2nd Grade

Another school year has started and I have a 2nd grader! Paige is excited to be at the same school this year so that she already knows people and is familiar with the school and staff. She is most excited about seeing her friends again and excited to make new friends. She has an awesome teacher and her first grader teacher already told her teacher for this year that she was jealous that she has Paige and wishes she could have Paige again. I know you will do amazing things this year Paige!

Here are things about Paige as a 2nd grader:

 Favorite Color: Teal, Purple, Orange, Lime Green.... I like all the colors

Favorite Food: Chicken Crescents

Favorite Treat: Candy and Vanilla Ice Cream with Chocolate Sauce

Favorite Thing We Did This Summer: Family Reunion in McCall, ID and play dates with Addison

One Thing That I Love: Baylor and my blankies

What I Want To Be When I Grow Up: Art Teacher

We did our annual back to school photo shoot this past weekend with all of Paige's new school clothes. She is growing up so fast and truly is the most beautiful little girl on the inside and out.

 Her P.E. outfit :)

 Baylor joined in on a few of the pictures. Most of the time she kept Pops busy pushing her around in the kayak, wagon, and stroller.

She was all smiles for the chocolate kiss from Nona.

Today was the first day! Paige was super excited and a little nervous. She got everything ready for her big day the night before and Nate gave her a father's blessing. She is ready for 2nd grade! This morning in the car she was a little nervous and had some tears right before we left but I gave her a hug and told her how brave she was and how she gets to see her friends and that her teacher will be amazing and love her. She was good by the time we got to school and there was a red carpet and noise makers to greet us as we walked into the school. I took her to her classroom and she found her seat and was all smiles as we said our goodbyes.

Once we got back in the car, Baylor pointed at Paige's seat and said, "Where's P?" She is going to miss her big sister and so am I. She is such an amazing helper and big sister. I know she will love school and do awesome this year but it is still hard for me to see her growing up so fast and not be with me all the time.

I love you with all my heart Paige! Have a great school year!

End of Summer Break

 I can't believe that school starts tomorrow! This summer flew right by and went way too fast. The girls have enjoyed sleeping in and just being on our own schedule. I love doing what we want when we want. I love having Paige home. She is a huge help and has been especially these last couple of weeks since I had surgery. It has been a great summer and we have done so many fun things!

The day before my surgery I wanted to do something fun since I wasn't sure how long my recovery would be. I took Paige, Addison, and Baylor and went went and enjoyed low tide at Salt Water State Park. It was such a gorgeous day. I love going at low tide. There were so many little creatures to look at and lots of shells to find and look at.

We walked around for about an hour- looking, exploring, shell and rock hunting, lifting up rocks to see lots of little crabs and touch some sea anemone. 

I sent up the sunbrella and the girls dug in the sand and made a sand castle and we had a picnic. Then they wanted to play on the playground for a little bit.

Next the girls got on their swimsuits and they all loved walking in the water, finding more shells, and enjoying the cool saltwater.

It was very rocky and uneven so I had to constantly watch and hold Baylor's hand since it was pretty unstable walking for her. She did fall over once and it scared both of us but it was still so much fun to be in the water.

Then they played in the stream that goes down into the water for a while before heading home. It was such an awesome day and I loved those hours at the beach.

The next day on the 14th I had surgery to get a pilonidal cyst removed......again. Both times were about 1 1/2 after having a baby. It is genetic for me and something about having a baby seems to make it come back. I am hoping I don't have to do this every time I have a baby. Nate has been amazing. He took some days off from work to help and let me rest and recover. My big 30th birthday was the next day so I spent the day relaxing and watching a movie and feeling nauseated. The first few days were bad with the dizziness and nausea. The pain wasn't that bad and once the nausea went away it was so much better. It is still a long recovery and Nate is a rock star and has to change the gauze on it every morning and night. 

This is what I am going to miss the most about Paige being gone most of the day- the love and relationship these two have. Paige is such an incredible big sister and is constantly helping Baylor or playing with her.

 The last week Paige has gone with Addison and Addison came to our house. We had to get our last few play dates in for the summer before school starts and it is harder to get together as often. I am so grateful that Paige has such an amazing friend like Addison.

 This school year I volunteered to do the PTA bulletin board. I get to change it once a month. I am pretty excited about it and it is something that lets my creative juices flow. Here is the one for September. I got it done before the school open house and I love how it turned out. It says "Alone we can do so little; Together we can do so MUCH!" Then all the signs are different "you can" statements about joining PTA or things you can do like volunteer, support teachers and staff, make the school year great, have a say, be in the know, etc. It was super fun to do and makes me excited for all the ones I get to come up with throughout this school year.

Last Saturday we went to Nolte State Park and walked around Deep Lake with Nona and Pops. It was another beautiful day enjoying the beautiful world we live in. It was fun to visit with Nona and Pops and spent the afternoon with them. Nona brought some hiking sticks and Paige used hers the entire time and Baylor liked hers and would drag it behind her until she decided she was done walking and wanted to be carried.

 Today was our last day of summer break so I wanted to do something fun before school starts tomorrow. We decided to go to the Black Diamond Bakery to get some delicious donuts to take home with us.

Then we went to Ten Trails which is a new development in Black Diamond and try out their park there. It was our first time going and it is a really fun park. We will have to go again when it is not so hot so that we can go on the slides. It was a fun little outing for the day.

We loved summer break!

Visitors for the Week

My parents made the trek west after the reunion since they were already about halfway here. We loved having them for the week and enjoyed all sorts of fun summer activities with them. I love it whenever my parents come to visit and to watch my kids with their grandparents and watching them have fun together.

