Wow, I cannot believe how fast this summer went! They seem to go faster every year. I remember last year, about 2 weeks before the start of school I really just was not feeling ready. Then, everyday I became a little more ok with the idea. It's the same this year too. I was not ready, but now I'm feeling like getting into a routine again isn't such a bad thing. AJ has been having the best time playing with friends and staying up late, but it's time to get back to reality.
We had back to school night last night. We got to meet his new teacher, Ms. Brown. She's new to the school so I wasn't quite sure what to expect. I spoke to Mrs. Hayden about her and she assured me that we would have a great year. I felt so much better hearing that!
Today AJ told me he was scared and nervous, but you'd never know it. He was happy to get dressed and ready to go. I think he also missed the routine and seeing his school friends. I found out that he will have science everyday, and when I told him, he was pretty excited. He loves science!
I can't wait to pick him and see how his day went.
AJ sure is one lucky kid! He spent last week in California with my mom and had the BEST time! They did so much- twice daily park trips, beach, pool, play dates with new friends, movie, riding bikes, staying up late and hanging out with Uncle Matt and Auntie Kristin. I talked to him everyday for a few minutes and each day seemed to be more and more fun. I am so glad he got this time with Grandma- they sure have a special bond!
I thought it was going to be really hard for me to have him gone so long. And it was hard; I missed him so much. But, I wasn't quite the mess I thought I'd be. Partly because we could "Facetime" and talk each day, but also because I knew he was having such a great time.
It was also really nice to have some time with just Jason. For some of the time, I don't think we knew what to talk about; we're so used to AJ being there and not being able to have an actual conversation! But it ended up being really good for us. We went to a movie, hung out with friends at the local Biergarten, talked about work and life, Jason tiled the bathroom and laundry room and we got to just do what we wanted when we wanted. It was very nice.
BIG NEWS! AJ finally lost his tooth! His bottom right tooth was very loose when he went to California and I jokingly told him he better not lose it there! But, it happened! One day, I was on the phone with my mom and I heard her say "What? It's out?" and there it was! It was good he got it out because he was pretty obsessed with it. It would move around when he ate and once he bit down hard on it and it hurt.
So, he wrote a note to the tooth fairy asking if he could please keep his tooth and she left it. I was wondering how much the California tooth fairy paid and was pleased to see it was only $3 :)
Here are a few pics:
He's missing a tooth!
AJ's letter to the Tooth Fairy
He came home! I was able to go to lunch with him straight from the airport
We took a week long vacation to Zion and met up with Pop and Grammy Cory. We had a great time! The first day, we drove about 5 hours to Grand Junction and stayed there for the night. The next day, we drove about 7 more to Zion. We spent that day just getting settled in. On Monday, Pop and Grammy came. Our week consisted of hiking to the Emerald Pools and the Narrows, BBQing at our campsite, playing this fun pig game together in the trailer and just hanging out. It felt like a really relaxing and easy get away. We got very lucky with the weather too- the week prior it had been in the low 100's. While we were there it was in the 90's most the time. Still hot, but not nearly as bad!
When the week was over, we headed back to Colorado and Pop and Grammy to California. We both had LONG drives (and we ran outta gas in the middle of nowhere- but that's another story). AJ was a really good traveler and rarely complained about the amount of time sitting in the car.
It sure was fun to spend a week with Grammy and Pop! We miss them already!
The view from our campsite
Entering the Park!
Starting out our hike
The crazy chipmunk was HUGE and he was very used to people... a little too comfortable in fact.
The Narrows
Hiking up to the Emerald Pools- Day 2- it was a long hike and HOT, but AJ did great! Grammy and Pop too
So beautiful
Checking out a little cave.
Made it to the 2nd pool- there were probably 100 tadpoles in the water behind us.
We took a drive one day and found about 20 Big Horn Sheep! They were SO cool!
Sheep!
This guy was amazing! We stopped because he had a sign outside saying "Demo". He's a blacksmith and was working right then. He offered to let us watch as he made a Bronco key ring and a hummingbird. It was amazing to watch and such detail!
Hummingbird for Grammy.. Bronco for AJ
Our last day!
AJ became a Jr. Ranger at the park. He had to do a number of things, like pick up trash, identify different animal prints, see a ton of different animals in the park and other things. Once he finished, he took the book to the ranger and was sworn in as a Jr. Ranger. He got a badge and everything!
Our last night- and Grammy's birthday! We went to the Spotted Dog Cafe which was AMAZING! Such delicious food- and we had a great time celebrating Grammy!
