New path, new bikes, and more.

Jared and I stayed home from church Sunday.  He had a runny nose and leaky eyes on Thursday but I hoped it was just some allergies, by Friday night he had started coughing.  I wasn't feeling so great either so we decided Jared and I would stay home from church.  When Mark and Lydia got home we were ready for a change in scenery. Mark had not been on the "new" to us paved path so we drove over there and enjoyed the fresh air on a leisurely walk.  Lydia rode in the stroller until we got to the little bridge then after admiring the bridge for a while she switched spots with Jared who was quite happy to be pushed in the stroller. The path is great for little walks like that. I wish it was a loop but it is paved so therefore gets bonus points. It was really nice to be outside enjoying the lack of humidity. Something that has surprised me about Virginia is how cloudy it is. I don't mind it at all.  Colorado claims to have 300 sunny days a year which is probably pretty accurate but I have always enjoyed a good cloudy day so I am happy that Virginia has been as cloudy as it has.

 Lydia took off running and didn't look back!  We did get her to stop and wait for us eventually. 

When we left Colorado we gave away Jared's bike and Lydia's tricycle.  They had both pretty much outgrown them.  Jared has been waiting patiently to get a new bike since we left Colorado.  We decided that when he filled up his charm jar with good deeds he could get a new bike. Typically we do not buy things for him when he fills up the jar, we do things with him but this seemed like a good plan.  He filled up his jar yesterday so today he and Mark went to the store, just the two of them and picked out a bike and helmet. We had looked at bikes a few times and he had decided he wanted an orange bike.  Fortunately it was in stock today and Jared is now the proud owner.  He picked out a Dusty (from Planes) helmet since it matched so well.  Mark also picked up a balance bike for Lydia. So many parents I know swear by them so we went with it. Lydia was quite confused that it didn't have pedals but figured out how to maneuver it. I can't say that she loves it but hopefully with time she will get more used to it.  She did have some fun "riding" around and then realized that we were letting her and Jared play in the front yard and abandoned her bike to do some exploring.  We all enjoyed the lack of humidity and had a nice evening outside. I think we will be spending a lot more time in our front yard now that there are bikes and less humidity. Mark and Jared practiced turning, making figure eights and circles and braking.  

 Me: "Look excited!" 

 The parking area in front of this town home has a bit of a slope so we really needed to go over braking since the brakes are on the handle bars on this bike. We also ended to go over the fact that he doesn't have to stop he can actually turn the bike and go the other way. Good things to know.

Jared is still coughing some but is so much better.  Unless he has a rough night I am going to send him to preschool, he didn't go Tuesday. Today we (Jared, Lydia and myself) attended out first parent committee meeting.  The school asked for 2 volunteers from each class and I thought, I can do this! So I am going to try my best to get involved.  The other volunteer did it when her son was at this preschool (her daughter is in Jared's class) and is someone who really gets stuff done.  I am glad to be working with someone who is so willing to help out and knows what is going on. She seems very nice.  The meeting was mostly about the Fall Festival they are holding on October 22nd. It sounds really fun but tickets are 8 dollars. I have never attended a festival like this but it seems a little steep to me. I remember loving going to the Lincoln Elementary School Fall Carnival growing up. I wonder how much my parents had to pay... Anyway I am excited to get involved, I think. 

We also went to our 2nd story time at the Library.  Most libraries I have attended just have drop in story times but here you actually have to sign up for them and they fill up! Lydia has her story time Weds. at 10:15 and then Jared's preschool one is after it at 11:00.  Parents attend the 20 minute "class" with the 2-3 year olds and then drop off the preschoolers.  They need to stay in the library but it is set up for kids his age to go by themselves.  It's really well organized and pretty fun.  I am glad he can go since he is only doing preschool 2 days.  It's nice to have another planned independent activity for him.  Today the 2-3 yr olds focused on Pirates (perfect timing since Jared wants a Pirate birthday party, that's right we are finally planning an actual party for him.  We are doing the "big year" parties: 5,8,12,16.) It was fun. A nice girl from our ward is in the class too so its fun to sit by them.  Jared and I sit behind Lydia and I tell him he can participate but can't give answers since he knows a bit more then the smaller kids.  He does very well.  We did some puzzles in the children's area while we waited for Jared's story time.  When it was time for him to go in he acted nervous and wanted me to go but I gave him a kissing hand (love them!) and said I would wait outside for him, when he came out he had the biggest smile.  He enjoyed every minute of it.  We love libraries and sure spend a lot of time at them on Wednesdays!  They do actually have drop in ones that we have yet to attend. I was just surprised at how official it all was. They have laminated name tags for the participants and everything and 2 different "teachers".  I am glad that we got spots. 

