Pictures of TriRock 9/12/10

A few things...

Ok, so it has been a little bit since I have posted. Go figure:)
I posted pictures of Lily on her first day back to school but failed to post one of my little dude:( Here he is...

What a huge improvement from last year! He is LOVING preschool and is so happy when we drop him off and when we pick him up. It took until the last couple of weeks of the school year last year for him to not have a total meltdown when we dropped him off for the day. Now he just waves and smiles! It makes me so happy:)
We had a really great visit in Santa Barbara with my family. Jack stayed home and held down the fort so it was just the kiddos and myself. Lily wanted to do all the chores at Grandma's including brushing the horses, feeding all the animals, picking avocados and making pancakes with Grandpa. Dad (and Lily) made us the BEST peanut butter pancakes on Sunday morning and Mom made us delicious dinners both nights (one being her famous pesto pizza...DELICIOUS). We are always well fed and spoiled when we go up there and it is never long enough. We spent one afternoon at the beach and Mom took both kids out on the paddle board, what an experience! And Jennie and I took the boards out as well. She is a pro but it was the first time for me so I fell in several times but it was still a lot of fun. Lily said she wanted to live there so I guess she had a good trip:) I am waiting for Dad to send pictures and I will post some. Here are a few that Jennie sent me:

ps- oh how I love my brother Kyle and his doll of a significant other, Jennie. They are amazing with the kids and so fun to be around!

Back at home...yesterday Laura and I did the Tri Rock triathlon. What an experience! Erin was so nice to come pick me up at 4:45 am and we followed Laura and Mark down to the Embarcadero. It was only my second tri and Laura's first so we were pretty much newbies. The swim start was a bit painful, having to jump in the freezing (not literally) water at 7 am and tread water for 5 minutes until our start. Laura came out of the water first and we started on the bike together. Of course she kicked my butt on the bike and was already out of the transition area when I came in. I somehow caught her on the run and we finished w/in a few minutes of each other. So fun! Will definitely be doing another one. As for Laura, as we were leaving she said "well, I can cross that one of my bucket list!" I bet I can talk her into doing another one...Again, waiting for pictures from my sis but here are some from Laura:

Back to School, etc

We spent part of the weekend getting ready for back to school by making egg carton flowers for the kids' teachers. I think they turned out pretty cute and the kids had a great time:)

Sunday was our 11 year wedding anniversary and we spent it as a family. We took the trolley down to the Padres game (which was a first for the kids, both the trolley and the baseball game). Got there nice and early (as you can see in the picture of the kids, nobody else in sight!) and stayed only a few innings. The kids got free lunch boxes and we got them each a hot dog and cracker jacks at the concession stand (mom of the year) and they were completely satisfied w/that. All in all it was a nice day and I feel very lucky to have Jack as my partner in life and blessed w/two awesome kiddos.
Today Lily started 1st grade! I know I was way more nervous than she was. She just walked right into class and found her buds and that was it! I am so happy that she has Noah in her class again along w/Andrew, Gabriel, and Sydney from her kindergarten class. Can't wait to go pick her up!! Jack is off today and is going to take Jackson over to Grandpa's for a bit so Lily and I can have a little girl time after school:)

I am not a blogger...

I am NOT a blogger! Ok, so it  may LOOK like I have started a blog but...
My reason for doing this is for my kids. I think it will be a perfect way for me to keep track of the special times and will keep them in some sort of order. I cannot write (Jack will back me up on that one), I don't scrapbook (hence this online blog thing), I am not at all funny (so if you read this do not expect to be ROFL), etc etc...What I'm saying is that don't expect much more than a bunch of odds and ends:)

So, Lily said we should make a list of all the fun things we did this summer so we are going to do that here and try to back it up with some pictures:)
-We spent a week in Cuyucos at the beach house
-Lily learned to ride her bike AND swim! Yay!
-Jackson learned to swim (well, kind of, he is pushing off the wall and doggy paddling to me so I think this counts as swimming for a 3 year old)
-Lots of playdates at the park with our friends
-Numerous trips to the beach
-Lots of craft projects at home, swim lessons, swimming at grandpa and grandmas, couple of trips to the theater, Lily had reading club w/Mrs Z, ballet class, walks/hikes, and whatever else we filled up our time with.

I cannot believe my little Lily Bean is going into 1st grade! Craziness! We went to the school yesterday with our dear friends, The LaTour Family, and had our fingers crossed the whole way to "The List" that Lily and Noah would be in the same class...

We could not believe our eyes when we saw that they were! Yay! What a fun year it is going to be.
Jackson will go back to CCC on Tuesday. He goes Tues/Thurs and has Miss Jen and Miss Roxanne (he adores both of them and I think they feel the same about him). He had a great summer himself and I never want to forget all his little Jacksonisms that he has at this age. Like how he LOVES spaghetti and meatbulbs (self explanatory), corn on the corn (corn on the cob) and boy-cheese sandwiches (not to be confused with girl-cheese sandwiches or you may know them as grilled cheese).
Looking forward to getting back on a schedule but I have thoroughly enjoyed having the kiddos home for the summer. They are growing up much too fast. Sigh.
That's all for now...