My Baby's all Growed Up!!

Halle had her first soccer game last Saturday. Jared is her coach. These pictures look like she was a lot more in on the action than she actually was.

I don't know how I managed to get so many "action shots" when in reality she spent the majority of her time running about 5 feet behind or to the side of the group like this:

Halle started her first day of Kindergarten today at Renaissance Academy. We entered the lottery there in February, but were notified we didn't get chosen. She was going to go to Fox Hollow and we had met her teacher and she knew about half of the kids in her class because they live in the neighborhood. Then Friday night, after work, we got an email saying she had been conditionally accepted on a first come first serve basis and you had to turn in your acceptance letter by August 31. Well they sent the email to about 350 people so no way were we going to wait until the 31st to get in on that. We talked to a neighbor whose kids go there and were so thrilled about a lot of things we heard. The two biggest things were class size, they cap kindergarten at 20, and a new all day program they opened up for 20 kids. In addition they can choose to learn Spanish, Mandarin Chinese, or Arabic. They have a dress code/uniforms. Since we weren't sure she'd get in we luckily were able to use a skirt from our neighbor and had a white sweater handy. We arrived bright and early Monday morning at 7:30 (after taking "first day" pictures just in case). We were 12th on the list, 3rd for Kindergarten and got in!! We had dressed in the uniform, brought her immunizations and birth certificate, so she was able to stay for class instead of going home like most kids.
Not only that, but they only had 2 spots left for the all-day program and we snatched up one of those spots. The all day program is 8-3. It's such a blessing for our family. I wasn't sure how Jared was going to do it with half days and taking Halle back and forth to school. I also really wanted Halle to go full days so to have this opportunity was just incredible. We couldn't be more pleased. Halle enjoyed her first day and said "it was a long day" and "I have new friends, but I don't know their names, so they're not my friends yet." So tonight we went on a shopping spree for uniform clothes and I was able to take back some other school clothes that still had tags. Sorry to bore you with the details. Here are a few pictures for her first day, but they're not great because we were in a big hurry to leave so we could get first on the waiting list.

My baby's all growed up!

As I drove away I called my mommy in tears. "Mommy, my baby is at her first day of school!" She said, "Yeah that happens." And I realized HER baby is all growed up.

Lake Powell

We had our annual Lake Powell trip this month and, as always, had a blast. Thanks, Jess and Joan, and thanks mom for taking Eli and our zoo. Jason and Janae came with us as well. Halle swam about 12 hours of every day and we also went tubing...a lot...hence all of the pictures.

We found a lovely beach (minus the teenage jammers during all hours of the night) that had fun places to go hiking.

I don't look thrilled, but I really was. Everyone made fun of me for the length of time it takes me to get in the water. It's COLD and I have to get each inch of my body used to it before I can continue.

Could she be ANY cuter?!?

First tubing of the vacation she chose Jason and Janae. I wasn't surprised.

So brave!

So glad I caught this shot of Jason kissing Janae's shoulder.

Swimming is exhausting.

Finally she agreed to join us.

UH OH!

Phew! That was a close one. Look at Halle's look of disgust at Grandpa Jess's driving.

Just the two of us.

I remember asking Jess not to make us fall off. I don't think he listened.

Again with the adorableness!

Halle's "first fish" as in I used her pole to go fishing, she semi reeled it in, and would not touch or get near it.

Gone fishin'

Jared's catfish

Love this picture. Strangely, though Lake Powell is over-run by carp, this is the first one we've ever caught. It was much prettier than most.

Jason impressed us with a full circle flip on the small tube. These are the best pictures I've got of that action.

This is mid-circle. It may look like he's doomed, but he made it all the way around still hanging on. Nobody else attempted that. Joan tubed with Halle. This was the first time I'd ever seen Joan tube.

UH OH! again

Phew! Another close call.

Not so lucky this time.

We had to convince Halle how cool it was that we got to crash like everyone else. She was really scared at first because she couldn't see us and was panicking, but once she saw us and I made my way to her she thought it was kind of cool.

The following pictures I laughed hysterically through. We thought it would be fun for Jess to "tow us back to shore." Which to me meant going slowly for a relaxing tubing experience. Obviously this did NOT mean the same thing to Jess. For the most part I'm the one making the ridiculous faces. Yeah, me, the one that looks like a vampire shimmering. Geez I'm pasty.

See how much you can see us? A sign as to how fast we were going and how much we couldn't see. The water was just blasting us in the face.

Love LOVE the faces here.

We made it back to shore unharmed and without falling off. Incredible. Obviously Jason was not affected by this. Either that or he was aware of how ridiculous we were going to look in the pictures and pulled himself together.
Jason caught a catfish that night. I wouldn't have had the arm strength to reel it in after our tubing experience.

Jared and Halle worked our whole last morning on this sand castle.