Chelsea's First Day

Today was Chelsea's first day of preschool at J.A. Taylor, and she was so excited to be going to school like her big brother.

Striking a pose in her new school clothes-- she insisted on taking this cute little tote bag that Uncle Matt gave her instead of carrying her backpack.  How cute is that?

In front of her classroom

And I just had to get a picture of this sad little girl as we were walking out.  As much as these two sisters tease each other and fight over toys, they really hate to be apart...

Chelsea was really happy to discover that her good friend (and neighbor) Jacob was in her class.  She was so excited to go in that she barely even said good-bye!  Siena, on the other hand, was missing her sister, and while she and I were running errands she kept asking "Now can we pick up Chelsea?"  But I have to say, running errands with just one child is so much faster and easier than having all three of them with me!

The Last Day of Summer...

...is always a sad day for us because we love swimming so much.  We had one last hurrah at our pool on Monday before it closed for the season. It was fun to have Dad join us, too.



And this had been a really great summer for me, too, because it was the first summer that all three of the kids were pretty much independent swimmers in the pool.  I could actually sit and just keep an eye on them instead of having to be in the water with them the whole time! 

Weekend with Uncle Matt

It was so fun to have Uncle Matt visiting from New York for the holiday weekend.  He was very popular with the kids and they could not get enough of him!  He was such a good sport to play so much with the kids (especially video games with Brighton), and they are already looking forward to his next visit with Aunt Emily.

Our Trip to Visit the Millers

I am finally getting around to posting about the trip we took two weekends ago.

After that fun weekend when my family was visiting, all three of the kids got pretty sick. It was an awful stomach bug, and we weren't sure if we should still go on our trip to Denver.

But it turned out to be the 12-24 hour variety, and by Wednesday when we were scheduled to go, they were their normal selves, so we left as planned.

Grandpa Allen joined us for the road trip, and the kids did great on the long car ride. 

On one of our stops Grandpa got the kids some ice cream

We were excited to spend a few days with the Miller family.  Unfortunately, I got pretty sick with that dreaded bug on the first night, and for most of the first day there.  But the kids had fun-- Brighton got to go to kindergarten for part of the day with Bennett, and then we all went to a fun place called Monkey Bizness:

Sadly, the next day Ellery, Bennett and Rachel got sick, so we had to go to the Giants game without them.  The kids were sad that they couldn't spend time with their cousins that evening, but Brighton and Chelsea were pretty excited to hang out with Uncle Sam:

We had a great time at the Giants/Rockies game

And it was fun to sleep in a hotel, too

The next day everyone seemed to be feeling a little better, so we went to a fun park where they had a creek, and had a picnic lunch:

They also had a train ride

How cute is this little baby?  The kids could not get enough of her

Even with all of the unforseen illnesses, it was a great trip!  We don't get to see the Miller family near enough, and the kids had a blast with their cousins.

Happy Birthday, Daddy!

Tuesday was Justin's 32nd birthday. The kids were so excited, and gave his gifts to him in bed. They were pretty proud of the things they had picked out.

There are few things he enjoys more than golfing, so he has always golfed on his birthday, but this was the first year that we joined him.  Nine holes in the morning with me:

And nine holes in the afternoon with Brighton:

We sure love our Dad-- I hope it was a fun birthday!

First Day of School!

The big day has come! It's bittersweet to have our first child starting school-- I am excited for Brighton, but sad that he is growing up so fast. Brighton is starting a pilot program at Stewart Elementary, so for the next 7 years he will be learning Mandarin Chinese as part of their Dual Immersion Program. That means he will have all-day kindergarten; half of the day they will have their classes in English, and the other half of the day they will be in Chinese.  We are all pretty excited about this fabulous opportunity.

All ready for school

His sisters are really going to miss him during the day

Standing outside his school for the flag ceremony with dad

They were asked to draw self-portraits for their teachers

Brighton showing off his badge (that's his name written in Chinese)

Mrs. Christensen, his English teacher

Ms. Zhao and Ms. Cui, his Chinese teachers

Surrounded by his classmates

New Family PIctures

So here are a few of the family pictures that Lillian took that I mentioned in my last post. I can't even remember the last time we all got a group picture, it was about time! Don't you love the cute matching outfits my mom got for the kids? I think it was very fortuitous that we found the perfect blue bench to go with everyone's outfits.

Me with my siblings, Kory and Lillian

My mom with all three of her children

A picture of my mom with all of her adorable grandchildren

And of course, one of all the cousins together-- so cute, even Siena with her "mad" face

A nice family picture-- long overdue!

A Family Reunion

Well, we have had a house FULL of people this week! It has been so great for our kids to be able to spend several days with their aunts and uncles, cousins and grandma on my side of the family.  On Tuesday Uncle Blake, Aunt Lillian, and cousin Ella arrived.  On Thursday, Uncle Kory, Aunt Yukari, and cousins Linn, Ann, and May came, and then on Friday Obaachan arrived.  We had a very busy and fun few days of swimming, bouncing, playing, eating and spending time together.

Uncle Blake reading the girls a bedtime story

Fun at Discovery Gateway

All of the cousins getting ready for bed

Spending the day at Cherry Hill

There was a lot of falling asleep in random places-- they were playing so hard!

We were very sad to see everyone go...

We also had our family photographer (a.k.a. Lillian) take some fantastic family pictures, so those will be coming up in a later post!