Are we really old enough to have a child going to school? I quickly became aware of the impact when I couldn’t schedule a morning mountain bike ride with friends. Audrey’s school starts around 7.30am which means we have to start her day earlier than she’s used to.

I made pancakes for breakfast and then Jeana took her to school. We went to a Back to School night at the school to meet Audrey’s teacher last Friday night. We really like her and the classroom. Kate was excited to play on the Kitchen toys that Audrey’s teacher had. I walked around the classroom with Audrey and Kate looking at all the pictures and displays on the walls. Audrey looked so ready to jump in and get going with school. We walked by a paper mounted to the wall that had the classroom and cafeteria rules on it. Audrey started reading the page out loud. I’m so proud of her for how well she reads.

I worked from home today so that I could be here when Audrey got home. Jeana and I watched out the windows for the bus to arrive so that we could run out and meet Audrey. Apparently there are multiple buses which service our neighborhood, so we were disappointed when the first bus we saw didn’t have our daughter on board. An hour after school was dismissed, Audrey’s bus arrived. The bus driver told Jeana that they had already been by once, but Audrey didn’t speak up to get off.

Audrey was a bit sad walking home from the bus because she wanted to walk home by herself. Maybe after a few days of figuring out when she’s supposed to get off.

I was full of questions and would have kept asking and probing if Jeana would not have reminded me to not overwhelm Audrey. As the night went on she told us more and more about what happened at school. Some kids got to play on the kitchen toys, some got to spend time on the classroom computer - reading on a site that Audrey has done at home: starfall.com.

Oh I forgot to mention how excited Audrey was when she discovered there was a library at her school! She blurted out, “I can use my library card at school!”

Jodi and her family started a fun tradition that we decided to copy this year. Last Monday evening, we had a Back to School dinner followed immediately by a Back to School family home evening. Jeana made a school bus cake for our centerpiece surrounded by erasers. Audrey really loved the school books made of mini chocolate bars and cardstock. Instead of using plates, our dinner of alphabet soup, mixed fruit, and juice box was served on cafeteria trays.

The family home evening was simple. We discussed basic safety issues for Audrey to remember, and finished by everyone getting a father’s blessing (except for Jeana, who just received a normal priesthood blessing). To help get Audrey more familiar and comfortable with her school we drove over and played on the playground toys.

I know, our vacation was over a month ago, but I still haven’t posted everything I wanted to. I don’t have much to say about all these pictures other than the trip up to Montana was completely worth it for me. My family always went to Yellowstone when I was growing up, which made this trip a little nostalgic. I found it crazy to realize we had driven from the south end of the country (Austin) to north end of the country (Montana).

Scott and the girls with Grandma Gussy

We made a trip to Idaho for a couple reasons, one of which was to stop and see my grandma in Blackfoot. My aunt Marilyn was when we arrived and spent some time with us. She pulled out a photo album of my grandma’s family and I had fun looking at old pictures with my grandma and asking her about the pictures.

This is the first time I have been to Lagoon since we went on our Senior trip in High School. I spent a lot more time on the kids ride this time than I did when I was 18. We started the day with Wicked, which was awesome. The cork-screw twist has to be my favorite part when you flip up-side down.

Granddaughters

There were plenty of rides for Audrey and Kate to enjoy and they had plenty of cousins to hang out with on these rides.

Kate and Audrey on the Boat Ride

The bumper car experience deserves some mention here. Kate really had no idea what to do. Apparently the rider of the car was supposed to turn the wheel to get the car moving, but that was the last thing in Kate’s mind out there. The operator of the ride had to stop everyone multiple times to ask Kate to sit properly in her car and remind her to turn her wheel. Kate ended up trapping Peter at one point, or I should say that Peter’s car happened to get positioned next to Kate’s stationary car.

Kate in a Bumper Car

Audrey was excited to go on the Dinosaur Drop. This ride lifts you up in the air, rotates, then drops and leaves your stomach up in the air. Kate hated this ride! She wailed and wailed and made me look like the best parent in the world for making her go on the ride.

Scott and Kate Getting Ready to Drop

Jeana and Audrey Waiting for the Dinosaur Drop

I went on this roller coaster with Audrey and I’m pretty sure it wasn’t designed for anyone older than the age of 10. I wedged myself in on a tight angle and tried to get the bottom side of my legs as close to the seat as possible.

Wedging into the Roller Coaster with Audrey

Roller Coaster with Audrey

Audrey came on the Rattlesnake Rapids ride with us and Jeana told her that if she felt scared to just scream like her aunt Gina. We approached a dark corridor and Audrey started screaming with a shrill high pitched sound and her face looked horrified. I had the hardest time not laughing.

