Paint the Town Orange!

Friday night UVA hosted a pep rally to kick off their fall athletic season.  The spirit squad was there as were the cheerleaders, the marching band came and many athletic teams were available to meet the fans. A bounce house was set up and the the teams gave away lots of UVA things.  These are the kinds of events I wanted so badly to be able to attend and could never find in Colorado Springs.  Charlottesville has so many of them! I love it.
We headed downtown to check it out and had a great time.  Jared and Lydia both happily tried out the bounce house and collected UVA pom poms and stickers from the cheerleaders.  Jared quickly got to the top of the slide and came right down. Lydia on the other hand worked very hard to get to the top then decided she would just hang out there for awhile.  After a few minutes an older girl helped her down the slide.  We stopped by a frozen yogurt shop and then sat down at the end of the downtown street to wait for the parade to begin.  Soon the UVA mascot appeared and so did the cheerleaders.  There was a small fire truck there and an officer came over and gave Lydia and Jared hats.  We took a picture with "CavMan" (the mascot) and danced around to the marching band warming up. Shortly after we met up with our neighbors (Ricard and Portia) and enjoyed the parade with them.  The weather was awesome and it was really fun to be downtown.  AS we were watching the parade the cheerleaders got a little too spread out. One cheerleader guy was trying to get the team back together and called Halt! a few times then STOP. But on one heard him. He was right by us and I politely suggested he us the Megaphone was holding.  It was funny. A few minutes later a different cheerleader stopped by and offered to let Jared use his megaphone. He was pretty excited.

 The downtown mall has a chalkboard wall that people use. 

I love this picture because Jared went by himself and held Lydia's hands. Often in parking lots I ask him to hold Lydia's hand and he always says he wants to hold mine.  It was sweet to see it this way.  I signed Jared and Lydia up to be on the CavMan crew and we got these free shirts for them along with some other goodies. We are not huge UVA fans but we sure love their community outreach groups!  We have nothing against the school that is, just no connection to it.

It was a great night out.  As it started to get darker Jared looked over at me and asked "Is it past my bedtime?" I answered yes and he got so excited that he was out past his bedtime!  I loved the look on his face.  When we were leaving he said he wanted to stay out longer so he could be past his bedtime even more.  Goofy kid.  We went to his preschool open house that morning.  He is beyond excited to go.  When it was time to leave he almost started crying because he was so happy to be there. I am not too worried about his first day on Tuesday.  Thursday night Mark and I attended the Parent orientation and met his teachers.  They seem very nice and qualified.  He will be the oldest in his class but I think it will be fine.  I was talking to our babysitter as I drove her home and I sort of realized that after this year Jared will be gone a large portion of the day 5 days week, in less than a year! I know I will still be a "full time parent" but that is a lot of time for him to be gone.  It sort of made me realize that this is the last year I will be his full time care giver for lack of better words. That made me sad.  Not that he is growing up, but really where did the last 5 years go?

Last week we spent Saturday morning touring Charlottesville.  We drove out to Ruckersville which is about 20 minutes away because they have more affordable housing.  It is a nice area but I now know that I do not want to live there.  It just seems poorly planned like, really narrow streets and they are curvy and not at all level with no sidewalks in sight.  It's not hicksville but definitely does not have a city feel.  We drove around the North side of town by Forest Lakes (all the neighborhoods are named here) and Holly mead and that is where I would prefer to live.  It is also more expensive. Not unattainable but pretty limited in what we could find. We are perfectly happy in our current neighborhood (Riverrun) but want to buy something and not be in a town home. Charlottesville officials seem to pass very few housing zones/permits (they want to keep the city pretty small) so there is really a shortage of single family homes but so many town homes! We would just really like to have more of a yard. We will see.  It was nice to drive around and see what was there. I feel like neighborhoods are hide to find here because they are all hidden by woods. So often there is a main road and then all the streets branch off that into cul de sac. With woods between them. Super pretty but really limiting too.

