Our "wild" new friends!

Even though we live closer to the city and some major roads than we did in Burlington, we have seen lots of wildlife in our yard and neighborhood! The other night while we were eating dinner outside, a little bunny came to join us. Baylie tried to give it some of her lettuce and carrots, but the bunny was just fixated on getting the heck out of our yard!! Luckily, Lucas was taking his mid-evening, before-bedtime nap and didn't see it!
We have also seen a fox in the front yard, I saw a prairie dog get run over on Sheridan (our Burlington Blvd), and there are horses in the field just past the school that we can see from our front yard. It should be interesting to see what pops into the neighborhood next!

Today marks week two of school under "our" belts. Parent curriculum/open house nights were this week (Tuesday K-5, Wednesday middle school) and things look great! Baylie is excited about how the 3rd grade teachers assign homework. On Monday, she will bring home a list of things she may choose to tally up to 15 points, which is the minimum required to complete the week's homework. Things to choose from may be memorizing a poem for 6 points, exercising for 20 minutes for 1 point, a math problem sheet for 5 points, doing a kind deed for another person for 2 points, etc. One of the things she chose this week was memorizing the poem, "Homework Oh Homework, I Hate You - You Stink!" At middle school night, JW and I did our best to meet all of Brady's seven teachers. This trimester, his CONNECT teacher is Mr. Herbstreit and he is very, very personable and funny, and teaches Geography which of course Brady loves! In the CONNECT (homeroom) class each morning, they do team building, problem solving type activities, and it is the student's chance to talk to the teacher about any concerns they may be having. It seems this is where Brady is meeting most of his new friends, which is great! Otherwise other than lunch, they are transfering from class to class and he wouldn't have much of a chance to really connect with anyone unless there is a group project, etc. JW and I talked to the middle school counselor as well, and upon learning that Brady didn't have PE or Health this trimester (I didn't know this was a mistake), promptly changed his schedule and he will start PE today, and then have Health next trimester, and then start keyboarding again the third trimester. He has been going to intramural basketball everyday after school and as well, still practicing his tennis! His main focus this weekend though, he informed me this morning, is college football this weekend - namely U of W of course!!

We were "lucky" enough to score some Weird Al concert tickets from our neighbors who left town - so will go to the Coors Ampitheatre tonight to endure that - wish us luck! The kids are very excited - JW and I not so much. :) I am interested to see the ampitheatre, though... hopefully I can get some good pics. Monday, we will check out the Taste of Colorado!!!

Well, I think we made it!

After a most exciting weekend involving High School Musical 2 and a new neighbor BBQ, I believe we all survived our first full week of school! Mommy and Baylie have figured out the pickup and dropoff spots, the weather has cooled off somewhat so we can break out some of our cute new outfits, and each of the kids was invited to a new friend's house. Brady and his group in science constructed the best aluminum foil boat that held the most pennies and I have only had to run one forgotten item over to him at the school (so far!!). Also, Brady has decided he likes tennis very much and he and Jeff (I have attempted miserably) have gone to the courts at the school several times to play. Baylie had PE twice and is getting used to Mr. PE teacher with the loud voice. Also, she is very excited to start playing the recorder in music! There was an ice cream social on Friday that Baylie and I hit the tail end of (she wanted a real snack first and B was at his friend, Austin's house). Last night (see bad cell phone pic above), we were invited to the Omni Hotel where our neighbor is the manager of, for swimming at two outside pools and hot tub while watching "Night at the Museum". It was tons of fun and I'm sure Jeff is sorry he missed out, as he was back in Washington tying up loose ends with the sale of our house and his former position at work.

Third Grade!!

Baylie enjoyed her first day in 3rd grade at Aspen Creek! She wrote about her summer, had PE, had a scavenger hunt, had snack, recess, etc. Our neighbor, Anna, who Baylie had met last week is in her class as well as Jayden, a boy we met at the pool. Anna introduced Baylie to lots of friends and "everyone is nice". The only reported disappointment is at lunch, K-5 grades are not offered the same drink and ala carte choices as the middle schoolers - darn!!!