Embracing Rattlesnake Rapids

In Audrey’s favorite books (The Magic Tree House series), one of the main characters, Jack, always says, “Oh, brother!” Audrey can be heard saying this all the time, especially when Kate does something silly.

Well, we found out today that Audrey and Kate are going to be having a little brother next February! I’ll be honest, I’m excited to have another male influence in the home. The girls have no idea what they’re in for. In fact, I don’t know what I’m in for to be a dad to a boy. Hopefully he’ll like playing with Polly Pockets and princesses, because we have a lot of those.

Bryan had a great idea to go canoeing at Jordanelle state park as one of our reunion activities. He found a great deal on canoes from the University of Utah, but we had to come up with our own trailer to haul the boats. I pinged a friend in Utah and after a quick Google search, he found http://www.troop410.com which is a Scout troop in Salt Lake City with a number of canoes and kayaks available to rent WITH a trailer. Troop 410 rented their 9 boats to us for a day at an amazing price and our trip that day was probably one of the best activities of the week, in my opinion.

I took a picture of the trailer so I would know how to put all the boats back on in the correct place.

The Boats

Kate sitting at the dock in a canoe waiting for Jeana and her cousin Holland.

Kate in the Canoe

Touching the buoy. Holland is a cousin, seated between Audrey and Kate in the picture.

Touching a buoy out on the water

Jeana demonstrating her kayaking prowess. She recently took lessons from someone in Austin.

Jeana in a kayak

Me trying to look like I know what I’m doing.

Scott in the kayak

Taking the canoe back across the reservoir to load on the trailer. This canoe, “Old Town”, was very tipsy. I didn’t like it. I don’t think anyone took it out on the water (other than me getting it from the dock to where we were stationed).

Last year we stopped at Four Corners on our trip to Utah. This year we skipped Four Corners because we didn’t have time to hike in Moab last year. When we got out of the car at Arches National Park the temperature was extremely hot, I think it was 103 degrees. I was hoping to find some respite from the Texas heat on this trip, but none was found in Southern Utah!

Audrey, Kate, and Jeana at Arches

Kate hiking to see Delicate Arch

When we would stop to take a drink break, I would realize how steep the trail was we were hiking on. Imagine having “little girl” legs hiking up a steep trail!

Audrey and Kate with Delicate Arch

It seemed like every Utah license plate we saw for the rest of the trip was acknowledged by Audrey yelling, “I see the arch!”

Audrey hiking after Delicate Arch

Kate dying of thirst in Arches

Balanced Rock

When I was about 8 years old my family went to Philmont Scout Ranch in New Mexico. We stopped at Arches National Park and the two things I remember from that stop were red gravel/dirt and Balanced Rock. The scenery in Arches is absolutely incredible, and none of the photos we took adequately express the beauty.

Stopping at state lines is fun to me. Our friends, Scot and Becca, have taken pictures of their daughter Riley with a stuffed animal to show how she has grown over the last year. I think taking photos at state lines is my equivalent.

Each time we approached a state line this last trip, we debated whether we should stop or not because Kate was usually asleep at those times. Her sleeping schedule was all over the place during this vacation, and the last thing we wanted was Grumpy Grumperson in the back seat!

A Hint of New Mexico - 2008

We really need to plan something to do in Colorado because our route just clips the southwest corner of the state.

Audrey and Kate in Colorado - 2008

Jeana and the girls in Colorado - 2008

Idaho actually turned out to be a quick, unexpected trip. We decided we would go see my grandma in Blackfoot since we don’t get to see her very often.

Scott and the girls in Idaho - 2008

Another way we justified the trip to Idaho was to also make a trip up to Yellowstone National Park in Montana. Pictures will come later of course. We had talked up Old Faithful for weeks before our trip and I was excited to take the girls to a place I went so many times as a kid.

Scott and the girls in Montana - 2008

There’s no place like home. Driving back into Texas is such a good feeling because two-thirds of the drive is done!

Scott and the girls driving back into Texas

My family in Utah used to get together once a month for a family home evening. After a few of the more nerdy and geeky family members got chatting, we decided we’d try to roll out a way to send/view live video feeds of each family.

After a month of research and development, we came up with a flash application to have five concurrent video feeds streaming over the internet. We just concluded another monthly FHE - this was the second time using the streaming video web page. We had family connected from Texas, Utah, and two separate locations in Idaho. The inter-web at its finest!

Here is a screen shot of our FHE in progress:

August FHE Screenshot