DC: Day 1

Again, many much pictures, many much stories and journaling.  Prepare to hear about our trip for the next several days :)  Simma down now, Simma down!

Gramma and Grampa were nice enough to come up to our house the Saturday before we left.  Gramma was going to stay with the three littles, while Grampa flew back to Chile for business, Hubby drove to the jobsite in FL, and Kari and I went north to DC.  We would all come back together at the end of the week :)

Wednesday morning, Gramma dropped Kari and I off at the school at 6am.  We checked in, made sure we had everything we needed, and waited for everyone else to do the same.  Around 6:40, it was time for bus assignments.  There was a long, 56 passenger bus, and a short, 26 passenger bus.  Kari and I got put on the "short bus".  

At first, I think we were both a little disappointed.  She wanted the opportunity to socialize a bit (and possibly me too).  Thankfully, her favorite teacher was on our bus, and it turned out to be rather comfortable (apparently, more so than the other bus {from the few people who switched}).  We even had a few empty seats so we could switch around sometimes.

Here is our fabulous 7am, short bus selfie!  We were officially on the road!

For the first 4 hours, the trip went rather smoothly.  We watched a few movies.  Kari played on her DS.  I read a couple trashy mags I had picked up at Wally World.  We passed out breakfast as soon as we got on the bus and passed out lunch right after we stopped for gas and a potty break.

Unfortunately, that is where the smooth sailing stopped :/

About 45 min after stopped for gas/lunch, the bus pulled over to the side.  It could no longer steer very well.  Somehow, we had lost power only to certain things in the bus.  So....  they called roadside assistance for the bus, and we hung out on the side of the road.  After about 90 minutes, they rented a small car, and started taking small group of kids to a nearby gas station.  This was so the kids would be off the side of the road and near AC.  Kari and I (along with the teachers) would be the last group to go.  When, lo and behold, the roadside assistance guy said the bus was fixed!  Small side note: The fix was only temporary.  It would get the bus about 10 miles down the road to the service station, but certainly not all the way up to DC.  Surprise!!!  We didn't, apparently, understand he was only doing a temporary fix on the bus.  Boo.  So, we loaded up on the bus, went to the gas station to pick up all the rest of the kids, and then went to ANOTHER gas station down the road, but across the street from the mechanics.  And there, we waited.  And waited.  For another 2 hours.  Thankfully, everyone was in a pretty decent mood.  We had snacks, and Ms. Trish (who is a pretty good child entertainer) had her iPad full of games.  

Once the bus was finally fixed, we loaded up and had quite a ways to go left.  We were delayed about 4.5-5 hours by then.  But we were back on the road!  We fed the kids snacks, and the driver hauled bum.  We didn't stop for another 4 hours until we needed gas and dinner.  By then it was 9pm.  We stopped at a gas station that had a Mickey Dee's in it, and ate to our hearts content.  Then we got back on the bus and drove the rest of the way.  We arrived at our hotel in DC at 1:45 in the morning! 

I already knew who would be sleeping in the hotel room with Kari and I.  So we grabbed our bag, and went to get as much sleep as we could get before our breakfast in the morning!

Happy Memorial Day!

Sleepy Baby

The week just wouldn't be complete without a few pictures of Kelsey!!!  I am pretty sure she is in the middle of a growth spurt.  Even though she hasn't taken a regular midday nap for months now, this past week or two she has fallen asleep in the car several times.

Or I find her curled up on the couch after I have been loudly putting away the groceries in the other room.

Sometimes it gets me right in the feels, when I look at her all curled up and think that she was once inside me, in probably the exact same posture, but now she is almost too big to carry at all.

Quick!  Someone come calm down my ovaries!!!  My uterus is jumping for joy and my ovaries are egging it on!  (Get it?)

Happy Weekend :)

Kari's District Award

One day, out of the blue, we got a letter in the mail.  It announced that Kari had won a Superintendents Award for Excellence from the whole district, and invited her to a banquet.  Hubby was originally planning to be out of town that day, but we rescheduled and found sitters for the little three.  We really had no idea what to expect. Turns out, two of Kari's four teachers independently (and without knowledge of the other teachers) nominated Kari for this award.  When she was chosen, together they wrote a few sentences about why she earned the award, and they read it to everyone in attendance.

Unfortunately, I forgot to bring my super duper camera, with its great zoom lens.  But I think hubby's iPhone did a better job than mine :)

We really have loved her teachers this year, and apparently they have really loved her :)

Our elementary school really had a great showing at the ceremony.  We had 2 teachers, 2 students (one not shown), 1 parent volunteer, and 1 support staff who were recognized.  The teacher in the middle went with us to DC, and the teacher in the white was Kaitlyn's 2nd grade teacher last year.

