It's back to school for everyone! After a super fun and busy summer, we are back to a routine... Let's start with Trevor:
Trevor started his second year of preschool with Teacher Cathy. We love her! It is a little strange that this will be our last year with a child in her class... As expected, I drove up to the house, and Trevor did NOT want me to get out. He is big and can hop out of the car and ring the doorbell without me! So I had to let him have his independent moment, then get out to take pictures.
Charlotte is a big 2nd grader! Her teacher is Mrs. Nethercut (that's who we were hoping for) and she has some of her best friends in her class. And as you can see, she FINALLY lost her top front tooth the week before school!
And Mr. Scott... He's in 4th grade! He has Mr. Haskins, which will be his first male teacher. So far we are both very impressed. Scott's best friends are also in his class, so he is thrilled.
Now 3 days into the week and all the kids are happy and excited to be back! I love our school :)
With my blogging efforts seriously lacking, it is time for me to catch up a bit and document our super fun summer! So here's the whirlwind tour...
It started with a fantastic couple of days at the beach house with 2 of my best friends from college, Liz and Becky. We talked and shopped and read and talked more and slept on the beach and ate fantastic food and talked even more! I love those girls and they always provide such needed therapy! We really missed the other girls in our gang, but hopefully we can get a few more to come next time. Somehow I don't have a picture of the three of us, but here's the view from the beach house :)
Scott had lots of fun at Scout camp building stuff, shooting stuff, knocking stuff down, throwing stuff... You know - exactly what 9-year-old boys love doing! Check out the video of him trying archery. He was great!
We finally were brave enough to do a couple of REAL camping trips! Last year we just bought the gear and "camped" in our backyard. This year we did a couple of short trips - one to Scotts Flat Lake above Nevada City and the other to Sugar Pine Point state park on the west shore of Tahoe. Sugar Pine Point was definitely our favorite and we would go back again. I tried to recreate all my favorite camping memories as a kid, including eating lemon drops and lots of other treats we wouldn't get at home, playing card games or board games in the dark by the light of the lantern, doing the "dishes" by throwing the paper plates in the fire, and swimming. We were able to do all of those! We may be a little more adventurous next year and do a longer trip up in the Redwoods.
We decided to spend the hottest week of the summer in St. George, UT -- where is was another 5-10 degrees hotter than in Sacramento. But we has lots of fun visiting Grandma and Grandpa and several of the Syphi cousins. Thank goodness for the indoor pool and the inflatable water slide in the back yard. The kids were definitely entertained!
While in St. George, we took a day trip to Zion Canyon, a place I haven't been for 20 years. I forgot how beautiful it is! The kids loved playing in the Virgin River. We HAVE to come back when our kids are a little bigger and spend more time in this place!
And for a little intermission at home, we were able to test drive the Tesla Model S, our dream car. Given the recent safety ratings that came out (it received the highest rating EVER for any car), if we truly love our kids, we will get one. :) Scott is totally onboard with this plan!
Then back on the road... Next we spent some time at the beach house near Monterrey, our favorite family getaway. On the drive down, we were able to stop in Palo Alto and have fun visiting Papa and Pauline! The kids put on a nice crazy show for them and are begging to go back to swim in their pool. Then on to the beach! We did the usual -- playing the freezing waves, digging holes, flying kites, searching for sand dollars, building sand castles and feeding the ducks. We had some dear friends from our Palo Alto days come hang out with us for a couple of days. It was great to see Jason & Elisabeth and Jeff & Terri and their kids. We've grown up!
Then conveniently, I was assigned to teach a class in Austin, which meant I could go a little early and spend the weekend in Dallas with Cindy and fam! That was awesome timing since I was very anxious to meet my new adorable niece, Baby Rachel. She is a doll. The best part (other than hanging out with the fam) was eating some real Texas BBQ. Check this out:
The last week before school was filled with other awesome activities, like more swimming, Chuck E Cheese, playing with friends, and finally dinner at Woody's - the kids' favorite restaurant.
Scott, Charlotte and Trevor all have their birthdays within about 5 weeks of each other. The pattern we have established in our family is that we alternate years between friend birthday parties and family parties. So this year was the family party... We decided to take the gang down to Disneyland and Legoland to celebrate! We went at the absolute perfect time - the first week in March. The crowds were really small because we beat the Spring break rush! It had been 2 years since we went to Disneyworld, so it was all pretty new to Trevor.
Mom drove down with us, and Dad flew down and met us there that night. Day #1 was all Disneyland, and the highlights are as follows:
Scott: The Zurg ride. I know that's not the official name of the ride, but it's the one where you shoot lasers at all the Zurg targets for points. We probably went on it about 6 times. Good thing we all love it!
Charlotte: The rocket ride that just goes in circles and Star Tours. That surprised me a bit... She was actually the most brave of the 3 kids!
Trevor: All things pirate... The only thing better than Pirates of the Caribbean was the store after the ride with all the pirate accessories! But unfortunately the Peter Pan ride was his least favorite. He screamed through the whole thing. Star Tours was also NOT a favorite.
Then we spent day #2 at California Adventure. Last time we went was 4 years ago, and we barely spent any time there and didn't leave super impressed. This time was different. We LOVED California Adventure! We all decided it was our favorite day of the trip. And given that the crowds were small, we were able to do even the most popular rides multiple times. Wow - Cars Land is amazing! Here are our favorites:
Scott: Toy Story Mania. We probably did that one 5 times and loved it each and every time!
Charlotte: Soarin'. What a cool experience! She also loved the Little Mermaid ride, as expected.
Trevor: Also Toy Story Mania. And he enjoyed dancing and flirting with women while waiting in line.
Adults: The clear winner was Radiator Springs Racers, the Cars ride. That was absolutely awesome! And we were so lucky that we could do it twice with literally no wait -- the first time we had fast-passes and the second time we did the single-rider line. That was SO fun and so creative! We also loved California Screamin'. Sweet roller coaster...
On a side note, it was interesting that at work I have been involved with developing a bunch of custom training for Disney. They use our software to evaluate customer surveys and forecast things like staffing and food. I'd like to think my company is part of the reason why Disneyland is such a special place :)
Finally, day #3 was Legoland. It was a fun place, but I'll admit it was a little cold and we were a little exhausted after our 2 long Disneyland days. The highlight for the boys was really just building Lego cars and racing them... But it was awesome to see all the amazing Lego creations.
It has been hard to wait, but the day has finally arrived! Scott turned 8 and being an even year, he was able to have a big party with his friends. So his choice was a giant kickball game! Pretty sweet party, if you ask me... Pizza and an Angry Birds cake were also part of the festivities. And as an added bonus, Aunt D was here and could join us!
Scott at dinner time after his first day of 2nd grade: "Mommy, why are you ruining the best day ever by making me eat meat?"
Scott commenting on his broken elbow: "Grandpa told me I should keep it at 90 degrees. It feels pretty warm - about 70 degrees."
On 50s dress-up day at school, Scott said, "I'm going to wear my 49ers jersey, because that is close."
Heard frequently from Charlotte when she is upset with Scott or Trevor: "Fine! I am not being your brother anymore!"
I asked Charlotte to go put her shoes on. Her response: "Sure, but first I have to twirl."
While taking about how Jesus fed the 5,000, we pointed to a picture of bread and fish and asked Charlotte what he fed everyone. She thought for a second, and answered very confidently, "Broccoli and M&Ms."
Charlotte is very grateful for all the states where Uncle Jeff and Aunt D live. In her prayer, she said, "Thank you for California. Thank you for Arizona. Thank you for New Hamster."
