School Days

And so it begins!  Jeter has officially started the life of a student.  

Since his birthday is at the end of July, he would have been the youngest in his class if we would have started him in kindergarten last year.  Last year at this time, he wasn't even excited to go to preschool.  He didn't want to go to school.  He said he would just rather stay home and have me teach him.  And as much as I would love to keep him home and out of the schools, dangers, peer pressures, and bad influences, etc., I know he would be better off there, and learn so much more than I could ever teach him.  Anyway, after thinking for the last five years about all the reasons to send him or to hold off a year, we made our decision to wait a year and send him now.

.

I am so happy we did!  He was so excited to start school, 

which I think makes a big difference.

Last year's first day pic compared to this year's first day pic.

I'm not gonna lie and say that it was easy watching this sweet boy walk into his new school that would soon consume his life, but I'm also not one of those parents that cry about something like this either.  He was so excited, how could I not be excited for him?  

Getting ready to step inside the unknown.  

If he was nervous, he didn't show it.  I think I was the one that was nervous.  I had so many concerns and questions and worries, that were all probably dumb, but still.  To name a few:

How is he gonna know how to do the lunch line, or pay for it?

Will he dare to tell the teacher he needs to go the bathroom?

How's he gonna find his way there and back if he does go the bathroom?

Is he gonna last for 7 1/2 hours?

Will he make friends?

Will he know to come in from recess when a bell goes off?

How will he find me after school? (Parents aren't allowed in the school when school gets out)

Will he pay attention?

We got in his classroom and found his seat.  He sat right down and told me I could leave.  As I went to give him a hug and tell him bye, he hugged me back and pulled away real quick so I couldn't give him a kiss.  Oh I hate for him to have to grow up!

Then there's little miss.  

She had to have a backpack and get all ready for Jete's first day too.  She could hardly wait for Jete to start school, and was so excited to walk him to his class.  But at the same time, she was apprehensive about him being gone all day.  After all, he is her playmate, partner in crime, fighting companion, and mouthpiece.  I had to convince her it was gonna be so much fun for just us to be together all day.

We only had a few people in Jete's school stop us and ask if we needed help finding her class.  She looks like she would fit right in.  She's as tall as most of the kids in Jete's class!

She was definitely listening to me when I told her of all the fun we could have.

So when we got home from dropping Jeter off, her requests to play barbies, horses, babies, and a picnic at the park (in 100 degree weather might I add) were all granted.  But seriously, how do you turn this cute face down?

I'm excited for Jete to make new friends, learn, and be independent.  I'm excited for me and Jerz to have quality time together, where we can rely on each other for company and to make it through the long days without Had and Jete.  And I'm just a little terrified that I'm gonna have to play barbies and babies every day.  Yikes!

More pics from our trip

MOTOCROSS

While we were in Idaho, Motocross came to Utah, and Blayne and Leslie wanted to take everyone to it!  Originally, just Jeter was going to go down with them, and me and Jerz were gonna stay with Maycee, so we could make sure to be at the airport Saturday (the day of the races) to see Jevin come home from his mission.  Then at the last second, Brayden and Diana said they were going to go too, and if we wanted to come, we could just race home and make it back in time for Jevin's flight to come in.  Wahoo!  Of course I was down with that!!!

First stop, P.F. Chang's, a family favorite.

The next day we woke up bright and early and headed to the races.  Jeter was in heaven.  He was so excited, naming every rider that went by during their practice laps.  He could hardly handle himself.  He knows almost all the 450 and 250 riders!  

We didn't have pit passes, but we wanted to see how close we could get, and if we could still see any riders.  We just had to stay outside this fence.  And I'm sure we weren't creepy at all trying to stalk the riders from behind the fence.  We walked up and down the fence line trying to catch a glimpse of any of the riders. Then we stopped in front of a bus, wondering if we were ever gonna see anyone... and low and behold, Ryan Villopoto (the #1 motocross rider this season) steps off the bus right in front of us, with his hair all afro-like with no shirt on and in some pink basketball shorts.  As we stood on the other side of the fence, I yelled, "RYAN!!!" He turned around and we all waved, as I yelled, "WE LOVE YOU!" (I don't even love him, I love Dungey.  I must have got too caught up in the moment.  Yikes!) Anyways, he smiled, waved back, and walked into his trailer. Then we did what any other annoying fans would do.  We waited there for him to come out.  :)

We waited and waited.

We never saw him.  Soon I saw this young kid walking towards the trailer/tent that Villopoto was in.  I was about to ask him if he would see if Villopoto was in there for us, and Jete looks up and says, "Hey that's Ciancarulo!" (a young rookie on the 250's this year).  I yelled something to him too, and then asked if we could take a picture with him.  He willingly obliged.  

Don't mind the fence that separates them.

After the first 450 race, me and Jete booked it over to the pits to see if we could see any more riders.  From behind that dang fence, we saw Villopoto again, and Ryan Dungey, getting rides on golf carts to their buses.  I yelled something to them about good job or congrats, and they both smiled and waved back. We were sweating and nasty from running in 100 degree weather, but it was worth it.  If Jeter was any older, I'm not sure if he would think I was cool for chasing them down and yelling things to these riders, or if he would be super embarrassed of his crazy mom.  Luckily, right now he just thought it was cool that they acknowledged us. 

