First Day of School... Wah....

Avery started Kindergarten today! She was pretty excited, with a little nervous thrown in, I believe. She got up early (for her-- 7:00!) Got dressed right away (I told ya her Hannah Montana shirt was going to get some wearing!) got herself some cereal.... and then... couldn't eat it. I can tell you with certainty that she did NOT get the "Can't eat when nervous" gene from myself.
The bus wasn't scheduled to arrive until 8:40 (school starts at 9:05) but we were out waiting by 8:25. I'm sure the exuberance towards this will slow down as school becomes normal. Until then, I shall enjoy the respite from "Get up! Hurry up! Eat! Have you packed your lunch? Brushed your teeth? Have your homework? No, you CANNOT wear that! I don't care, you HAVE to comb your hair! That is NOT going to school, toys do not belong at school!" even if it's only for today. Totally off topic here, but look at those impatiens! Aren't they lovely! I've managed to keep them alive all summer!




Hunter let me take his picture, too. He's standing next to his buddy up the street, who happens to be in the *same* class as Hunter again this year. Yep, these two boys are both starting Third Grade this year. And who said Hunter was going to be tall? Whoever that was, you're crazy. Clearly, he's just slightly above average in height. Or something. And he has braces now, too! I'll get a better picture of him up (a close up, even) that shows them in all their green glory.








Avery's friend from the neighborhood was also very glad that Avery was starting school this year. She's a year ahead of Avery, and is planning on showing her the ropes, starting with her first ride to school on the bus. It's nice to have friends who have BTDT, right?








And they're off! The bus stop is at the end of our driveway this year because, apparently, Kindergarteners have to be picked up/dropped off at home. Pretty cool! Let me tell you, it was quiet around here this morning with just Skylar and Kaia (even though they are, arguably, the loudest of the five!) Making lunch for just two kiddos? No problem! We even went to the library AND the store this morning.
Since Avery is in all-day kindergarten, they are doing a phased dismissal for the first three weeks. This week, she gets dismissed at 12:30, and the next two weeks, it's 1:30. After that, she goes all day... for real.

She hasn't been too talkative about her first day, they colored a picture, read a story, blah, blah.
However, there were a few things that she wanted to make sure I was aware of in regards to her first day:

1. Her new shoes hurt her feet. The nerve!
2. The girl we met when we dropped of supplies sits at her table!
3. She ate all of her lunch because she was starving.

So, I guess those first day jitters were over by lunchtime, which is a good thing!!

A Birthday at a Campground (Vacation Part Trois)

This is how our beloved six year old, Avery, started out her birthday. She made sure we packed her "6" shirt so everyone would know she was six now, but she didn't want me to comb her hair. I did anyway. Because I'm mean like that, and Avery made sure I knew it. We quickly got over this little difference of opinion (she was sure that because it was her birthday she didn't have to do anything she didn't want to, and I drew the line with the hair combing) and proceeded to have a good day! She got to swim, hike, and play at the playground. And, of course, the part she was most excited for.... presents!!

Avery (and Skylar, if you remember her birthday!) is a HUGE Hannah Montana fan. Not that they watch the TV show too much, they are really just a marketing dream. But she *loved* her Hannah shirt and Lunchbox... they are going to be with her on the first day of school, I believe!

And this Bratz doll has gotten her hair styled more times than I can count. My little girl has some skillz in the hair styling department.

We went out for pizza after opening presents, and then picked up her DQ ice cream cake on the way back to the campground. It was an easy way to solve the "How do you do a birthday cake when you don't have an oven?" question. We bought one. And it was delicious!

The day the music died... (Vacation Part Deux)

Yep... that's it. The last place that Ritchie Valens, The "Big Bopper" and Buddy Holly performed their last concert. In, like, 1959. Waaaaaay before MY time. But I really like the song "American Pie" which is about their untimely deaths... You know.... "The Day, the muuuusic... Died." I do wonder (when I'm in a wondering mood) what would have happened to the music scene if they hadn't died. They, really, were just getting started in their respective careers. And, I also have to confess, I have wondered "Why in the world were they at the Surf Ballroom in Clear Lake, Iowa? In February?" Seems like a strange place to be if you are a rising, not unknown, musician.

So, we had a good time in the "Northern Iowa" part of our vacation. We went on a hike (well, some of us did. Me, not so much. I had to drive the Suburban from Point A to Point B. Seriously, Man. Kaia and Skylar were with me.) We got LOTS of mosquito bites, regardless of liberal use of repellent. I hate mosquite bites. I don't think I'm alone there.

This is the tower on top of the knob, for which Pilots Knob was named. I won't go into what a "knob" is, even though I am really smart and do know. It has to do with Glaciers. That's all I'm saying.