We know Kari is a hard worker.  We know she is smart.  We know she is kind and patient (most of the time).  We know what a wonderful person she is, inside and out.

But it was really a wonderful thing for her to be recognized by other people as well :)

Stick to it kid!  You'll go places!

Kari's Awards

Kari's awards were at the same time as Kaitlyn's.  I let her borrow some (lowish) heels and a necklace.  We also spent the time straightening her hair, and it looked gorgeous when she left.  Unfortunately, it was humid and thunderstormy, so....  it didn't quite look straight when it was time for the awards.  Oh well.

Kari won an Excellence award not only for her class, but the district as well.  Her teachers nominated her, and she won!!!  There was a banquet and everything!  (More on that tomorrow)

Kari also won an AR award.  Again, she won 3 of the 4 nine weeks, but we weren't aware they would be giving anything out during the ceremony.

And last, but certainly not least, Kari won an award for being on the All A Honor Roll all year.  She was the only child in her entire GRADE to do so!

Like my other kids, she seems to be blessed with a fast brain, with plenty of room to store all that knowledge.  But she also works hard, pays attention, and does all of her assignments.

Kari switched homerooms during the middle of the year when they added a new teacher to the grade. But she went to each teacher (pretty much) every day to learn different subjects.

Her homeroom teacher is very sweet.  

I really enjoyed the opportunity I had to get to know her teachers a little bit better while we were on the field trip.

I'm so proud of my girl, the hard work she puts in, the ability she has to retain all the information she is learning, and how grown up and mature she is!  We had an absolute blast on the DC field trip, and I'll tell you all about it soon (ironically after school is done).

And thats it!  Today we slept in a little bit because we didn't have to go to school!!!!  Its a bit crazy that it is over.  And I still have one year left with the munchkin at home.

Kailtyn's Awards

Kari and Kaitlyn had their awards ceremonies together.  They both got several awards, and while I was really proud of them, I was a bit concerned if the other parents would feel like I was bragging every time I popped up to take a picture.  Seriously, the Smith's dominated that thing!  It was great :)

Kaitlyn had a hard time picking out what dress to wear.  In the end, she went with this one because the skirt was kinda big and fluffy.  I let Kari borrow some of my things, so Kaitlyn asked if she could borrow something too.  I let her borrow a necklace, that I think I wore to ring dance maybe....  prom? 

 Kaitlyn got an Excellence award for her homeroom.  Her teacher got to pick someone from her class whom she thought worked hard, learned lots and had model behavior.  She choose Kaitlyn!  This award was a surprise to us.

 Kaitlyn also got an award for having the most AR points in her class.  She has gotten this award (at the lunch ceremonies) for 3 of the 4 quarters. It wasn't a particular surprise, though we didn't know they would be giving awards for this during the ceremony.

 Lastly, she got an award for being on the All A Honors Roll all year.  Kaitlyn was one of 4 kids in the whole 3rd grade to do so.

 She also got an award for Perfect Attendance.  We are pretty sure there is a mistake in this one.  We think she missed a day or two for illness.  But, its too late to correct, and when we told her teacher she said not to worry about it.

 Kaitlyn really adored her teacher this year.  She was always happy to help her do anything, and went back for the last 1.5 days of school happily. 

 Ms. Allison went above and beyond to help the kids too.  She had lots of activities, memory songs, and parent activities.

I guess now that means she is officially a 4th grader.  How the heck did that happen?!?!

Kaitlyn, we're so happy of the work you may have struggled with but did anyway and how smart you are becoming :)

Dylan's Awards

My kids are pretty much done with school.  They had their awards ceremonies last week.  And this week, they have a full day today, and a half day tomorrow.  It's kind of silly really.  Most kids don't go back to school.  But my kids?  My kids will be there to the bitter end.  Of their own volition!!! I know.  They are weird.

Back to last week :)

We got "invitations" from the school to make sure we were there at the awards ceremony.  Here is the D-man, walking in like a boss!

We quickly discovered we were sitting on the wrong side of the gym.  :(  Oh well.  Too bad for us.  Look at him!  He's so handsome!  And tall!

 Dylan got an award for being on the All A's Honor Roll all year!

 That is his principal.  Who is a super sweet lady.  She went on the DC field trip with us (I'll have plenty to write on that later).

 And his teacher.  Who is also a nice lady.  I can only imagine the patience it takes to deal with 1st graders all the time.

 So, thats a wrap!  In the bag!  1st grade is over for this little man!

And I couldn't be more pleased with all he has learned, all the hard work he put in, and the grades he has to show for it too!

