September 7

It's been two weeks since I last posted. I want to be more regular.  Now that summer is over it may be a little easier.

Cade started preschool again today.  He is doing a 3 day program from 9-11:30.  I think he will like it.  It is a different school than we did last year and he was a little nervous going in, but he was brave and I'm sure he will be happy when I pick him up.

Cade's favorites:
food:  meatballs, pizza, apples, pancakes
dessert:  brownies, skittles and smarties
color:  green
animal:  dinosaur--t-rex
toys:  duplo blocks, markers, paper, dinosaurs
activities:  golfing with dad, planning birthday parties for the dinosaurs, writing words, playing with Cami
Shows:  Jake and the Neverland Pirates, Land Before Time

Cade is reading well (long vowels, 2 syllable words), he has been learning how to add and subtract and write words.  He really likes to do things right and won't play games because he might lose.  He is a caring kid who loves his sisters.

We went to the beach last weekend with the Hamilton's and Collette's.  Friday we drove down.  We stopped in the Columbia river gorge and hiked to Elowah falls with the Collette's.  It is a beautiful place.  We drove the rest of the way to our beach house in Waldport, OR that afternoon.  The house was awesome!  It is an old bed and breakfast.  It had several master suites, a large kitchen and dining area, and walked right out to the beach.  The kids loved running outside and playing in the sand.  Saturday morning we played at the beach.  In the afternoon we drove about an hour away and did a dune buggy ride up some giant sand dunes.  That evening was more sand time!  Sunday morning our family was ready first and we went off to see some tide pools before the water got too high.  We saw sea anenomes, sea urchins, crabs, and starfish.  The kids loved it.  We also saw a couple of sea lions and 3 whales feeding not too far from shore.  The other families met us and we explored some more with them, took pictures and played in the sand.  Kirk loved the whales and spent a lot of time looking through his spotting scope and watching them.  I have never seen a whale before and thought it was pretty cool too.  We spent all of Sunday afternoon at our beach again.  The kids dug in the sand for about 4 hours.  Cade got in the water a little bit, Kirk was in for a while and tried a little surfing.  Cami was terrified of the water and wouldn't go close to it.  We saw a big crab on the sand.
Sunday night Ellie didn't sleep well.  She was up every hour from 12-5 when she decided it was playtime.  Kirk ended up leaving our room and sleeping in with Cade and Cami.  Monday morning we packed up.  Ellie took a long nap and Kirk took the kids out to play in the sand again while I loaded and cleaned, then we drove home.  It was a fun trip that went by way too fast.

My mom flew in on Friday while we were gone and she and Melissa drove back to Utah on Saturday.  So Melissa is gone and excited to go to college and now we are back to preschool and stuff.  The days have cooled off a little.

I've been hiking a bunch over the last few weeks.  I am hiking Mt St. Helen's on September 23 with some friends and trying to get stronger for it.