What a World of Difference a Year Makes

Today is the sixth day of school (no I haven't gotten the first day pics uploaded here yet). As some of you might remember, Megan had quite a bit of separation anxiety going to kindergarten. She loved making new friends, her teachers, and so many things about her new school but the unknown and bigness of it all overwhelmed her a bit. So after a fabulous departure the first day of school last year, we had at least two or more weeks of crying and hanging on to me at drop off. Otherwise known as COMPLETE torture for mommy. She eventually settled in and had a wonderful year in spite of a couple bumps in the road. All that being said, she still wanted me to (and I gladly did) walk her to class every morning.

Fast forward to day 6 of first grade. We have been riding bikes to school every day. This morning, we arrived and I went to help Tyler get his bike locked. Megan comes over and says, "I am going to walk to my class now." And off she goes without a hug or a kiss. Um okay - this is a good thing, right? I know it is a great thing for her to be feeling so comfortable at school to be able to go in to her class by herself but it caught me a little off guard. I could see her the whole time and she looked over a gave me a big smile and a wave and was in class. Talk about conflicting emotions. I am excited for her to be willing to take a step on her own, but don't know how I feel about her not needing the extra hug before she goes to class. More than anything I am grateful that she leaves me each morning with a big smile excited to go to school because the first few weeks of school last year were brutal.

Colorado Pictures

With summer ending and school beginning, I haven't had a chance to finish our vacation posts. Instead of giving a detailed account of every activity I am just adding pictures of our vacation. It was a wonderful and relaxing vacation. The kids did great especially on all the long car rides. We look forward to more similar trips in the future.


Like we almost always do, we celebrated Megan's birthday while we were gone. She loved every minute of it as usual and requested that we could once again be on vacation next year during her birthday.




Since Tyler is so excited about geography, we decided we couldn't be so close and not go to Four Corners, USA. It was close to a 3 hour drive from Pagosa Springs. Kevin and I were ready to bail on the trip but knew the kids would be disappointed so we drove there and back one day. It was a long time in the car but the kids loved it! Now we have stood in Utah, Arizona, New Mexico, and Colorado at the exact same time.


We spent a few afternoons playing in the hot springs in the center of town.



We only have pictures of Kevin's parents but my parents were there too. The grandparents joined us for the beginning of our stay in Colorado and we had a blast with them. We were so glad they could come and that they were willing to play all sorts of energetic games with us.

More Vacay

At Vacation Bible School this year, one of the focuses was "God Sightings." We encouraged the kids to pay attention to where they saw God each day. The idea being that if you look you will see God in so many different ways.

Our second destination of vacation was Albuquerque, NM and we needed a God Sighting. We had planned our activities before we left Austin. However, we realized very quickly that we needed to revamp our plans. With the previously mentioned "hotel hyperactivity" as well as lots of drive time, spending an entire day at two museums, whether they were geared towards children or not, was NOT going to work. We went to the children's museum, which was great, but a mere hour and a half of fun. As we are driving away from the museum I said to Kevin, "I wonder if there is a zoo in Albuquerque." Not a minute later, there is a sign "ZOO" and an arrow pointing to the right. Talk about a God sighting! Not only is there a zoo in Albuquerque, it is a fabulous zoo. We had a blast and spent all afternoon there. We got to see a crocodile get fed which was quite exciting. We also got to see the polar bears get fed. It was a great zoo and we would highly recommend it!

Vacation, Installment 1

We just recently returned from an amazing vacation, our first official driving vacation. We drove through Texas to New Mexico, making our first stop Carlsbad Caverns. I remember going to Carlsbad as a child, but I don't remember being awed by the experience. Well, now that I have aged a bit and regularly discuss the weather with friends (although who doesn't these days), I am either more easily enthralled or just more aware of the miracles of nature. I choose the latter and am happy to report that my children have a much better appreciation of these things at 6 and 8 than I did when I was a kid. Carlsbad was a hit with everyone. We even hiked into the caverns, which is a 1.25 mile walk that descends approximately 800 feet down. We knew Tyler would handle the walk with ease, but we weren't sure how Megan would do but she was such a trooper. Not only did she make the walk without one complaint, once we got down into the caverns, we walked another 1.5 miles around. We are definitely entering a new phase where we are able to do many more fun family activities than we used to be able to do. Both of the kids loved Carlsbad as did Kevin and I. Being in the gigantic caverns knowing we were so far underground was truly amazing.

One thing we realized on this vacation was the we have not stayed in very many hotels with the kids. Since all of our family lives in Austin, and we often rent places to stay on vacation rather than stay in hotels, there have been very few times we have stayed in hotels as a family. Well, we decided to need to try and do it a little more often because the simple act of walking through the door of a hotel room causes our kids to lose all sense of control and totally spaz out. Ironically, this was more true with Tyler than Megan. It was funny to see him so hyper that he really couldn't control himself. Okay, so it was funny for a few minutes not a few days. After being in a very nice but very small hotel room in Carlsbad, we understood the draw of the suite.

Here we are as we begin to head down into the caverns. This is also where the millions of bats fly out of each night. And take note of the jackets - such a great feeling needing a jacket the farther down we went.

Megan's 6th Birthday Party

Megan is a girl who fully embraces her birthday. Usually, she starts planning her party in November or December (yes, that's right for her August birthday). You can never have too much time to plan when it comes to celebrating your big day. She can spend hours talking about ideas, invitations, what kind of party it will be, etc. The funny thing is, we usually have a very similarly themed party. After all, her birthday is in August. The logical party theme involves water. Regardless, it gives Megan a lot to think about during the year and she really enjoys it. This year, she even wrote out invitations (left over from a precious year). She wrote each one out with specific names. We didn't actually send out the invitations because we were in a time crunch and in the middle of a very busy VBS preparation week. However, she loved the process and was happy to send the invites electronically (as long as they get sent, right)!

This year, we had her friend party early because we were going to be out of town on her actual birthday. She loved every minute of it. It is so fun watching her at her parties because she enjoys them so much. You never know how it will work out with summer birthdays, but we were so lucky this year. Almost every single one of her favorite friends was able to come celebrate with her. She had a blast and we were so excited to celebrate the big 6!!! It is hard to believe our spunky, spirited, loving little girl is already 6!!! Happy birthday, Megs! We all love you so much!