Aspen Creek K-8

Brady started 7th grade today! His "connect" teacher (homeroom) had called him two days ago to introduce himself and tell Brady what to do and where to go on the first day. Brady is very excited about having a male teacher!! Yesterday, he went to the 7th-8th grade new student orientation and got his schedule. After that, we went to the pool and met some new friends, the Anthony's, who have a boy in Brady's grade (Joey) and a boy in Baylie's grade and class! (Jayden). Joey told B what to do and what to expect at Aspen Creek!! So as of this morning, Brady knew two 7th graders! (We had met Amy our second day after moving in - she was walking our neighbor's dog - B gave her a "hey" and a JW head nod :) This morning he stood at the top of the staircase and watched kids walk/ride over.... then decided he did NOT want me to walk him over. When I took Baylie over for her reading assessment, I passed the cafeteria and saw B in line for milk, I assumed, since he brought lunch. I took Baylie down to her room and met her teacher - Mrs. Konold - who is very, very nice and young. We got her unpacked at her desk and then she had a reading assessment. I took this opportunity to sneak back down and peek into the cafeteria. B was in line with his Vitamin Water!!! And, there was another boy standing beside him, who it turns out after lurking a little longer was waiting for B. They went together to a table of kids and sat down in the middle. I cried tears of relief! Stay tuned for B's report on today...I bet it will be brief!

From Burlington to Colorado

We left Burlington on Friday the 3rd about 3:30 and the car was quiet for a while; we were tired and a bit sad after saying goodbye. The kids dug into their care packages right away, put together by friends and family (thank you, thank you!!!) Among other cool things, Aunt Lisa packed some neat books for travel with fun facts and games regarding all 50 states. By the time we hit Bellevue, we had found license plates from 18 different states! The first night, we stayed in Ritzville, Washington at the La Quinta. We crashed hard that night; the kids didn't even ask to go to the pool! Saturday morning, we were surprised to wake up and find it was 9:00 AM already! We set off as soon as we all were ready and after breakfast and coffee! Saturday was scheduled to be our longest day of travel. We stopped in Missoula, Montana to stretch our legs and get Lucas some water. Baylie and I found a cool thing at PetSmart called a "Wet Bone" which Lucas was able to drink from in the car. He loved it!! So much in fact, that he peed the bed that night at our hotel in Bozeman, Montana! Oops! (We cut back on the Wet Bone the next day!!!) Saturday night, we ate at Mackenzie River Pizza Company, which was very cool and yummy, with "Montana-ish" memorabilia and decor. Baylie did not like the buffalo skull lights! Sunday, our destination was Yellowstone! We arrived there around noon. Jeff was disappointed that we didn't see any bears while there, but Baylie definitely wasn't!! We saw some buffalo and deer, which Baylie reminded us we see on Peterson Road and at Bay View School in Burlington. Brady was more impressed with Yellowstone, however, and took it all in. We all thought Old Faithful was very amazing and have a short video of it. On that day we made it to Jackson Hole, Wyoming, which is where we stayed the night. After Mexican for dinner, we all zonked out pretty quickly. The next morning (Monday), we walked around Jackson a bit. It is a cool place!! We had a good breakfast, bought some T-shirts, and then took off for Rawlins, Wyoming. As for the rest of our trip, which involved driving through Wyoming, there is not much to say.... some beautiful scenery and hmmm...that's about it! Oh ya, how could I forget, there is no cell phone service or Starbucks there!! Day 5 (Tuesday), we woke up in Rawlins and headed toward Savannah, the capitol, which we had planned to tour a bit. After lunch at Sonic Drive-In, we all decided we just wanted to get to our new house, and besides we were out of Wet Bone :). We arrived "home" at about 3:00 that day and went straight to check things out. At that point, we had found all license plates except Rhode Island!!!!!!!