2nd Grade - here he comes!!!

Preschool

Blink

Kindergarten

Blink

1st grade

Blink

2nd Grade

That's how it feels....right, fellow parents? You blink and you've skipped ahead a few years, a few smiles, and a few grades in school.  It's unbelievable. 

I'm happy to report that the 2nd grade year has started out on a positive note, with Jake being excited to head back (after some initial first day jitters) and reporting back on day one that 2nd grade is awesome and his teacher is fun.  Glowing review from a 7 year old!!

One thing that happened earlier this summer that was kind of a weird punch in the gut to me was the day that Jake declared he needed a "big kid" backpack, and did not want to get anything with characters on it.  He wanted either a Nike backpack, or one from Pappy's store (Columbia)  After showing him the pictures of what was available at Columbia, he picked out what he declared to be the coolest backpack around :)  I don't know why, but this really got to me!!  He was happy with his decision though, and proudly rocked that backpack yesterday.  The good news is, it should hold up better than the cheap character backpacks, which usually fall apart by March.

The only person who was unhappy about the first day of school was Liam....he won't start kindergarten until next year, and the boy left behind this year shed some tears in the morning about not going on the bus with his big bro.  Exhibit A of this disappointment can be found on his face in all of the following pictures:

 

He perked up a little bit right before we headed out to the bus stop....

 

 

A few silly pics, and we were off to the bus stop!! 

 

Any nerves that were still lingering seemed to leave once we got to the stop; Jake reunited with all of his usual stop buddies and everyone was comparing teachers and wondering what they would do that day when they got there :)  He was so excited when the bus started to come down the hill that we had to call him back over to us to get a hug goodbye! 

 

He skipped off the bus after school and was happy to tell me all about his day and show me everything that was sent home with him. What else is there to do other than celebrate with ice cream after that kind of day??

Happy back to school, everyone!!!

Montana - Day 5

Just joining us for the Montana recap?  Check out all of the posts here!

Day 5 was really busy, and it deserves its own post!  The fun started in the morning with some water balloons!  Ben's sister and her husband had arrived the night before, and brought this awesome balloon launcher...this thing shot crazy far!

Some videos of the launching and the boys nailing each other with balloons:

Ben's parents were kind enough to rent a boat, jetski, tubes, and water skis for us to try out that day; the boys could barely contain themselves, they were so excited to try out the tube!

 

Uncle Ben had given them instructions before getting in and shown them the proper hand signals to give if you want to go faster (thumbs up) or slower (thumbs down)....Liam spent most of the ride frantically trying to give a thumbs up  and yelling things like, "I SAID FUMBS UP!"

Next up was me and Amy....I was really proud of us, we held on (despite screaming our heads off at certain points and getting our bums suctioned cupped down inside the tube)....at least the first time.  Pictures to follow of the 2nd time with a different tube that wasn't so pretty...

 

 

We interrupt this action packed post to bring you this adorable picture:

Back to the action!  Up next were Amy and Sally...

 Followed by Brian,then Brian and Jake....

 

 

 

We then took a short break from boating mid afternoon when the winds picked up, and the guys built this Hobie Cat and took it out for a spin:

Then we got back in the boat and decided to try out a different tube...this one didn't go as well.  Amy and I were tossed around like rag dogs and had to give a frantic motion to stop the boat....

 

 

See how we had to have our arms crossed?  That seemed like the best idea in terms of keeping us stable and on the tube; however, what actually happened was every time we'd hit a slight bump, our chins would slam onto the other person's elbow.  No bueno.

The water grew even more choppy/wavy by late afternoon, so we waited to test out the water skis until it was a bit calmer after dinner.  First up, Ben's dad Dave, showing everyone how it's done!

Giving Jake a lesson....

Video of Jake trying to get up...he almost made it!!  So proud of him for trying, and he probably could have been up if he'd kept going, but he checked out after this.  I can't say I blame him; it was 8:30pm and the temperature drops very quickly there once the sun goes in...he was shivering like crazy!

Up next was Brian...success!!!

View on the boat....

 Ben on the skis....I wish they weren't blurry because I think it's so pretty!

That's a wrap for day 5!

Montana - Days 3 & 4

Welcome back!  If you missed my post about our first few days at Flathead Lake, you can see it here.


