Pics of my boys

Salmon at the Weir after heavy rain

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Jacob's first day of school!

Here is the picture from the first day of school last year as a three year old:

And here is Jacob on the first day of school today as a four year old!:
Circle time with his new friends:

Giving Mrs. Render the thumbs up:
Random pic of my boys:
Jacob's drawing of a golfer:
Austin snuggling Sophie the Giraffe as he snoozes in his carseat:

Jacob's first day of school in the 4's class went great! He wasn't one bit nervous (and neither was I), which was nice! Next year will not nearly be as tear-free as Jacob will start kindergarten and Brody will start preschool, but I have a whole year before I have to worry about that. Jacob's preschool has a drive up drop-off and pick-up routine although on the first day of school many parents walk their children in. I told Jacob that I would stay through circle time and that he could walk in with me but he insisted I drop him off - silly kid. Brody did not handle the goodbye well, he complained the entire way to school "Brody school TOO!" and then screamed when Mrs. Render took Jacob out of the car and left Brody buckled in his seat. He cried again when I left him with Grandma to run in for circle time. Good thing about Brody is that he gets over things quickly. Jacob did great in school for the part that I observed. He was still pretty quiet and passive, but he actively participated and seemed really comfortable there. I think its going to be a good year :)

10K Baby!

Yesterday I ran my furthest yet - 10k on the treadmill! This is the breakdown:

5 min warm up walk

60min running

3min walk

5min 30sec running

For a grand total of 6.2miles in 73 minutes and 30 seconds. I didn't start off planning on going that far. Every time I run my only goal is to run 30 minutes continuously but then I usually just get some motivation to keep going. Yesterday somehow I found a lot of motivation and I credit it mostly to running the majority of the time at a slower pace. I was so excited to have reached a new milestone that I forgot that I would have to pay for it today! I had to hobble around a bit today, but I managed. Hopefully I will be back to normal tomorrow for my next run.

I've heard from a few people that I have inspired them to get running again - yay! Let me know how you are doing and we can support each other. If I can do this, anybody can!

Long time no update! Hmmm, what has been going on at the hatchery...

-The salmon are running! As the wind changed and the air got cold over Labor Day Weekend the salmon made their way back home and Aaron's coworkers have been letting up tons (thousands) of salmon. It's exciting to see them in the river again!

-Austin loves solids! I initially didn't think he cared for solids much because he wasn't interested in oatmeal or rice but I introduced fruits and veggies and he eats like a teenage boy! I tried to sneak in some oatmeal and rice into his veggies and he totally called me out - little stinker! I guess we'll get rid of those and keep on with the other stuff. He is also a huge fan of cheerios and puffs.

-Despite his voracious appetite, he is not gaining weight very aggressively! When I threw him on the scale with me it came up as 16.5lbs which puts him at the 4th percentile according to an online calculator I tried. Our 9 month appointment is around October 1st, it will be interesting to see if they are concerned at all. Until then, I'm just etnjoying my little peanut! Strange men are funny though. Last week I took Austin to the mall and the male clerk asked me how old Austin was and I told him 8 months to which he replied "Wow, you are a big guy!". I smiled and nodded, but what I really wanted to say was "Really? Because 96% of babies his age are bigger you know??" He would have thought Brody was Goliath if I had brought Brody in as a baby!

-Austin is a mover and a shaker! That boy can get around! He doesn't crawl on his knees yet, but he wiggles and rolls all around the house fast!

-Brody is big enough to fish with Daddy and Jacob now! Brody is so thrilled to be included in the club. He finally reached the point where he can be trusted to not throw Aaron's rods in the water. He doesn't quite get casting and reeling, but he likes to just tag along and hold on to the fishing pole every now and then. Jacob is not sure if this is a good thing or a bad thing yet.