Back to school

Mark's school year has officially started.  His students came to school on August 20th. I like to try and surprise him with something fun at the start of his school year.  This time around I picked up some Panera Bagels and a loaf of his favorite Tomato-Basil bread to use for sandwiches. Before he left for the day Jared and Lydia made sure to give him a Kissing Hand and get one back in return. I checked out a bunch of back to school books from the library to read with Jared before he goes to preschool and that one has been a favorite. It's such a sweet story and I love getting Kissing Hands from Jared and Lydia.
The first few days of school are always sort of boring because you are not teaching much.  Just focusing on classroom/school procedure.  This semester he is teaching 7th grade, which is US History from Reconstruction (1865) through present day.  In January he will add two classes of 8th grade American Government to his schedule and go down to one 7th grade class.  It looks like he will be going on two field trips in September.  One is with his 7th graders on an overnight building unity campout and the other will be with the 8th grade students, "Paddling down the Potomac" (!!! ).  How cools that? They literally paddle canoes down the Potomac and stop off at historic sites because, its Virginia and you can. Virginia has to be one of the best places to teach US History/American Government.  He is very excited about the 8th grade field trip. Not so much about 7th grade but it will be fine.
Mark says diversity wise his school is fairly similar to Colorado but the students do seem to be a little stronger academically and behaviorally so that is nice.  He had open house a week ago and felt like parent support was stronger which is a plus. He is very excited about the other teachers he is working with and his admin which is really great.  There is a group of teachers that play basketball Fridays after school which he is happy to participate in.  So far the year is off to a great start. I wish the school day were a little different. He doesn't start until 9:00 (he leaves by 8:00) so school doesn't get out till 4:00 which seems so late to me.  In Colorado he was typically home by 4:00 or 4:15 but now it will be closer to 4:40.  Just seems so late even though I know most jobs require people to work much later.

Jared is super excited about preschool.  There is a Parent's night this Thursday and he has Open House Friday morning then school starts Tuesday after Labor Day.  We made a countdown chain yesterday and the first thing he did today was run downstairs to pull off the first link.  It is fun that he is so excited to go. We have ben doing lots of back to school activities for learning time. His favorite is our school bus activity.  We did a simpler version last year.  I have him roll a pari of dice, then make an addition equation out of it. So if he rolls a 4 and 5 he writes out 4 + 5 = then adds (counts) them up.  We then put that many "Students" (M & M's) on the bus.  We have also been working very hard on our word families.  Jared and I were not really getting anywhere with "Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Lessons" so I have decided to try something else.  He completely loves doing word families.  It's so funny.  The other day I got them out and he said "thank you for teaching me word families, I love them, they are so awesome!" It was adorable. He gets really excited each time we do them.  When we combines them with the begging sound and reads the word he is so pleased with himself.  We also got a ton of sight books from Mark's sister Cathryn and we read 2 at the end of each learning time. He was already very good at sounding out letters so now we are just working on him reading them.  It's been fun to see him so excited about reading. I love it.

He really is this excited about word families.  I told him to show me how word families make him feel and this is what I got!

And we have had fun playing.  We've gone to parks and splash parks and enjoyed a lot of family walks.  Jared and Lydia have been really into camping ever since we went and one day asked me for some pillow cases that they could use as sleeping bags.  Pretty clever.

 Here they are sleeping under the stars.  We make lots of "tents" but not this time. 

They spend a lot of time being pirates and capturing Fairies (thanks to the "Pirate Fairy" a cute Tinkerbell movie, Jared for sure wants to be a Pirate for Halloween) and pretending they are deer, puppies, and kitties.  Jared and Lydia have become really good buddies in the last 3 months or so. They play really well together a majority of the time and enjoy sharing a room. I do not always enjoy them sharing a room as they keep each other up at night but it is what it is.  There are some benefits as well.  They have both been early risers all their lives and now they can hang out with each other and read books together until their alarm goes off and they can come out of the room.  They definitely need space every now and then and bug each other plenty but they really are good buddies.

We have also been trying out new pancakes.  We have them each Sunday for breakfast.  I was getting really tired of our standard chocolate chip ones and have been looking up new recipes.  This week we tried cinnamon swirl pancakes and they were amazing. I personally love IHOP and am always wiling to go, but Mark is not. I had their Cinn-A-Stix pancakes a long time ago and have been meaning to make them ever since.  These were a little different but just as amazing. They are everyones favorites so far. I am excited to try some new pumpkin ones as fall gets closer.