We finally did new family photos a few weeks ago. I think it's been 2 years since we did them! Once again our photographer, Nikkie Roberts, knocked it out of the park. Can't believe my boy is going to be SEVEN!
Ah yes.. it's so much easier to keep up the blog than to take months off and try to figure out where to begin. But here goes:
It's been a really wonderful beginning of the year for our family. We had a great Christmas at home, just the three of us. I took the week off of work and we hung with friends, celebrated and went skiing for a few days at Copper. It was very low key, which we all enjoyed. Things had been (and continue to be) so busy between school, work and just life, we needed some down time. AJ's big gift from Santa was a new Samsung Tablet. He was in heaven! He had an iPad before which he loved, but it was time to replace it.
Ugly Sweater Contest Winner!
Oh! I know another thing that was keeping us so busy... we had our basement finished! What an exciting thing. When Jason and I moved into this house in 2006 (I cannot believe it'll be 9 years in August!) we dreamt of finishing the basement and how we would do it, but I wasn't really ever sure we would. Quite honestly, we have almost 3000 square feet above ground and we don't use all of it, so I wasn't sure why we would need it. But once in a while we talked about what we would do if/when we had the money to do it. Any funny enough, the basement is almost exactly like we had originally discussed way back when. Our wonderful contractor, Don, helped create an amazing media room, bar, workout area and bathroom down there. We considered putting in a bedroom for resale, but we've got 4 bedrooms and an office upstairs, so it wasn't necessary. I was a little worried about how messy this process was going to be and how long it would take- you hear a lot of horror stories when you start telling people what you're going to do- but it wasn't bad at all! Since it was in the basement, it didn't affect our daily life, or mess up the part of the house we were living in. And it only took 8 weeks!
Here are some pictures of the finished basement:
Our lives have been really busy on the job front too. I have been loving my job but it has been INCREDIBLY busy the last few months. Of course, that is a good thing, but there are days when it feels like it's too much. I feel like I've become the Jack of all Trades at work. Again, this is good. In January, we had our annual Kickoff which means executives fly in and the entire center shuts down for a big 5 hour rah-rah meeting to discuss the previous years results and pump people up for the coming year. I was asked to work on it for the first time and let me tell you.. the PRESSURE. I realized it wasn't curing cancer, but I felt so much pressure to make sure the music was right, loud enough, played at the exact correct moments, the slideshow was perfect, the awards were set up, tables and chairs and balloons set up, and so much more. Thankfully it went very well and my boss was pleased. And then less than a week later, we had 10 new hires start. Which meant, preparing training materials and HR documents, rearranging desks, cleaning the training room, ensuring computers work, ordering supplies, making name tags, ordering badges and so much more. ALL this little stuff that really added up. Often times I felt like housekeeping, IT, training and HR at the same time. I complain, but I actually love it. I love that my boss believes in me and knows I'll get it done.
Back in August Jason left Dell after 5 years and went to a company called VM Ware. It's a great company and could have eventually been a good thing, but it didn't work out. He was told he was going to get a bunch of good accounts and that turned out not to be true. And he had some less than qualified inside resources which made it more difficult to sell. He did enjoy the company and some of the people he worked with, but we could tell pretty quickly it wasn't going to last too long. Strangely enough, before he went to VM Ware, he got a call from a recruiter to interview for a job at Sales Force. He went to the interview and it went great, but he was told the job was put on hold. Well, once he was ready to leave VM Ware, he got a call from Sales Force again and was asked to interview with the hiring manager that week and within 5 days, he had the job! He's been there about a month and loves it! It's an amazing company that is doing really well. He has 7 large accounts and great resources. I'm so happy to see him loving his job again.
And then there's AJ :) Can you even believe he's going to be SEVEN in a few months. Ugh. It kills me. He is doing really really good. We have been skiing 5-6 times this year and it amazes me how much better he gets each year. And talk about fearless! The kid is faster than I am and totally in control. I find myself yelling at him as he passes me down the mountain "TURN!!" or "Slow down!" because he freaks me out! But he knows what he's doing. Uncle Matt came out last week and they skied thru the trees which was super fun for both of them. AJ always likes to find little jumps. I'm really trying to talk him into getting on a ski team next year- I think age 7 is when you can start. Stay tuned.
Here's a video of AJ skiing the trees:
AJ is doing pretty well in school too. He's an awesome reader, and really good at math, but we're finding he's rushing too much in his writing. I've had many talks with his teacher about how she can't read his writing, but she could read it last year. I t think he's become lazy and is trying to just get it done as quickly as he can. So, now I'm adding more homework each night and he has to work on writing better. He doesn't always love it, but I keep telling him that once he writes better, we don't have to do this! Kids!
