The three oldest girls began school at a local Classical Charter School this September. Kayla is in 5th grade, Elise is in 3rd, and Ava is in 1st.
Words cannot express how hard it was to let go of homeschooling, while at the same time how exciting it was to say hello to a new chapter. The girls are all enjoying the new school, and I am enjoying some time to spend with the littlest ones without the extreme pressure of all the schooling on top of it.
And just a week after we started the kids in school, we headed out to California to take the family vacation that we had planned months and months earlier. We packed up children and school work and flew first to Sacramento.
We met our dear friends at In-N-Out Burger to begin our trip and then headed to their place to hang out for awhile. It was so good to see them and catch up on life and let the kids play together.
There's so many of them now!
Next we headed up the hill to my grandma's house.
What a wonderful, familiar sight.
I've been coming to this cabin for as long as I can remember.
And every time it is peaceful and wonderful. It is another home.
And it truly was for Chris and I as we moved in with my grandparents for several months about a year and a half after we got married. It was a nice time filled with many great memories made with grandma and Kayla when she was just a baby.
So we settled right in and it felt just like home.
Unfortunately, the travel left some of the kids completely wiped. Kolbe spent a couple days feeling out of it and just sleeping a lot. I don't blame him. Every time I come to Grandma's, I feel like I can finally just let out a huge breath and all the stress that just weighs me down and take a long, peaceful nap in the mountains.
We had to visit some old friends from the Foresthill Catholic Community. Ron and Marcia are always so hospitable and have us over and let our kids swing on their crazy swing and look for frogs in their pond.
Pat and Eric and Becky and family joined us too to hang out some more. It was a fun night filled with laughter and good food.
When I was a girl, I got to get my ears pierced with Grandma. So I asked Grandma if she'd be interested in coming with Kayla to get hers done. Luckily for us, Grandma's hair stylist does ears, so she was able to pierce Kayla's ears and it was hardly a trip and Grandma was able to come.
A little hesitant.
But she did great and said it didn't even hurt.
All grown up
The girls experienced a little piece of tradition one of the nights we spent at Grandma's. We brought out the old BINGO game. When I was little, Grandma and Grandpa would bring BINGO and big bags filled with candy for each of us to win when we eventually got our BINGO. We didn't do the whole big bag of candy thing as their is always plenty of dessert at Grandma's, but we did play a rousing game of BINGO.
It's a beautiful thing to see your kids doing the things you remember doing as a kid and enjoying so much. I may have teared up a little.
We took a trip up to town to the cemetery to say hello to Grandpa as well.
Rest in peace. We love you.
And before we left for the next leg of our CA trip, we made Grandma take a bunch of pictures with us. She is alllllmooooost 90 in these pictures. Just one month shy of it. Doesn't she look amazing? She is.
All the earrings ladies!
A wonderful visit in Northern California. Thank you, everyone, for all the wonderful fun and new memories made together. We miss you! See you next time (or in Colorado if you want to take your own trip!)