Splash Park, Discovery Museum, and UVA Soccer

I found some old pictures from a day at the splash park.  We really had a lot of fun hanging out at them this summer. I am so happy we live somewhere that has not just 1 but 3 of these free parks.  We only made it to 2 of them but from what I have heard we went to the best two.  We can always check out the third one next summer.  Today is the last day they are open and it is nice and drizzly. The weather is looking more fall like in the 10 day forecast (not a day above 81!!) and I am more than ready. 

Thursday was really hot and humid so I was happy that our weekly playgroup met at a park with a water area.  Jared was at preschool but Lydia had fun going back and forth between the water and the play equipment. It was nice to get to visit with some other mom's even if it was just a little. I am just really not that good at playgroups at least ones at parks. I don't consider myself a hovering parent but I still prefer to be pretty close to Lydia as she always wants to play on the older kids playground.  At this particular park (Greenleaf) she kept wanting to slide down the fireman's pole but really doesn't know how to do it very safely.  Mostly she puts her hands on it then jumps.  So I need to be nearby.  But it was great when I could visit with some people. That afternoon we met up at Pen Park for a friends birthday.  We had cupcakes and tried not to melt in the humidity. I always look forward to Fall but I am looking forward to it even more here in Virginia because I am not a fan of the humidity.  After the party we picked Mark up at school and drove up to Harrisonburg to Costco.  Last time we were there they were just putting out Halloween costumes and we saw a pirate one that Jared fell in love with. We told him he could get it when we got closer to Halloween. He has been asking when we were going back to Costco since we told him we would get it next time.  So we picked it up and it has gotten a lot of use in the last 2.5 days. I hope it stays mostly intact until Halloween. We also picked up a costume for Lydia. At first she wanted to be a Fairy and we figured she could wear the Tinkerbell costume she already has but then she said she wanted to be a Princess which was fine but while we were at Costco we found a girl Pirate dress and she was sold.  They are the cutest pirates I have ever seen.  Lets hope they stay excited because Halloween is really far away still.  I am happy the outfits are getting used though. Sadly on the way home from Costco Jared got sick and threw up.  He had been feeling poorly since we left the park and ended up throwing up right as we turned onto our street.  He is really very good about getting it all in the Ziploc bags now and we are very good about always having them in the car.  I think he was just not feeling well from the time at the park.  He doesn't handle hot weather really well and when humidity is thrown in he really feels it.  Poor kid. 

We have been trying to get back to the children's museum for awhile now and finally made it.  We went one afternoon after naps and Mark met us there after school.  We started out in the back room in Little Charlottesville but ended up spending most of our time in the replica log cabin.  Jared and Lydia made many dinners and breakfast's, worked in the garden and gathered eggs.  We also spent a fair amount of time in the little forest room.  I think sometimes I forget that we live somewhere that has been around a really long time.  It is hard to imagine living in a house like this.  I was trying to explain it to Jared and I am not sure he believed that this cabin was what many houses were like. It was fun to go back.  We were planning on going with some friends but one of the kids got sick. We still had a nice little outing. 

 Last night we headed over to UVA to watch a Women's Soccer game.  The secretaries at Mark's school had told us that these games were some of the funnest.  We were impressed that a soccer game had as many people as it did in attendance.  Good for those soccer players.  Mark really loves watching soccer so he was pretty happy.  We sat over in the grass across from the stands and Jared and Lydia had a blast running up and down the hill. I think they were amazed we let them run around so much and not stay right by us. The weather was perfect and UVA won.  The CavMan Crew organizers were there and they handed out Ben and Jerry's Ice Cream vouchers for the kids in their CavMan Crew shirts.  Jared and Lydia were so happy.  They really had a great time. Jared had fun running around with little kids and Lydia had a great time exploring and getting complimented by spectators. Her hair curled surpassingly well for a change and she was pretty cute.  Both at the game and the museum Jared came up to tell me he made a new friend.  I am happy that he is figuring out how to interact with other kids and it amazes me how quickly kids become friends.  It was cute last night, when Jared and his new "friend" ran over to our blanket to tell us they were friends they then ran over to the little boys parents blanket to tell them the same thing. Such innocence.

This week...