Monday was our recover from the reunion day. We relaxed and I went shopping by myself during nap time for food for the week. In the evening we had some sprinkler fun. Both girls absolutely love the sprinkler and playing in water. Paige loves to run through the sprinkler and Baylor loves to touch the water and drink as much as she can. I love the picture on the left of them drinking. It makes me laugh and is just so cute!

Poppy became Baylor's go to for reading her stories every day. I loved watching them interact and see their relationship grow.

Tuesday we went and hiked to Franklin Falls. It was such a beautiful day for a hike and I love hiking here in the Pacific Northwest. It is so green and there is so much undergrowth and such awe-inspiring nature that does my soul good. I carried Baylor most of the way but she did like to climb some of the stairs with Paige. 

Once we got to the there it was nice to sit and take a break while we listened to the falls and the girls threw some rocks in to the water. We hiked back and we found a good picnic spot along the river before heading home.

We enjoyed some dinner and had family home evening and then enjoyed some vanilla ice cream with some freshly picked blackberries to end a terrific day.

Wednesday we went to Dash Point State Park to enjoy some beach time. I love living so close to the Puget Sound! I love beach combing and listening to the waves and finding all sorts of ocean life. It was bit cooler but with jackets and the fact the hardly anyone else was there it made it perfect.

Baylor liked digging in the sand for a bit but then started getting fussy and tired. So I sat with her under the sunbrella and ate some snacks while Paige, Grandma, and Poppy worked on a sand castle. It was fun to watch them create and work together. Once they were done, Baylor had fallen asleep so they went beach exploring and shell hunting. I loved having Baylor sleep on my chest for awhile since it never happens anymore. It was so nice to relax and enjoy this quiet moment while listening to the waves.

Then after dinner we went to Dale and Margaret's house to borrow their kayaks. It was a beautiful evening for some fun kayaking on the lake. It was Baylor's first time and she loved riding in the kayaks to the lake but once on the water she had a life jacket on that was too big and she did not like that. Baylor did like playing in the water and watching the ducks. Paige tried some solo kayaking but it was a bit too windy so it was hard for her to control her kayak which scared her a bit. So after that she just enjoyed some rides with an adult. 

Picking sand out of her toes

Mermaid Paige

Thursday was another day for a beautiful hike. We went to Maple Valley to go on the gnome hike. You have to hike out a bit to get to the gnome loop but once you get there it is magical. It is a loop filled with all sorts of different gnomes that people have placed over the years.We got our own gnome to place a few weeks ago and Paige was excited to find the perfect place for him.

I had to carry Baylor most of the way but once we got to the gnome loop she was all sorts of excited to walk and point out every gnome she could find.

Go Hawks!

The bottom right picture is where Paige placed her gnome. She thought this was the perfect place because there is a gnome peaking out of the little mushroom house like he was opening the door for our gnome. Paige said they could be friends and wanted to make sure we placed our gnome by another one so he wouldn't be lonely.

Then we went to Black Diamond and had our picnic outside the museum. It happened to be opened which I didn't plan on but it ended out to be a great little thing added to our day. We liked walking around and seeing everything in the museum.

The train was open too so we got to explore the inside and someone from the museum showed Paige how to blow the horn and the whistle on the train and she got to do it a few times. We then ended our day adventure with a stop at the bakery for some donuts and they were delicious like always.

Friday was our zoo day! I have been wanting to go since the new aquarium opened last year so once Nate got home we headed out. It was one of the best times I have ever been to a zoo. The weather was perfect and I loved the new aquarium and as always loved watching the sharks swim around. We happened to be at the right place at the right time for lots of feedings. We saw the elephants get fed which was awesome. It was crazy to see how good the elephant was at picking up these small pieces of fruit with its trunk. Then we saw the sea lion get fed and do tricks and watch the sea otters fight over their food. 

The new aquarium was awesome! All sorts of fish and sea creatures to look at. The octopus was moving around like crazy which was cool to watch. We got to touch some star fish and open sea anemone. The hammer head sharks and the big sting ray were so cool to watch and I loved the curved glass so they could be swimming above your head.

Paige got to feed some birds and pet a sting ray for the first time. It took some convincing but she was brave and was so happy that she did.

Baylor got to feed some goats for the first time. She did it once successfully and then after that she would go up to the goat like she was going to feed it and then the last second she would drop the piece of food. Paige would quickly pick it up before a goat snatched it and would feed them. Paige is a pro at it and loves it.

I loved watching the girls on the slide. It was sweet to watch Paige hold hands with Baylor as they went up the stairs to the top. Baylor would go first and she would slowly go down and have the biggest grin with the cutest static hair. Then Paige would follow close behind with Baylor waiting at the bottom for her sister. It was the sweetest thing to watch and made my mama heart burst.

I just love these two cute girls of mine and seeing the bond they have with each other!

It was such a great zoo day and we all loved every minute of it and can't wait to go back again one day!

Saturday was Kid Fest for Covington so Nate had to work for the day. We went over just in time to enjoy a great magic show and then Paige got to go on the fire truck and went down the inflatable slides/obstacle course a few time. 

We then got a train ride and met some princesses. We walked around to see some of the vendors before heading home for some lunch.

Sunday we went to church and had lunch together before my parents took off. It was such a great visit and I loved all the fun things we did and the memories made. I am so grateful that my parents are willing to come out and see us and I love watching my kids interact and form bonds with their grandparents.

Thanks for the visit Mom and Dad!