Noah (finally) Goes Back to Pre-School

Despite our best efforts, Noah is 100% the baby of the family in every way. This is the kid who can get away with murder...he's also the one most likely to commit one! He's our little explosion of energy and he lives with his passion bubble very close to the surface. These are all great things that we enjoy about Noah, but it should be mentioned that these traits do not mix well with a summer stuck at home! It's fair to say that Noah's return to Pre-School is a welcome event for everyone in the family and will go a long way toward helping us all live in peace and happiness. I just wished Noah seemed more excited about it.

If you pay attention to things like the date on a post, you'll notice that this is actually going up about a month after he started schools, so you'll be glad to know that the start of the year has been really great for him. He loves his friends, his teachers, and going to the office with dad. His teacher this year is the same teacher Aidan had in his first year of Pre-School, and Noah loves Mrs. Mangum just as much as Aidan did. In face, we keep having him correct us about how things are supposed to be done because that's how Mrs. Mangum said to do things.

A Treacherous Adventure and Old Time Train Ride

A requirement of living in the Austin area is that you surrender the idea of going for "walks." In ATX, people go on hikes. And the best part is that you can go on said hike down a semi-developed trail, completely surrounded by nature, feeling like you're in the middle of the forest, and be 2 minutes from downtown. We decided the kids were old enough to tackle one of these above mentioned hikes. Just before school started, we loaded up the crew and met up with some good friends.

Ryla is always grateful to have some girl friends to rescue her from life in a home with a male-majority.

And the boys just want to throw rocks and hit things with sticks...

The boys were cracking us up that day. They kept seeing runners with their shirts off and asking why the runners got to take their shirts off and the kids didn't. In their words, they wanted to, "show off their muscles. too." Just like all good parents do, we caved once they pushed us over our whining-limit.

When you're in the woods with no shirts on and you find a dry creek bed with giant rocks and boulders, there's really nothing you can do except climb all over them. I should mentioned an important aside. We cam across this creek bed about roughly 300 yards after getting on the trail. That's as far as we got for the day. Once they climbed all over the rocks for about 20 minutes they were all near the point of death via heat stroke. So our hike was really just a 600 yard stroll to a bunch of rocks, but it was still an adventure to them.

It's cool to show your muscles off by losing your shirt, but it's way cooler to get rid of your shirt and carry rocks over your head...

After the first 100 feet of trail walking, there was a steady rotation of small children looking for shoulder rides. Everyone knows that this is really why dad's go on trips like this, because who wants to go through the trouble of renting a pack mule for the day?

And here are a couple obligatory "aren't our kids cute!?" pictures. These 6 really do enjoy hanging out with each other. We're big fans of the Dishman crew and wish we didn't live on the complete opposite side of Austin from them.

Once we completed our perilous 600 yard trek, the kids needed a chance to rest and recover, and since were just down the street from the Zilker Zypher, it seemed to be an ideal spot to allow for that.

Happy School Year!

It has begun! Round two at Fortis Academy kicked off just a few weeks ago, and we're running full tilt. Ryla is thrilled that this year she gets to go to PreK. The first challenge we have is being able to know which teacher goes with which kid. Normally, this ins't a big deal, but this year, both kids have Mrs. Ruckle. Not only do they have the same name, but they're both great teachers. So, it's confusing at times, but absolutely a win.

The first day was so much fun for everyone. We were blown away by how grown up Aidan looked this year in his uniform- with no front teeth and his fancy hair. And Ryla didn't look cute at all...

Another exciting thing this year is that our new location allows us to feel a little more like an established school. We get a sign out front, along with classrooms that don't have to be packed up every night. It completely changes the dynamics in the school and makes things much more fun for the kids.

As a preschooler, Ryla gets to skip assembly and go straight to class. She pretty much owned the room as soon as she walked in.

I think Aidan was excited to be back at assembly. It's such a surprise that he managed to find a seat surrounded by girls... No, it's not a surprise. Aidan secretly views himself as a ladies man. He's usually got himself a strategic position to put out the vibe.

I think Aidan's super chill demeanor really embodies how they have both embraced school this year. They really do love being there, spending time with their friends, learning cool new things, and being able to do something that is about them as independent people.

MO Ranch 2015

Each summer, our church does a family retreat out in the middle of nowhere Texas. This is the first time we've been with all three kids since the first summer we lived here. We had an obnoxious amount of fun.

We took cute pictures with friends...

And took cute pictures of friends...

We swam... Well, everyone else swam. Aidan snorkeled. He literally didn't take his head out of the water for hours at a time. I really have no idea how he was able to be so focused on one things for such a long period of time.

Hung out with cute babies....

And made new friends. Now this desrves and explination. Noah didn't have any other boys at Mo Ranch his age, But he had some awesome buddies. These guys let Noah follow them around everywhere. They picked flowers with him, played in the wagon with him. went played tag with him, threw rocks with him, ate with him. Noah actually has this picture hanging over his bed because he had so much fun hanging with the big kids.

There were teenagers there, too. They pretty much acted like anyone over the age of 25 was boring and irrelevant. I really can't argue with them on that.

Let's not forget the obligatory awkward staff pictures. We weren't even trying to be awkward, it just happens that way.

We prayed, we worshiped, we were reminded why we like each other so much.

Then when all the sappy stuff was over, we went and swam some more.

I couldn't explain this picture in any way whatsoever.

Mo Ranch 2015 was pretty awesome for everyone. Looking forward to more fun next summer. 

Summer=awesome

This summer was a whirlwind of fun times, good experiences, and cool memories. There was a lot that happened. Too much to keep up with, in fact. So, you get the privilege of one stop photo dumb of all the goodness.

It all began with sports camp for Aidan. He was able to go with a few of his friends.  They played a different sport each day and our little stud had a killer time.

And then there was swimming. A lot of swimming. Like a whole lot of swimming. A family from church lives just a couple miles away from us. They have a great pool in their backyard. They've been kind enough to let us come over whenever we want to. So we spent a lot of time over there. Through all of that time we ended up with two kids who can swim and some pretty solid tans- except for Ryla...She's still as white as a ghost. 

  

Then there were the hallmarks of summer...friends and ice cream. We made sure to get a lot of that in.

And we went to VBS...

Then there was another VBS....

And another VBS...

And- you guessed it- another VBS.

One of the really unique things Aidan was able to do this summer was Science Camp. I know, it's totally a nerd thing. But when you think about who his parents are, it makes perfect sense. He got to make some cool stuff, learn some neat lessons, make a shirt, and hang with his friends. 

We even spent some time at the library. Don't be deceived, Aidan does not like to read (we are working on it). But he does love to look at pictures.

We've absolutely had a great summer. It's hard to believe that the kids are already back in school. I know it will only be a few short weeks and they'll be asking us 1,000 times a day when it will be summer again. Soon enough, my munchkins. Soon enough.