwoods

I wish these pictures could do justice for the Redwoods. They were absolutely breath taking. You wouldn't think simply being large would make something so beautiful.

The kids especially Grayson were in heaven. Being a tree climber, it was the most amazing playground he'd ever been to. He climbed and climbed and climbed.

It was fun to watch them run around and be dwarfed by the surroundings.

This was my favorite part. The size and texture of these roots blew me away.

I love this perspective.

There were lots of hollowed out trees that the kids loved playing in.

We stopped to see the famous Paul Bunyan and Babe. He talked and the kids sat telling him knock-knock jokes for like a half an hour. They keep asking to go back and see him.

During the LONG drive home I kept thinking about everything I'd seen and kept telling myself it was all worth it.