Happy 10 years to us!

We have a had a fun week celebrating our anniversary. We always acknowledge the day and celebrate but Mark went above and beyond this year which was so fun. And awesome.  He started off with 10 roses with a note that said "10 roses, 10 wonderful years."  They really have been wonderful.  We have been blessed beyond measure.  I have said it before but my personal life has not fallen the common saying that: "Opposites attract".  Mark and I are way more alike then we are different. It has worked really well for us.   His next surprise was 10 different treats with silly sayings, like on the Reeses Pieces he put "love you to pieces".   He has been adding them to our ice cream mixes and its been great.  I came downstairs the next day and found an adorable banner that he put up. I love it.  I think all the seasonal banners people make are adorable and may keep this one up for the rest of the year. The next day he brought home 10 balloons which Jared and Lydia loved. I have always loved getting balloons.  I used to bring them to all my closest friends in high school on their birthday and asked my Mom if she would please get me some when I graduated high school.  He also typed up cute notes of his version of our first kiss, first time saying I love you, our biggest adventures of the last ten years and our day at the temple when we got married. So great!

This morning when I came home from jogging (69 degrees, 99% humidity so you can imagine how awesome I looked, NOT!) there was a piece of paper on the door with a clue.  Once I got inside I followed the clue and found more clues.  Mark set up a fun scavenger hunt for me and at the end of it was a diamond ring!!! Eeekk! It is a past, present, and future ring.  (3 stones) I love it.  But I love him more and am so lucky to be in love with my best friend.  (If we were to say we had a song it would be that one) He got down on one knee and asked if I would marry him again which I was more then happy to agree to do.  Tonight Lydia was looking at the ring and she said "it so pretty!" She is right.

After I got ready for the day...

Not be outdone, (but I was, not that it was a contest, it wasn't) I set up this cute little "tin" bucket for him with 10 gifts inside.  The traditional gift for 10 years is tin/aluminum or the "Modern version" diamonds! It's fun that we both went with the traditional gift idea even if Mark did not know that he was.  We are going out to dinner tomorrow to finish off the week.

It was so fun to celebrate all week. We are far from perfect but we are really happy and really grateful. I can't really imagine my life without Mark and feel so blessed to be married to someone who is so supportive and patient and kind. Who works hard to take care of us and is an awesome dad.   I never could have guessed some of the things we would have done in the past 10 years, Egypt anyone? Travel to 10 countries? Life is just so good!

*We both used this website for ideas and they have so many fun ones.  We are just not that creative but they are so I think we should give them credit. And Mark too, for planning and executing this fun week.

Through Your Faithfulness

As Mark and I were getting ready for bed last night we were talking about what we wanted to do the next day.  We talked about going to a lake and going swimming, going on a hike, playing disc golf and then I said "do you want to go to the temple?" He thought for just a minute and said yeah, lets do that. So we did and it was really nice.

 We packed some snacks and a bag of entertainment for the kids, got the car ready and went to bed.  We tried to leave by 7:00 the next morning but didn't quite make it.  We left around 7:15 and stopped for Dunkn' Donuts on the way which made everyone happy. We are part of the Washington DC temple district and the temple is just over 2 hours away.  It is a beautiful drive and Jared and Lydia did just fine.  We had decided that we would bring them with us and one of us would do a session and one would do initatories.  Both of us had been to the temple grounds and visitors center but neither of us had been inside.  It is a very large, somewhat confusing and beautiful temple.  I did hear someone say that it is a circle inside so that helped. There were plenty of nice people to ask for directions.  Once I found the right place I sat down to wait and then Rob White from our branch in Egypt walked in!  It was so fun to see him.  There are a few Cairo Branch Alumni near the DC area but really what are the odds I would be in the same session as one?  So fun! Right before the session began the Temple President came in and spoke for a few minutes which was really nice.  He spoke of three words that we should remember: "Through Your Faithfulness." That simple phrase is so true to me. I thought it would be a great thing to have put up above our front door.  Great things are promised us if we strengthen and keep our faith.

