Claire Martt

Today was only Claire's second day of pre-school and look what she did:

 The blue box is part of an ant she drew, but outside of that she clearly spelled her name- and did a pretty great job! She has never done that before! Yes, I get excited over the little things, but it's so sweet when your kid does something like write their name for the first time. She said she looked at how her name was printed and copied it on the paper. I LOVE it!

And, just for fun, the other day she was in the dress-up bin and came up hopping in this:

Now that her tantrums are beginning to calm down, I sure am enjoying this little girl more and more!

Claire's First Day

Claire started pre-school today. I'm very excited for her! She's such a smart girl, she'll do great. I'm really impressed with how smart she is- she is quite a bit further than Audra was with her numbers, counting, and such. I think it's because she watches Audra and wants to do everything Audra does. Maybe being the second child isn't so bad, huh?

We are doing a home pre-school with her. There are 6 of us moms and we rotate each week who teaches. I would like to say it was some great altruistic reason that led me to want to keep Claire close to me, but no. It is much more mundane: money. I figure we'll save over $2,000 by doing this, so why not give it a try? Plus, I get to use my teaching skills which will be fun. We'll see how it goes.

Here's to a great year!

A Wedding of Titanic Proportions

On Saturday one of Ben's best friends got married.

A few weeks ago we got the invitation to his wedding: It was to be a beautiful ceremony up in the mountains and involved taking a boat ride to the ceremony.

I thought it would be wonderful to get sitters for the night and Ben and I could go up to the wedding and get a hotel room and have a nice short getaway.

Ben disagreed. He thought it would be awesome to take the kids in the car for 5 hours, hold Camille on our laps during a wedding, and try to keep Claire quiet for 30 minutes at the ceremony.Yeah, I also questioned whether or not he had ever met our children when he said he wanted to take them.

In the end we compromised. Ben's parents watched Camille overnight while we took the older girls to the wedding. Instead of getting a hotel, we drove up and back the same day.

The directions told us to drive to the boat dock, so we did. We got in line to take the boat ride over.

We got on the boat. We were all pretty excited- I had never taken a boat to a wedding before! And the girls had never been on a boat, so they were pretty excited.

As soon as the boat loaded we took off. We went faster.

And then the front of the boat completely submerged in water. More water came in. And more. And more. Everyone in the front end got drenched. They ran to the back of the boat- where we were sitting (thank goodness!). By running to the back the boat righted itself and the water drained out the back. We very slowly drove back to the dock and unloaded a few people.

Admittedly, it was pretty freaky. One woman was sobbing. Her husband was holding their 4 month old and the fear of trying to float and hold a baby was pretty real. In reality, there were a ton of boats on the water and we would have been rescued within seconds had we actually sunk, but still the thought of trying to hold on to your screaming child and not drowning was a very real image that came into our minds as the water flooded onto the boat. Not a pleasant thought.

Nevertheless, we finally arrived in safety.

And it was beautiful. Absolutely one of the most beautiful weddings I had  ever seen.

The drive itself was also scary. We went over Berthoud Pass- where I had never been before. Then the roads got scary windy and I made Ben go about 5 miles an hour. He wasn't happy with me, but I fully admit to being a wuss when it comes to windy roads along a mountain cliff.

We saw this moose in a river once we got to town. That's also where Claire had her first tantrum- because she couldn't see the moose. Yeah, the idea of leaving the kids at home sounded really, really nice to me...

Here we are at the boat dock- the boat behind is the one we took.

Here is where the wedding took place:

It was easily the most beautiful wedding I had ever been to. It almost made me wish we had gotten married here instead of the temple. Almost.

There was an awesome swing, too.

Ben with the groom, Matt:

Later the girls and Ben went on a speedboat. Audra and Claire both got to drive the boat.

On the ride home we asked them what their favorite part of the wedding was. They both said the speed boat. We asked what their least favorite part of the wedding was. They agreed it was that they didn't get cake (we left before the cake was served).

