First Day of Kindergarten

It's official. My baby is now a big boy kindergartner. He was very excited to go his first day, showed hardly no nervousness at all, and could barely be bothered with telling me good-bye (which I'm actually grateful for).

It helped that he already had a little friend, Maysi, in his class, who is also in his class at church. Maysi is very mothering, and came up to Alex and gave him a big hug as soon as she saw him.

I liked the way that Alex's teacher had the parents come in the classroom as she read the class a book about the first day of kindergarten. At the end of the book, the parents give their kids a final hug and wave good-bye... which was a polite cue for us parents to then hit the road.

Alex has come home so happy every single day so far and is really loving school. I have even gone against the grain of my overprotective motherly instincts, and let him take the bus to and from school. The bus seems to be his very favorite part of the day.

I have a few frustrations and reservations. One, being that his teacher will be going on maternity leave in the middle of the year and am worried about the kids having to adjust to a brand new teacher at that time. The other being that there was a rash of slacker parents who registered their kids at the last minute, taking Alex's class from a nice and tidy 20 students, up to 26. Twenty six kindergartners.... that's all I'm going to say about that.

Regardless of my griping, I really am so grateful that Alex is such an easy-going and social little guy and is having so much fun going to school. His big sister was a whole other story 15 years ago, and so I am going to enjoy every minute of it!

Summer Days, Driftin' Away...

This time of year, towards the end of August I get downright panicked that the summer is almost over. I often lament over the "woulda, coulda, shoulda's" of all the things I hoped to do before the summer began. Thus, here is documentation, primarily for my own sake, that we did do a few fun things... (outside of the obvious trip to California).

Went to a cool new park with a fun splash pad.

Alex enjoyed his swimming lessons, particularly on the last day when he got to go down the slide. (Steph was slightly jealous that Alex got to sit on the cute lifeguard's lap!)

We went to Herriman Beach 3 times, and even got Steve to go with us once. (no easy feat!)

 

Last weekend we went up Little Cottonwood Canyon and took a nice little hike. Nothing like the beauty and fresh air of the mountains. I was kicking myself that it took till August to finally get around to doing something I enjoy so much.

Of course, we've also done some of the small and simple things we enjoy in the summertime, going to the local pool a number of times, walking to the gas station to buy Icees, lots of barbecuing. I promise to soak in each moment of these next few weeks, and not allow myself to feel sad that I have to wait another 9 months for summer to roll back around. Ok, maybe not promise, but I will do my best!

My Cute Little Four Eyes

My baby had to get glasses. Just in time for Kindergarten. I'm a little nervous about how that's going to pan out. Hopefully he'll get used to wearing them over the next few weeks before school starts. He looks so handsome, but at the same time when I look at him I feel bad. I know a lot of children have much worse medical problems to deal with so I'm certainly not complaining. In fact, there's a chance he'll grow out of the need for glasses in a few years. In the meantime, I'll be asking for a lot of advice on how to get a 5 year old to keep his glasses on, to keep them from getting lost, and to keep them in one piece!

Deseret News 10k

I've never been much of a runner, but I have learned to enjoy it more and have become a little better at it over the past year. I've done some 5k's before and really enjoyed that. I've wanted to push myself a little more, but certainly am not ready for a half-marathon so I thought a 10k (6.2 miles) would be a good middle ground for me. I'd heard the Deseret News 10k was supposed to be a good course, particularly because much of it is on a decline. So... I signed up, got really nervous right before, but ended up having so much fun and was happy with my time.

Steve dropped me off at the starting line, then went and found a place to park at about mile 3 so that he could cheer me on and snap a few pictures. I spotted him from about a block or two away, but he was so busy cheering on all the runners that he didn't even see me. I was waving my arms in the air as I'm running, but he still didn't see me until finally I shouted out "STEVE!!!" when I was about 20 feet in front of him and he frantically tries to get a picture as I'm running by. (Hence the blury pic!)

