End of the School Year

 The kids both had wonderful school years.  They both learned and grew so much.  They really enjoyed school and had good teachers and good friends, which always helps make it a better experience.  Brooklyn finished her third grade year with Ms. Unger at Galileo and McKay finished up preschool with Mrs. Ririe at Bright Minds Preschool.  Brooklyn worked a lot with multiplication and division and a lot of writing.  McKay worked a lot on letter sounds, counting, sight words, and so much more.  It's amazing how much difference a school year can make.  They both look so much bigger and seem so much older.  I can't believe that McKay will be in Kindergarten next year.  He is so excited to be going to school with Brooklyn.  McKay had a fun graduation that I got to go to and they showed all the parents all the things they learned.  Brooklyn had a fun field day that McKay and I went to help at the second to last day of school.  They had a 40 foot water slide and a fire truck that hosed off all the kids.  I can't believe that both my kids will be in school full day next year.

Springtime Means Soccer Time

 

We had a wonderful spring.  A lot of it was filled with soccer for both kids, but there was also a lot of wind and rain and time spent together.  Brooklyn continued to play with her ReAl Middleton team.  They had a better season, they scored in most of their games and even won a few.  It was a much better experience for everyone.  Brooklyn played defense most of the time and was really starting to read the field well and learn how to contain the offense and wait for them to make a mistake. McKay played with Star Park and Rec again and was always the most aggressive, most competitive, fastest on the field.  He may have started slide tackling and I had to apologize to a few parents.  

McKay had a fun fieldtrip this spring with his preschool class out to Babby Farms in Caldwell.  Brooklyn hadn't been feeling great the night before (meaning she had puked in my brand new Jeep on our way back from her end of the season soccer party) and even though she was feeling fine in the morning I decided to keep her home for the day and so she tagged along with us.  The kids had a lot of fun with the kangaroo's and other animals that they got to pet and feed. McKay also got to celebrate his birthday at school since he has a summer birthday. We also tried to get outside as often as possible to the skate park or playground or even just the backyard. 

 

Lagoon

 

We decided to do a quick trip down to Lagoon before the heat and the craziness of summer was upon us.  We didn't have a lot of time to spare, but we made the most of it.  We took off down to Utah when Craig and Brooklyn got home from work and school on Friday May 13th.  We pulled into our hotel in Layton just after 10:30pm, which was a little later than expected because Craig got pulled over for speeding by the most awkward police officer I have ever met.  We got up the next morning and ate some continental breakfast, the kids LOVED the waffle maker, then we packed up and were off to Lagoon.  We got there just before it opened and rode as many as rides as we could until we were exhausted.  McKay was just barely, like half and inch, under the 46 inch height requirement for a lot of the big rides.  So luckily we have some friends who had just been through this with their 5 year old at Disney World and had purchased shoe inserts to give him a little extra height.  They let us borrow them so McKay could go on the bigger rides.  At first he was a little skeptical, but he always had a brave face on but after a few rides he was all smiles and giggles.  Both Brooklyn and McKay loved all the rides.  It was so fun to be able to go on the rides with them that Craig and I both loved as kids.  There were still a few rides he was too short for, but there were plenty to keep us busy.  We packed sandwiches to bring into the park and then everyone got to choose a snack at some point.  By about 5:00pm (7 hours later) we were pretty exhausted and ready to start out drive back home.  We stopped for some gas and to grab some dinner and then started back for home.  McKay crashed and slept for over half of the drive, Brooklyn doesn't sleep near as well as he does and didn't fall asleep until we were about 30 minutes from home.  We got home about 10:30 pm and got the kids quickly in to bed.  It was a super fast trip, but so much fun.  We all had such a blast.  The weather was great, the kids were able to do almost all the rides, no melt downs, and wonderful memories made.

Washington D.C.

