First Day of Kindergarten

Tuesday was the first day of kindergarten for Max. He was nervous, but way more excited than nervous. On Friday last week they had a kindergarten orientation where the parents were in the gym for a presentation and the kids were in the classroom getting to know the teacher and other students for two hours. Initially I was annoyed that this was right in the middle of the day and not an open house, but it eased most of Max's anxiety and worry about the first day of school so it ended up being a great thing. Max made a friend during the two hour orientation so he felt a lot better that he knew someone on the first day of school.

We kicked off the morning with pictures at home. He is 49.5 inches and he grew 3 inches from the first day of school the prior year. That seems like a lot to me. This is obviously a gene he got from Andy's side of the family.






We headed to school with a very excited little boy and battled the crazy parking.


Once we got to his classroom we noticed his new friend sat right behind him. They were both excited to see each other and this excitement eased any worries that I had. Seeing him with his new friend made me feel so good knowing that he won't be "alone" all day and friendless. I think this is why I didn't get emotional and cry in the parking lot.


Every day this week Max has had a great day at his new school. He absolutely loves it and he said the best part about school is hanging out with his new friends. I am so glad that my super shy little guy was able to make friends fast.


This was a very exciting day for everyone. Max is off to new beginnings at his elementary school and I couldn't be prouder of him for how his successful first week of school.

Vacation: Part VIII

This is the day we packed up and left Yellowstone to head to Jackson Hole to drop off the rental van. We were preparing ourselves for the 17+ hour drive back to Phoenix. I felt like I was pretty prepared and then I saw the Jackson Hole airport and there was a big part of me that wanted to pull the van in and book a last minute flight for one to Phoenix and let the dads drive home with the kids...but I didn’t do that.

Here are the dads being men as they checked out the tire on the RV. You know, we gotta make sure it has plenty of air.

We forgot to take a picture in front of the Yellowstone sign when we got to the park, so we did it on our way out. Hey, better late than never.

Of course we saw many more bison on our way out and I did get another bison cross the street in front of me. This was AWESOME!

We spent a lot of time in that RV and once the moms joined the dads and kids back in the RV everybody was well behaved. I mean, my kid had one melt down on the way home due to over tiredness, but other than that the ride home was not that bad. 

It was exhausting, but once we got home grandma L was at our house to entertain Max while Andy and I took a four hour nap. Grandma L watched the dogs the whole time we were gone and I know the dogs greatly appreciated it. Zoe was stuck to grandma L by the time we got home. 

It was an awesome vacation and I can’t believe how smoothly everything went with two families in an RV. This trip was planned by the husbands and I am very grateful they did because I now have so many amazing memories camping, traveling and vacationing in an RV with good friends of ours. I would do this trip again in a heartbeat. 

Vacation: Part VII

This is our last full day in Yellowstone. We got up super early and hit the road to look for animals. We got up so early that we left the kids in their pajamas and put them in the car. We went sight seeing for a couple hours. At one point we were at the same level (if not higher) than the clouds. Which was pretty cool to see.




We saw plenty of bison. Bison EVERYWHERE! So many bison that Max now says bison are his favorite animal and not giraffes.



















This one had steam coming off his back because it was so cold that early in the morning.


I really wanted a bison to be in the middle of the road just staring at me and not moving. I got my wish. I thought this was pretty cool.











We saw antelope.







We also saw a wolf and a coyote, but for some reason I can find those photos right now. You will just have to believe me.

Even a black bear. Everyone really wanted to see a grizzly, but that didn't happen. We were happy with the two black bears that we saw. They were pretty close to the road too.

Following the animal sighting adventure we went to see the grand canyon of Yellowstone. This was definitely beautiful and I am sure my pictures are not even close to its beauty. This was another 2 mile hike and all the kids did a great job...especially my kid. Hey, I might have bribed him with a toy from the gift shop if he was in good spirits all day long and we heard no whining. Hey, a mom's gotta do what a mom's gotta do.

















Happy smiles following the hike.



We decided to find a park close by and eat lunch. Again another beautiful view. It was nice to have lunch by the river. This was me trying to get the kids to take a picture.

We ended the day at mud volcano. I was pretty excited for this one and I knew Max would like to see a real live volcano since he's been into them lately. The only downfall is that this volcano was the worst smelling stop we had so far. Most of the stops smelled of sulfur, but the mud volcano was the worst one. Max started gagging once we reached the top of the volcano.










On the way down we ran into bison trolling through the area.

I took us on a drive to where the grizzly bears are supposed to be, but we never saw them. We did stop and see beauty and an elk along the way. 

More bison on the way back to camp. 

For the first time we arrived back at camp at a decent time. This allowed the kids to play for a while with the slack line and have s'mores after dinner.

The last day at Yellowstone and we start to head back to the heat tomorrow.