Preschool!

Today I received the information about preschool for Dietrich.  I have been waiting and waiting and checking the mail because I am so ridiculously excited about preschool!  I didn't get to go to preschool because it wasn't readily available and also it was expensive.  And I love school!  I love the first day of school and I love getting new stuff for school and I just know I am going to love sending my little boy to school!

Next week we will get a postcard from his teacher and then I will learn who is first teacher is going to be!  The following week we get to go to his classroom and meet his teacher and see where he will be, and then the week after that he starts school!  We got our list of school supplies and I can't wait to go buy him glue-sticks, and dry-erase crayons, and a backpack that fits a 9x12 sheet of paper.  I called my mom this morning and told her about all the upcoming school stuff and how I want to cry because I am SO SO excited for him, he is going to love preschool!  And then I read this post about growing up/old and the start of school and then I started crying because oh-my-GOD he is STARTING PRESCHOOL.  

I've been a little worried about how he is perfectly potty trained but doesn't like to do any of it by himself.  I have to remind myself this is preschool, these teachers teach 3 year olds, they know that some of them still need help going to the bathroom.  This morning when he threw a fit and hit his friend because he wanted the toy I thought "he can't do that at preschool!" But he is three, and that is what three year olds tend to do, he won't be the first kid in a preschool class to throw a fit.  I don't have to tell the teacher that I am so excited for him but I've also never left him anywhere but with family, and oh my gosh how will I survive that?  That all of a sudden I'm afraid he will miss me and be upset and I just want him to be excited and have fun!  And now I'm not just crying because I'm so excited for him and all the fun he will have but because all of a sudden and without my realizing it this:

 Turned into this:

And he's going to preschool in just a few short weeks, leaving me for 3.5 hours two days a week and Lenorah and I will miss him during that short time and wonder what fun things he is doing without us.  Then he will come home and tell us about the things he made and the letters and numbers he is learning and he will make new friends!  (maybe I will make new friends too!) It will be wonderful and sad and exciting and anxiety inducing and we will all love it.  

Seattle

We have gone on a road trip every other weekend since the middle of June...we are exhausted!  Also, Lenorah hates to ride in the car, have I mentioned that before?  We have decided to stop torturing her, no more trips longer than the hour and a half to Ione for a long time...

Last weekend we traveled to Seattle for tons of fun and a little relaxation.  Dietrich went over with Grammy on Tuesday and got to spend two days playing with his cousins Arielle and Nathan before we arrived on Thursday night.  Fortunately, he was thrilled to see us, which made me feel pretty happy :)  Our good friend Stacey won an amazing golf package, because she's one of those awesome people who wins things all the time.  And since she wasn't interested in golfing the three courses, she did one and let Bryce golf the other two with her husband Jeremy.  So on Friday morning Bryce headed out on the two hour drive from his sister's in Marysville to the golf course in Tacoma.  The kids and I met up with my Aunt who had my cousin's son Devin for the week, at a great beach in Edmonds.  The boys had a great time playing in the sand and throwing rocks into the sound.

 On Friday night Bryce drove home from the course in Tacoma and met us in Woodinville where we met up with friends, Brian, Reiko, Josh and Jill.  It was so great to see them, it had been over a year since we saw Brian and Reiko and 9 months for Josh and Jill.  We enjoyed a few drinks at the Red Hook brewery and it was so fun to catch up with everyone.

On Saturday morning Bryce dropped me off at the bus stop in Everett, the town next to Marysville, and I took the bus into downtown Seattle where I met up with Stacey for a girls day of shopping.  The goal was to find dresses for Paul and Kate's wedding in August and Mark and Bekah's wedding in September.  We had a great time and we found lots of fun clothes and good deals.  Although I did not find the dresses I was hoping to find, oh well.  We did happy hour at Ivar's on the pier and then caught the ferry over to her parents house.  I know I've been on the ferry from Seattle before but I think it was a foggy day, and on Saturday it was so perfect and beautiful, it is really amazing to see the whole city like that.  We spent the evening at Stacey's parent's house BBQing and relaxing on their deck.

Then on Sunday the guys headed out golfing again and we headed to the zoo!  The kids loved it and Lenorah especially loved the fish.  I think she could have watched them all day.  It really made me wish we had something like that on this side of the state.  It was especially awesome that Stacey's friend met up with us and she has a membership so was able to get us all into the zoo!

 This one is blurry but it cracked me up how Dietrich just went and pushed his way between these two young girls...

 There were two young tigers playing in here, they were so cute, jumping in the water and tackling each other.  But Lenorah was more interested in the man behind us.  She went over and stared at him.  He turned to his wife, "this little girl is staring at me, it's weird...I'm not your dad honey."  I looked up at him and he had a nice beard, so I told him, "but you have a beard, she's a beard girl."  I'm sure she was just trying to decide if she knew him!

 Lenorah powered through but she got pretty tired watching the seals.  And while taking this picture Dietrich walked out of the building with another group of people which induced a bit of a panic, fortunately he realized he was missing us and came right back, phew!