This is the start of the race.  The downhill turn was insane!!!

Go DUNGEY!!!

Having a grand ol' time with each other at the races.

Our little Moto Head

AND...

we made it on TV again!!!  

This is at the finish line, right after Villipoto wins.  I got a text from Had (who was watchin the races at home) sayin, "I just saw you on TV.  What are you doing on the wrong side of the fence?  You're in the area with the photographers."

HA

We're crazy like that!

JEVTEEN

We had to skip out on the last 250 race so we could make it back to the airport in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, to see Jevin.  We booked it the whole way there!  Braydogg's got some serious skills to not get pulled over by the 4 or 5 cops we saw on the way.  When we were getting close to the airport, we could see their plane coming in and getting ready to land.  We literally raced the plane!  We parked and ran in as fast as we could, grabbed a banner, and in walks this boy! I'm sure he didn't even notice that we were all sweaty and gross and melted from being at the races all day.  

It was so good to see him again!!! 

I think Jerz forgot who he was and Jete was excited.  

They were best buds before Jevteen left.

RYDER'S BABY BLESSING

This cute couple, Kenz and Rob, blessed their sweet baby, Ryder, while we were in Idaho.

I felt very lucky to get to go.  We always have to miss things like this, and it's so crappy.  

Aren't they the cutest little family?

The Pocock Fam

Jerzi and Lexie became best buds while we were there.  

Cousins are the best!

The McArthur Fam

Jerz thought Rob's work boots were hilarious.

As much as we love Idaho, and love spending time with everyone, we were ready to get back to our normal life.... with normal schedules, food, sleep habits, and most of all, Hadley!  I missed him so much!  It's hard to be apart for 3 weeks.

When we walked in the door, I was surprised by this beautiful bouquet of roses waiting for me.

Aww, he missed me too!

  

Idaho was awesome, the weather was awesome, the people were awesome, but it's always so nice to go back home!

Idaho

Jeter, Jerzi, and I got to go to Rexburg for 3 weeks.  I have always wondered "How are we going to make our kids love Idaho as much as we do, since they only get to go there about once a year?"  But I realized this time in going, I don't have to do any convincing.  They love it already!  And it's because all we do when we go is play like crazy!!!  We played nonstop for the full 3 weeks.  I was exhausted, and so were the kids.  But we just had to take advantage of every second that we could while we were there.

We did so much stuff while we were there, I couldn't possibly list it all.  But one thing that I love to see every time we go, is that Jeter and Jerzi are getting more and more comfortable with everyone, and they are starting to form relationships with our family.  Jerzi actually talked to people this time instead of just blinking her eyes at them.  And when she did feel shy, instead of blinking, she would just smile and cheese it at them.  That's an improvement!

These two little guys were attached at the hip!  They are so much alike it's not even funny.  And they loved playing together.  I loved watching them, especially when they came out in matching clothes to play football.  

We went to Heise and got pizza and went swimming one night.  It's been a long time since I've been there, holy smokes... since my prom date my senior year.  Still the same... fun, but smelly.  :)

St. Anthony and Rexburg both had their fairs while we were there, so we hit them both up.  We went to St. Anthony and watched Had's cousins show their animals, and went to Rexburg and played on all the rides.  I remember loving going to the fair when I was little, and wanting to ride on every ride.  We usually only got to pick one or two rides to go on.  After taking my kids to these rides, I can't really understand why I always wanted to go on them.  They sure don't look like fun to me any more, plus it was so hot...and I was sweating the whole time watching them.  But they kept smiling, so I kept letting them go.  Good thing Bird is a good aunt and went with them on a bunch of the rides so I could try and find shade and stand in it.  :)

(Look at the carni in this pic, I'm pretty sure he loves his job!)

The roller coaster started off being pretty fun.  But the worker just kept sending them around and around cuz there wasn't a line.  By the end, I don't think Bird was too happy that I convinced her to go on this one.

A few of my friends from high school came over one day, and we all had a picnic and let our kids play on the water slide while we talked, laughed and reminisced.  It was so fun to catch up with all of them!

Our kids- minus Katie's youngest.

(Maycee (Had's sister) isn't one of our kids, but she was like my kid for a couple weeks, so we put her in the picture too)

Broc and Sam took us to the Riot Zone in Rigby.  My kids loved it!  Oh, ok, I loved it too!  I love go carts and racing and ramming people.  HAHA

Jete was a little unsure of the go carts at first.  He took it nice and slow, and made sure to follow all the rules, and got all concerned when one of the other riders bumped him.  Then Jerz gets out and just flies around like she's been doing this forever.  And although Jeter is a cautious little munchkin, he's also super competitive.  So he had to go back out and show Jerz that he can do it faster and better.  These two's personalities make me laugh!

I was super impressed with these kid's monkey abilities.  They were scaling that rock wall!

Even Jerz, as a 3 year old, got pretty high up.  She didn't really care to try and reach the top though, she mainly just liked to let go and swing from the rope.

As they miniature golfed, I realized my kids have no clue how to do this.  Woops, we should probs work on that a little bit.  But they sure thought it was fun anyway.

Dee, the cute little stink, had to go fishin for his ball in the little stream, slipped, and fell in.  He played it off real well like he meant to do that.  Such a funny kid!

There's still a whole lot more to our Idaho adventures.  More picture overloads coming!