Apparently the speed boat took away all their fears from the near sinking passenger boat. Ben and I had a few nightmares, but overall it was a wonderful wedding- near Titanic experience and all.

Claire Loves Dad

Awhile ago Ben was reading to Claire and he looked over and she had fallen asleep on his shoulder. This is one of his favorite pictures:

First Grade!

 Does this girl look ready or not?

All summer Audra has been worried about being at school all day long. She kept coming up to me, giving me a hug, and saying "I am going to miss you so much!"

I have tried to talk up First Grade as much as I can- especially about how she gets to eat lunch at school and be with her friends and such.

Yesterday we went and met her teacher. Some of you know that I have had some SERIOUS reservations about her teacher this year. He is a new teacher at the school and has been at a lot of different schools. He is in his 60's, and I didn't know if it was a career change or a teacher who just loved teaching and wasn't ready to retire. Lots and lots of rumors have abounded, and I knew I needed to decipher fact from fiction as quickly as possible.

Thankfully, when I met him, many of my concerns were put to rest. Not all of them. I still have some pretty serious reservations. But, he does have a strong background in literacy and has tons of experience teaching young children. So it is now a wait and see game.

Audra was nervous to meet her teacher yesterday, but overall she seemed happy. I asked her if she was OK with having a boy teacher and she said she was excited about it. I think in the end it will be fine.

She came into my room bright and early this morning. She was SOOOOOO excited!

We walked to school- something I absolutely love to do. And this morning it was extra fun as we saw so many neighborhood kids walking to school with their parents. It really was pretty cool- it made my day.

Devil's Head Hike

 The other day we went with a group of friends to Devil's Head Hike. I wasn't going to bring my camera, but it's a good thing I did because we are never going back! Not because the hike is too difficult, but because the road to get there and back is so treacherous! Ben drove and I almost had about 30 heart attacks because the roads were so scary! Despite how beautiful it was, we are not going back!

 There was a fun cave the girls could climb it- definitely a huge hit with all the kids!

A Short Trip

 Last week we loaded up the van and headed to Utah!

Ben has some family there and we arranged to go to Bear Lake with them for a few days. Ben's aunt, uncle, cousin and his cousin's family came with us.

Beforehand we stopped in Sandy, which also gave us the opportunity to go to Provo and visit a friend who had just moved there. Anyway, it was A LOT of driving.

Thankfully, Claire was prepared:

 The girls really did incredibly well on the drive. Ben's parents came with us, and that definitely helped to keep them entertained. The DVD player didn't hurt, either.

Finally, we got to the beach.

 I know this is a horrible picture of Camille, but I really wanted to show how filthy Camille got at the beach. That girl LOVES sand! She kept putting handful after handful into her mouth and it got everywhere. It was pretty disgusting, but she had such a blast- so what do you do?

 I had never been to Bear Lake, and I really fell in love with it. The water stays shallow until about forever which is unbelievable. The water is crystal blue and really warm (well, except for day 2 of our trip when it was freezing cold, overcast, and rainy).

Ben desperately wanted to rent a paddle boat. I really wanted a jet ski. In the end he won (I can't believe I let him win). Because of the rain and the cold, though, I ended up being glad we didn't get the jet ski. I hate it when I let Ben win AND he ends up being right.

 Bear Lake is famous for its' raspberry shakes, but I was the only one who ordered one. Oh, well.

 The girls were incredibly proud of the sand castle they made (with quite a bit of help from Mom).

 Here's Claire with her cousin (at least that is what we are calling her!) Izzy. I really am astonished at how well the girls all played together. One would think after 4 days they would have started bickering, but they never did. Claire didn't have a single tantrum (or if she did I have blocked it out) and it was as if they were all best friends. Really, it was unbelievable.

 I was looking out the window of our cabin and I saw this moose- oh, how the girls were excited to see that! And, the adults were too.

 This was the view from our cabin- absolutely gorgeous!

 And here is the best picture of the whole trip:

We really did have the best time! I am so glad we went! We are so grateful to have such a wonderful family and to have had such an amazing time! It really was just the best!!!