The Beginning

While I thought sending my first child to Kindergarten was a little traumatic last year, I had no idea how it felt to send him to first grade where he is gone for the whole day instead of just a few hours!
I will really miss the sweet, loving boy (most of the time!) that Cole is becoming.
He reads to his sister and cousin Kira when his Mom is too busy,
let's cousin Weston sleep with him,
is willing to paint Emily's nails,
put lip gloss on Addy,
and even dress up in jewelry because that's the game his sister wanted to play!
I will miss my sweet boy during the day, although I will be grateful that his teacher gets to answer the millions of questions that he asks every day!
Despite his Mom's wishes to keep him young and innocent, Cole had no qualms about school. He was very excited and very ready to start first grade.
This backpack's for you Grandpa!
After posing for the obligatory pictures, he gave his sisters a hug and was out the door!
He picked up his buddy next door and they were off.
They were off a little too quickly though. Cole and his buddy, in their excitement, started to run down the sidewalk towards the school. Unfortunately, Cole's new shoes are a little big and caused him to fall and skin both knees and his arm. What a way to start the first day of school! Thankfully, his teacher had some blue bandaids and some TLC for him. So he recovered quickly.
Cole's new teacher loves Disney stuff, as you can tell by the door decorations. (I'm not sure if this expression is apprehension about walking in the door or pain from the skinned knees.)
Cole and his best buddy once again got in the same class, thank goodness!
Good luck buddy. I know you will do great!

The End

After 3 long years, Chad finally finished his Master's Degree in Public Administration!
In June, his program celebrated with a nice banquet at the Joseph Smith Memorial Building. I got to meet lots of the people that he spent 3 years of Tuesday nights with. (Too bad I forgot my camera!)
At the banquet, everyone had to bring something that represented them throughout their journey in the program. Chad (with a little bit of his wife's help) made a time line of various major occurrences that happened over the course of the 3 years. These events included Addy being born, Cole starting school, and several significant BYU victories of course!
The banquet was filled with fun facts and memories from various classmates (including Chad). I learned there was a lot of stuff that he did and talked about with his classmates that I had no idea about and will probably never understand, including peanut butter sandwiches! At the banquet, we learned that his class averaged 95 miles driving to class every week. They also guessed that over the course of the program the students ate 571 vending machine snacks, 813 Subway meals, and 652 Crown Burgers among other things. They read 8,405 pages, had 76 projects and papers, and took 37 tests. It was quite a journey for all of them that I'm sure they will never forget anytime soon. But they persevered and made it! Way to go!!
While they finished in June, they didn't officially graduate until August. While Chad was reluctant to walk at first, we are glad he did so we could celebrate this great accomplishment.
The graduation was nice. The speakers did a great job, and most importantly when you have small children, it didn't last too long!
While this was happening on stage,
The kids were being happily entertained in the audience by both grandmas!
Cole also used the time to show off his tricks for the camera,
while Emily smiled and laughed for the camera,
and Addy did her own thing, as usual!
After the ceremony was over, there was the usual posing for pictures.
And the unusual posing for pictures!
Chad, we are so very proud of you and all the work you did! However, we will be grateful to have our Dad and Husband back on Tuesday nights! We love you very much.

The Girls

While Cole was having fun at gymnastics camp, the girls and I were left to entertain ourselves in Provo for 4 hours a day all week long. After dragging them around to do errands the first day or two, I decided we'd better do something fun too.
So, we decided to go on a safari... or at least visit the Bean Museum.
They loved the touch and feel exhibit.
They did not love the row of bears. In fact, Addy refused to walk past them. We had to walk all the way around the other way!
Addy couldn't keep her eyes off of the animals. I'm not sure if she really liked them or if she was afraid they would move and get her!
The next day, we went and fed the ducks at one of the BYU ponds.
The ducks really liked Emily and followed her around.
Addy also really got into feeding the ducks.
However, her Cheerios didn't make it very far. So the ducks came closer,
and closer. Until they were too close for her comfort! She promptly sat herself on my lap and refused to move off of it.
So, we had to give up our blanket for a while, until the ducks managed to eat all the stray Cheerios.
That was okay with the girls, they happily went and dipped their feet in the water.
And then, they put a little more of their legs in the water.
And pretty soon, we needed some new clothes because they were all wet!
Oh well. At least they weren't too bored!

Gymnastics Camp

Since Chad is the administrator for the BYU gymnastics team, he thought it was only proper that he supported the program by sending Cole to their camp. And, if Cole learned some balance and coordination along the way, well that would be an added bonus!
As usual, Cole had a great time.
He got to jump on the trampoline,
Hang and flip on the bar,
Walk on the balance beam,
Try out the vault,
and memorize a floor routine. (If only he could stay on his feet!)

This is probably the most impressive though. They took a very cautious child and taught him this. I'm sure it's much easier flipping into a pit of foam, but he was still brave enough to do it.