Keeping Us Busy

Our lives got quite a bit busier when Ryan started school. He also played soccer this fall for the first time.

I didn't think that he'd enjoy it at all. He's told me for a while, "I don't really like balls." However, he ended up surprising me. He never once said he didn't want to go to soccer practice or a game, was happy to play, and worked pretty hard.

In fact, Derek told him that if he scored a goal in a game, he'd buy him ice cream. Lo and behold, the boy has scored one goal in every game he's played (except for the one where his grandma and grandpa came to visit). He only has one game left of the season.

Katie has been taking swimming lessons for the past few months. I hate to admit it, but it's been a horrible bust. I don't want to add up the money we spent on lessons when she is hardly any closer to being an independent swimmer. I'll have to teach her myself next summer. *sigh*

She has enjoyed doing something for herself, but wants to do dance lessons or gymnastics when swimming is over. Really?

First Day of Kindergarten

Ryan started Kindergarten yesterday. He was very excited to go to school, and went right over to line up with his friend, Bryson, a friend from soccer.

He was also glad to see Kelsey, our old neighbor. He knows 5 of the other kids really well and I think that helped him to not feel nervous. Once they started following the teacher inside, he didn't even turn to say goodbye.

They all sat on the mat while their teacher read them a story about the first day of kindergarten. The parents were invited inside to take pictures, and then at the end of the book, the kids waved goodbye.

He had a great time and was looking forward to going back. He told me that he liked the "homework" which was an art project on apples, and he gave me the run down on a bunch of the rules of kindergarten. He was a little disappointed that I didn't get him a backpack with wheels, though.

Today, started out by us meeting some friends at a local park before school. About 4 minutes before we needed to leave for kindergarten, Ryan came over to me and said that the kids thought it would be funny to spit water at each other at the drinking fountain. He was soaked! Yeah, good timing Ryan. I sent him off to class drenched. Also, Katie did NOT want to walk from the car to Ryan's classroom, so I had to literally drag her screaming and crying all the way there, while carrying Millie and being 6 months pregnant. I'm sure we were an awesome sight. :)

Upright

About a week after her birthday, Millie decided to join the walking club.

Now's she's officially allowed to become a big sister.

Is This a Surprise to Anyone?

I'm pregnant.

Due January 4th.

That makes me 21 weeks along (if you like it in weeks) or 5 months pregnant (if you like it in months).

We have decided to keep the gender of this baby a surprise until birth, but we are predicting another girl.

(I know, old news to plenty of you, but I figure that there are some people who read my blog, but haven't found out about this news by word of mouth or Facebook, so I thought I'd post it officially here too.)

Camping Trip

At the end of July, we went on a camping trip with Derek's parents, Rachelle and her family, his Grandma Bayles, and Uncle Wes. We drove up to Great Basin National Park in eastern Nevada and enjoyed the great outdoors!

After two days at Great Basin going on hikes, visiting Lehman Caves, exploring the creek, watching the deer (who were incredibly close to the camp site), and driving to the top of Mt. Wheeler, we headed over to Timber Creek which was closer to our final destination of Ely, Nevada.

Lehman Caves

In the Great Basin N.P. we took a tour of Lehman Caves - well known for it's rare formations, especially these shield ones below.

Back in the 1920s they would hold wedding receptions and parties in some of the rooms in the caves. Someone wrote their name on one of the formations and it's still there like it was written yesterday.

For obvious reasons, these ones are called cave bacon.

These formations that go from the ceiling and touch formations rising from the floor are called columns. Here's a pretty cool view of the inside.

Train Museum

One of our first activities in Ely, NV (which was where Derek's parents grew up and went to high school) was visiting the railroad museum.

This is an old steam engine that was nicknamed "the ghost train." During WWII they wanted to scrap all the old steam engines so they could use the metal for the war effort. The engineers liked her so much, they kept hiding her in different places so she couldn't be used for scrap metal - hence the name. She still runs today, in fact, we got to see them dumping all her soot and filling her tender up with new coal.

We went on a train ride and got a tour of the town and then toured the machine shed. The ghost train was parked there in the shed at the time so we got to take a picture with her.

Visiting the Ranch

Another highlight was visiting the ranch where Derek's mother grew up. Her father raised sheep and they lived about 50 miles outside of town. She told us that all the buildings were the same ones that they had when SHE lived there. When we saw them, everything was pretty run down and in disrepair, but it was still neat to get a picture of how she lived.

This red building was the old Pony Express Station. It is right next to the blue house that was their family's primary residence. They used the Pony Express building mostly for storage and from time to time had people living on the top floor (you can see a staircase on the left side of the house).

To the left of Grandma (with that huge bush covering the front) is the home where she lived.

While we were there looking around, it started to rain on us. Here we are trying to get a little cover from rain.

Ryan and Katie and Grandma went ahead and posed in the rain anyhow.

You've Had a Birthday, Shout Hooray!

Millie had her first birthday while we were camping. Her cousin, Laney, had a birthday 6 days earlier, so we celebrated for both. Grandpa made a cherry/apple cobbler which the girls enjoyed, and Grandma brought balloons for the kids to squeeze and pop and gnaw on and chase. She also chewed that #1 candle to shreds.

We didn't get to do any of our normal birthday traditions, but she had a nice day anyway.

Happy Birthday Emmi.

Cathedral Gorge

On our drive back to California, we stopped at Cathedral Gorge for a few hours. None of us had any idea what a big hit it would be for our kids. This place was awesome - basically huge walls of dried mud with mazes all throughout. We'd find an opening and walk through until we got to the very end.

We all had SO much fun.

This should give you an idea of how narrow they were.


Here's a view looking up.

Millie LOVED crawling through the tunnels. At one point she tried to squeeze in a tiny little hole, but I knew I'd never be able to get her out if she got stuck. She didn't appreciate me stopping her from trying it out.

Ryan and Katie found this tunnel that only THEY could explore. Derek and I were too big to fit, but Ryan took his flashlight and crawled all around in that dark little cave, and then took Katie once she was sure it was safe. They said it went back pretty far and opened out into another place, but we never got to see it. ;) They spent a LOT of time exploring it.

We definitely got in our fair share of climbing and searching.

This is definitely a place that we'd enjoy visiting again.