Noah started preschool!

August 16th was Noah's first day of school! Over the last several months Noah went through various stages regarding school: First, he was super excited to get to go to school like the big kids that he saw with their backpacks. Then, as he developed some insecurity surrounding our preparations for moving...he announced that he would not be going to school (or primary at church) in Arizona. He needed to be with his mom. Then, luckily, right before school started (after 2 tours of the school, and meeting his teacher) Noah got excited about this new adventure. The night before his first day of class, we laid out his first day of school outfit (underwear, socks and all) on the floor like a person. He'd received his beginning of the school year blessing from his daddy. We read Llama Llama Misses Mama (this book was so great to read with Noah over the few weeks prior to school starting). And Noah went to bed excited for morning to come. When the big morning came I made his requested first day of school breakfast: Scrambled eggs, toast with nutella, mini blueberry muffins, blueberries, and OJ. He felt pretty special (so, the cat's out of the bag...I don't usually make breakfasts like this).

Mark's friends Tommy & Ryan were still in town from their hike (they got back to our home the night prior). They let me leave Lincoln with them so I could take Noah on my own. Here are a couple of pictures that we took of Noah by the front door. On his shoulder he has the bag his preschool gives all the kids (they fit nicely in their cubbies).


We got to school a few minutes early (an accomplishment for me) and while we were waiting with the other parents and kids for the doors to open...Noah went up and was anxiously peeking inside. Pretty cute.

This is Noah with his M/W/F teacher, Miss Lisa, before class started that first day. She is fantastic. That little grin on Noah's face summed that morning up perfectly...happy to be there, but feeling sweetly shy too. I came in with Noah for a couple of minutes, snapped this picture, looked at their class pet with him (a chinchilla), and gave him a big hug and kiss. Then I left. No clinging or crying like I'd worried about. And Noah did great too. (ha, ha)

On Noah's second day of school he insisted that we needed another picture in front of the door before leaving since Lincoln didn't come with him the day before. This was his first day having Lincoln and Mommy drop him off. I wasn't going to deter him wanting to take a picture, so I agreed. While we were taking this picture, our next door neighbor came outside and said hi to the boys. So, they looked over at him when I snapped the photo. I liked it though, so here it is.
Our boys.
Well, Noah just finished his 3rd week of school now, and it's going great! We are very pleased with the school and both of the teachers he has. Noah enjoys going, and he tells me that he is getting less shy and making more friends. I love hearing about all the different things he learns at school, and it's also so strange to have him walking around the house singing something that I wasn't the one to teach him!...especially when it's in Spanish and I have no idea what he's saying! It's great though. He enjoys their music class, the crafts, telling me what they make or have for snack-time, what books they read and what he played outside that day. If only he'd always stay so excited to tell me every detail about his day as the years go on. I'll enjoy it while I get it!

His enthusiasm is good (or bad, depending on how you view it) for Lincoln too. The first time that we dropped Noah off, Lincoln cried. Not because his brother was leaving, but because he wanted to go to school too. It looked so fun! Then, after hearing about everything from Noah, Linc is only more excited for when he gets to start going to preschool (next year). Every day when we drop Noah off, Lincoln gives Noah a hug and tells him to "Have a great day!" and then he turns around and tells me that he needs to get bigger now (so he can go to school too). He has recently started pleading with me (as we walk to car after dropping off Noah) saying, "Mom. Please! Let me get bigger!"

Every now and then when I pick Noah up his teacher will share some nugget of Noah's that made her giggle. A couple of days ago they went around the class each telling their favorite thing to eat. When it was Noah's turn he declared that his favorite thing to eat is "meat!" and he proceeded to ask the teacher if she knew why. "Why?" she asked. "Because I'm a carnivore like a tiger!" Awesome. Noah is really into animals right now, particularly African animals. He wants to be a tiger for Halloween and just got his costume in the mail. Anyone that will listen gets a rundown of details about his favorite animals, and various animals that are endangered or extinct. If you want to really be his buddy right now, just ask him to tell you about the various species of rhinos.

I have to mention one last thing about Noah's school that is really fantastic. His teachers send a daily update outlining what they did in class that day, as well as any info or reminders we should know about. It's been really fun for Mark & I to read the emails, and very helpful to continue encouraging dialogue with Noah about what he's doing at school. We couldn't be happier with our choice of preschools for Noah, and I am so grateful that it's already been such a good experience for him. He is already asking when he can start staying at school full day (6.5 hours), like some of the other kids do in his class. Next year, buddy. Next year. I can hardly believe that he'll be in Kindergarten next year.