 After the ducks Lenorah was done, so we headed out of the zoo and she fell asleep on the way to the car.  We drove to Cle Elum where we had dinner and the guys met up with us.  Then we started the rest of our screaming trip home.  It was a fun packed, busy weekend!  We did so much in such a short time, and we did a WHOLE lot of traveling, nothing on the West side is close together and traffic is unbelievable which makes everything take longer.  It has taken me all week to get my house and brain back in order, but we are finally there.  Just in time for another busy weekend, but at least this time we will be staying home!  Next weekend though, off to camp!

Road Trip

I remember the first day of kindergarten, no really I do, MOM.  I know I was excited to go to school because my mom tells me how she had to hold me back from chasing the school bus down everyday.  My mom stayed home with me and my brother was born when I was in kindergarten, so those first 5 years it was just me for the most part and I was READY for some FRIENDS!!!  So the first day, they put us all in the multi-purpose room at Ridgecrest Elementary school and gave us jump ropes and hula-hoops and probably balls.  But I chose a jump rope and I jumped all over until I met a little blonde girl named Laurie.  I remember looking around and there were kids crying and I remember thinking, "what is wrong with them, this is the greatest thing EVER!!!"  Probably similar to how I left for college, "bye mom and dad!" *runs away with new friends, is how I started that first day of kindergarten.  So when Dietrich was born I remember thinking I want him to feel that way, not afraid but excited about going off and trying new things!

A few months ago he surprised me by asking to go spend the night at Grandma Jane's.  It's an hour and a half away so I was afraid that if he got upset about it there was nothing we could do, we weren't going to go get him.  But it was great timing since Mom was here and could take him home with her and she was already planning to come back the next day.  So he went and he wasn't worried about me at all and when he came home he was like "hey" not nearly as excited as I was after not seeing him for 24 hours!

Over the weekend Grammy Laurel invited Dietrich to go with her to Seattle to visit his cousins for two days, and then we will be there for the rest of the weekend.  When I asked him, he was so excited he was ready to leave right then.  When I woke him up on Tuesday morning "Dietrich, it's time to wake up."  He stood up, groaned, and said "I'm ready to get in Grammy's car."  When I told him "I will miss you!" He said, "we can talk on the phone."  

He gave me two kisses said "I love you!  Bye!"  and he hasn't looked back.  We talked on the phone last night and he told me about all the fun he is having with his cousin Nathan.  This morning he called to tell me he "waked up" and then he was off and playing again.  Although I miss him, and I worry about him being so far away, I am so happy that he is brave and excited and not afraid!  I can't wait to see him tomorrow and give him a big hug, so he can run away and play some more.

Fourth of July (a million photos)

We spent the 4th of July weekend in Ione and it worked out that Aunt Cynthia, Uncle Don and cousins Emily and Adam were all there too.  We had high hopes of leaving by 10 on the morning of the 4th but for some reason it always takes me way long to get out of the house than I think it should.  But we arrived at mom's by early afternoon and the rest of the family wasn't very far behind us.  We started out the celebration by sharing a bottle of Megan's wine with everyone.  Everybody loved it!

Mom and Steve bought a bag full of fun kid's "fireworks" including all your reminiscent of childhood favorites: Snakes, pop-it's, tanks, bees, and parachutes.  We were out of firecrackers for our favorite "Grandpa" firework-in-a-can-in-a-tub-of-water, so we will have to save that for next year I guess.

                             

 Dietrich really liked the bees, here he is picking out another one.

 He hid behind the chair while Daddy lit off the fireworks.

 Cousin Adam shared his sparklers with us, Dietrich thought they were really fun!

 Then Papa Steve remembered that his Son-in-Law left big fireworks last time he was here for the 4th.  So we got a great show with probably 8-10 of the really big ones.  Dietrich would get nervous every time one was lit, I would help him cover his ears and as soon as it went he would clap and cheer "Yay!!! It's over now?"  He only kind of liked it I guess.  

The next day we headed out on the lake!

 Dietrich shared his sweet dance moves with us.

 And since Lenorah started the trip by throwing her mimi overboard we put it on a leash so she couldn't lose it again.  It's still there for next time.

We barely made it home in time for a crazy storm of hail and rain to start!

 Saturday morning we had a very important project to accomplish.  The painting of Grandma Bonnie's garage.  I noticed when we stopped by earlier this spring that it needed done so I told Grandma we could do it in a weekend sometime during the summer.  This past weekend is one of the few we will be able to make it to Ione this summer so we took advantage.  We were also super lucky to have the rest of the family here to help.  With 6 painters, one entertainer of small children, 2 lunch makers and one screaming baby we had the whole garage painted in 3 hours!!!

Here is Lenorah looking awesome in a vintage stroller circa 1982 (mine).

 Dietrich was an awesome painter and "boss" to cousin Emily, they painted with water of course.

 Whoo-hoo she slept!  So we could get some painting done.

 And then we were back on the water!  Yee-haw!!  It was the most perfect day, we didn't get off the lake until 7:30!

 She is a water baby!

 Grandma Jane jumped off the bridge (gasp!) it was so fun!  And I dove off the bridge which I've never done in my 21 years of jumping off the thing.  Whoo-hoo! Also, the lake is incredibly warm for this time of year.  It was strange and wonderful!

 And it all ended back at home with this cuteness passing out in her crib before we even turned the light off.

The weather was amazing, the kids were so good, the family was fun and the beer was cold.  I hope your 4th was awesome too!