First Day!

Am I really old enough to have a 4th grader and a 2nd grader??? The girls started school today! Of course now that they are back in the school, the weather is hot - unlike the whole summer. But they were all smiles with their new back packs (all their new school clothes are too hot to wear now!) and packed lunches.

On Monday we had one of our favorite back-to-school traditions - our ABC picnic! We invited all our friends and randomly assigned them a letter of the alphabet. They brought something to the picnic that starts with the letter. We never know what we end up with but it's always yummy!

Our other back-to-school tradition is that we always start the school year with banana splits! There is no other time in the year when I can justify giving my kids 3 scoops of ice cream with 3 toppings AND whipped cream and sprinkles... But it's the start of school so I cave and they really look forward to it! I didn't have any bananas and Sierra's eyes got wide and asked incredulously, "Mom, how can we have banana splits without bananas??" Luckily Safeway had some yellow bananas. So they get some fruit too. It's not all bad, right?

The End

It's the end of summer! The kids start school on Wednesday. For some reason, this summer flew by quicker even though I purposely didn't sign them up for many summer camps because I just wanted time to PLAY. And yet summer is gone and we didn't do half of the things I wanted to do. What does this mean about LIFE???

So what do you do to cram in summer the last two weeks? First, I let each of my kids plan a day. For Skyla's day we went bike riding to the park, Panda Express for lunch, and flew some kites. Karsten's day included swimming all day and a bike ride to Jamba Juice. Sierra wanted Adri and Kyla to be able to participate in her day and they were out-of-town, so for her day we're going crabbing in Sausalito tomorrow.
And OF COURSE it includes the Jelly Belly Factory! (FYI - if you go in the summer with all the lovely tourists, there could very well be a 1 hour wait... Ugh.)


OF COURSE last minute summer cramming also includes one last camping trip! Marianna and I took the kids to Big Basin (near Santa Cruz) for one last big hurrah. It was awesome. Here are some general facts about our camping trips.

1. We always gain 5 pounds from our wonderful camp food. We've got it down to a science. And that includes whipped cream with our hot chocolate, orange sauce with our french toast, and the yummiest pork chop dutch oven dinner. And of course smores - an absolute must!




2. My car battery dies. Every single camping trip it happens. No exaggeration. This was camping trip #6. We are VERY good at jumping car batteries.

3. No child comes home even remotely clean or we feel it would not have been a successful trip. My kids even refuse to brush their hair. It's scary. We do still brush our teeth if we by chance remembered to pack tooth brushes...

4. We are terrorized by raccoons. I know we shouldn't be afraid of them because we're bigger and we have fire, but I have to admit I am. This trip we didn't actually see any but we kept hearing them in the bushes which is worse. Did you know they can open a tent door? Luckily we don't know that from personal experience...

5. Marianna and I don't actually sleep very well as night. Whether it's a deflating air mattress or a crying child or a skunk eating our trash, we seem to wake up several times a night. We come home exhausted. Yet are so eager to do it again...



And OF COURSE our final summer days include the circus! A friend let us know about half price tickets (Thanks Kelly!) so how could we resist elephants and tigers and clowns! For David and I, I don't know if it was more fun to watch the show, or the looks on our kids' eyes as they were watching the show that was more fun. We had great seats and it was magical!


Luckily we still have two more days to cram!!!

Saturday Fun

There has been much anticipation in our household... Saturday turned out to be quite the day! After going to see the Star Wars Clone Wars movie (the Hymas kids give it two very high thumbs up) and eating a delicious Fuddrucker's hamburger we drove into San Francisco for my first ever professional football game - the 49ers. I think getting parked and into the stadium was almost more exciting than the actual game! First of all we couldn't figure out where to park. We were in line to enter one gate and the line split so when David tried to cut back over into the lane we had previously been in for about 1/2 hour, the parking attendent started yelling at him. So we had to wait in another line to get to a gate that they just decided to close right before we got there. Finally we made it to the fourth and final gate where we finally got a parking spot. We grabbed our backpack and headed into the stadium. We only had 4 tickets so David tried to buy one from a scalper. David finally talked him down to the right price, but didn't have the right amount of cash. He went to go get change, walked back to buy the ticket just as the scalper got arrested. We finally made it to the front of the security line only to find out no backpacks allowed. We had to walk all the way back to the car to then wait in the line again - this time with no ticket for Karsten. We finally made it in, walked to our section only to then find we were on the opposite side of where we were supposed to be. By the time we finally made it into our seats, I was exhausted! The kids enjoyed the game until the candy ran out, which was not long. But I must say watching football live is much funner than on TV! And now I can say I've been to a football game. Not an easy task... Maybe it's because secretly, I'm a Raider Fan.

