Back in the swing of things.

It is so nice to have our lives back to normal!  Mark goes to work, we do learning time and room time, we go to the library and parks and our swimming pool (fun new normal), we do our grocery shopping the same day each week, we make our own food, hold FHE, do laundry the same day each week, clean our house on Tuesdays and Thursdays and play.  It's just lovely.  It feels really good to have our routine back. As I mentioned it was a great summer, one of the funnest I have ever had but it is so nice to be in our own home.  I have started planning our learning time activities and am getting back into it. I actually had a hard time getting started but once I sat down and started looking for ideas it got fun again. I have a new fun plan to do with Lydia and letters.  She knows most of them but will review them and work on sounds. Jared and I are working on reading and getting ready for preschool year 2.  It's just great.  We are meeting new people and even hanging out with them (which is a goal I set upon moving here.)  I have a nice pile of post it notes with directions on them in the car  telling me how to get everywhere to prove it.  Each one has less and less steps on it, I am figuring out where things are even without the help of mountains which feels great. I invited our neighbor's (who invited us to the museum) to go the the Library with us to meet Clifford and had fun talking to Portia.  We also met up with some friends at the Park.  Since Jared and Lydia are older and we hope to stay here a long time I am really trying to make friends and invite people to do things. I am not an initiator but I am trying to work on that.  So far so good.

This is the TuTu I made her for her 1st birthday. It's so fun to see her in it now. 

Note to self: try more pictures out in black and white. 

Side Note: I am pretty sure I have made this note before. 

Colored Rice Bin and Play Doh always a win.

Enjoying a nice summer rain storm. 

  The Library staff had set up various "dog" themed games.  Jared loved them all. Turns out he has pretty good posture.

"I walk!"

 She starts off strong and could easily do it but sometimes we speed up the process. 

 When I was pregnant with Jared a friend asked me if we had picked out a name. I told her "Jared". She said "Jared Spencer, sounds like heartbreaker."  This picture shows me she could be right, but I hope it's not intentional.  So grown up.  Maybe we should start styling his hair?

Jared asked if we could have an ice cream shop again which we happily revisited. 

 We spoke in church on Sunday and "got that out of the way." (It went well, most often I actually enjoy speaking in church.) It looks like we found another transient ward. This ward has a lot of students from UVA, mostly young families (which I didn't expect at all because there is a student ward) so there are enough new people that who knows when we will speak again. (Which even though I like speaking I am perfectly fine with.)  It's different than our ward in Colorado Springs because they are all Law or Medical students so they are here for a good while and they are here together whereas families were always separated in Colorado because of deployments which was so sad.

Our biggest setback for living here is housing. We are very happy with this rental but hope to be here long term so it would be nice to buy a house but Charlottesville is such a desired place to live the housing market is really inflated.  I am not sure how that will all play out.  Mark still has a few days before he meets his students but he has been very happy with his school district and school so far.  It is so very different from Colorado, in all good ways. He thinks his principal will be really great to work with and when he tells people what school he is at they always comment on what a good school it is (especially the music program I love that they have sufficient funding to keep music and support it) and how great Jim Asher is. (The principal) He has met some of the other teachers and been impressed with them.  It's great that he is looking forward to this school year.  He has a lot to learn and plan, like, a whole new curriculum but he will do great. And I will keep working on initiating, I can do hard things too. I really enjoy being with people but I do not love setting things up. Part of it is just the fact that I can never have a real conversation with people because I have to run off and make sure Jared and Lydia are okay and that I know where they are but I can make this happen. I can.

Happy Birthday Mark!

We had a fun day celebrating Mark. We are so glad he is ours. We started the day off with some birthday snuggles and then went downstairs to watch Mark open his presents. After that we headed over to the park to play some tennis. Jared has wanted to play forever.  We bought him a racket about a week ago and everyday he has asked if we could go play. Mark and I used to play in Greeley and some in Rexburg. He played a lot in Rexburg and was happy to be back on the court.  We walked to the park drinking our delicious green smoothies and I just thought about how happy I was to have this cute little family (that does drive me crazy) and be where we are.  Jared and Mark "played" for a bit then Jared was ready to run around the court with Lydia who was a very cute ball girl.  Mark and I had a great time hitting some balls together.

Pretty fun that Jared can take a picture of us.  He often asks if can take a picture.  We just have to remind him to make sure he can see both our heads.

We walked back home and I made crepes of breakfast. We all love crepes.  They are not at all healthy but so delicious.  We like to top then with Nutella, peanut butter, strawberries, peaches, cool whip and Mark likes to throw some ice cream in his.  Again, super unhealthy. As we were finishing up eating we talked about what we wanted to do today. Jared mentioned how much he liked picking peaches last week and Mark thought that was a great idea he loves his fresh peaches so we got ready super fast and headed out to Chilis Orchard for the second time. Last time we got there right when it opened and had the orchard to our selves.  Today we got there closer to 11:30 and there were tons of people there. It was harder to find peaches but we still got a fair amount.  Then we headed home for lunch and naps and Mark got to do what he really loves, play Disc Golf.  The closesst course is about 30 minutes away and he had not had a chance to play yet.  He went over and had a great time. I think he had missed playing and am glad he got to go. He said the course was super nice and challenging. He is really good at Disc Golf so it was nice for him to be challenged.

After naps we decided to check out Onesty Aquatic Center here in Charlottesville. It's no Provo Rec Center but a very fun place.  They have a lazy river, an obstacle course which Jared loved, a zero entry pool with a fun water playground, a water slide (which sadly our kids are too short to go on)  and a swimming pool/diving board.  It was about 75 today and cloudy which I think is great weather for a water park but there was hardly anybody there, on a Saturday afternoon!  It was really nice.  It's only about 10 minutes for our house which is great.