PS- Happy Birthday to my little sister La!  Its good to get old :)

The End of the Beard

Remember when hubby had back surgery?  Back in October?  The recovery was as expected.  He laid on his back for the first several weeks, and after that, he still couldn't bend for a few months.  He used that time to show his manliness and grow a beard.  Mostly because he couldn't actually bend over to shave in the sink.  When he finally went back to work, he decided he'd had enough of the beard (I'd reached that point long before).  And surprisingly (to me), when he went to shave, he allowed me to come in and take pictures, knowing full well they would end up on the blog at some point.  These pictures (and this story) are actually several months old at this point.  He has been back to working full time as well as his normal facial hair of a regular length goat tee.  But here is a fun look at some of the progression.

This....  this is the BEFORE.

3 months worth of growth.

I am sure you are all familiar with the process, so I'll not bore you with pictures of that.  I put all of the in between photos in a GIF (found below).  But this one is so silly, and so great, that it deserves its own place :)

So, here it is.  Start to finish.  The beard trimming and shaving, in all its various forms.  All the way down to a baby face!  

It has been probably a decade since I have seen hubby without any facial hair.  So it was a bit strange.  I'll also admit to being quite pleased when the goat grew back in.

Before and After

I love my hubby.  And I am glad he is back to looking more like his regular self :)

Shooting 101

That was about a month of Spring Break stuff.  Seriously!  Crazy amounts of pictures to show and stories to tell. :)  

Back to real life!  Shortly after we returned from Florida, there was an activity held for the women in my church.  I wasn't 100% sure I was going to go, but hubby "encouraged" me.  And, in turn, I "encouraged" my friend to go with me.  We went to a local shooting range where one of the ladies (who happens to be a competitive shooter) and her husband had a small lesson.  Then, we shot some stuff!

I have shot a gun before.  Hubby owns several shot guns, a few rifles, and one or two hand guns.  Most of them are not my favorite.  They are loud and dirty (ish).  And the shotguns/rifles require me to put my face on the gun, which either gets make up on the gun, or dirt on my face.  They are loud, and they kick.  But, I didn't have a lot of experience with smaller caliber hand guns. I figured this could be a fun time, depending on a lot of things.  I'm not gonna lie.  I was pretty pleased that my first attempt at shooting had a pretty good grouping, as well as decent aim.  That, my friends, is a target printed on an 8x11 sheet of paper!  Pretty good, right?!?!

I always look this happy.  I think :)  

We then moved on from the sheets of paper to the cardboard targets.  They are more representative of a person.  I did two rounds of 5.  Again, the grouping is pretty good, and I am mostly center mass.

I just wanted to show the "flesh colored bandaids" they put on the targets so we could reuse them. :)

We started shooting while seated, with our hands up on sandbags.  But we moved onto standing fairly quickly.

We ended the session by doing a round of competition.  We had to shoot 5 targets, the last one being the smallest and in the middle, as quickly as possible.  The nice lady beside me (in the fancy looking shirt) is both my friend (and rental baby mama) and the competitive shooter.  

We shot all 5 targets a total of 4 times, dropping the slowest round.  Our teacher could do this particular course in less than 4 seconds...  More like 3.5.  My score was no where near that good, as you can see from the video below.  But I do enjoy the clang of the metal that says I hit my target!

After everyone had shot, I  got the chance to shoot a pistol that has a fancy sight on it (called a red dot).  That was pretty cool!  

I actually had a pretty decent time at the activity, surprising my hubby, as well as myself.  So much so, that I am now officially a member of the gun ownership club.  Hubby and I went out on a lunch date, and picked out my very own .22 pistol.  I haven't had the chance to shoot it yet (life gets in the way sometimes).  But I hope to be able to enjoy it!  Here's to a surprising, and expensive, new hobby!

SB 16: Last Day

Saturday was our last day in FL.  Grampa was came home from his Chile that morning too.  That weekend was also LDS General Conference, so as we bummed around the house, we listened to that. 

There also happened to be a thunderstorm, which makes Kaitlyn nervous.  So she cuddled with Grampa while he "listened" to the speakers.  (Hey!  Cut him some slack!  The flights home from Chile are always overnight, and no one ever gets good sleep on those things!)

Toward the end of the night, the kids were pretty tired.  They had been off their schedule for a long time.  It began to take its toll.

We mostly packed that day and even loaded a few things.  

Sunday morning we ate a semi leisurely breakfast, loaded everything else and headed home.  The trip was much quicker this time, and we made it home with plenty of time to eat, shower, and go to bed!  One day I'll be smart enough to leave a day or two on the end of a vacation to recover.  It was a most excellent way to spend our Spring Break this year! Thanks Gramma and Grampa!