Let's go fly a kite!

Flying kites today, it was eerie how the flight of the kites fit the personalities of my children!

Skyla's rainbow kite caught the wind easily and it was up and flying high in no time. It danced and twirled in the wind as if it hadn't a care in the world.

Sierra's butterfly kite had a mind of it's own and took it's own sweet time to fly up to the sky. But once it was there it was strong and graceful and soared effortlessly.

Karsten's red kite is brand new and today is the first time we took it out. The girls immediately dubbed it "Red Killer" because it would sporadically fly in a circle and then nose dive down to the ground. Then it would fly full speed toward the other kites and loop around a kite causing a snare or make an unexpected twirl. It was very unpredictable and kind of scary.

I love my children and the things in their personalities that make them special. And I'm thankful for Karsten for allowing me to glimpse the "male world" which is unpredictable and kind of scary. :)

Sled Dog

Sierra discovered a new way to "walk the dog." When is the iditarod?

8:08:08 8/8/08

Me and my girls had a moment to remember on this special day. I hope they'll always remember what they were doing on 8/08/08 - eating ice cream on top of Indian Rock wrapped up in a blanket with their mom! The sun had just down when it was 8:08 (and 8 seconds of course!)

Earlier in the day we had a super fun lunch with the Dullum's - Marianna brought over pasta and we had to choose 8 toppings to go on top. We made a time capsule to open on 9/9/09. Such fun!

JaNece by Design

I have an incredibly talented sister. Not only is she a mom of two cute and very active little boys, but she's discovered this talent (where's my gene for this?!) for sewing and has made her very own business! She makes magnets and aprons and she just started making the cutest bags and scripture cases I've seen. So all those in the market for some aprons for your kids (as modeled by Skyla) or some bags, check out her website (or blog.)
(Yes, those are Twilight magnets. The bottem one says "My heart belongs to my husband but my neck belongs to Edward." )

She customizes everything from the fabric on her bags and aprons to whatever you want to say on your magnet. Go check it out! http://www.designbyjanece.blogspot.com/

Breaking Dawn

Yes I went to the midnight party that I swore I wouldn't go to. (We had fun, right Marianna, Britney and Kendra?!) Yes, I went and bought the book even though I was planning on borrowing it. When it came down to it I just couldn't help it! Yes, I loved it! It was a great book. It was a great series of books. I feel content to know their happy ending and I miss them already. :)

Ouch

I wasn't kidding in my last post - I can't walk. A waddle or hunched over shuffle would more accurately describe the movement. And bending down? Forget it! I really didn't anticipate soreness on this level. OUCH! But Marianna and I did go to get a massage today and it was amazing. I'm so sore that I was worried it wouldn't even feel good. The parking ticket didn't feel good, but the massage sure did. (Darn street sweeper day!@##)

Check

• Learn a foreign language - Check


• Climb a big mountain - Check


• Run a marathon - CHECK!!!

It is over. I did it. It was really really hard. But it's over. Yahoo!

Special thanks to the best running partner ever. Marianna could have completed the marathon MUCH quicker, but she held back for me even though I begged her to keep going. Her encouragement and enthusiasm carried me across the finish line. As did the loving arms of David and my kids who hung around for 4 1/2 long hours meeting me at different parts of the race to give me gu and support. It was a humbling and painful yet exhilirating experience and I'm so glad it's over. And I'm so glad I have a good book (Breaking Dawn!!!) to read because these legs are not going to be working for a while.

Thanks Jenny for running the first half with us and keeping me distracted with good conversation. Thanks Mom and JaNece for the flowers! Thanks all my friends and family who continually asked about my training and the race. Thanks to those who are watching my kids tomorrow so I can get a massage. Thanks race volunteers for being there. Thanks Gu and FRS and caffiene pill and Advil.

