August by the numbers

ZERO. cavities for Tanner and Carter at their dentist appt. this month! YAY!!!!!

TWO.  books read (True Colors and The Survivors Club)

THREE (3rd). the grade Garrett is in this year!

FIVE. soccer games(tournaments only...the calm before the storm).

SIX. (6th) the grade Carter is in this year.
SEVEN a. blog posts recorded  this month.

SEVEN. days of Summer vacation left.

EIGHT. (8th) the grade Tanner is in this year.

NINE. layouts completed.

THIRTY ONE. Fit Club classes attended( I have added Saturdays, too)

FIFTEEN THOUSAND.  runners/walkers at the Sacramento Color Run.

1st Day of School

It's here! It's here! The 1st day of school has arrived. The boys have been super excited about the 1st day of school for a while now. Brody has been counting down the days the entire Summer. It has been a long Summer, according to the 5 year old.

First up, our annual back to school fashion show.

We gathered all of the supplies so we could bring them to share with our classes.

We baked treats, wrapped a little gift and brought flowers for the teachers.

We took the traditional 1st day of school photo of all the boys on the front porch.

Tanner and Carter were the 1st ones to leave this morning. Their school starts at 7:55 am. They didn't want me to walk them to their classes this morning :-). Sad for me. They are growing up!

We delivered Brody to his kindergarten classroom. Our baby is in kindergarten. Where has the time gone?He was so excited and happy to be there.  One of his best buds(Sam) is in his class this year. Brody's teacher is wonderful. Garrett had her for kindergarten. We feel so lucky to have landed in her classroom again!

Garrett was happy to loop up to the 3rd grade with his 2nd grade teacher from last year! He was also happy to discover that one of his good friends(Caden) was also in class with him.

Their school year is off to a great start! I am still trying to figure out what I will do for 3 hours each day...all by myself!

1st Day of School

It has taken me 9 years of taking 1st day of photos to get smart :-). I decided to take their 1st day of photos the day before. It was a little less chaotic.

Tanner

Carter

Garrett 

Brody

Stay tuned for the actual 1st day of school photos. You didn't think I would just snap photos the day before and not on the actual day, did you :-)?

The Color Run 2012

Who new running through town in a white t-shirt could/would be so much fun??? I signed up to run the 5k Color Run downtown Sacramento with my friend Meredith and Nicole, a new friend.We had so much fun! Even the color in our mouth could not keep us from smiling! There were 15,000 (plus) runners at this event. Considering the mass amount of people, it was very well run! We ran through Old Sac and  up and over the freeway and looped back around through the neighborhoods. Every 1/2 mile or so, we would run through a color station...my new white($5.00 t-shirt from Ross)t-shirt was no longer pristine white. Rather, it looked like a tie dyed rainbow shirt. We ran through orange, yellow, green, blue and pink color stations. It was crazy and beautiful. Once we crossed the finish line, we made out way down to the Color Party. There was a big crowd and a DJ. Every so often they would do a countdown and that is when you would release your color packet(you received one in your race packet). It was crazy and a beautiful sea of colors! Seriously, so much fun! If you ever have a chance to run the The Color Run, DO IT!!! You will smile and giggle the entire time. This is a perfect race for newbies too. You can walk or run it, it was not for TIME...it was for FUN! I sure hope they make it back to Sacramento soon. My entire family wants to do it with me next time. Here are some of the highlights from our Color Run, via photos(some are mine and some are from Mer).

Pre-run photos! Me, Mer and Nicole!

The start of our run. They let us go in waves, too many runners to go all go at once!

The 1st signs of color! YAY! People were releasing their color packs at the start of the run instead of the end! It made for a fun, colorful start!

The 1st signs of color! YAY! People were releasing their color packs at the start of the run instead of the end!

Here are a few of the Color Stations!

Here we are after our Color Run...those white t-shirts and tanks are no longer white :-).

Dance Party at the finish line. Good music, fun friends and lots of COLOR!

I wish you all could have witnessed the stares I got as I drove home. F-U-N-N-Y!

MMMMMMMMM, I wonder why????

out from behind the camera

I am trying to remember to get out from behind the camera... a little more often! I am always the one with the camera in hand, documenting our lives. We ended our super fun day at Lake Tahoe with some yummy pizza from one of the local pizza joints. After dinner, I handed my camera over to Carter and asked him to snap a few photos of John and I. This is what I found on my camera. They made me smile, silly ones and all!

I sure LOVE him. Yes, I do!

Summer tradition

This favorite(family) Summer tradition is 8 years strong. Our very first family trip to Kings Beach was when Garrett was just a few weeks old. Garrett is now 8 years old. We love this Summer tradition, it is one of our absolute favorites for sure.

We spent a gorgeous day on the shore of Lake Tahoe. The boys were armed with their string, hot dogs and fishing nets. They headed over to their favorite dock and began collecting crayfish by the buckets. This was the 1st year that Brody caught them all by himself. He was thrilled and giggled the entire time.

There was plenty of picture taking.

Dock jumping.

Boat rides with friends. It was fun to visit with the Jones family!

Hanging out on the shore with friends.

Playing in the sand...lots of sand.

Yearly family photo on the shore of our favorite lake.

We are already dreaming of our next visit!

so it begins...

I dropped Carter off for his 6th grade orientation today! 6th grade!!!!! I asked him several times over if he wanted me to park the car and walk him in. He said, "I am fine, Mom." So with that, I dropped him off on the curb and watched my little boy walk onto the middle school campus. He has so much confidence and such good self esteem. I sure wish I had been like that as 6th grader. I am so proud of the young man that he is becoming. We are excited for him and all of the new things he will learn this year. We are excited for the new friendships he will make and the experiences he will have...without us tagging along :-). So it begins!