-We have a turtle! He lives outside (I have a pretty firm "no rodents in the house" rule, thankyouverymuch) and we will release him soon. I always ask Jacob what he wants to name our pets (we've had a few fish and snails, too) and I think I've got him pretty confused on the name issue. I hound him quite a bit with spelling his name, writing his name and learning letters and sounds in general. I think I'm pushing it too much because our pets names have been: J fish, A snail, JA fish and J turtle. I guess sometimes a child's creativity needs a little push. So, one day "Wonder Pets" was on and Aaron said to Jacob "Hey, that turtle's name is Tuck! Do you think that would be a good name for our turtle?" And from that moment on our turtle has become known as "Tuck". Well, Brody refers to him as "Teamwork", that is a whole-nother issue. Anyone who watches Wonder Pets knows the famous song "What's going to work? TEAMWORK!". I don't even know where to begin with that one with Brody...

-Jacob starts school next Tuesday (21st)! He is in the afternoon session which I initially wasn't too thrilled about but ever since the weather cooled down and it's staying darker later in the morning my boys are snoozing fools! So, I'm thinking it's a good thing after all.

-We had a great weekend. Aaron had Friday off since he worked Labor Day Weekend. He went fishing in the morning with Bruce, we went to town as a family for a few errands, and then he went fishing again in the evening with the boys. Saturday Jacob had his fist soccer game and it rained and rained! All the kids and parents were troopers! Sunday we went to the Schooner Festival to look at a few tall ships and enjoy a few games with Uncle Mark and Noah. It was a beautiful day and ended with some Moomers ice cream - YUM! Afterwards Aaron and Mark took Jacob and Noah out for some fishing on the boat. Brody fell asleep on the way home and lets just say it wasn't pretty when he woke up and realized he wasn't included in the fishing trip... Thankfully he is quick to forgive.

-Running is going awesome! Well, it's quite miserable, actually - but I'm keeping up with it :) Not that it's been easy... I thought as the weather cooled it would be so much more comfortable running but now I've encountered a new problem: Instead of running I just want to crawl in bed and take a nap or read my book! But I push forward and I've continued to run every other day since completing the Couch to 5k. Two of my past three workouts I ran for 45mins (4 miles) straight, took a small break and then continued to run an even 5 miles in 60 mins (that includes my warm up walk and break after the 45mins)!

More summer pictures

First few are from last night at the beach. Last few are from the end of June - Pete's girlfriend is a photographer out of GR and took those for us.

Preparing for Preschool

Yesterday Jacob's preschool had an ice cream social for the kids to visit the school with their families and see who will be in their class this coming year. Jacob and Brody were so excited all day, they kept asking me if it was time to go yet over and over.

We arrived to the school and the kids played on the playground while parents picked up paperwork and filled out name tags. I then walked over to observe the kids on the playground and just couldn't help but laugh while noticing just how different these two kids are. Jacob walked around the perimeter of the playground checking everything out before selecting an area to play in. Meanwhile Brody ran straight to the first thing he saw, knocking bigger kids out of the way if necessary. After a few minutes it was time for all the students to sit in a circle around Mrs. Render for story time while siblings and parents listened in a different circle to a few announcements. Brody thought there must be some mistake because there wasn't a spare chair for him, but clearly he belonged in the preschool circle. I thought I made a good compromise with him by having him sit at a nearby picnic table so he could enjoy the story too and left Aaron to look after him while I joined the parents. Brody wasn't happy with the arrangement I left for him, so he went and sat directly in front of the teacher for about twenty seconds until he got bored and spotted a squirrel enticing him and THE CHASE WAS ON! Brody jumped up and ran after the squirrel, squealing and doing his evil little laugh loud enough for the lady making the announcements to stop and point out Brody and say how funny she thought it was. All the parents then watched Brody for an uncomfortable amount of time and finally we proceeded with our meeting. After the squirrel climbed a tree and quit antagonizing my child, Brody walked back over to Mrs. Renders circle and stood in front of the teacher and smiled at each child making sure they noticed HIM before getting bored and moving on to the playground toys again. Jacob was a perfect little student the whole time, sitting quietly right next to Mrs. Render. Afterwards we enjoyed some ice cream and then proceeded home with both boys talking about how fun it was and how excited they are to come back to school and play inside next time. Brody is completely unaware that he is NOT enrolled in preschool this year. I'm anticipating a major meltdown on September 21st, the first day of school, when the harsh reality hits Brody. I better start thinking of fun things to do with him now to make up for it...