Day 3 was going to be a busy day...me, Brian, Danny, and Sally were all heading out to go horseback riding!  I will pause here a minute and toot my own horn, giving myself full credit for this being my idea.  A few weeks before the trip, Brian and I had a text exchange during the day that looked like this:

Me: Would you want to go horseback riding while we're in Montana?
Brian: sure, that would be fun!
Me: Great! I'll look into some places.  We can pretend like we're on a date on the Bachelor, this is so one of the kinds of things they'd do on there!  Think we can arrive by helicopter?
Brian: Please don't try to relate this to the bachelor.
Me: I really hope you give me a rose at the end of the date.
Brian: We're done with this conversation.
Me: I'M IN THIS FOR THE RIGHT REASONS!!
Brian: This behavior is unacceptable.  No rose for you.

Whatever, Brian!  Ashley I says ,your loss!!

 Anyway-once I promised to not make references all day about "taking our love to new heights as we explore the mountains" and "getting in touch with our fears", we booked a trip to a ranch! We went with Artemis Acres and it was a great experience!

 

 

We got signed in, hopped on our horses, and we were off!!  There were about 10 of us in the group and we had signed up for the 2 hour session.  We had a great time, but in hindsight, I might have gone with the 1 hour session!  Don't get me wrong, the view from the top of where we went was beautiful (and that would have been the downside to the one hour, we wouldn't have gone up as high) but man is it painful riding those things!  I just couldn't get comfortable on my horse for the last 45 minutes or so.  It didn't help that there are raging fires all over Montana right now and it was SO dry, even drier than usual, according to the guides.  So not only was the hot sun beating down on us, but the dust was kicking up everywhere.  Even my poor horse was struggling, he kept wheezing!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Despite the heat and dry conditions, we really did have a great time and I'm so glad we went!!  After we left there, we were starving and headed to a local brewery for some lunch; we spotted this outside of the restaurant, so of course these two had to get their picture :)

 

After that quick photo shoot, it was back to the lakehouse...and time to cool off!!  I had not been in the lake the day before because it felt FRIGID to touch with just my feet getting in and out of a kayak and the outside temp hadn't been as hot.  But after baking in the sun on those horses, I was more motivated to jump in!

Me, Liam, and Nana took the plunge together...you can see my reaction to the temperature of the water in the 2nd picture.  Yeah, it felt just as cold as I had expected it to.

"WHO TALKED ME INTO JUMPING IN THIS THING??"

 I kept my adventurous streak going and tried out paddle boarding for the first time...success!!

We hung out the rest of the day, enjoyed a yummy dinner, and then more s'mores of course!

 

 

 

Funny note about the picture of Liam and Nana playing sorry...he became OBSESSED with that game during the week.We have it at home and he'd played it before, but for whatever reason he became addicted on vacation.  The first thing he'd do in the morning is grab the game and stalk anyone who was already awake and beg them to play :)  Liam still has trouble pronouncing some letters and "R" happens to be one of those, so whenever he'd send another player back to home, he'd yell "SOWWY!" which became the catchphrase of the week.

The next day, we didn't have any specific plans, which was nice after being gone much of the morning horseback riding the day before. The little fish were in the water pretty much all day!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Nana and PopPop gave paddleboarding a try, too!!

 

We had a bald eagle sighting that afternoon:

 Liam fell into a little routine during the week where he'd fall asleep everyday around 4 and sleep almost until dinner time :)  It worked out well for the week (though it was harder for him to adjust to the time change back home, I think!) because without that nap, he would have fallen apart by dinner...and getting that extra rest allowed him to stay up later and be able to shovel s'mores in every night.  It was a win-win for everyone. Even Jake took a break from the water nearly every afternoon, and hung out in the chair pictured below....he definitely asked if he could take the chair home as his souvenir!

 

One more note to round out this post,: when we were done for that day, Brian showered first and got dressed while I was in the shower and went outside...I showered, got dressed (without having seen him) then headed outside where we quickly learned that we looked like we should be coordinating models for a Gap ad.  Loved it. The first is our "aww, we're cute" pose....

...and the 2nd we were instructed to make our best duck face/jersey shore pose.  This is what we came up with:

Nailed it.

That's a wrap for days 3&4! Peace out!