More Nine

More pictures of the nine year old. 

Gym Mat

Clara's "big" birthday gift was a gym mat, which immediately was put to use for countless flips, cartwheels, and other acrobatics. Robin enjoyed it, as well. 

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?