 

Craig and I had the amazing opportunity to go to Washington D.C. for a work conference at the end of April.  Craig's office is part of a buy in group called Vision Source and every year they hold their national Expo in some big city.  This year the Docs wanted Craig to go and experience it since he is now a minority partner and I was just lucky enough to tag along.  I had never been to D.C. before and Craig had only been there once for just a few days about 15 years ago, so we jumped at the opportunity.  We flew out Wednesday April 27th with Dr. Warner and his wife Michelle and got into D.C. late.  We stayed at the Gaylord resort and convention center, which was about a 25 minute Uber ride into the heart of the city.  To say it was huge would be an understatement.  Thursday morning we were up bright and early (especially with the time change) to get going.  Craig had meetings and I headed to the gym.  After grabbing some breakfast and getting showered and ready Craig was about done for the day.  That afternoon we headed first to the Jefferson Monument and then made our way over to the Holocaust Museum.  Luckily we had made reservations online for the museum, otherwise we would not have gotten in.  I feel like I have read a lot about the Holocaust, but to see it more personally really opened my eyes.  The horror that was suffered and the pure evil that abounded is just heartbreaking. After the museum we walked to the other monuments at the National Mall. WWII memorial, Korean War Memorial, Vietnam Memorial, Lincoln Monument, Washington Monument, and the White House.  They were all amazing, but I think the Lincoln Monument was my favorite.  I was a little sad that we couldn't get any closer to the White House.  By that point we were pretty tired and hungry, so we decided to grab some dinner at a local place called The Hamilton, which ended up being delicious.  We then headed back to the hotel. 

Friday morning was a lot the same.  Craig headed off to meetings early and I headed to the gym.  I met up with him for the breakfast and then went to get ready for the day while he finished up meetings.  Just after lunch we too an Uber to Arlington Cemetery. I was really looking forward to seeing the cemetery and the changing of the guard at the tomb of the unknown soldiers.  We made it just in tome for the changing of the guard and also to see a little ceremony where they changed out some flower wreaths.  It really was quite emotional watching all of this in silence.  It was crazy walking around and seeing all of the headstone for men and women who fought for our country and also leaders of our nation.  It always fill me with gratitude to be in a place like that.  From Arlington Cemetery we then took the Metro into Penn Station to catch the train to Baltimore and then got on the light rail to finally make it to the Baltimore Oriole's baseball game.  The Nationals were out of town that weekend so we decided to head into Baltimore because they were playing the Red Sox.  It was a very cool stadium and we had awesome seats not to far behind home base.  We even got a foul ball.  My hand was sore for days afterwards, but it was totally worth it.  The sox won and it was so much fun and totally worth all the extra travel for it.  After the game we made our way back the same way we came and eventually made it back to the hotel around midnight.  Long day, but so fun.

  Saturday started off the same way.  I exercised while Craig went to meetings.  After lunch we headed back in to town to check out a few more things.  We only had a little bit of time but wanted to get to as many museums as possible.  Top of our list was the American History Museum.  It was so cool to go through the war exhibit as it outlined all of the wars that America has been a part of.  I think Craig could have stayed there all day.  We then headed over to the National Archives.  We only went in to see the Declaration of Independence, Bill of Rights, and Constitution.  It was quite an experience.  Everyone was very reverent in the room and really the spirit was just very strong there.  It really is amazing what the founders of our Nation were able to accomplish.  We then ran over to the Natural History Museum and walked through that quickly.  It was so nice that all of the museums were free.  After walking through the museums we then walked to the capital building and spent a little time there.  We then took an Uber back to the hotel and grabbed some dinner with the Warner's. After dinner we decided to check out the Ferris wheel by our hotel.  The line was a little long, but it was pretty neat to see the town lit up from the top.

Sunday morning we just got up and it was time to head back to the airport and back home.  It was such an enjoyable trip.  The weather was perfect and we got to see and experience so much. I know we only saw a fraction of what D.C. has to offer, but everything we saw was amazing. The travel was so easy and it was so nice to not have to wear a mask on the airplane.  The kids did great.  They first two nights they stayed at home with our babysitter Paige and then Friday after school my mom picked them up and they spent the weekend with her.  There really were zero complaints and another fantastic trip for the books.