 Lydia really is a little fish.  Jared hates putting his head in water. Lydia will put it in and stay under for a good little while.  It made me nervous at first but she really loves it.  It is nice she is not afraid and just does it herself.  I wonder what she would do it someone made her in a class?

 He could have done this the whole time we were there. It does look pretty cool. 

So much water! 

When we got home Mark grilled some Tri-Tip* (while Jared and Lydia bugged each other outside) one of his favorites and we ate his ice cream birthday cake.  Mark's Mom called and sang him happy birthday with Shannon's family and the cake turned out great. This year he wanted a layer of chocolate ice cream with grasshopper cookies (Jared was slightly confused about the grasshoppers until we told him they were just mint and fudge cookies) and vanilla with Oreos. It was a fun happy day. We really love Mark and are so happy to celebrate him.

 33!

*Out "West" where we used to live we would get Tri-Tip at Costco.  When we went to the Costco here we looked for it (It is Mark's favorite cut of meat ever) and they did not have it. Mark was very disappointed.  A man in the store heard Mark and I talking about it and commented that we must be from California because that is a California cut.  We talked to him for a minute then moved on with our shopping.  A few minutes later he met us and let us know that if we asked the meat guys they would cut some Tri Tip!  Mark was so happy. Sadly he did not have any tips on how to get Tillamok cheese out here.

Firsts...

1. Our "Backyard" (after our patio) is a fairly steep hill that leads to the "woods" as we call them. We were told we had access to the Rivanna Trail from our back yard but had yet to find it.  We had found an access path at the far end of the town homes and had used it to get to the trail but hadn't found the one right by us.  We tried to find it from the bottom but had no luck. Sunday after church Jared asked if he could play in the shade at the bottom of the hill.  I was feeling pretty agreeable and went down with him and Lydia.  Once I got to the bottom I noticed a "trail head. "  The access point! I quickly went up the hill into the house and told Mark about it.  We decided a little afternoon hike was in order.  It is a much better trail then the one we previously used.  I still can't believe that these woods are my backyard! It was a quick easy hike and we all had a great time.

 I took this from our patio. It is like 20 feet from our door. 

We found the river. Mark was talking to a teacher at orientation today and she said that she and her husband and her 5 year old daughter floated down the river that weekend.  Not all of it but a little portion. It sounds super fun so we will have to give it a try. 

2.  Day of school! This was without students.  Students start on the 20th which is way later then Colorado. In Mark's old school district their first day with students was Friday. Mark started his orientation on Monday since he is a new teacher.  The first few days are lots of trainings and getting username/passwords all set up and doing paperwork. This year I got him a box of IBC Root Beer and told him I hoped his school year was "So-Da-lightful". I hope he loves his new school. One of the teachers he sat by actually moved here from Colorado.  She lived in Denver and her fiancee lived in Colorado Springs so that was random. She and another teacher both live in Lake Monticello, which is an area Mark and I actually checked out when we came in April and thought about living in.  It takes them about 35 - 40 minutes to get to school and that is longer than Mark wants to drive and longer than I want him to drive but they do have affordable housing... we will see.  

New School: His classroom is not set up yet. But here is his hallway and door. 

 Room 304

He is on the third floor.  His school was actually built in 1951.  When we walked up the first time one of the things I noticed was a sign that marked the area as a fallout shelter (!).  It used to be a high school and has a very impressive auditorium.  The school has a great arts program especially their choirs. It makes me happy that he can work somewhere were music and art are still taught and funded.  We hope it will be a great year!.

3. Bee sting.  Jared was outside playing Monday while Mark was grilling.  I was in the kitchen working on something when I suddenly heard Jared start sobbing.  He had been playing down in the grass and got stung.  Mark brought him in and we worked to calm him down.  It was sort of nerve wracking since we did not know if he was allergic.  Thankfully his arm didn't swell too much and there were no other symptoms.  It looks fine today and Jared said it wasn't hurting at all. Now we know he is not allergic. He really handled it pretty well overall. 

 4. Splash Park. We drove over to a splash park here in town.  We have gone swimming quite a few times but hadn't made it to one of the 3 splash parks here. (I love that there are 3 to choose from) I still don't feel that confident driving around town outside our neighborhood.  This park (Forest Lake) is on a side of town I have never been before. I made a few wrong turns mostly on the way back (because I forgot to look up the directions in reverse and had to figure it out while driving which makes me nervous) but we did it. And for the first time Jared was just as adventurous as Lydia.  Lydia has always been willing to play in all the features and get soaking wet where as Jared typically does not. He especially does not like getting his head wet. They had a great time today. It is a really nice little splash park attached to a great playground. There is also a nice walking path. We met Megan and her three month old little boy there. Megan is in our ward and moved in about 2 weeks before us.  It was nice to visit with her. One of my goals for living here was to really get out there and be involved with people. To get to know them and initiate get together.  To be more of a typical stay at home Mom with play dates and everything.  (I have one set up for tomorrow and Thursday too!!)  Jared and Lydia are old enough now that I have more flexibility (or am more willing) with our time. It has been really nice. It was a really nice outing. 

5. Kitchenaid standing mixer.  Every now and then Mark and I talk about getting a Kitchenaid.  Then we look at the price and decide we do not need one. The other day Mark saw one on Groupon for a pretty great deal and we decided to go for it. Tonight he made up a batch of cookies and loved it. A long time ago I used to make rolls from scratch.  Since we live in a much more humid climate now I think I might start again as it seems they would rise easily here.  I have made pizza dough since we have been here and it has turned out way better then in Colorado.  I am sure this standing mixer will come in handy.  Too bad we don't have any counter space to set it on. It's pretty heavy duty. It will be a workout just to get it down form our pantry. Jared and Lydia enjoyed the spoils from this purchase tonight.