Jared had a great first week of preschool.  He loves going and I am so glad.  Lately he has been showing an interest in drawing.  I have often wondered if Jared was ever going to like "drawing." He rarely asks to color and doesn't seem that interested when I suggest it. I on the other hand love to color! I think it is so relaxing.  Ever since we left Colorado we have only brought books and a notebook/pens for Jared and Lydia for Sacrament meeting. I think this has sparked his interest some, especially since we have been here in Virginia.  Lately he has focused on volcanoes, campsites, mountains with waterfalls and snowmen. The other day at the end of learning time he asked to draw on the little whiteboard.  We had just been writing some numbers and as he drew an 8 he commented that it looked like a snowman.  He decided to draw some more snowmen and was so proud of his work.  We decided not to erase it so he could show Mark when he got home. I love seeing him so proud of something he made. Jared also gave a talk in Primary today. (Only his second one in his Primary career) He was pretty much eating the microphone and very hard to understand but he was so happy he got asked.

Lydia has been working hard on her letters.  We went on a family walk this morning before church and on the path someone had written START on one side and FINISH next to it.  Lydia was walking ahead of us and she stopped then pointed to the letter A and said "Mommy! Letter A!" It was great.  It was a really nice paved path next to the river.  It is not very close to our house, like a 12 minute drive but it was really pretty.  I totally prefer paved paths so I loved it. We will for sure go back in a few weeks to enjoy the leaves. We also recently watched Tangled for our family movie night so their little frying pan has gotten more use than usual.

Speaking of paved paths, I went on a run Saturday morning that ended up being WAY longer then I planned.  My friend Laura had told me about and driven me past this mile long paved path right by our house.  A mile isn't very long but if I run it there and back then I am good.  So I decided to try it out Saturday.  The only thing is I really prefer running loops not repeating the same area.  Mark and I looked on the map and plotted a route that had me run from our house to the path (about 1mile) then go down the paved path (1 mile) and hook up with the Rivanna Trail.  (It is a 25 mile long trail that goes all around Charlottesville) and go back to our house.  Things started off just as we planned and then once I go to the second part of the Rivann trail (after walking under a creepy smelly overpass) it all fell apart.  We live by the Rivanna river and by a creek that branches off of it. I could not for the life of me find the "Rivanna Connector trail" that was supposed to take me back to my neighborhood. I walked/jogged around this wooded area for like an hour trying every possible trail and just going around in circles, doubling back over trails I had already been on. Did I mention it was like 72 degrees and 90% humidity? So gross.  It was so frustrating. I got to the end of the trail and could see the golf course that is right by our house but could not find a way over the creek!  The creek isn't that deep or wide maybe, 1 foot deep and 10 feet across but going up the steep muddy ravine was too daunting for me. At one point I even saw a green Rivanna Trail marker across the creek and a not completely overgrown, muddy path up to it and crossed over jumping from rock to rock but when I got there the trail was completely over grown.  Finally I just decided I better go back on the trail I had already run on to get to that point and go through the creepy tunnel to get on the Main street (Park Street) from our house a good mile, away from home.  So annoying. I was soaking in sweat. My hair felt as if I had just gotten out of the shower!  So gross.  I had to walk up Park street and by this time it was 8:30 in the morning and it is a busy, curvy, up hill street. Mark had gotten concerned at the one hour mark and come out to look for me with Jared and Lydia but we never met up. I loved the paved path but will have to just suck it up and run back over it. That or arrange for Mark to pick me up at the end of it.  I actually thought it would be good if I ran to the trail and on it then had Mark pick me up and we switch places.  He could run the trail the opposite direction then onto our house and I could drive home.  Maybe next Saturday. It was such a disappointment. This trail didn't seem like it had been used much as there were rather large tree branches that were laying across it.  To go under the overpass I had to get through a massive spiderweb where a spider was eating breakfast, that should have just stopped me then. Instead I grabbed a stick and broke it up. Figuring there would be many more spiderwebs I proceeded to run through the woods waving the stick up and down in front of me so it could break up most of the webs. I am sure I looked pretty insane but it's just pretty gross running through all those webs, again I totally prefer paved trails.

Since my little jogging excursion took twice as long as planned we had to rearrange some of our plans for the day.  We were going to go feed the ducks and get donuts since Lydia was working on the letter D but ended up skipping the ducks and just got the donuts.  Then we headed over to UVA to watch a volleyball game. Since I signed Jared and Lydia up to be on the Cavman crew they get into quite a few events free and get fun UVA t-shirts so we are planning out games to attend.  They enjoyed watching the game and were so excited to wear their "Wahoo" shirts. We are going to a soccer game this Friday. We love UVA events!

 Lydia had a great time dancing around and getting compliments on her outfit. 