After the session I got a chance to talk to Rob and loved catching up with him.  He is such a cheerful, friendly guy. He just makes you smile. Sadly his wife was not there but we made a plan to meet up in December to see the lights.  We have been looking forward to seeing the lights. Mark said Jared and Lydia did well and had fun walking around the grounds and the visitors center.  They watched The Stonecutter at the visitors center and Jared was pretty impressed by the man who walked so much to work on the Salt Lake temple. We met up out front by the fountain when I was done and Mark went inside.  There were at least 3 brides (that we saw) today and one was walking out right after I did so Jared, Lydia and I stayed to watch everyone cheer for them.  Jared and Lydia clapped right along with everyone else.  It is always fun to see newly married couples.  They are so happy!  The 21st is our 10 year anniversary!!!  Time is just flying by!

Jared and Lydia gave me a tour of the temple grounds and then we went over near the car and had a snack.  We read some books on our picnic blanket and Jared and Lydia climbed some trees.  We were away from the temple so I didn't feel bad.  Jared picked a smaller tree and was so proud of himself for climbing it. He wants so badly to be able to climb trees and we finally live somewhere with plenty of trees but he is learning it is harder then it looks when you are 4. It was a nice way to spend the day. On our way back we stopped at Cafe Rio in Manassas for a late lunch. It is on the way and about 30 minutes from the temple.  We actually stayed in Manassas when we came out in April and today we drove by our hotel.  We didn't leave the temple till 1:30 and poor Lydia was so tired! She kept drifting  off while we were driving to the restaurant. I made her stay awake till then and once we got on the road again she took the longest to fall asleep. Poor overtired girl.  I am pretty sure I fell asleep first but Jared thinks he did.  She did fall asleep eventually and slept almost till we got to our house. I remember when I was growing up I always woke up right when we turned on Bogue Road which was the 2nd to last street before our house. We drove to Sacramento (which was only like 45 minutes away) a lot to visit my Mom's parents and if I did fall asleep you could place a bet on my waking up then, I was that consistent.

 I asked them to hug each other and this is what I got. 

 Lydia was fully invested and Jared let her hug him.  Lydia is so compassionate/loving.  She is always telling us she loves us.  She starts with either Jared, Mark or I then tells each one of us she loves us. Mark and I of course always say we love her back but Jared rarely does and it kind of breaks my heart. They are great friends a majority of the time but it's so sad. She handles it pretty well, she doesn't really react at all.  Jared is very loving too but it's just different.

We asked a guy if he would take our picture and he warned us that he was a really bad photographer. I checked the picture and it made me laugh because he didn't put the temple in it. (Although I do think the picture of us is pretty good.) So we asked him to take one with the temple and he kindly agreed. Only our kids were kind of done by then so this was the best we got.  We can always try again.

It was a really lovely if tiring outing.  Being in the car always makes me tired!  We did have wonderful weather and it was so fun/surprising to see Rob.  Being on Temple grounds is always enjoyable. I hope Lydia and Jared could feel the spirit.

Parks and real life

We drove up to Harrisonburg earlier this week.  We stopped by the really cool park again and I had my camera.  Harrisonburg is just under an hour away so Jared and Lydia were happy to get out and play.  I really love this park.  It is so fun.  They have great/different/huge play structures, swings, a sidewalk chalk board, hammock, music "instruments", bike/running track, covered picnic tables and many of the play areas are covered too. It has lots of open space too and a fun little water fountain.  It also has a liberty swing for children in wheelchairs. It's so well laid out.  We all had a great time.

 Entry way, look at that green-ness!! 

I love how her head is tilted in this picture. Sort of how you imagine a kid walking into a fun place just for them. 

 Spider web fun

 Just taking a little break

 Music Instruments

There is a row with other instruments in front of these. 

 Ready Steady Go!

 I love how the play areas have covered sections. 

 She was quite pleased with herself for climbing all the way up to the top. 

We could spend hours here!  After we played we went over to Costco after and picked up a few items.  Mark and I really like Costco. We were walking around and it was just nice.  It is weird though because most things are exactly the same yet they don't carry some items.  And they aren't items that strike me as only "Out West" items. Oh well. It's still nice to go. We are not homesick but it was nice to be somewhere that reminded us of out West. I can't really explain it. (again we can't wait for the one to be built here in Charlottesville)  Costco started back in Seattle and just remind of us living out West where we have been for pretty much our whole lives. I guess it's just familiar.

