First Day of Kindergarten!

After waiting a whole week after his brothers started school, Colin had his first day of kindergarten today. As far as I could tell, it was a success. He had two recesses and got to dance the Hokey Pokey. And, of course, that's what it's all about.

First Day of School!

Liam and Andrew started school today. I can't believe how fast the summer went by. I'm not totally ready to say good bye to them every morning! We've actually had a great summer together, and I know for certain that Aidan especially will be missing them a lot. Poor kid, once Colin starts kindergarten next week, Aidan's going to have to rely on mommy for entertainment, at least until Logan's ready to play.

We made slushies after school, so Liam and Andrew could cool down after their hot walk home (Colin had some friends over):

I can't believe that Liam is already in 5th grade, and Andrew is in 2nd. You always hear that kids grow up so fast, and I guess it must be because it is true!

300 Warriors

Yesterday Brandon participated in the "300 Warriors" road race, which is part of the Tour of Utah. This is the description from the website:

On the fourth and most demanding day in "America's toughest stage race," 300 citizen warriors will precede the professional teams by 4 hours. Their goal: ride 98 miles and scale 14,778 vertical feet, a feat representing over 28% of the horizontal distance and almost half the climbing in the five-day Tour of Utah stage race. Finishing this ride is the equivalent to riding the Tour de France’s Col de la Croix de Fer, Col du Télégraphe, Col du Galibier and Alpe d’Huez.

The race started in Park City, went through Kamas, Francis, and Midway, came down Provo Canyon, up past Sundance and over the Alpine Loop, down American Fork Canyon, up and over Suncrest, and finished up Little Cottonwood Canyon. Check out those huge climbs. Yikes!

The boys and I went to cheer him on at the top of Suncrest. They were great at encouraging all the riders who passed! Here we are waiting for him:

And here Brandon is nearing the summit of Suncrest:

Brandon had said his goals were 1) to finish and 2) to finish ahead of the pro racers, which he did by about 1 1/2 hours (his total time was around 6 1/2 hours). A motivating factor at the very end (of course on a very steep section!), was that Liam was waiting at the finish line. He had ridden all day with my sister Jenni, who drove the support vehicle for Brandon's group (thanks again, Jenni!). Shouts of, "Go, Daddy!" kept Brandon muscling on to the grueling end. Way to go Brandon!

Swimming and the Olympics

8:45 am rolls around on the early side of things at my home (I just can't seem to make myself become a morning person), but I signed up the three oldest boys for swimming lessons at that time, nonetheless. Mostly because that was just about the only time when all three lessons could be at the same time, and the daycare would be open for Aidan. We did one session in June at a lovely 11:30 time, but I wanted them to have one more session this summer to really have it sink in, and just to give them something to do.

I am proud to report that the first week of lessons went swimmingly--we were on time to each one. And then the Olympics started, and the boys have stayed up a little too late, and I have stayed up a lot too late. I let Andrew & Colin skip lessons on Tuesday because they were too tired (Liam still went), and we all ended up ditching today, the last day (Liam would have gone, but he was coughing all night long, and I didn't think swimming would help that any).

It's a little ironic that we missed swimming lessons because we were watching Olympic swimming. But really, watching Michael Phelps make history is just too cool to miss! I also love the gymnastics, and end up getting sucked into any other event that is on. Normally Brandon and I don't watch much TV, let alone sports, but the Tour de France for Brandon and the Olympics for us both are an exception. My boys were shocked when they saw me turning the TV on to watch the first day. "Mom, I thought only Dad liked stuff like this." It's nice to know I can still surprise them now and then.

King of Dessert

Liam eating an ice cream cone in 2005

Liam eating an ice cream cone in 2008: I think he's gotten messier!

Grandpa Dave reminded me of a story about Liam when we were at a restaurant. The waitress asked if anyone would like dessert, and Liam's hand shot up in the air, "I do!" He's still like that today: ruled by his sweet tooth. I have to say, he comes by it naturally.

Fence Finished!

For the past 6 weeks, I've been waiting for our fence to be finished. Today it finally happened! I now feel like I can send 2-yr old Aidan out into the backyard and not have to worry about him hightailing it out of there down the street, or into the church parking lot, or into a neighbor's house (all of which he has done in the past, of course). Since the sliding door into the backyard is the only one that Aidan can currently unlock by himself, I'm hoping his escaping escapades are at an end. Well, as long as the older boys remember to keep the doors and gates closed/locked!

Ha, he can't escape!

(Yes, we know that tree has to go--it's entirely too close to the gate)

Several factors made up the 6 week wait from the time the posts were installed. First, we wanted to put in a cement mow strip so we don't have to weed whack against the fence all the time. Brandon did the first 70' in the back, and was doing a beautiful job, but it was just taking up a ton of time. Since we ended up being out of town the first 3 weekends in July, we decided to hire out the remaining 150 ft. Let's just say that the guy I hired to do it was a little less than quick about it (and difficult to understand!). After that was done, the scheduling guy at the fence company goofed things up a couple of times (like not scheduling us when he told us he had, oops).

The boys were very excited to get their names in concrete!

The lawn took a beating throughout the process, since sprinkler lines were damaged when the posts were installed (and the phone line--we had to have an entirely new one buried because they hadn't marked where it was correctly! Luckily we didn't have to pay for it) and then we had to leave some sprinklers off a bit for the concrete to cure. It's on its way to recovery, though!

We put a shorter section in the front with plans to landscape against it and disguise the very attractive grate there.

Conniving Colin

What, me?

The other morning, Colin asked for milk on his cereal--again. This is highly unusual behavior for him, since he generally prefers it dry (don't ask me why). After several mornings of this, I commented that he must have decided he now likes milk. He said, "Mom, do you know why I've been asking for milk?" "Why?" I ask, somewhat suspicious now. "If I have milk on my cereal, we'll run out of milk faster, and then we'll have to go to the store, where we can buy more Pokemon cards."

Aha! It all makes sense now. The problem for me is that things like this are fairly routine for him. He just thinks things through and then connives to get his way. I don't even want to imagine what this could mean for the teen years. (We did buy more milk, but his milk sacrifice was in vain: he was out of money for more cards).