These pictures were taken by the professional photogs near the finish line. This top one cracks me up, because I know at that very moment (as I'm starting to poop out), I spotted the clock at the finish line. It had just struck 59 minutes, and I thought, "Oh my gosh, if I hurry I can finish before the hour mark!" That gave me enough oomph to step it up, and my actual chip time ended up being 58:33.

Tim, a friend of ours that I ran into after the race. A lot of people commented on how cool it was that I had the bib # 2000.

I definitely caught the bug and hope I can keep getting better at running!

Alex "Sonic" Lilly, Future Olympian

Alex has been obsessed with two things lately, Sonic the Hedgehog and pretending he's a track star. Apparently, Sonic is incredibly fast, and one day recently he saw some races on t.v. for the Olympic trials and it apparently made quite an impression. Those two things combined have prompted him to run all over the place as fast as he can. He says he's going to be in the Olympics one day. Not to brag, but he is pretty fast! He also likes to go to the high school track and run. One day Steph took him with her, she got him all outfitted before they left, he does look quite serious in these pictures. (I'm not sure what the glove is all about, I'm guessing Sonic probably wears gloves...)



This is his stance that he can often be seen in. He likes to pretend he's putting his feet against the starting blocks as he gets ready to start his race, just like the guys on t.v. do.
One day as we were leaving Target, a little boy was running down the sidewalk, so Alex takes off and starts running after him in a self-proclaimed race. Of course Alex won, although the other boy didn't realize he was even in a race.
If things pan out the way Alex plans, be watching for him in the 2028 Summer Olympics!



P.V.D.D.

 P.V.D.D. is short for Post Vacation Depression Disorder, a condition that I both invented and self-diagnosed myself with. When people ask, "How was your vacation?" and I reply, "Great!", you would think that is a good thing. However, when your vacation is too great, it can lead to P.V.D.D. Here are some of the causes of this disorder...

Go camping in the beautiful Sierra Nevada Mountains and make memories with love ones...

Alex caught his first fish... with a Lightning McQueen fishing pole, no less!

Hike to a waterfall and jump in the "refreshing" (freezing) water.

No better way to celebrate the 4th of July than a trip to the beach...

then come home to a lovely homemade meal by Grandma.

Cool off in the summer heat by taking a dip in your sister's pool...

Leave your heart in San Francisco...

Make our traditional visit to Berkeley to the campus and then Blondie's Pizza.

With all those adventures aside, the very best part of vacation is just being at home. Nothing beats sitting in Grandma's lap for a story or teasing Grandpa with the sprinkler.

(Alex enjoying his morning cereal in Grandma and Grandpa's peaceful backyard)

 

 

 

 

  

There is such a feeling of peace, security, love, etc. when you are at the home you grew up in. I think that's partly why I have such a hard time leaving. It certainly doesn't help when you grew up in such a place as Napa, California. 

For example, one morning I woke up early to the familiar "whoooooshing" sound of a hot air balloon making it's descent in a nearby neighborhood. I looked out the window and counted six off in the distance. I threw on my clothes and went out for a run in the cool Napa in July morning air.

Another day, I hopped on my dad's bike and took a little ride. Traveling down a country road lined with vineyards, even seeing a deer along the way seems like something from a movie scene. I literally had a smile plastered on my face the entire time as I thought, "This is heaven!"

I've now been back for a good week and a half and am finally easing myself back into the "real world". The cure, I have found, for P.V.D.D. is immersing yourself into work, chores and good old fashioned responsibilities.... And I hope to do it all over again next summer.

Fifth Birthday

Can you believe this young man had the nerve to turn 5 years old? Does he not know that he is breaking his mother's heart? OK, a bit dramatic I know, but I just don't know where the time has gone.

Alex is very into Sonic these days, so "Sis" made this cake for him, what a nice sister.

Celebrating with some cousins.

My two June babies... now 5 and 20!

One of Alex's bday gifts, he calls this his "relaxing pool". With as hot as this summer has been, he should get lots of use out of it!