1st Day of School

HAPPY 1ST DAY OF SCHOOL!

The difference between last year and this years first day of school picture is drastic!  Caleb is so much taller and older looking.  Amelia's face looks grown up and not as much like a baby.

 Caleb has Mrs. Ford this year.

 Amelia has Mrs. Garza.

 Caleb's growing teeth and Amelia's losing them!

 They were so excited to see all of their friends this morning!  

My heart sank a little today as I watched how excited they were to reconnect with classmates after the summer.  I made friends in kindergarten that I kept until high school...even had them in our wedding.  But, our kids will make friends, grow close and love them, and then after a couple of years...leave.  Probably never see them again.  I hate that they have to go through that pain, but my prayer is that this builds character and the ability to see past outward appearances.  That they make friends quickly who will make them feel "at home" for the time we live where ever it is.  That this would make them comfortable enough to always walk into new places, with new faces, without any trouble.  

They are resilient kids and I hope they keep that trait throughout their years!

Back To School Pizza Party

Saturday night we invited two of our neighbor families down for a Back to School pizza party!  They always play together, but it was nice to for the adults to hang out for once!

(Don't you love the reflection in the windows?!)

Amelia and Faith had their own little table on the side of the house.

 They got Olivia (the doll) out and made sure to set her up at her own little fire pit.  

 Sometime during the night, they got tired of playing outside and went inside to have a dance party!

 It was finally dark and cool enough to get a fire going for s'mores.

Caleb, Jack, Sally, Ollie, Amelia, Lucy, Fath and Tommy.

 It was a great way to end the day and now it's countdown time to the first day of school!!  

AYSO Camarillo Soccer

Soccer season started this past Saturday.  Caleb has practice on Mondays and Wednesdays and Amelia on Tuesdays.  They each have a game on Saturdays and Shawn "has" to referee a game, probably every Saturday.  Needless to say, this is where we'll be until the end of October.

Although, the view isn't too bad!

Caleb is in U10 now, so they actually have referees calling things and they keep score.

 Amelia got to be her team Captain for the first game :o)

She's still running around, looking cute in U8.

 Here's to another season of soccer.

(Amelia did ask me when clogging started back up, though :o). 

Christmas in July

Way back in July (I feel like that was forever ago!) we had our 4th Annual Christmas in July party!!  We had only been home from CO for a week, and Shawn was gone all of that week, so there was lots to do.  But, it all got done and I think everyone had a great time! 

I totally splurged and bought a $15 photo prop set off of Amazon and I think it was my favorite thing of the day!!  

Our friends, John and Kala.

 A bunch of kids (I don't know all of their names :o)

 Laura and Jen.

 Amelia and Amelia!!

 Justin, Shannon, Tommy and Evie, our new next door neighbors.

(See, military peeps know you for a week and still accept your invite, even after his flight to the Middle East got cancelled that morning!) 

 Crickett and Jeremy (and baby, Clash).

The older kids enjoyed watching Christmas movies.

The adults hanging out. 

 Decorating cookies.

We had a pool of melted snow....

 ...And a melted snowball fight (aka water balloons).

We probably had around 25 people there!  It was a great time and we can't wait for next year!

Clogging Recital

My friend from church and also whom I work with (Crickett), owns her own dance studio called, Dance Fusion, which is housed in our church facility.  Since the age of 4, she has been clogging.  She offers classes from age 4, up to adults.  She talked me into enrolling Amelia, thinking that since she didn't like gymnastics, we'd give this a try.  She loves it!!  Her summer dance recital was this evening and she'll be starting the fall session in October!

We were told to have them wear blush, pink lipstick and mascara...but no crazy dance makeup.  Now that I'm looking at these photos, I think I may have over done it with the blush.

 They were also told to wear tennis shoes to the recital and change into her clogging shoes once we got there.  What goes best with a pink sequin dress?  Pink high tops (already purchased for school)!

 Last night she pulled her second tooth!!

 Crickett's studios is Dance Fusion, but the adult class is called Ventucky Clogging Co.  They perform at various places, one of them being a local pub owned by our pastor's brother.  Almost all of the songs the performers danced to, were remixed Christian songs!

 Amelia's class went first.  Here they are getting all lined up.

 She graduated the summer session :o).

 And she even won the award for best listener!!

 Happy clogging, sweet girl!  You did a great job!

(If you would like to see the video, just let me know and I will email it to you:o).

ND Fans

You know you're going to get along with your new neighbors when they give you a box of girl clothes that contain, not 1, BUT 2 of these!!!

Navy fans who root for the Irish!!

Last Day in Colorado

Friday morning was our last full day in Colorado.  The sunrise every morning was pretty spectacular, so I decided to get up early and watch it come up.

Here's a good picture of the hot air balloon we saw every morning too.

Cody, Daphne, Ezekiel and Forrest left after breakfast to go see friends of theirs that had just moved to Boulder.  Since it was Shawn's birthday, we let him pick what he wanted to do that day.

Happy Birthday!!!!

 (Picture from our train ride day).

 After we said goodbye to the TN Capps', we headed down the road to the Granby ski lift.  They only charge $5 to ride it up and down.  

 The guys are on the lift behind us.

 Here they are getting off.  On the ride we were able to see mountain/bmx bikers riding down the trails.

 We took a short walk after getting off and were able to see a wedding rehearsal up there too.  Not too bad of a view for the backdrop of your wedding.

 Caleb rode with me and Grannie on the way back down.

 And Amelia rode with daddy and Papaw.

 After that, we drove to the Grand Lake Lodge for lunch.  Not too bad of a view either!

And since we were right at the entrance of the Rocky Mountain National Park again, we figured we had to go back through it.  

We stopped here at Beaver Creek to see if we could see any beavers.  We were on the hunt to see all of the wildlife we could.  

We got out at the Continental Divide and as you can see, Caleb was super excited about getting his picture taken here.  We promised him that if there were no more fits, we'd come back to this spot and play in the snow :o). 

 We got up the mountain and saw a herd of elk and decided to get out and look. 

 I will never get tired of looking at this!

We drove a little ways more and stopped for a bathroom break and a short hike.  We thought we saw a pica (pie-kah), but after I looked it up, I think this is a marmot because of it's size.  Either way, another wild animal!

 Cool rock formation.

 On our way back down.

 I love this lake!

 We made it back down to the Continental Divide and got out to play in the snow.

We just happened to have a diaper box that we broke down and used as a sled.

 Papaw even gave it a try.

Amelia laughing at him in the background.

 Amelia even tried it!

 Here I am trying not to act mad that Caleb had just thrown a snowball at the back of my neck, getting ice all down my shirt and all over my camera.

 Caleb and Papaw's snow creature.

 On the way back, we just happened to spot a MOOSE!!

We got out and watched it until it wandered into the trees.

And just a little bit farther down the road, we saw another herd of elk.  I think we did pretty good on this trip...marmot/pica, deer, elk, a fox, black bear, coyote and a moose!

We got up early Saturday morning and headed for home.  I think we all wished we could have stayed in Colorado longer.  Forever, maybe. Although I love the scenery of snowcapped mountains, the desert landscape isn't too bad too.

 We thought these were cool.  It's a giant mirror that reflects the sun into a field of solar panels.

 Salt flats in the distance.

We had a great trip to Colorado and such a great time spent with family!