Nora's Birthday

Nora wanted a swim party for her birthday for most of this year. We decided to split it into two days, with cake in the evening so everyone could be there and swimming for the kids the next morning.

Less than a week before the party, she informed me she wanted a flip flop cake. After some brainstorming, we figured we could use the previous cake plan and add the flip flop decoration. Turned out so cute!

Six candles!!

Love her reactions. She has the best surprise/happy face. 

Next morning we set up and filled seven wading pools and a water table in Grandma's backyard. Given that we were expecting 11 kids between the ages of 1 and 10, we figured it was prudent to have multiple play stations. We ended up with so many pools, which was so awesome. 

I somehow didn't get a wide angle shot of all the pools, but you can see 6 of them in this picture. 

So much fun with cousins and friends. 

Everyone was more than ready for pizza when the time came. Thanks to Heather for completely taking care of lunch - I didn't realize how much help I was going to need!

So much love for this adorable and energetic little six year old. She's my kitchen helper, my snuggle buddy, and my little princess!

First and Fourth

Apparently this is how you entertain yourself waiting for back to school night to start.......

This first day of first grade was a big day for Nora. Her first full day of school, first cold lunch, first lunch recess... She loved lunch recess and was stoked when we told her it was going to happen every day! She has been so excited for school to start and loves her teacher and her classroom. Zeke has been super nice to walk her to class. 

The first day of fourth grade is not quite as momentous for Zeke. This is old hat by now. New teacher, new mix of classmates (although he knows almost all of his class to some extent from years past), new routine. But everything else is the same and he is the big dog of the school this year. He was dreading the start of school but was more excited than I expected on the first day. So far he's liking it which is a relief. 

 Happy first day of school smiles.

Love this one... a true, real smile from Zeke and Nora's super excited face. 

Summer Successes

It's been a busy summer. We accomplished some great things this season!

The kids took several weeks of swimming lessons. They've never done that before and did great starting from zero. Nora especially took to it (she loves water anyway). They both will be rockstars next year.  

Nora also learned to ride her bike without training wheels! 

We took several evening trips to the park for Aaron to fly, the kids to play, and me to sit watch. 

We had our backyard tree taken out. We waited all summer but it finally got done!

Aaron flew and successfully landed this new plane. Whew!

We ran a stop of the Amazing Race for the Loertscher reunion. Aaron was subbing for his dad, but the race ran late and Aaron had to work so I was subbing for him. Thankfully Hayley was around to help me out. Nora and Zeke were great helpers too. 

This daylily bloomed for the first time, and if you look at the tomato plant you'll see a red tomato. Not only did our tomato produce fruit (unlike last year.....) but it actually ripened on the vine. I think that's a first ever for this house! 

It's been a fun and productive summer! They always go by so fast. I love all of the family events, barbecues, holidays, fireworks, warm evenings, pretty flowers, and that we don't have school demands for a while. 

Seattle Trip

We went on a glorious trip to Seattle this summer. It was quite possibly the most relaxing vacation I've ever taken. A million thanks again to Skye and Jon for letting us crash at their house, feeding us, giving us insider driving tips, and for generally allowing us to interrupt their lives for a week! I came home feeling more refreshed than I have in a long time. 

When debating road trip vs flying, it didn't take long to decide that the flying was the way to go. The kids were just as excited about the flight as they were the destination. 

In the airport... waiting.... and more waiting..... this was Nora's first airplane trip ever!

Just landed! It was a great flight! 

The kids got their wings. So exciting! And a source of lots of creative play all week long with their cousins.

Our first evening was spent at the Museum of Flight. There was so much to see and we could have spent many more hours there. The outdoor exhibits were my favorite. 

The kids wanted to spend all night in the kid's zone. 

Friday we helped clean house (it's incredible how fast you can clean when you have 4-5 adults all working together!) and put together a puppy birthday party. So fun to share that with Alyssa. I don't think we have ever been to one of her parties before. 

Saturday was Kylie's baptism ---- the catalyst for the entire trip! Again, something we weren't sure if we would be able to share with our out-of-state family. It was so lovely. And we discovered that family selfies are hard when we are all standing up!

