4

Payton's four!  It's true what my Grandma always told me; time really does seem to go faster and faster every year.  It seems like just yesterday we were bringing home this tiny bundle of pink (never having imagined we'd ever have a girl in the first place).  Now we can't imagine what life was like before she brought her own sense of spunk into our family!

Some things about Payton:
She loves playing dress-up, almost always wears dresses or skirts and has a fashion sense all her own.  She's a social butterfly.  She's mastered writing her name and is a "name expert" at school.  She loves doing arts and crafts.  She also loves going to gymnastics but doesn't like swimming lessons so much.  She's fiercely independent, but checks in often with really great hugs.  She has a great sense of humor, is happy-go-lucky and genuinely enjoys life.  Her enthusiasm is contagious.    

Some favorites:
Favorite activity - gymnastics
Favorite color(s) - pink and purple
Favorite food - pizza, pasta with parmesean cheese
Favorite song - We Are Young
Favorite book - Fancy Nancy, The Magic Tree House series
Favorite movie - Tangled

The Family That Tri's Together....

Jake completed his first ever triathlon!  He was the run leg of our family relay.  I did the swim and Jason was our biker extraordinaire.  "Grandma" Linda came along to hang out with Payton and cheer Jake on; they were our own personal cheering squad.  Jake was the youngest competitor and held his own completing the entire 5K. Jason and I ran with him so we could all finish together, which we accomplished in a very respectable 2 hours 5 minutes. Needless to say, we're so proud of Jake and can't wait to continue the tradition next year.

Payton helping prepare by testing my equipment.

Swim....

....bike....

RUN!

Celebration dinner.

Tri Turtle Tri
Seabeck, WA
09/09/12
1/2 mile swim
15.6 mile bike
3.4 mile run

Point Defiance

The great summer weather is still going in these neck of the woods, so we're taking full advantage.  Jason and I used to take Mavryk to the beach at Point Defiance to swim when we lived here in our college days, but we haven't ever taken the kids before.  Today we decided to pack a picnic lunch and show them one of our old favorite spots.  Besides the beach, Point Defiance has wide open, lush green lawns, trails around tranquil ponds filled with cool creatures and fantastically colorful and vibrant flower gardens.  The sky was brilliant blue with not a cloud to be seen.  Sounds glorious, right?  Wrong.  The kids fought the entire time about everything from who got to sit where at the picnic to who got to open the gates to the gardens to who got to be first over the bridges at the pond.  Jason and I finally got so fed up with it we loaded them up in the car and headed home.  If a picture is worth a thousand words, then these pictures of smiling, happy kids are full of 1,000 lies!

A Long Wait

Jake's first day of school was today.  After wrestling with the decision, we made the choice to accept the invitation for Jake to be placed in a self-contained gifted and talented program within the school district.  Instead of an hour per week pull out for specialized instruction, he will now get full time advanced curriculum in a multi-age setting that includes 3rd through 5th graders.  This is a huge accomplishment on Jake's part; there are very few slots available and the competition for them is high.  The downside is that he had to change schools.  Instead of going 3 minutes up the hill to our neighborhood school, we now have to drive 20 minutes each way.  The huge upside is that we've been working for several years now to make sure Jake is challenged in school with limited success.  This year is already different.  As one of his teachers
wrote:

"As I tell my students, I am not getting them ready for their next grade level or high school.  I am getting   them ready for Stanford or Johns Hopkins or Harvard or wherever they decide they want to go.  No limits."

Jake let us know that he wanted to go into this program, so ultimately the decision proved easier than not.  And truth be told, it's been a long wait for Jake to feel like school was interesting and fun again.  We're really proud of him.  Here's to a great year!

"Hello, Friends!"

Payton had her first day of school yesterday.  She attends a Montessori school where the teachers remind me of the church ladies from Saturday Night Live.  Even though they make me giggle, we genuinely do love her teachers; more importantly, Payton loves her teachers.  After a few initial tears, she settled in and was happily playing away when I picked her up excited to go back and play more today.  Highlights of the first day were playing with her friends Kendall, Erica and Charlotte and practicing writing.

 

Labor Day 2012

Jason thinks Labor Day is really meant to be National-Take-Your-Family-Golfing Day.  So we did.  Jake loves to golf as much as his Dad; Payton is really starting to get the hang of it, too, although, truth be told, her favorite part of golfing is picking out which outfit to wear!  I'm not much of a golfer, but really like hanging out with my fam, so I tag along too.  White Horse really is a beautiful course and it was a beautiful night, too.  Maybe golf isn't so bad after all!

 

Pritchard Park

Even though we have a list a mile long of things we probably should be doing this weekend we decided to forget the list and head to a new beach instead.  It was well worth it.  The views of the ferry dock and Seattle in the distance were great.  Payton couldn't believe that we could actually see "the ferry we always take to Seattle!".  Jake, in typical big brother fashion, was sufficiently annoyed that she seemed to get a big kick out of watching the ferry.  Because, you know, "we've taken it, like, a thousand times!"

The Time Has Come...

Last night Jake was cleaning off his desk when he came across the box he uses to leave his teeth that fall out for the Tooth Fairy.  He called Jason into his room and said, "Dad, I'm starting to think the Tooth Fairy is really just parents leaving the money."  Jason totally shirked parental responsibility and proclaimed Jake should ask his mom.  My advice was to be careful, because if she is real he's probably going to offend her and she won't come back.  Jake really likes getting the money, so that ended the conversation.............for now.

Not a thing to do with the Tooth Fairy.  Just some good pictures of Jake.

 

Summer Wrap-Up

Since school is starting again next week, I need to do a summer wrap-up to catch a few of the other fun things we did this summer before moving into the fall season.  Although Jake is quick to remind me we still officially have another 3 weeks of summer, the start of school always feels more like fall for some reason.

Twanoh -
We have a handful of favorite beaches nearby that we frequent often.  Twanoh isn't on our normal rotation since it tends to have a rockier beach.  We actually hadn't even been there since Jake was a baby.  We decided to head there on one of the sun-soaked days we were lucky enough to have this summer.

Great Wheel -
There's a new ferris wheel downtown on the pier next door to Jason's office.  The kids have been anxious to ride it since they've been watching the construction for the past few months.  We made a night of it with dinner and a ride now that it's open.  It's really pretty cool, especially at night when you can see the city lights and stadiums lit up.

Jake's birthday -
I did a separate post about Jake's birthday, but here a few more pictures.  On his actual birthday, we celebrated at home with just us.  He choose Azteca take-out and fried ice cream for his birthday dinner.  That weekend, he and his best friend went to play laser tag, then we did cake at home with all of us plus Grandma and Grandpa via computer.

The unplanned Billings trip -
My Grandpa passed away unexpectedly the first part of August, so Payton and I made an unplanned return trip to Billings just 3 weeks after we'd gotten home from the first trip.  I feel lucky we got to see Grandpa Ed during that last trip.  Although under less than happy circumstances, we managed to have some fun with Grandma Meri, Grandpa John, Aunt Sarah, and Kendi and Hallie while we were in town.  We even got to see my aunts Donna and Janet, my brother and lots of other family at the funeral itself.  The whole week was a whirlwind and I didn't get many pictures.

Montana Fair -
We took the chance to go to the fair while we were unexpectedly back in Billings.  We even dragged Aunt Donna along for the ride.  Payton loved the big slide and the roller coaster the best.