East Coast - Annapolis

We spent the next day at Annapolis and truly fell in love with that city.  Ben had signed up for an all-day sailing lesson and so we decided to come along and hang out.

 We took him to his sailing lesson first and got to explore the beach.

 We ended up finding a lot of jellyfish - all dead I'm pretty sure.  It was pretty exciting!

 We spent a couple of hours here just exploring the shore and finding all sorts of beach-treasures.  :)

 There is Ben sailing away . . . He enjoyed his lesson!

 We left the beach area and explored the town a bit.  We ate lunch at this dock and saw the hundred of sailboats in the Bay!

 We walked up and down the cool brick-roads and found this gem - Annapolis Ice Cream.  They make their ice cream daily in their store.  They have super awesome flavors, too.  Lucy had lemon poppy, Miles gingerbread, Emmy coconut chocolate, Jonas lemon, and me - vanilla nutella.  All yummy.  (In fact, after we picked up Ben from his sailing class, I brought him back here and let him get one - he got oatmeal raisin and loved it.)

In my online search of what to do with kids in Annapolis, I came across this pirate adventure cruise and so I called and signed us up.  It turned out to be super cute and fun for the kids - and I enjoyed watching them and the cool breeze (it was hot and humid that day, too!).

 The kids got "tatoos" on their arms before we left.  Here they are practicing "all hands on deck."  Haha.

The kids found a map and had to do all these adventures to find some treasure.

 Lucy getting ready to blast water at Pirate Pete.

 Jonas "firing" at Pirate Pete.

 Two cute pirates.

The crew.

We all had a good day!

East Coast - our first two days

We began our trip waking up at 4am and getting ready for our 7:30 flight from Denver to D.C.  Lucy had flown on a plane when she was 3; Miles had done so when he was 1.  Jonas and Emmy hadn't ever flown.  Needless to say, everyone was super excited!

 Here we are ready to board our flight to Washington D.C.!

 Lucy fell asleep about half-way in to the flight.  Ben and I were jealous.  :)

 The kids having fun.

 Miles enjoying the cool cloud-view!

When we arrived we could feel the heat and humidity right away.  Ugh.  :)  But my sister and her family were there and picked us up and drove us back to their home.

 Emmy loves Bruno - tongue and all!

 After we did some unpacking, the kids were thrilled to go to the Hubands' local swimming pool.  It definitely helps with the heat and humidity.  Thunder got us kicked out of the pool, but we still had a good time!

Sunday we had early church - 8:30 eastern time, which was 6:30 our time!  Nothing like getting forced to a new time zone.  It was great, though, really.  Church was nice and their building is right next to the D.C. temple and so we went to the temple's visitor center right after church.

 Hehe, photo-bombing Ollie!

 The Maxwells in front of the Washington D.C. temple.  So beautiful.

 We three girls inside the nice and cool visitor's center.  :)

 Cousins climbing a tree - Rhett and Miles.

After a little sack lunch, we went to walk around at Great Falls.  It was hot and humid - but neat!

 Here we are in front of the C&O canal.

 The Great Falls are amazing - this picture doesn't do it justice at all.  It really is super impressive!

After dinner we went to D.C. - we visited Arlington Cemetery and then drove past a few of the monuments.  It was really cool and nice Sunday evening outing.

 We just barely missed the presentation at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.  I'm trying to leave as we were just told to by a security guy.  Ha.

 Miles, Jonas, and Rhett in front of some graves.  Arlington is definitely and neat site!

And there we are in front of Arlington's entrance.

And She's Officially Off to Kindergarten . . .

Well my baby is now at kindergarten and will be there all day long!  I hope she has a great day.  I will miss my little baby, side-kick, grocery-shopping buddy, lunch companion, and more.  :)

She ended up getting in to Mrs. Arrechea's class - whom Emmy had for kindergarten as well.  Mrs. Arrechea is a fabulous teacher and so we are excited for Lucy!

There are three little best buddies in our neighborhood that all started kindergarten at Northside - Lucy, Dory, and Genevieve.  They all ended up in the three different kindergarten classes.  :)  On purpose.  As Mrs. Arrechea told me - there are not that many high-achieving good girls starting Northside and so they split them up so each teacher got one of our sweeties.  But the three friends will be able to play during their two recess times!

I told Lucy to learn some new names and meet new friends in her class today.  We'll see how she does!

Post-East-Coast pictures

I've been working on my posts for our trip out east.  Those will start showing up next week.  Here are just a few, fun random pictures:

 We went to Littleton's Historical museum - it's always a great place to walk around and visit.