We also got to picnic on the beach of the Puget Sound. I wasn't expecting sandy beaches in Washington state! So beautiful and calming. Throughout the whole trip I just couldn't get over how perfect the weather was (60-70 degrees, partly cloudy the whole time!) and how beautiful the scenery was. So many very very green trees and bushes, and lots of water. So different from Utah and just as picturesque. 

We also made a trip to the Seattle temple grounds and the family discovery center there. A very educational and fun trip for everyone. 

We spent one day in downtown Seattle and did the Space Needle tour. This was at the top of the kids' must-see lists. 

Holy cow look at those bolts! They are huge! Zeke was so impressed. He said it was a good thing no one had a wrench that big to take them out or the whole Space Needle would fall over. Side note: love how the other kids are climbing on it in the background. 

We also stopped at the Science Center after the Space Needle. We were all pretty tired so we didn't stay long. We did explore the space room and the butterfly house. Again, so much to see and not much time to do it in. We will definitely plan to come again when we make it back to the area. 

The best part of the trip for everyone was simply the downtime with our family. We had a great time helping with parties and doing touristy stuff. But the time for the kids to play and the adults to talk or just chill was what everyone really wanted out of a vacation. The last day of the trip the kids had a game of Star Wars going all day long, and we were happy to just let them run all over the house exploring the galaxy without having anywhere else to go. 

It's always bittersweet to come to the end of a fabulous vacation, but having another plane ride to look forward to helped! This time the kiddos got to see the cockpit and briefly meet the co-captain. This ride was just as fun as the first and they can't wait to fly again. 

Night Fly

We love night flying! Flying in the evening, picnic dinner, playing in the dirt, and watching the sun go down - all out in the middle of nowhere. 

We flew in June this year instead of later in the summer, so the evening was extra long. Lots of daylight and lots of twilight too. 

 

After dinner we got glowsticks out. Nora has a pink trident and Zeke has a green ax. They had a ball having battles with their super-powered weapons. 

Family photo at the flying field (say that 3 times fast!). 

As the night got darker the lights on the planes showed more. So fun to watch. 

 

We also watched the stars come out and did a little stargazing. Zeke asked what the zodiac sign was (Gemini) and we looked up how to locate it. We think we found it, although we weren't there long enough to see all the stars in it. 

End of School

May was super crazy busy. In addition to the marathon, Fancy Nancy, and the track meet, we had a bunch of school activities. Some in the evening, some during the day. We had quite an active schedule for the whole month!

The school did an arts night, and both kids performed with their classes. After performances we went to stations for music, dance, drama, and drawing. The whole family got to participate and I really enjoyed it.  

Zeke did a presentation on the kookaburra. He did a fantastic job! He and his partner really wrote great dialogue for their interviews.Learning all about birds for the last 6 weeks or so of school was really fun for him. 

Nora's class had a picnic and playtime in the park that Aaron and I joined her for. 

Nora's class also did a performance for parents to show us what they learned in kindergarten.

And everyone got an award. Nora got the 'colorful' award - the only problem was her reward was skittles, which is the one kind of candy she doesn't like! We traded her life savers for skittles and she was happy. 

This school year was a great one for both kids and we are glad to finish strong and head into summer!

Marathon

The kids did a 'mile-by-mile marathon' this month. They did 25 miles at home (my kids did most of them by walking home from school) and then did the last 1.2 miles with a huge group of kids. Aaron and I were near the back of the group and the view up ahead was impressive. They pretty much filled the trail! And Zeke ran nearly the whole way. 

At marathon's end, they got a medal and a tshirt that they immediately wore (Zeke wore his backwards, silly kiddo). Then they got to hang out at the safe kids fair. There was so much to see and freebies to get. We toured an air ambulance helicopter and then watched it take off. It sounded like they were a little worried about the weather getting worse and wanted to get back to the hospital in case lightning started. 

Very tall fire truck ladder. 

The Sherrif's office did a car crash simulator. The kids loved 'crashing' at about 5 mph. It made my neck hurt just to watch them. 

It was lots of fun and the weather held out. Everyone enjoyed all the extra walks this spring.