Nana and Papi's Visit

Nana Ruth and Papi Jean came to stay for 5 days and the kids were very excited to have an extended slumber party!

 French Story Time with Papi

 Walk in Ravenna Park.  Juju loved the creek.

 Bye Nana and Papi!

First Days of School

Both Leana and Julian have had their first days of school these past 2 weeks.  Leana will continue at the Wedgwood Coop for her third and last year there.  She is now a "Monday Kid" which means she gets to go on Mondays with just the other 4 year old kids and they do special things like field trips and cooking snacks. She is very excited about being the big kid this year! Leana also had her first day of ballet lessons which she said was very fun.

With her carpool buddies Connor and Kaiya

Julian started his first year of drop off preschool at the EEU, a school on the UW campus that works to mix kids with developmental delays (speech, social/emotional, motor skills, etc) and "regular" kids.  It is hard to get into this school unless you qualify because it is so popular and has a long wait list.  Fortunately for us and our late talking offspring, Juju qualified for a spot as a speech delayed kid.  Class is only twice a week and one of those days there is a speech therapist in the room that will work with him.  We're very excited about this and Juju loved his first day.  The teacher told me he did great and we had to drag him out of there.

Camping Trip: Deception Pass State Park

Great camping trip at Deception Pass - such a beautiful spot.  We managed to squeeze in a lot in a short time: rock climbing, finding tide pools, skinny dipping (just the kids!), sand dune hike, canoe ride, playing in the tent, campfire s'mores, beach walk/hike, and running into a former cal tri team member fishing on the shore!

The kids slept well and had a blast, lots of excitement for them.  We were supposed to go for 2 nights but skipped out on the first night because of rain.  Instead we had a nice family day at the Pacific Science center where Leana got to hold a Madagascar Hissing Cockroach (Juju touched it) and we all watched a 3D IMAX movie about butterflies.  Juju wouldn't wear the glasses but still seemed entertained, and Leana kept trying to grab the butterflies flying towards us.  Overall, a fabulous weekend and great way to end summer vacation.  School started today for Leana!

 tide pools

 rock climbing

 skinny dipping!

 canoe ride

 setting up camp

 waiting for the campfire.  Leana teaches Juju how to make her signature "silly face"

 s'mores

 early morning play at the campsite.  Leana builds a home/tent/school for her baby monkey.

 beach hike

cockroach joy!

End of Summer Swimming

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Swim lessons are over for the summer and the wedgwood pool will be closing soon.  Leana loved doing lessons this summer and made such amazing progress.  She can do crawl stroke, side breathing, dog paddle, floating, and is just so comfortable in the water now.  She will jump into the 12 foot "super deep end" by herself and doesn't even need to us to catch her anymore.  Juju was not very interested in getting into the water this summer, and spent most of his time wondering around the outskirts exploring.  Over labor day he finally got into the water and realized that was fun too!  He loves having me or Jeff take him around zooming like an airplane.

 swim lessons: rain or shine

Decatur - 3rd Trip of the Summer

Another beautiful Decatur weekend!

throwing rocks in the water...it never gets old for Julian