Monday, September 11, 2017

Back to School (And Back to Baby!)

It's that time of year! School shopping with Miss Sassy, apparently. 

All ready for Back to School Night, minutes after arriving home from vacation.

Time to clean that hair up for another year! 

Daryn's first big haircut- before:

And after!

I forgot to get a before of Reagan, but she looked beautiful after!

Maddie did not appreciate waiting around and not being allowed to pull all the bottles off the shelves. 

It's here! First grade! It's so strange having Reagan gone all day but she is really loving it and learning a lot. Lance drops her off in the morning so we all sit on the porch and wave goodbye when they leave. 


She is loving eating lunch at school. She picked out  her own cookies to take and this giant cucumber from our garden fed her for a week straight. 

Not to be left out, Daryn started her second year of preschool a week later. She works so hard and is starting to read and write already this year! She carpools with a friend from church and thinks it's so fun. 

Also determined to get in on this action, Madelyn's new obsession is wearing her little backpack arounds so she can be just like her sisters. 
 (She also thinks her bib is a dress up item)

School starting means it's time for this exciting, nail-biting, soul-crushing part of the year. It's hard to be a BYU fan these days. 

Back to school also means back to dance! I didn't get a picture of Reagan this year but she is starting jazz in addition to ballet and tap. 

And back to gym! Maddie and I did a Mommy and Me class over the summer while the girls did theirs, and I think she was a little crushed to realize that she was no longer in class. 

Sharing chicken nuggies with me helped her get over it pretty quickly. 

She is also starting to go into nursery for part of the time at church and thinks it's pretty magical. 

And speaking of big changes... it's baby time again for me!
Kiddo #4 is set to join our family on or around St. Patrick's Day next spring. We are thrilled!

Sunday, September 10, 2017

Alaskan Cruise Part 4 (Victoria)

Our cruise was drawing towards an end. Saturday was our last full day. Splash Academy (that the older 5 kids had been going to all week) helped the kids put on a circus! Daryn and Ander's age group was ferocious adorable tigers. 

They roared and did tricks and jumped through a hoop of fire!


Reagan did some awesome lassoing tricks. 

We watched and enjoyed!


Little performers!

That evening we docked for a fews hours in Victoria, BC. 



We had a whale-watching trip scheduled. It was lots of fun but a little long for the kids.
 


We did see whales, though! Orcas, to be exact. We followed a pair of them for a while and saw them surface many times. 


We even got to see them going after some seals!

We got back late that night to ship and were up early the next day to disembark! Unfortunately, there was some kind of security delay at the port in Seattle and we had to wait around for awhile. But we finally got off, found all our luggage (thankfully) and waited around while Lance and Reagan went to get the car. 

We had an uneventful trip home, including swimming in the hotel pool in OR, 

and arrived home 15 minutes before Reagan and I had to leave for her Back to School night. Perfect timing! And the perfect end to a trip of a lifetime.