Some School Field Trips

Ronan's teacher is having a baby. So for a shower we all went to Donner Lake. The kids had a blast and it gave me a chance to get to know a few people.

One of the moms made a cute onesie with each of the kids hand prints for their teacher.

This was a family drive we took on a rainy Sunday. Above Donner Lake is this amazing lookout spot. There is also great rock climbing we are going to have to go back for. And I did forget to mention that Ronan got his first stitches. He fell out of the car in Reno straight onto his head. He needed 3 stitches and luckily they are right in his hairline so it isn't too noticeable. He has asking to go back there to climb around now that his stitches are healed.

Leah's class got to go to Trails and Vistas at Sand Harbor. They had a bunch of different stops as we went along the beach. It was a fantastic field trip.

This was a team building game to get across a pretend river.  

They had a drum circle. It was really quite amazing looking out over the lake as all the kids drummed along to the beat.

Quite a odd stop about the goddess of the lake in Brazil. 

This was a story teller who made up a story about the world all living inside a box. Then she let each of the kids pick a treasure. They were different marbles that looked like the world, stars, etc. Leah got the sun.

What a fun day to spend with my girl. And thankfully she will still hold my hand while in front of her friends.

First Day of School

Leah started the third grade this year. She has Ms. Haddy a veteran teacher who is spunky with dyed black hair. This is her last year teaching. Leah made a good friend the first day. A cute girl came up and asked her if she had anyone to play with. Leah even had a play date with her the next day with her.

Sweet Eva going into the first grade this year. She has Mrs. Lynn and even knows 3 kids in her class. It was pretty lucky since I think she know 4 kids total up here. It was nice to not have to worry about her having someone to play with the first day.

Ronan is starting 4 year old preschool at Church of the Mountains. It is the basement of the Methodist church up here in town. He LOVES it. It is very old school playschool sort of setup. They have a ton of toys and spend lots of time play, doing art, and playing outside. There is a circle time where they learn about the cultures of the world.

Other Summer Adventures

Eva bought with her own money a butterfly kit. We sent for the butterflys they arrived in the mail as little caterpillars. They went through each stage and turned into these beauties. It was quite neat and worth every penny.

Pretty soon after we moved here in the summer the Bacylons came up to Reno to visit their family. We meet them at Sand Harbor for a beautiful day at the beach. The kids had a blast and I had so much fun chatting with Carrie and her family.

The kids and the Baclyons poor uncle that had to row them around. 

Baby Claire must have loved the waves on the beach and wind because she took like a 3 hour nap.

Ronan having a blast on there blow up wave runners.  

 Our best friends up here the Smiths took us up to Donner Lake for an after work wave runner ride. It was a blast. And a wave runner is definitely on the list of must haves up here.

Dave's work had a party at a baseball game in Reno. We lasted about half the game.

We took innumerable amount of trips to the beach. This was one of my favorites at the lake. We also have a country club pool we have access to through Dave's work we went to nearly every week.

Rock Climbing

We spent one Saturday on a grand adventure around Lake Tahoe. The day started off with a very long drive to get to a wonderful hike to waterfalls and a castle. But when we got there we found that there was no parking anywhere in site. So we found this wonderful rock garden to explore and climb around in.  Dave wrote a blog article for North Star about the day. Check it out it is really wonderfully written. http://buzz.snow.com/channels/mountain_channels/northstar_at_tahoe/b/weblog/archive/2011/09/16/irish-memories-come-to-life-at-lake-tahoe.aspx

Ronan is a maniac when it comes to climbing rocks. He wants the biggest and steepest ones. He spotted this rock and begging to climb it said, "I want to climb this one it is the real deal."

After the rock climbing we drove all the way around Lake Tahoe. I got to see South Lake Tahoe where we stopped for some lunch and a trip to the park. This was the extent of Claire's excitement for the day.

Papa's Visit

My dad bless his heart drove back from Utah with us since Dave was in Ireland. Baby Claire does not love the car for long distances. So there really isn't any other way to do it myself. We had just enough time to show him around to our favorite places. This picture is a nice trail that we have that runs next to the Truckee River. The kids road their scooters and we ran after them.

 

My kids adore my dad. He is so great to play cards with them, wrestle, and he was a good help to me.  It was nice to not be by myself while Dave was gone.

As soon as we got home from the trip Eva and I hopped in the car to go to a Colbie Caillat concert at North Star resort.

She was fantastic. We had the most amazing seats really close up. Eva lasted about half way through then she was falling asleep on my lap. It had been a long day.

Our favorite summer activity is riding the Gondola up to the top of the mountain. The kids love it.

Claire giggled the whole way up from the tickles in her tummy 

Utah Trip

While in Utah we stayed at Nana's and Papa's house for a few days. Nana took us to ride horses at Jacobs house.

Jacob's house had a rope swing, zip line, and a kitty. The kids were in heaven.

Nana in her element with the horse. 

Oh we did get haircuts while in Utah. In a spure of the moment decision Leah decided to cut her hair short. Both the girls got tinsel and Ronan got some bright orange spray paint, that washes out. 

The beginning part of our trip we stayed at the Carmacks house. Then the kids went up to my mom and dads. So Dave and I actually had no kids for 2 days. We went out to eat and to the mall.  And somehow we all got a great deal on teeth whitening. I know in the mall.

We had to sit like this for 20 minutes. But we all had some great results. Dave left for Ireland to his brothers wedding the next day. I stayed behind and saw some friends in Logan. Then back to Layton where the kids had playdates. I got to go out with a bunch of my girlfriends to say goodbye to Shannon before she moved.

Leah's Baptism

Leah choose to be baptised a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. She had a interview with our bishop before we left. He asked her is she wanted to be baptised. She responded, "absolutely." I am proud of her for making the choice on her own. I can't believe that she is old enough.

All of us minus Claire, she was sleeping. 

There is a nice bowery outside the church. We had desserts for everyone. Thanks so all those who made it. It was wonderful to see so many friends and family.

Everyone had some baby love.  

 Auntie Pauline

Grandma Flo