Happy Birthday Clara!

She's nine! Wowie wow wow! And she's flippin' awesome. Literally. :)

She's taking off with gymnastics, flipping, cartwheeling, spinning, balancing, and more!

She's taking off with school, reading, mathing, and charming all her teacher's!
She's taking off with friends and family, biking to the store with a friend, playing with her baby cousins, negotiating with her sister, and going on adventures with her parents.

We love you, Clara! I can't wait to see what you'll bring to the next year!

Pacman Sisters

(yes, I know only one of them is shown. They are both playing, one didn't want to be photgraphed.)

Lizard close-up

Little Lizard!

After dropping clara off at gymnastics, molly spotted this tiny lizard. On a whim, she put out her finger and the lizard hopped on!

We're Back

Well, we've actually been back for a week. We've had time to unpack, start school and work, and I've started the task of sorting through all the amazing pictures. If all goes as planned, I'll get them posted in a few days. In the mean time, we're still glowing from the trip (although the glow of the new school year is threatening to over power the trip glow!!!).

Highlights include: three big climbs: the Kelso Dunes in the Mojave National Preserve, Mt. Washburn in Yellowstone, and Lassen Peak in Lassen; discovering the less crowded state parks (especially Sinks Canyon in Wyoming), visiting with our family members living very different lives from ours and from each others (cowboys and suburbs!), and playing Spot It.

The picture below is from the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. It was hot, and Clara wanted to go back, but I made everyone stand for a group shot. Can you tell?

Back to School - together and on their own!

Both kids went back to school this morning, and for the first time in four years they are at separate schools again! Molly biked off to 6th grade at Willard (with Zach), and Clara and I walked over to start 4th grade at Malcolm X (well, she started 4th grade, I just walked over there). She can't remember who her teacher is, but she's thrilled that she "gets" to be in one of the new portable classrooms (they're doing construction on the main building so for half of the year she'll be in a temporary building). :)

Willard Centennial Mural

We got a head start on Molly's starting middle school on Tuesday by helping complete a tile mural for the school's 100th anniversary today! Molly said we have to do a really good job since it's going to be there for a really long time....