First day of School!

The first week of August is just so early for school to start!  The kids were all excited, though, and ready to start.  Tink is in 6th grade this year, and loves the middle school.  She loves that she doesn't have recess and that they don't put up with kids acting up.  She loves all her teachers as well. 
Bucko and Minnie started a new school, since we've moved to a new house.  We are still in the same district, so Tink's friends from her old school are at her middle school.  The neat thing for Bucko and Minnie, though, when we walked into their school, it is setup exactly like the one they were in last year.  That made it a bit easier for them since we had missed Open House because of the reunion.  They were a bit nervous, but all was well.  I did well the first day too.  The second day got to me, though, and I teared up as they walked right in and didn't need me at all.

The picture in the lower left is to show you the crazy traffic for the middle school.  The cars fill the entire road. I know it's hard to see, but it is crazy. And this picture is taken about 20 minutes before school lets out!
Goofy started preschool the next week and I forgot to take his picture the first day, but the bottom right picture is at his second day and they are pretending to be ants.  His preschool consists of four boys and the teachers are the parents. We each take a week, and we only do preschool on Tuesdays and Thursdays for three hours.  So it works out wonderfully!  My first week of teaching is next week and I'm really excited!  We call it "Busy Boys Preschool" and it fits perfectly. 

Coleman Reunion in Idaho

July went by with a lot of unpacking and getting settled.  We enjoyed our community pool a bit and tried to keep cool.  Tink had a registration day at middle school where she got her schedule and picture taken for her ID.  She was so excited.  I had a hard time getting used to the idea of doing school shopping in July!  (School started August 6.)  PC stayed busy working night shiftwork.  Not much fun for him or us.
By the end of July, we were so excited to go to Idaho for the Coleman Family Reunion.  We took two days driving up, staying the night at a Holiday Inn in Rock Springs, WY.  We arrived in Rexburg a bit earlier than when we could check into the place we were staying, so we went to their park downtown that has one of the oldest carousel's in the world and let the kids ride it and play in the park.

Then we drove up the road a bit to St. Anthony and arrived at Three Peaks Lodge, where we were staying for the reunion.  Two years ago at our last reunion, everyone had decided that it was too hard for everyone to fit at Nana and Papa's house, so we found this place that would hold us all and had lots of activities for everyone. And boy did it!  We all had a blast!  I'll let the pictures speak for themselves and explain a bit as I go.

 This was the gym area.  They had basketball hoops, this superfast slide you see PC going down, a ton of ride on bikes and toys, balls, cones, and hockey.  The kids spent most of their time here. When they weren't here in the gym, they spent time in their "bunkhouse" that was filled with foam cubes to build forts, dress up clothes, and these cool magnetic toys.  For the most part, they all got along.  With over 25 kids running around, that was pretty amazing!

 The pond just beyond the lodge was another fun spot.  It did worry us as parents, but we made sure all the children understood that they were not allowed to go down there without a parent or other adult in charge of them.  They all followed this rule very well and we enjoyed time on the two canoes provided.

The lodge was stocked with games, equipped with foosball, air hockey, and shuffleboard, tennis and basketball courts outside, along with volleyball net, a small creek, and a play fort/swing area.  We were never bored. Though you can see by the picture of Bucko in the lower right, that we were worn out by the end of the day.  We had a family talent show the first night.  Tink played the piano and she and Minnie both sang the song from "Tangled" entitled "At Last I See the Light."  They did a great job.  Bucko did a great handstand for his talent and held it for a long time.  We were pretty impressed. I think it was his best handstand yet!
Another night we did kareoke, which is always fun.  And the last night we did a family dance.  We played games outside one day, had a pinata another day, and enjoyed each other's company every single day!  We did have a scare as PC's brother-in-law got very sick.  They live in Canada and decided they had to get him home and to the doctor immediately. He has some serious health issues and can recognize when things are getting bad and he needs help.  So they left really early on Friday morning and started driving home.  We were all very concerned for them and kept them in our prayers the whole day. We called several temples to put his name on the prayer roll.  By the afternoon, he was better!  They had made it the Grand Forks and decided they would drive back to finish out the last day of the reunion! We were so glad it all worked out and he was ok.
We drove the whole way home on Saturday as PC had work on Sunday.  The kids started school the next day as well, and we needed to rest up and get ready for that big day!

Belated

Yes, I know, I have not updated ANYTHING for a very long time.  Buying a new house and finally getting our household goods after not seeing them for 8 months could be a good excuse, but I won't use it.  There's just no excuse for me.  But we did do those things and it has been wonderful seeing our stuff again.  We received our stuff five days later than the "no later than" date, which was mid-July.  So we said it was like Christmas in July to see all our things again.  It has been nice, but a lot of work.  We closed on our house on June 22.  PC's mom bought us pizza for dinner and we all had a "party" to celebrate our new home.  We got our new stainless steel appliances delivered the next day.  It took about a week before we had them all installed, but PC did a great job with it and they all work wonderfully and look beautiful.  I haven't taken pictures of the house yet, but I will do that soon and get some posted. 
The first couple of weeks in the house were nice, except for one thing: the Waldo Canyon Fire here in Colorado Springs.  This is what it looked like from our front door the first day, which was June 23.

It filled the sky with smoke that first day and covered the sun.  The fire continued for the next 2 weeks and the air was awful.  My asthma has never been so bad.  I would walk up one flight of steps and then lie down at the top until I could breath again.  I was so tired as well.  Ok, I guess I need to mention that I am pregnant as well.  We found out the day after I got back from Utah and have been suffering with "morning sickness" mostly at night.  So I know that had a lot to do with being tired, and I couldn't take the Advair I had been given because you can't take it when pregnant.  I have since been to see my ob doctor and he has me on some medicine that I can take and it has helped. 
Anyway, back to the fires.  It was crazy. We would watch the news and see it spread.  We would hear amazing stories of rescue and bravery.  It was amazing and we were glad when it was finally contained.  
For Independence Day, though, we could not have fires or do fireworks, so that was kind of a bummer. We went to PC's parents house for a barbeque and had fun there, but it really didn't feel like the 4th without fireworks. 
A few weeks after moving into our house, we finally received some rain and looking out our back window, we saw this beautiful rainbow.  That is one thing I really do like about Colorado. It seems like every time it rains, we see a rainbow.  This one almost seemed like a welcome home gift.