Yesterday we headed back over to the splash park and had fun playing around. The area sort of slopes down so at the bottom there are grates the water goes down into.  When you stand near them you are in the "deepest"section of the splash park.  I took off my flip flop and showed Lydia and Jared how it floated like a boat.  There were some leaves nearby so I told Lydia to grab one so she could have a boat.  She spent a fair amount of time floating her leaf down then grabbing it and doing it again.  Once they were done playing in the water we spent some time playing at the park.

 Jared's favorite feature this day. 

Last time we went it was only spraying a little but this time it was going pretty far. 

 This one wasn't on last time and Lydia loved using it to feel up her bucket. 

 Jared and Lydia were both happy that we remembered the buckets. 

Walking by her boat

Today we went to our neighborhood park and met up with some families from church. It was great to visit with them and start to get to know them.  There really are so many new move-ins that I do sort of feel like I have been around for a long time yet it hasn't even been a month! Our ward even has person serving as the move in coordinator. This person just had her baby today so I got an email from the Relief Society last night asking if I would be an interim coordinator while she recuperates.  It just sort of made me laugh because really, what do I know about this place? But I guess I did just do a lot of the things they will be doing. Anyway. I am happy to help.  This particular park (Pen Park) also has a very nice playground and the back side of it (still visible from the playground) is woods.  There are a couple of trails you can follow that dead end at the bottom.  Jared had an awesome time running around with lots of boys exploring.  I was pretty nervous about him going by himself but just let him. We had walked down a few times as a family so I knew what was down there. He could easily hear me if I yelled his name.  There were some older boys (10 year olds) so that helped.  I sincerely hope he stayed on the trail and didn't find any poison ivy or ticks.  I will have to check him to make sure. Lydia had fun swinging and sliding.  She does really well climbing up now and plays independently so nicely.  It was fun to watch her trying things out and visiting with the other moms was great.

After the park we quickly headed to Target to pick up a few things.  Things went fine until we got back in the car.  It was as if Jared decided he would do every possible annoying thing in that 15 minute drive. Whining, getting mad at Lydia for doing anything he did or had ever done in his life, talking back. It was horrible. I was not in a happy mindset when we got home. I got their lunches ready and ran upstairs to grab something to find my bedroom door locked. Back in Colorado we had the little key things on top of the door frames should this happen (which it did on occasion,) no such luck here. I went back downstairs to grab my phone to look up how to unlock it without the "key" and Lydia was splashing her yogurt all over the table and wall.  I was so irritated.  What on Earth was she thinking?? To top it off, they were the reason the door was even locked! I calmly took her lunch away and told her to go wash up and pick a book.  I went up stairs and managed to unlock the door with my old Debit card. I was so relieved it actually worked.  I went back downstairs to read stories and was confronted with toys all over the floor.  We hadn't even been home that long and it was clean before we left, how did it become so cluttered? I made them clean everything up (even though they should have already cleaned up) with threats that toys would start disappearing if they kept leaving them out and read to them. To add to the fire, while I was making lunch Lydia was going up the stairs dragging her blanket, stepped on her blanket and slipped down the bottom few. (They are hardwood) She was not a happy camper, it was very sad. I have told them I don't know how many times to not try to walk up the stairs with their blankets on the floor but does anyone listen. No they don't. I helped her feel better then showed her that she could toss the blanket up from the bottom to the first landing then climb up and toss it to the top.  I don't think she will but it was worth a shot. I was more than happy to have them lay down for naps.  We definitely needed a break from each other. It was just a really horrible 50 minutes! It's weird how all those things happened right after each other.  I sure hope the afternoon works out better than that last hour together did. Sometimes I think about this blog and feel like it is a misrepresentation of daily life. We have lots of fun but we have plenty of annoying times like the above.  Plenty!  I write this blog for various reasons mainly so our family can see what we are up too but I hope Jared and Lydia will read it when they are older so I would like to make it pretty real too.  We love each other but definitely need breaks from each other.