We ate a lot of food. Hunter, I think, ate more than most. This will only get better as he gets older, right?

Colton doing dishes. Beautiful, just beautiful. Nothing more to say.

Once again, I saved the best for last. Hunter's big catch! Isn't the look on his face priceless? We let the boys (Colton, Hunter, and nephew John) go down to the dock to fish by themselves after dinner a few times. This was caught the first time we let them go. John came running back to our campsite saying "Jeff, Jeff!! Colton's got a big one! He can't get it off the hook! You have to come now!!!"

So, Jeff walks down to the dock (probably 1/3 mile away) and comes walking back 15 minutes later saying "It was nothing! They were freaking out about a little 5 inch..." At this point John came running again (why he was the one always sent running back to camp, I'm not sure) yelling "Jeff, Jeff!! Seriously! Hunter has a HUGE one! He gave the pole to Colton. It's big!!" Jeff was like "Dude. I'm driving this time. You guys have GOT to learn how to take these fish off the hooks." (Full disclosure: this is the last time they asked for help)

When he came back he was actually impressed. Hunter did catch a pretty big one. Or Colton. Hunter hooked it, then Colton held it, John ran for Jeff, Jeff reeled it in, took it off the hook, and cleaned it. Maybe "Group Effort" is a more accurate phrase.

My walk down memory lane....

You'd think I'd have something better to do than blog on vacation, right? Mostly, I'd agree. Except all the kids (minus Kaia) are fishing with their Dad, and the aforementioned Kaia and I are just chillin'. So, I thought I'd check out the Wi-Fi here at Deer Valley Lodge and, guess what? It works!! And it's not even all that slow! Yahoo!

We've had a good time--- fishing every day, swimming every day, sitting by a campfire every night. But yesterday, my older brother and I took a little walk down memory lane in Mason City.

See this little house? It's where we were wee little ones. We moved from here before *I* started school, so--- pretty little. But I remember it! I've always thought I was a little strange with my detailed memory... but I am who I am, I can't help it! Besides, it helps to fill in the blank spots that appear to be in Matt's memory, so sometimes it's actually helpful. This house is where we used to eat dog food in the garage (which has been finished into a room on the right side of the house) jump off the bar in the basement while wearing my mom's aprons pretending we were superheros who could fly.

There's a house on the right--- the man who lived there used to trap snapping turtles... and never got tired of showing us how they could snap off a twig with their, um, snappers? Then he'd eat 'em. I recall tasting them too. I know what you're thinking. Yes, I was an adventurous child.

Oh, look! Here's another... little house!! This is where most of my Mason City memories happened (I spent a long time trying to figure out an "m" word that meant happened, to keep the alliteration going there, but came up short. I feel slightly disappointed.) Wait a minute. Would materialized work? My Mason City memories materialized? Maybe. Might be. Magnificent!

I won't bore you with all the details, just a few highlights: The sidewalk there? A little bit down the street is where I literally ran into the mailman while learning how to ride my bike. Mail went flying everywhere... my slightly embarrassed mom came running down the street to help pick up the mess. Me? More than slightly embarrassed, I ran to the refuge of this little house. The neighbor to the left of this house (when we lived there!), Mr. Garrett, used to go fossil hunting. I would spend hours kneeling by him in his driveway with a little hammer, trying to uncover fossils in the rocks he would bring home. He used to rotary mow his lawn, too. I can still hear the whir of the blades as they sliced through the grass. I'm thinking we had very interesting neighbors!

My brother and I had the run of the neighborhood. Looking back on it I used to marvel at how different things were then. My mom just let us go... we'd come back for meals. The block seemed huge. HUGE! But, after seeing it yesterday, I realize that maybe my mom wasn't all that brave. The block is tiny. Small. Like what seemed like the entire universe when I was 7.... was actually about 7 of these sized houses backed up to each other. Not so big. Not so intimidating to a parent. But loads of fun for a 7 year old!

Ahhh. Herbert Hoover Elementary. Where I spent First - Third grade. Where mean Mrs. Whitis ridiculed me in front of my entire first grade class for writing an "I Love You, I Miss You" letter to my mom. Where I learned that boys can be mean, snowball throwing jerks. Where I skinned my knee while skipping in from recess in second grade and got a very impressive gauze pad taped onto said knee. The school I had to leave when my Dad got transferred to Des Moines. Who knows what would have happened had we stayed in Mason City? River City. The city where I partially grew up.

(Props must go to my big bro, Matt, whose sweet little Garmin found all of these places. Because even though I remember them, I sure as heck couldn't FIND them!)