First Day of School | Sutton & Ren

This year was a first for us that will continue for the next 12 years - the first time both boys had their first day of school on the same day! Sutton started 1st grade today, and Ren started preschool, both at Maize (two different schools, but the same district).

 The official photos! Always "fun" to try to get real smiles from them. I always have to break out the potty humor. Ha! Here are a few more.

And some outtakes of Ren because he's such a goober.

This last one isn't necessarily a good face, but I wanted to show off the shirt he picked for the first day. He was so excited about his "camping shirt." It says "Hike a trail" but each letter is a picture and so this morning, he held it up and read it like a story. "You know what my shirt says Mommy? Go. in. tent. climb. tree. catch. fish..." and on and on. He even used pauses like Sutton does when he's trying to read something. Love it.

I took both boys this morning since it was the first day. Usually, Adam will drop Ren off with a friend who will take him, and then Sutton will go with Adam since Sutton is in the same building as him. But today was special! I wanted to get a picture in front of his school, but the booger wouldn't smile for me.

The preschool just built a new building this summer, so Ren is in the first class there. It is a beautiful building and has this big bug mural in the lobby.

We were the first ones to his classroom. Ren's "real" teacher is on maternity leave, so a couple of the paras greeted us. One of them recognized Sutton from back when he was in preschool and couldn't believe how tall he'd gotten. Ren went right up to her and gave her a hug. It was pretty sweet. Then the other gal took him in and helped him wash his hands.

They went to go hang up his backpack. Then she took him over to the toys and he was good to go. I told him I was leaving, and he just waved without even looking at me! He'd given me a hug earlier, so I was good and just went with it and left.

As Sutton and I walked out, I told him it was hard for mommys to see their babies go to the first day of school. I teared up a bit but he talked me down. :) Now it was time to focus on 1st grade, and he was so excited!

We got to his school, and took a picture outside. We always go in the back door since it's closer to his classroom, so it's not very pretty. We waited outside the door for a bit, then they let us it. Sutton and I were walking down the hall and he saw his teacher waiting outside the classroom door and he got SO excited that he teared up a little. He went and gave her a huge hug and we went inside. He put his lunch and PE shoes away, and hung up his backpack. We took a picture with Mrs. G. His face says it all!

I had him sit as his desk for a picture. In Kindergarten, they just had tables for desks. Sutton loves his real desk. He calls it a hollow desk because you can put stuff inside of it.

He gave me a hug and I gave him a kiss and we told each other I love you (I wonder how many more first days I'll be able to get an unprompted "I love you Mommy!" from him). As I was walking out the door, he went to do lunch count. This is a smart board, they find their name and use the pen to drag their name to the correct lunch option.

That little girl in this last photo is the daughter of his Kindergarten teacher Mrs. Merseal. He is so excited that she's in his class this year!

And that's it! Both my babies are at school and it is completely surreal. I couldn't help but think back as I was driving them to school this morning...to the time where I so desperately wanted to be a mom and it wasn't happening, and I wasn't sure if it ever would. How far we have come! I'm driving my boys to preschool and 1st grade, and talking about Mario Kart along the way. Love!

Colorado Vacation | 2017

Back in mid-July, we went to Colorado for our family vacation. Adam's brother Matt and his wife Shay had a baby just a week before. They live in a tiny town in northwest Kansas, so we stopped by there on our way to Colorado to meet Arlo, take some newborn photos, and just visit with them. Matt's daughter Bailey happened to be there at the same time, so we got to take a couple family photos for them as well.

When we first got there, Matt was still harvesting wheat, so we got to ride on the combine.





Ren still loves babies, so he was very excited to hold Arlo.



Sutton, on the other hand, was more excited about the cats. Ha! He's obsessed. They had a litter of kittens and Sutton fell in love with the white one named Lightning.

We got there in the afternoon, hung out all day and evening, and spent the night in an RV that Shay's parents had. It was so nice! We left mid-morning the next day. The boys were so sad to leave!

It was really nice to break up the drive like that. We arrived mid-afternoon in Golden, Colorado where my brother Michael lives. We hadn't seen little Selah since Christmas and she is over a year old now! She's my buddy. Throughout our trip, I got to be her stand-in Momma any time Sara wasn't around.

We stayed there overnight and just hung out. The next morning, we got all our stuff packed up and we headed to the campsite up at Golden Gate Canyon State Park. Before we started up the mountain, the four of us stopped in the downtown of Golden to shop a little and have some lunch. We found a yummy Mexican restaurant that we might have to go back to some day!

Once we started up the mountain, we found we had no phone service! It was a very interesting 3 days without a phone. After we set up our camp, Michael and Sara still hadn't arrived (kiddos were napping), so the four of us went out on a little hike. The trail head was right by our campsite. We hiked down to a low point, where you see Sutton below. Then we realized that we had no idea how long this hike actually was! So Sutton and I turned around to head back, but Adam decided to continue with Ren in the backpack.

It was a good thing we turned around! The hike end up being over 2 miles one way. Adam ended at a place called Panorama Point. He had LUCKILY had the idea to take a walkie talkie with him, and left one at camp. I tried to reach him via walkie talkie when Sutton and I got back to the campsite and miraculously he answered! He told me that the end point had a parking lot, so instead of hiking all the way back, I found my way to him and picked them up. Panorama Point was gorgeous.









We ended up frequenting Panorama Point because we actually got spotty service there and I had to get ahold of some clients I was meeting on the mountain to photograph. That's a whole crazy story. :) Anyway, when Michael and Sara got there, they set up camp, we ate, and then I took some family photos for them.

 The next day, we went on a long hike. Longer than we thought, and it was hot, and Sutton did NOT do well. He kept crying, and yelling, and getting mad at himself for crying. It was pretty exhausting and frustrating. Adam had Ren in the backpack, then he carried Sutton on his shoulders half the time too! People kept making comments that he was a beast. Ren fell asleep back there and got a little sunburnt on his neck. :)

Now start all the landscape photos that Adam (mostly) took. It was so pretty up there! I'm pretty sure these next ones are all from that (terrible) beautiful hike.

                       





Frazer's Meadow was our destination, and it was beautiful! There was a cabin where William (?) Frazer used to live that is old and abandoned and neat.





Adam took a family photo of us in Frazer's Meadow with his drone. :)

After lots of resting and a shower, I did our original hike again with my awesome clients and took their photos along the way. Adam and the boys came along for part of it....and Ren fell asleep again. :)



When we got back to the campsite, before I changed out of my nice clothes, I had Michael take a couple photos of our family in the meadow right next to our campsite.





We also did a group photo with Michael + his crew.



This was back at Panorama Point. We went again that evening (or maybe these are all out of order and it was the first night that we went back? I waited too long to post these...) to watch the sunset.

When sunset started, it was so pretty. We tried to capture it, and took about a million photos but I don't know if we did it justice!

We made Sutton pose as if he was staring into the sunset, haha!

We also climbed around on the rocks while we were waiting for the sunset.

 Lastly, here's a final shot from the meadow by our campsite of the mountain right next to us.

We left on Sunday, and stopped east of Denver to see our friends Tim and Steph who were in our wedding many years ago. They live in Colorado now and we don't get to see them as often. But every time we do, it's like we pick up where we left off! We had pizza and then drove back to their awesome house to see where they live. It was so good to see them again.

And here's a short video that my super talented husband made of our adventures: