Thursday, February 4, 2010

School Days, School Days


Today was Ben's first day of Preschool. I finally found and got him into a preschool at Mineral King Elementary (Caelan's school). It's right here close to home, which is nice because Ben has the afternoon schedule, which means that my day goes something like this:
8:00 AM - take Caelan to school
11:30 AM - take Ben to school
2:10 PM - pick up Caelan
3:00 PM - pick up Ben
I think I'm going to have Caelan start taking the bus home (but I've been saying that for a couple of weeks now - we'll see if it ever happens).

Anyway, Ben was SO EXCITED to start. We turned the last of our paperwork in yesterday (WOW - the stuff they require these days is CRAZY), and the teacher said that Ben could start today. We got in the car and I said, "Ben you get to go to school tomorrow. Are you excited?" And he said, "Yeah, but I don't have a lunch box." HE HE HE.
He was great - went right in and started interacting with the other kids. When we picked him up this afternoon he told Caelan that "it was as fun as Disneyland." WOW! Now I wanna go.

Tuesday, February 2, 2010

Now, who wouldn't want an army like this on their side?

My kids LOVE to play with little characters...ALL THE TIME! These characters are pretty lucky - they get to do all sorts of things. Sometimes they are families, sometimes they are enemies, sometimes they get married, sometimes they are royalty, sometimes they go to fun places like the circus or the North Pole or the ocean or Walmart, sometimes they ride in ships or in cars or on horses or spaceships, sometimes they go to war, sometimes they run from scary beasts, sometimes they live in castles (made of legos) or forts (made of blankets). There isn't much that these little guys haven't (or won't at some point) experience....and I love to quietly listen to all of their adventures (thought up in the minds of my little kiddos). Oh IMAGINATION - I love it.

General Sherman, Sir!


We live in the backyard of Sequoia National Park (some of the largest trees in the world). These are really GIANTS among God's creations - totally amazing.


This is General Sherman, the largest tree in the world. It is believed to be around 2,500 years old. Just look at this big group of us ("not small" people, I might add) and we don't even cover the front view of the base. Its largest branch, which broke off in 2006 and is now lying on the ground next to the tree, had a diameter of over 6 feet (larger than most trees' trunks). Plus, I love that it is named after an American Civil War general.

What a view!


This is our friend, Mackenzie (one of Kyra's best friends). This is her first experience in the snow - pretty fun. I used to babysit for her and my kids LOVE her.

Monday, February 1, 2010

Date Night


Sean and I went out on Friday night. We haven't done that in a while (with the holidays and the move and such). A bunch of his friends from BYU worked on the movie, Avatar, so he really wanted to see it in the theater. So we got a babysitter (a girl from the ward) and went out for a night on the town. I liked the movie a lot - awesome computer graphics, and I don't usually pay a lot of attention to that kind of stuff - it all looked so real! And I decided that I would like to live in a world where the ground and trees glow when you touch them. Beautiful! We finished up the night with some Mexican food. I love a good date.

The next day Ben came up to me and sincerely asked, "Mom, how was Avatar and the date?" He is such a tender boy - I love it.