A New School

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Danya's number came up on the wait list and she was accepted into the City's charter school. This was amazing news, and something we were really not prepared for. Should we move her?

Frankly, I love Silver Lakes Elementary. They have wonderful staff, wonderful programs, wonderful teachers. It is close, Danya enjoys riding the bus, she rides with one of her best friends Kalaiyah. Danya has gone there with kindergarten and has basically the same kids in her class every year. She is in class with another neighbor and best friend, Ana. She came home the first day saying this was going to be the best year ever! So how could we move her?

While we knew Danya would do fine whichever alternative we chose, after prayer and discussion, we decided to move her. The Charter schools are much smaller (1,600 fewer kids in the Middle school) and has higher academic ratings, especially for high school. Also, Caleb is already in the Charter Elementary and so they can go together.

Danya's first day she came home in tears. Nothing bad had happened, but it was overwhelming to her. Thankfully though, she has my next door neighbor in her class, and we take another 4th grader to school with us in the morning, so she already had a couple of friends. Yesterday (Day 2) she came home just fine and was actually looking forward to the year. She is still not 100% comfortable and says she has a lot more homework, but I think it was the right decision and she is going to have a wonderful year!

For those who have asked, Emily is really enjoying YW's. I am pleased and am looking forward to her making friends with the girls in the Spanish Ward as I have heard from one of the YW leaders that there are some very nice girls in there that are beehives too.

All in all, we are starting to settle into a routine. We have been insanely busy these past two weeks and I decided to make a list (mainly for my own record)of things we have been doing to stay busy: babysat a 2 year old 4 or 5 times- twice overnight, watched a newborn for several hours, watched twin 9 years olds a couple of times, Drove the carpool to school and a carpool to stake conference, hosted (not ran) girl scouts, did 4 mystery shops, ran to the school to administer medicine to my neighbor, visiting teaching, subbed in primary, ran around to buy all new uniforms and basically all new school supplies, drove the keys to dan's work when he locked himself out, took emily to volleyball evaluations, made dinner for a friend, made cookies for a different friend, grocery shopping, homework, piano practice (for me too, the Palmer reunion got me motivated), playgroup, did some baking, cookout with the neighbors, and 2 volunteer projects for the school. Nothing overly exciting, and I am sure everyone else is just as busy, but life for me is generally a little slower paced. I like this pace, but I am hoping the kids and homework starts to settle into routine so there is less cajoling (we use marshmallows for that with Caleb) and more efficiency (maybe that is too much to hope for!).

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A Quick Summer, A Quick Post

What a fun summer. It has taken awhile to get this up, but I am babysitting and so will have to be quick here.

Went to Washington and had fun at the Palmer Reunion with the brothers and sisters.

Went camping a few days in Mount Ranier National Park--Definitely going to do this again. We will do more of this type of thing in Washington in the future I hope.

Went to the Palmer Reunion with cousins, uncles and aunts. A lot of fun and good to see everyone again. Sorry there wasn't more time to visit with each of the family, but a got to visit with some of you!

We decided we had so much fun that we deserved a reality check and stayed and extra week to experience the hottest day on record EVER in seattle, despite the lack of fans for a day or two we survived and built a great deal of character that week. We ended with a really fun day at Lake Washington watching the Blue Angels and a birthday party for nephew Jaden. It is fun to experience those milestones iwth family! We even had a spa night!

There are a few pics from Emily's birthday.

And one of me holding my friend's new baby with my new haircut (not a drastic one, but at least it has a little shape to it now!)

Vacation!

okay here is a run down of our fabulous vacation to West Virginia...

Beautiful view while I did laundry. This is the drizzly weather and number of people we saw while at Canaan Valley Resort State Park. We practically had the place to ourselves. It was really amazing.
Here are Caleb, Dan, Alexa and Madi, and Uncle Mike. This hike was a real challenge for Caleb, but he made it to the top! Yahoo!

Here are all the girl cousins at the Top of Seneca Rocks.

Here is Dan at the top of Seneca Rocks. You can see why they built the overlook a little lower down!

Bet you didn't know there are lots of caves in West Virginia! Yep, I didn't either, until this trip.

Due to all the rain, we spent quite a bit of time at the indoor pool. Much to the dismay of the lady who was in charge of making sure the rules were obeyed. Oops. We also became regulars at Big Johnny's pizza place in town, where a good samaritan gave the kids all his tickets he didn't want a caused a rush on the prize counter.

Here are the Tyler grandparents with the Smith cousins and our kids. We loved the cabins and all the woods around them. It was a little cold and wet for too much exploration,but they got enough to feel like they had been in the woods. Especially tromping off trail while geocaching and building a big fort in the backyard woods--thanks to the muscle of Uncle Mike.

Then off to Knoxville Tennessee to see an old friend of ours Angelina Ribero. We met back up on facebook after about 15 years and had a chance on our trip to have our families meet and celebrate the 3rd of July (Thanks Bordens for rearranging the holiday for US!)

We had a fabulous party with super yummy BBQ, screamer balloons, slip and slide, fireworks, mafia, spoons, rootbeer floats, catching fireflies, and just overall great fun. Thanks to the Bordens for a very memorable 4th of July celebration. The fireworks were fun because I have never seen kids cheering like these guys did for these fireworks. So Fun!

We drove home via Smoky Mt. National Park--the most visited national park in the country--on the fourth of July, so you can imagine we contrasted the wildness of West Virginia with that circus. But we have decided we must go back for a week because the area is wonderful and there is SO MUCH to do! We had a lovely snack and climbed on the rocks in the river at Chimney Tops picnic area. A word of warning--If you ever want to do this, you must stake out your spot in the early morning (at least on the fourth). We had to park outside the picnic area and walk in.


All in All a FABULOUS vacation!

Wait 'til you see this!

It's been a busy week, but just wanted to share a few fun pics from the week.

Danya got her braces off! The work is not quite done, but still an exciting step nonetheless!

Caleb planted this sunflower a couple of months ago and it opened this week. It has been really fun to see this grow.
Carson got some dinosaur sunglasses!



Emily and I, with lots of help from Danya, Caleb and Carson (kind of), built this rollercoaster from K'nex. It is really cool!