 We were able to meet up with my sister-in-law Renee (from Alaska!) - who was visiting her family in Littleton.  It was awesome to see Renee and her son, Josten.

 Renee and I.

 A cute picture of Miles, Brigham, and Lucy on our drive home from Littleton.

 As always, our garden is a mess.  We did this little bean archway thing this year and it is sort of working out!  Jonas collected some beans for dinner. :)

 Miles gathered up some tomatoes.  The tomato plants are a big mess!  Someday maybe I will learn.  :)

Our month of July . . . seems so long ago!  :)

Let School Begin!

So Jonas and Emmy started back at school today - crazy!  Lucy had a sort-of first day as well - but it was a kindergarten introduction and assessment.  Lucy went from 8-11 and had a good day.  We find out her teacher tomorrow and then she'll begin her full-day of schooling starting on Friday.  I'll take more "first day of school" pictures then as well.  :)

 So sweet!

 Lucy and her new birthday backpack.  She adores it.  So does her big sister.  :)

 Lucy showing her grade - K.

 Pretty Emmy - looking older!

 Emmy showing her grade - 3rd!

 Handsome freshly hair-cutted Jonas.  :)

 Yep, 5th grade for Jonas!

 Three cute kids ready for school.

Here's to a great 2016-17 school year!

They all had a good day today and all are happy with their teachers!  Yay.

We've got a 6-year old in the house

Lucy's 6th birthday went like this for her:

 Good morning!  Lucy is 6!

Lucy got to open all her gifts early as Ben wouldn't be getting home until dinner-time and we had a full evening.   Lucky Lucy.  :)

The girls had a fun morning playing with Barbies.

I had invited some girlfriends over to play with my girls - not a birthday party, but more of a play-date. There were 2 sets of siblings that came over - each set with a girl Emmy's and Lucy's age.  They all did preschool together and it was fun having them all over.

Lunch time for 6 girls!

The girls did the slip-n-slide on and off and had fun.

I took the friends home after a few hours and while I did my kids got to watch a Lucy-picked movie.

Lucy had gymnastics and I had Emmy go with her to her class as Emmy would have to miss her gymnastics as we had back-to-school.  I think the girls had fun together!

Ben came home around 5:30 and then we had dinner and headed out to Northside for back-to-school night.  That was fun and we went to Jonas' and Emmy's classrooms and met their teachers.  Lucy went in each of the kindergarten rooms and had fun (she'll find out her teacher on Thursday afternoon).

Then we came home for some cake and homemade strawberry ice cream:

 This cake is a bit funny looking - alright, a lot funny looking!  I wanted a cute swimmer's cake and this is how it turned out.  :)  Miles made the face and goggles.  I made the feet.  :)

Now can you see it?  My kids didn't know what it was at first.  :)

Happy birthday to you!

Yes, 6, but she still loves her boo.

I love our little six-year old.

Dear Lucy Dee,

It's your day finally!  Your family has been subjected to your talking of your birthday for a couple of weeks now.  :)  You are always just so excited for your special day.  It's very sweet and cute (and sometimes annoying . . . )!

You've had another great year with lots of learning and lots of living!  We did your second year of home-school pre-school and it was great and you loved it.  I was always proud of you when I hosted it at our home - I could see how much you knew and how smart you were getting.  It was such a joy for me to do pre-school for all my kids - you included.  You made some great friends at preschool - and you'll even be starting kindergarten with one of them at your very own school (Dory).

You and Dory were quite the friends and had lots and lots of play-dates.  It's nice that she lives just a street over.  You were usually the best-of-friends and could play for hours without me needing to do a thing.  You two had your moments, but not too many of them - especially for a couple of 5-year olds. You two especially loved jumping on the tramp and playing in forts.

You skied on your own this year and just had a blast - you loved it so much!  It was fun to see you - but also a little scary as you weren't always totally in control.  :)

We had another year of you and me being day-time buddies while everyone else was at school or work.  I really liked having you around - well, for the most part.  You were my side-kick wherever I went - we did a lot of grocery shopping and lots of school-stuff at Northside.

Speaking of Northside . . . you hung out with me there all the time.  You attended PAC meetings with me, "helped" me make copies, etc., - you even came to Emmy's class a few times with me when preschool was canceled last minute.  You are already a well-known figure at Northside.  And you'll be starting school pretty much the day after your birthday!  You're excited and you're ready (you wrote your entire name on your school folder today:  Lucy Dee Maxwell.  Awesome).  Me?  I'm excited for you, but will miss you tons and tons.  You're one of my best-friends.

But it's time for you to begin your next adventure at school - for more learning and living.  I'll know you'll do great and be great because you are great.

I love you so very much birthday girl!  Love,
mom