Well, I'll finish blogging our big trip when we have time. We have just been so busy in the meantime. We came home and got ready to move and spent lots of time having fun - lots of AirU and going to movies and such. And 3 weeks later, we drove back to Utah.
The drive was relatively unremarkable, at least until we got to Colorado. The weather was bad east of Denver and was rainy. We stopped to eat dinner and it must have hailed quite a bit while we were in there. Then, as we drove, there was dust storms. I thought it was just clouds, but it was black clouds of dust and when you drove through them, you couldn't see at all. It was actually quite scary and I was getting all shaky driving through them and we couldn't find anywhere to stay, so we pulled over. When the store seemed a bit better, Katsu drove the rest of the way and we finally found a hotel to stay at just west of Denver.
The next day, we had some time to spare after driving through the mountains, so we decided to visit Colorado National Monument. Wow - if I had realized that the drive was seriously on top of the canyon ridge with no shoulder, no railing, and drop-offs both ways - well, I don't think I would have driven it, but it was sure beautiful. We did a bit of hiking, did the whole drive, and the boys got their Junior Ranger badges.
We finally made it to Salt Lake City. We stayed at a hotel the first few days with a huge water park and slide, which was fun. They were somewhat incompetent working there, but we enjoyed the amenities, anyways. We registered the kids for school, I started work. We visited the Natural History museum and ran into my friend Melissa and toured the museum with them. We went to her son's birthday party and bought school supplies at Target. On Sunday, we went to our ward and then walked through the house we were renting and then went to the family get together at Grandma's.
Monday was the first day of school. We got ready, packed up our bags, packed the kids breakfast from the hotel breakfast, and drove to our new house. We walked the kids to school. It was Logan's first day of kindergarten in Ms. Morfin's class (sadly, she is already on maternity leave :-(, but she will be back around Thanksgiving). Seth started 3rd grade in Mrs. Theurer's class. Andrew started 5th grade in Mrs. Smith's class. It was a crazy first day - our moving truck came, we toured a preschool, it was a solar eclipse, and the first day of school. The boys watched the solar eclipse at school. Noah, Katsu and I took turns watching the solar eclipse with neighbors and using one of the movers' solar glasses. It was so cool to feel it get cooler and especially to see all the shadows with little solar eclipse shapes on them. We more or less were able to get the furniture situated in the house, which was better than I was expecting. The house is smaller, older (built in the 20's) with lots of character. I don't think I would buy it - it needs quite a bit of updating, but it's really fun to be in for now.
The boys are doing well in school. Logan's teacher is on maternity leave, but they have a great long term sub. He seems to be doing well in full-day kindergarten, although some days he has been having a hard time afterwards with fits. He has started bringing home books to read the last few days and has writing and math and reading homework each night. He is friendly with the kids at school and may have a friend or two. He has at least 2, maybe 3, recesses a day, which I really like. His teacher has been reading them Magic Tree House books at school, so he has been excited to read those at home, too. The first week, we walked to school, but now we are biking. Katsu was taking them but he was out of town the last week, so I walk the boys to a friend's house and then they all bike or walk together. I pick them up and we all walk or bike home.
Seth is bored in school - surprise, surprise, but I will be talking to his teacher and hopefully we can work on that. They have to keep track of reading so he is always trying to get in like an hour of reading a day. He likes to read whatever is around or comic books. He has been reading Harry Potter plus some of Andrew's battle of the books books, but he doesn't seem to really get into any series and want to read them all (unless it's comic books). He loves to go and play at the neighbor's house after school every day or else is bored and whiny. We forgot our computer mouse and he has been mourning the lack of game playing but has enjoyed playing Minecraft on Saturday mornings when we aren't busy. He had hands on science on Friday and brought home a dinosaur in plaster to dig out. They are making terrariums for science next week. 3rd graders at Uintah do a school play, so Seth is excited to have theater every week.
Andrew has been doing well. He finally got into the gifted program this week, so I am hoping that will have him less bored in school. They have a battle of the books program they are starting up, but he seems to not be as in to that as they aren't having weekly meetings like at Ridgewood. He started strings and is playing the violin, but that just started this week. They are able to borrow one from school and bring it home for free, which is nice. Andrew has made several friends and is off playing with them regularly. They like to play and run in the gully behind our house especially.
Andrew and Seth are both doing cub scouts. It's nice that they can just walk there on their own and it's done on the stake level so there are plenty of boys. There are lots of boys in our ward which is great. We haven't met many other kids on our street, but some, and they are making friends at school as well. It's nice that most kids walk or bike to school so they have a lot more freedom here than in North Carolina.
Noah started at a preschool, but I didn't love it, he didn't love it, and they took naps each afternoon which really wasn't working for us. It was inconvienent for me to pick him up before the nap time but waiting until after was too long and I would end up having to wake him up and then he wouldn't sleep at night. So, we are doing a nanny share with our neighbor that is working great. Right now, we are doing 4 mornings a week, which is working really well. I feel like I should be working a little more than that, but we are just trying to work everything out.
Noah is doing well, but is really a full fledged 3 year old and throwing fits all the time about who knows what. He is doing really well still with using the bathroom, which is a relief. I was worried that the move would mess him up, especially since he was in pull-ups so much on our trip.
We have had fun exploring Salt Lake. We have walked /biked to the library several times. We have explored a few parks - one down the road, Laird Park (Katsu went there, I think), and Liberty Park. We have gone to Red Butte Gardens (boys loved running around in the mazes), the zoo (boys loved the parks and we watched the bird show, the seal / sea lion show, and the elephant show), and the natural history museum. We have gone to temple square twice. We have hiked Ensign Peak and also up to Lake Mary at Brighton Ski Resort. It really has been great.
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