Speaking of UVA, my friend Laura and I attended a lecture there Friday night.  A woman in our ward, Kathleen Flake, was appointed as the first Mormon Studies chair at UVA.  Here is an article that explains it way better then I could.  She is quite accomplished.  Her topic was Joseph Smith and Thomas Jefferson but covered so much more then that.  So much more.  In fact her "topic" seemed like the part that she talked about least. It was fascinating and I am so glad Laura and I could go.  From what I understand, UVA is the first major university East of the Mississippi to establish a Mormon Studies program.  The university felt that the Mormon religion was significant enough that they should include it in their program.  Cool stuff.  Really go read the article it's not long at all.  It was great to hang out with Laura and listen to a topic I have never even thought about. I have often wondered why I have such a hard time coming up with questions. I suppose I just don't think about things enough or deep enough.  It was interesting to be in this environment and hear others questions. I felt like I could follow what was being discussed but there were so many words/topics thrown out that I would need some serious background on. There was a great reception after. It was fun and nice to go do something so different then things I normally do.  Friday's lecture was the first of a series and I would be interested to attend other ones too.  I just love being in a college town!

 Funny story:  When Laura picked me up I got in the car and saw that we were dressed very similarly. I offered to go change but she said "No way!"  After the lecture we were talking to a few members and one younger guy (college student, who turns out served his mission here then liked it so much he came back to go to school) told us that when he first saw us he thought we were sister missionaries.  He also clarified that he meant it as a compliment. We were just fine with that.  When we got home we went ahead and took a picture.  It was a fun night out.

Mark on the other hand, had a not so fun night out on Thursday.  He went camping with the 7th grade class at his school.  Mark's school has been going on this campout each fall for the past 8 years or so. It is just for the 7th grade class, which is what Mark is teaching.  Things were going fine until lights out.  Mark was just laying down in his tent, alone when a student came to the teacher area.  The student had been sent by his Dad (a chaperone) to inform the teachers that he needed to move to a tent because there were spiders in the cabin.  (umm, been camping much?) The teachers explained that it was too late to set up a tent and the kids needed to go to bed.  The next thing the teachers knew, the man got in the car with his son and took off!  Mark had to abandon his nice quiet tent and go chaperone the boys in the cabin.  He thinks he got about 2 hours of sleep.  Besides the sleeping issue that campout was a success and the students really enjoyed it.  I worked hard to not let my overactive imagination make me too nervous with some success. Mark just got called to be the Scoutmaster so I will get some more practice with that as he will need to go on the campouts.

We have some more fun events planned for this week, and the hot weather looks to be on it's way out!  I am so excited. It's been a rough 2 weeks with the humidity and all, although it did make our swimming pool much more comfortable to swim in.  Most of the times we have gone Jared has been kind of a wimp and not swam much at all.  This past week we met up with Laura (are you noticing a pattern here? she is great) and her kids and Jared got in the pool way more. On Saturday Mark came with us and Jared was in the pool the whole time we were there. He even jumped into us.  He never does that.  Too bad he figured out how fun it was at the end of the season. Lydia has known all along. She just loves to be in the water! I think this may be the last week the pool is open.  Hopefully Jared will remember how great it is when they open it again.

Preschool Round 2!

He was super agreeable for pictures this morning which is why there are so many. I couldn't narrow it down. He makes me smile.

Jared was beyond excited to start preschool this year. Sadly preschool is really expensive here so he is only going on Tuesdays and Thursdays, from 9:00 - 12:00. I think he would be happy to go every day but I would not be. I would have been happy with 3 days a week but our budget would not have been. We signed him up to attend preschool at First Presbyterian Church.  When I was asking around about preschools this was the one most recommended.  I do not feel a need for my kids to go to the "#1 whatever" but it is nice to know that it is viewed so favorably in the community. He is the oldest in his class but he sort of always will be.  His teachers are Miss Tina and Miss Carleen and they seem very qualified and excited to be there. When I talked to the teachers bit at the parent orientation, I asked a little about academics and they outlined some to the things they would focus on and he should do fine.  Miss Tina made a really good point. She said that her sister teaches kindergarten and often kids come to school in line with where they should be academically but have no clue how to act in a classroom and that they would work on that a lot in their class.  I think this is very true and am happy that will be a focus as Jared will need it.  This year of preschool will feel much more like school for him which is what I thought he needed.  I hope he can keep his love for school going strong.

 The church is huge and a really pretty building. The preschool is connected to the main building but it's on the back side  The church actually celebrated its 175th year in April of this year.  Then again this is Charlottesville so I guess it's not that old.

