Everybody's growing up....

The girls first day of school was delayed by a few days due to construction in their building. Maggie's first day was yesterday and this morning was Gracie's big day.  Both girls were so excited for school to start. The differences in the girls have been on full display the last couple of days. Wednesday night I asked Maggie what she was going to wear for her first day, she said, "I'll just pick something when I get up." I asked if she wanted to do anything special with her hair and she said, "PLEASE don't make me curl it!" Her backpack was in the dining room, mostly ready because I put her school supplies in it when we got home from shopping, but she didn't give it a second thought. Last night Gracie reorganized her school supplies for the umpteenth time, lined up her backpack and everything else she needed right next to the door, laid out EVERYTHING she was going to wear today and made sure I knew she wanted a "fancy bud" in her hair. :) These girls have grown up in the same house but they sure are different (and we wouldn't want it any other way.)

 

When she finally did pick clothes she thought "I am your future president" was the right message :)
Love this girl and wish we could vote for her now!

 

 

 

Maggie reported that her first day was good. She loved being back with her friends and her table partners are 2 of her best friends (the teacher might be sorry about that!) She likes her teacher and comments regularly on the "big kid" stuff she'll get to do now. The 3rd graders get to help the Kindergartners get settled (the kinders start half yesterday and half today), so Maggie had a kindergarten lunch buddy. We had lots of talks about how at school it wasn't her job to boss Gracie around, we'll see how that goes! I think Gracie will be glad to see Maggie at recess and lunch today.

 

All tucked in and ready for bed, tomorrow I start SCHOOOL!!

 

 

 

 

 

She was pumped that it was a little chilly this morning so she could wear a "teacher sweater" for her first day!

 

LILY!! These 2 are going to be trouble. The kindergarten teacher has always lined the kids up in alphabetical order,
Lily's last name is Rugg.....I'm thinking Mrs. Marsden might change that line order before too long :)

 

 

 

 

Bye! See you after school.

While the big girls are starting school, Haddie is working on rolling over and growing like a weed! She's not going to know what to do with all the quiet around here during the day. We went to the doctor yesterday and she weighed in at 17lbs 14oz and 26.5" long. She's wearing 9 month clothes and starting to really fill her carseat, I'm determined to leave her in there for the winter but I might need a lift to get her in and out of the car.

 

 

 

Maybe she needs a bigger crib???  When I help Gracie make her bed this is the safest place for her to hang out....I guess we'll have to rethink that.

 These pictures have nothing to do with starting school but here they are......

Everyone wears a skirt to go ride the 4 wheeler!

 

If tug of war was an Olympic sport.....breezy would win!

Update on Arnie-

They did a CT on Wednesday, we hoped they would say the drain could be removed. They didn't. The abscess is still there and bigger then they'd like. The current plan is to wait 2 more weeks and check it again. If it's healed up at that point, they take the drain out and we proceed as planned, if not, they quit waiting for it to heal and just move forward with the colon resection. We are currently waiting for word back from a doctor at the Mayo Clinic about an appointment for a second opinion. Keep praying. Arnie has been so tough through this whole process, but he's definitely getting tired of it.

 

Colorado, 2

The last couple days of vacation the girls and I tried to stay busy so Arnie could rest.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I read about an "easy hike" that was great for dogs....we took 2 wrong turns, which made it about twice as long, but we made it to rainbow lake. When we got there we were the only people around. the girls took off their shoes and waded in, I sat down on a stump, hooked Wrigley's leash to my foot and started giving Haddie a bottle. All of the sudden a few other people showed up along with their 10 dogs...none of them on leashes. You can imagine how that went. Wrigley was going crazy and pretty much tied herself around my legs- which caused all the other (soaking wet) dogs to come check her out, all while Haddie was SCREAMING and the dog owners were paying no attention (or we totally amused by the lady with her hands full!) I finally just let Wrigley go. She got soaked and muddy but had a good time. After we finished the hike we went to town and found a dog wash!

 

 

 

Wrigley's twin.

 

 

The last morning we were there it was rainy so we decided to try to Breckenridge Rec Center pool, Arnie felt good enough to go with us. It was a great pool and a good way to burn off some energy before we packed up.

 

 

 

Our campsite for the week.

 We headed down to Denver and the girls and I did some shopping while Arnie rested.

 

 Saturday morning we ran into a gas station to look for doughnuts, the girls spotted the malts.....when on vacation, right??

 

See sometimes I do like her :)

It sure wasn't the vacation we hoped to have and we are so sorry Arnie was feeling so crummy. In hindsight, I wish we had come home and had him checked out, but I'm still happy to have made some great memories with the kids. I love the mountains, hopefully our next trip will be better.

Colorado, 1

Sunday morning, after Brandon's wedding we got up early and headed for the mountains.

 There was an awful accident on the interstate so we were stuck for a few hours. (Haddie always rides in a car seat, she just got to get out while we weren't moving.)

 

 

 

....still not going anywhere.

 

We stopped for the night at a state park just inside Colorado. We didn't have much time to enjoy it, but we did take a nice walk.

Our first morining day we set out for a hike....we thought it was going to be a pretty easy one, but I think maybe we took a wrong turn. BUT we made it (and considering what was going on with Arnie, I'm super grateful he didn't collapse at the top!)

 

 

 

Only Gracie could run up a steep hill at 12,000 feet!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The girls thought this would be a good mountain home for Grandma and Grandpa, there is a campsite attached....they said Grandpa could have the camper and Grandma could have the house :)