Guadalupe Peak

Even though this is our family blog, Holly usually writes all of the posts. So, I suppose I should announce myself (Mark) as a guest blogger for this post. On August 14-15th Ryan, Tom and I went on our yearly hike. Since we have done a lot of the western high points, it has been a little difficult to find new high points within a reasonable driving distance. With our recent move to Arizona, we became a way point for "The Hike" this year. Tom had already hiked Texas' high point (Guadalupe), but he was willing to do it again so that Ryan and I could tack it to our lists.

Below is how the high point looks on the drive in. In the foreground you can see the salt flat that spans this area. Guadalupe is on the right side, but on the far right is El Capitan - a peak that is quite picturesque with 3 sides bordered by 1000 foot cliffs.

The trailhead and campsites from a bird's-eye view.

I slept under the stars and some bugs decided that I was pretty tasty!

At the trailhead.


On most of our hikes the morning shots don't turn out very well with my little point and shoot camera, but Ryan grabbed a nice shot looking back over the vast Texas desert plains.

This is a really great hiking area that, as you can see, is amenable to horses as well as humans.

The trail was really well groomed. As you can seen in this picture (behind my silhouette), they even blasted through some of the rock cliff.

The morning sky.

More of the trail that, if it hadn't have been blown out, would have been pretty impassable.


Me lagging behind, enjoying the view.

This is a great shot that Ryan got. You can see that we have gotten above the clouds.

Looking down on El Capitan.

I'm not sure why American Airlines spent the time and money to put this 6 foot pyramid at the summit, but here it is.




Tom decided to carry this small little watermelon to the top. Too bad it wasn't that great. It sounded really good at the time.

Tom showing off the strength that it took to get the watermelon to the top. I think that it should be a tradition for him to bring it up.

El Capitan is a really beautiful peak.

The yearly brushing of the teeth. All participated. We tried preloaded brushes. They were horrible. Luckily, Ryan had some mint on stand by. He really saved the day. My trip would have been a bust if he had left it in the car.

I'm glad that Ryan got this. This is me trying to call Holly. At least I was able to sneak a text through. Check out the clouds in the background. They slowly came in and surrounded us on the peak. Since we were above them, it made for a surreal experience.


The three of us at the peak.


Heading down. I really like this backpack that Holly got me for my birthday. I packed my pack really full and it distributed the weight quite well.

I also finally got to use my new hiking glasses that Holly got me last Christmas. She was quite pleased to have gotten a deal on them at a charity auction. (Splore)

I really like that Ryan takes the time to put these panoramas together. This one is in two pieces. He has started take one at the summit. Click on it and take a look. It is really cool.


Along with the back pack came my new Black Diamond hiking polls. My knees were feeling really good, so I gave them to Ryan to use. He said that it made all of the difference in coming down. Those of us with impaired ACLs have a challenge with the downhill part of the hike.

Awesome trail!


I was feeling daring and wanted to stand on this outcropping. It doesn't look like much from this far away, but it was a little nerve racking standing there. The previous pic is a close up of the little rocky point.

It was a little warm as we came off the mountain, but it had turned into a beautiful day.

As we came home, we caught up with this storm in Tuscon. We caught its trail 50 miles earlier. It had dumped a lot of rain and once we caught it, we really saw how much it was putting down. It almost looks like a funnel cloud but that is all rain.
It was a great hike. For Ryan's summary of the hike click here.

Geodes

Mark's parents took a long awaited trip to Canada in July and brought our boys back geodes! They each got one and they looked something like this (this is obviously not my photo). The boys weren't exactly sure what to think at first when they opened them. "Huh? A rock?" Once they realized that we got to take them outside and smash them with a hammer it was a different story though!

Here is Noah "hammering his rock":


Noah examining his treasures.


Now for Lincoln's geode.

Here's a quick clip of Lincoln taking a crack at it. Note his cute little grunt of frustration at it not breaking...followed by him hammering away while not even watching the hammer.


Lincoln's geode didn't actually break like we thought it had in the previous clip. It was a lot tougher to crack than Noah's was. We ended up moving the show out to the driveway and letting Lincoln have at it again there. At that point he started to take things a little bit more seriously, and after a while (and some help from dad) he did get his geode open too. Here are a couple of pictures of the process to get it open though. Lincoln's face in this second cracks me up! And the picture was not staged. The hammer is even a little bit out of focus from him swinging it. That kid meant business.

Lincoln was quite pleased to see the inside of his rock once it finally broke open.

Lincoln and Noah looking quite pleased with their treasures.

Just a quick shot of one of the geodes. What a fun idea for a gift, Mary & Mont! Thank you! Not only was it a fun activity to do together with the boys, but it was something unique for them to learn about. Noah especially enjoyed examining the crystals with a magnifying glass.





I had to end the post with this picture of Noah.