My Utah Trip

Sierra's Account

We went to Utah for 11 days by ourselves. First we went to Nana and Papa's house. We saw Rascal - their dog. He's a chocolate labrador and he's very very big. He will do anything for treats. I taught him "stay." We went to the park and met up with our cousins Madelyn and Jaden. We played tag and monkey in the middle while everyone else watched the band. The next day we went to the movie "Kicking and Screaming." Skyla didn't like it. I kind of did. We went to see the fireworks. They were humungo! They were all sorts of different colors. I liked the big ones. Nana liked the ones that exploded, curved to the side and fell to the ground. The last day we were there we slept in Papa's trailer in the night. But before we watched a movie and had root beer floats. In the trailer we had sour skittles and Yogos. Everyone liked the Yogos except for me and Skyla kind of did. The next day we played at the park just before we went to grandma and grandpa's house. At their house we went to Cherry Hills. We went into the pool on an inner tube ride and a slide. Savannah liked the lazy river. I liked the slippery slide. We were all laughing very hard when we went on it. Jayson made Melissa throw up. The last day we were at G & G's house we slept in a tent with Christy and Melissa. Seuntjte (the dog) slept in front of the tent all night. We also went to visit Great Grandma.

Skyla's Account

We went to Utah for 11 days by ourselves. Nana came to our house so we drove back with her. It was a really really long trip. We went to Nana and Papa's house first. One of the things we did there was go to a rodeo. It was one of my favorite parts. And we watched a parade for Pioneer Day. It was really fun. People threw candy and we got a lot! And we went to watch the fireworks and stayed up until midnight. Me and Sierra and our cousins camped out in the trailer. It was so fun in the trailer cause we went shopping for glow sticks and sour skittles and watched a movie before we slept. We had a big BBQ with all our cousins. Nana helped us sew some bags. I made a rainbow bag. They have a dog named Rascal. It is a chocolate labrador. We went to meet our Grandma and Grandpa at Ikea. Then we drove back to their house. We went to Cherry Hills. Oh was that fun. We went shopping for some shoes. We picked raspberries and made jam and homemade bread and cinnamon balls. The jam and bread were really yummy. We picked zucchini outside. And cucumbers. We went to great grandma's house. On the last day we slept in a tent. Seuntje watched us. He was a guard dog. We flew back on an airplane. We were very high up. At the airport we met mom and Karsten. And that was the end of our vacation.

From Mindy

It was so funny typing verbatium what the girls said. They remember the funniest details... They did SO MUCH while they were there. I know there were tons of things that didn't get mentioned and unfortunately I don't have ANY pictures yet... But I wanted this part of the girls' summer to be remembered. They are trying to adjust to life back home where they have a bed time and are required to eat vegetables. Mommies are mean. :) Thanks to Nana and Papa and Grandma and Grandpa and all the aunts and uncles for the wonderful wonderful memories you gave my girls!

July Gaps

August has begun! School starts this month! Summer is more than half over! I did not do a good job of blogging in June and July. Here are some of my favorite summer moments not previously posted:
Water Balloon Party - Sierra invited her entire class over the last day of school and with some of our other great friends, we had a blast. I filled hundreds of water balloons. It's amazing how that doesn't last very long!

Sunset Beach Camping - Marianna and I loaded up the kids and went to the beach for three nights and four days. This whole trip was awesome and definitely needs a post of it's own, but alas, I think this picture sums it all up: Yummy smores!

*Sierra joing Girl Scouts

*Karsten has perfected his "scootering"

*Skyla has been reading non-stop. Every day she wants to go to the library because she's finished all her books.

*David has won the "ultimate husband" award by bringing me home Specialty bakery cookies from the city a couple of times a week for the past couple of weeks. I'm in heaven. And it's a good thing I've been running 18 - 20 miles on the weekends. :)

*Fourth of July with the Dullum's. We took a ferry to Angel Island and spent the day eating a yummy picnic and making ice cream with that cool ice cream ball.

*Me and two wonderful girlfriends hiked the Dipsea Trail - 8 miles of hills and woods ending up at Stinson Beach. It was awesome!