A bear at school...

Yesterday (8/19), the kids walked home from school (by themselves) and handed me a note that said:

"We received notice this morning that there was a bear roaming around in the neighborhood. After making the decision to keep the students inside the bear DID come on to school property. We chose to keep the students in for the remainder of the day. The police indicated to us that it was safe to allow the students to be dismissed at the end of the school day."

A bear!? On school property?!

We live at least five miles from the foothills of the mountains, apparently this bear got lost or something. Total craziness.

The first day of School!

4th Grade for Janae!

She got a new backpack and lunchbox...

As well as a new outfit and shoes (thanks to Aunt Rebekah!)

Jonah is in 1st grade!

He is semi-excited...

and probably a bit nervous too.

But, they are still ready to go (woo-hoo)!

Uh-huh!

Awwww!

In Jonah's own words, the first day went like this:
"I loved the first day of school. First we unpacked. We don't have cubbies anymore, we have our own lockers and desks. We had the funnest day on the first day of school. The end."

In Janae's words: "It was really fun, and really all we did was learn the rules again, like every first day of school. But we also got to have a lot of fun. We went to P.E. and did a new thing called writing lab, and a lot, lot more..."

Our Trip to California (August 2008)

We took another trip this summer to visit family in California.

Here we are at the great little church that Grandpa & Grandma Bev go to...

Janae posing in front of the church.

Our first trip to the beach - everyone is busy building a beach "chair"

What a great day!

A California girl.

Bravely testing the chilly waters.

Jonah by the "cigarette" stacks at Morro Bay.

A nice game of table tennis (Janae likes to win as much as I do).

Driving the tractor with Grandpa (a highlight).

Janae gets a turn too!

Ken tried to beat his dad, but the champ remains undefeated.

Jonah taking it in...

A second trip to the beach - this time Ken built a boat (not the Titanic).

Jonah is building something, but I'm not sure what.

Aaaaaaaah - Sandy hands...

We surprised the kids with a visit to the Jelly Belly Factory.

The proceeded to eat their full free package of sugar beans in the car, and the next two hours of driving were very loud.

Monkey boy at a park in Paradise.

The BIG swing in Aunt Nancy's backyard - the kids LOVED this!

Playing Legos with (cousin) Cameron.

Aboard the caboose in downtown Folsom.

July 2008

When we got back from Chicago, Janae and Jonah created a Lego Wall-E

Jonah's friend Noah invited him to a bike race downtown...

The kids (age 7 & under) raced once around a 3-block x 2-block course.

Get ready, get set...GO!

Jonah had fun, but he wanted to go a few more laps. (Maybe next year).

Our Trip to Chicago (June 2008)

For our family vacation, we took a trip to Chicago:

Our first day started with a visit to the Shedd Aquarium.

The aquarium was great - we even got to see a live dolphin show!

Jonah likes to make silly faces - and a good place to do that was at "The Bean" - a metallic sculpture in Milennium park, which is shaped like a bean, but has a mirror-like finish. You can see Janae taking a picture of us - and Jonah is standing by...

Another cool feature at Millennium Park was the twin "face fountains"- A great place to cool off on a warm day!

The next day, we headed uptown to watch a Cubs game at Wrigley Field.

After the game, we found a playground nearby, so the kids could get out some of their energy from all the sugar (cotton candy, snow cones, etc.)

Here's Janae at the "face fountains" at night.

The next day, we took an eventful bus ride (our bus broke down) across town to the Museum of Science and Industry - which is the coolest museum I have ever been to. Everything is hands-on, and there is no way that you could see everything in one day.

Here's our Engineer and Fire(wo)man at the railroad exhibit.

A view of the skyline from the Planetarium.

At Buckingham Fountain in Grant Park during the taste of Chicago

(lots of people, but some good food too!)

On the Ferris Wheel at Navy Pier (looking at the sunset over downtown).

Sunday morning atop the Hancock Observatory (the 3rd tallest building in Chicago, but currently the best view of the city).

A fun day with Janae at the American Girl Place. We saw a live show, shopped, ate dinner, and got Janae's picture taken with her doll. It was a great one-time experience!

A cute picture with matching outfits!

Since Janae got a special treat, Jonah did too - He and Ken saw Wall-E at the theater, then went to the Lego store, where he added to his Lego Star Wars collection.

The kids with "Sue" (the most complete skeleton of a T-rex) at the Field Museum.

A second visit to the Lego store (with Janae) to see R2-D2 and other creations.

Another baseball game - this time the White Sox (who won!)

I love baseball!

It was a great trip - I would definitely visit again. Jonah said that he wants to live in Chicago, because he had so much fun. Maybe someday he will...