Ethan's First Day

Ethan - Miss Jamie - 1st Year Preschool

  Age 3

Family Pictures 2017

And not to be left out of the back-to-school shananigans...

Happy 2nd birthday, my little princess!

Today is Kate's birthday. She's two! And does she ever act like it? She fights about what to wear, when to get dressed, what hair clip and shoes to match, where to go, when to leave, where to sit in the car, what to eat, when to eat, where to sit to eat, when to nap, what toys and blanket to nap with, who to hold her, when and how she is held, how her hair is done, when her hair is touched, where/when/how/by whom her diaper is changed... Should I go on, or are you getting the idea?

God sure knew how to make sure that this firecracker was my last!

When she doesn't get what she wants - and honestly, she doesn't know what she wants most of the time - she kicks, screams, hits, throws, bites... Wow. It sometimes seriously leaves me speechless.

I can't possibly count the number of public tantrums this girl has thrown. She definitely has topped the number of all my boys combined! I never would have had the courage to deal with her in Walmart, the library, the park, the pool, the bike-trailer, the stroller, etc etc if she was my oldest. Now, I just roll my eyes, grab her off the ground and smile at all the onlookers begging with their eyes to give me advice that I totally don't want.

Kate is who she is. My job is to mold, shape - and hopefully inspire - her to use all this stubborness for good. Pray for us.

And she is totally and utterly adorable. Her blond curls, her tan skin, her chubby cheeks, her blue eyes, her plump thighs, her darling smile... She gets her way with strangers.

But this momma and daddy know better though. We try not to let her get away with too much, but hey - She is the baby. Everyone else had been replaced in "baby" status by this point.

And it goes without saying that she will always have a special place in my heart as our "limited edition" baby girl.

Happy Two Years, Princess! Stay cute. And be nice to your mom and dad.

* * *

Kate loves to "help" me cook in the kitchen, so we got her some Ikea stuffed food,

... a wood birthday cake with velcro candles and a wood pizza set with velcro toppings,

... and the grand finale - 

An Ikea Kitchen! She loves it.

First Day 2017-2018

Collin - Mrs Eucker - 3rd Grade

 Brennan - Mrs Harras - 1st Grade

Best Friends

They all left us together today. Good luck, Team!

Eclipse Totality

So I had thought all the media hype pre-eclipse had been super overdone. But I did get us all free glasses at the library about a month ago. Then when Ryan said none of the other "smart" guys at work were going to come in on Monday, he got a whole outing planned for us to Scottsbluff, NE - inside the band of totality.

Our plan was to get up at 5:30 and leave when the kids woke up naturally at 6:30. As we spoke with friends all weekend, we decided that leaving so late was not going to work, so as we finally went to bed about 11pm Sunday night, we set the alarm for 3am! We woke up the kids at 3:30 (Silly Ryan thought they'd go back to sleep in the car, ha!) and were on the road by 3:45.

About now is when I turned around and realized that in the chaos of waking up the kids and getting loaded, Ryan nor I grabbed Kate any shoes. So we had a little hillbilly all day with us. Oops. Maybe she'll start grabbing her own, like the boys! 

Traffic was heavy but not slow going up, and we got to the National Monument a few minutes after 6am. There was a short wait to get into the lot, but it went really smoothly. The huge disappointment was that they weren't allowing any cars to drive to the top, and they weren't letting anyone park at the bottom and hike to the top.

So... we were stuck at the bottom for the next six hours waiting for "the event." Before we even got out of the car, they had closed the lot to additional cars, and they didn't allow any people to walk/bike in. It was just us and about 80ish other cars.

But the long wait went sooo fast! They had eclipse workbooks for the kids and when they were completed, they showed the ranger and received a wood pin and badge. They had a special performance in the ampitheater about the man the area was named after.

 And we also toured the museum and watched a short movie in there too. We walked down a short trail with information about the Oregon Trail and replicas of wagons and oxen teams too.

I had read online in advance that the solar glasses were not very affective for children, since they are sized for adults. A craft was provided where the glasses are mounted to paper plates. So Ryan worked with each of the kids to make paper plate masks for their glasses and attached string so they stayed on well. They decorated them, and I think it was a great way to pass the time.

I helped them with their workbooks. 

Then at about 10:20, we started to see the first bite out of the top right corner. It was really exciting! Everyone inside this area was really into what was happening. Most were from the Denver area and had also been up since 3am. There was no alcohol allowed, so everyone was acting responsible.

One guy had his telescope set up with a mirror to reflect the image onto a screen. He explained the whole process to all the kids. The rangers also had a mega-telescope arranged, and we could even view the sun spots through it. Another family had brought a colander to view the strange shadows, and they handed out pinhole cards for each of the kids too. A group of grandparents brought aluminum foil and wrapped their hats, just to be silly. Everyone was so friendly and interesting.

And then at 11:48... Total eclipse! It really was amazing. So crazy! It was worth all the media-hype, for real. Everyone cheered, and it got cooler (84 degrees to 67 degrees, according to Ryan's special watch) and the birds stopped chirping. The rangers kept warning us that the rattlesnakes might come out and to watch our kids and the tall grass, but honestly - I forgot! But no one got bit, so I guess it was fine. ;-)

It was only as dark as it'd be at 8pm or so, but the corona was incredible! We saw Sirius and Venus too. With glasses on, it was totally black, which is why it was ok to remove the solar glasses during totality. There was a perfect black - kinda scary! - disc in the center of a brilliant perfect circle of bright, wavy light. It really was pretty creepy. And so totally amazing!

After it ended, we were hoping they'd open the road to the top so we could hike, but they said because of the numbers of people, they planned to keep it closed all day. :-( So we headed home.

Kate was one sleepy little princess by noon as we headed towards home. She fell right asleep, but only slept about 10 minutes. It was probably the longest day of her life. :-)

The first hour of the drive was fine, but when we got to Cheyenne, the traffic got really bad, and it was stop-and-go until northern FoCo. We exited the freeway then and took the country/local roads through towns to get back home.

We got home about 3:30 and even spent the rest of the afternoon at the pool to maximize Ryan's vacation day.

All in all, it was PERFECT! We hardly planned, and we were really anxiously about traffic, parking, food (I packed two meals and extra bottled water, but didn't need it), toilets (I took my camping potty, but didn't need it), gas (we had a full tank to begin at the start). It was super smooth considering the numbers of people flocking to see it.

Total eclipse awesomeness!