He was very comfortable in his classroom when we went to open house Friday morning and it carried over today. We lined up outside, gave each other a kissing hand and he was off, no looking back. On Friday he met his teachers then got busy playing.  His favorite spot was the book nook.  They have a miniature recliner there that he could have stayed in forever.  Before we left he got to go see the playground and was so happy.  I think he will have a great year.  When Lydia and I picked him up he told me he was sad to leave preschool. I asked if he missed me at all and he said he did which was nice.  We have been reading lots of back to school books and had our countdown chain so I think we were both well prepared for him to be gone.  That and the fact that we have done this before and all.

We love this not so little preschooler! Really where have the last 5 years gone?

Labor Day at the Lake

When I think of Labor day the first word that comes to mind is Fall.  Then outdoors. I get so excited because it's the beginning of September and time to start celebrating the -ber months, my favorite ones.  Too bad the weather doesn't automatically switch to fall weather with September 01. It is 94 degrees here today, the hottest day we have had here yet but next week the highs are in the upper 70's so definitely headed in the right direction.
To celebrate the end of "summer" we headed out to Walnut Creek Lake which is about 25 minutes from our house. This lake has a frisbee golf course, great playground, canoes to rent and a nice little beach.  There are tons of walking paths and hiking trails and a lot of mountain biking trails.  It is a great little place. Lots of people go kayaking and canoeing and we saw quite a few people fishing.  The lakes I went to growing up (which are sort of disappearing, the CA drought is really bad!!) seemed to be big wide bodies of water whereas the 2 we have seen here are not as wide and are surrounded by woods. They seem to have lots of little inlets you can go into.  They just seem different.
The "beach" at this lake doesn't actually open till 11:00 which was pretty annoying.  We got to the lake at 9:00 with the plan that Mark would play a few holes of disc golf while Jared, Lydia and I hiked around. (The course goes right through the woods.) Then we would play at the playground until the lake finally opened and we could go swimming.  We set out on our plan full of energy only to have it quickly sapped by the heat, humidity and Lydia's whininess. Lydia could not understand why we were at the lake and not swimming in it. I think that contributed to her whininess, all she wanted to do was swim.  Jared was happy to play disc golf with Mark (Mark normally goes during nap time and Jared is always sad when he finds out Mark went without him) but Lydia was not in the mood to be hiking around the woods.  Mondays are always a little more challenging because Lydia doesn't get a nap on Sunday since we are at church.  Mark calls it the Sunday hangover. Mark played 3 holes then called it because it was just too gross outside and Lydia was just so sad.  He was pretty bummed as he really loves to play and has only gone once since we have been here.  We hiked back to the car dripping in sweat and headed over to the playground to enjoy our snack and play around. Thankfully it was nice and shaded. We played for about an hour then it was time to hit the lake.

As we were waiting for the lake to open we ran into 3 girls from our ward at the playground. Apparently the law students wives spend each Labor Day at this lake.  When we got to the lake there were at least 12 other ladies there.  Their husbands all had school that day.  It was sort of weird when we met the people at the playground.  One girl whose husband is in his 3rd year seemed irritated that we were there.  She said "how are these new people finding out about things?" It was weird.  It's not hard to find lakes here.  We had been "warned" a couple of times by people in our ward that the Law student just stick to themselves which is fine, they are all going thought the same things with their husbands being so busy that they become each others family but it is kind of a bummer.  Oh well, they are all leaving in three years anyway which is probably largely why it happens. They can relate to each other's circumstances very well and know they are leaving. Once we started swimming they all stayed on their side of the beach.  I did walk over and try to be friendly but didn't get very far.  There were two other families from our ward there and they didn't even acknowledge each other.  Just to clarify they are not rude to each other it just seems very "I am here long term you aren't so lets be polite to each other but not get to know each other" and visa versa.  Regardless of that aspect we had an awesome time at the lake. Our friends the Farnsworth's came and we had fun visiting with them.  Jared loves playing with their 2 boys and had fun swimming around.

We left around 12:30 and ate our lunch in the car.  Jared threw a huge fit when we left because he was not ready to go but it was time.  That evening we had some friends (The Lenox's) over for a BBQ.  They moved into our ward a week or so after us.  We love having people over.  It is the best way to get to know them. We had hamburgers and hot dogs and root beer floats.  We had a short FHE lesson and enjoyed getting to know them better.  I think (and Mark has always wanted to do this) that having people over for FHE once or twice a month would be really nice. It is so hard to get to know people at church or even playgroups. I have always preferred one to two people to large groups anyway.  We had a nice visit with them and are happy we could have a fun (minus the fits) end of summer.