End of Summer and School

Summer finally came to town. Too bad it only lasted a week. Last week we spent every day at the lake or spray park, soaking up the rays. Then we'd come home collapse, clean up a bit, eat dinner then watch Michael Phelps win a gold medal. Go to bed, wake up, repeat.

This week has been spent getting Ethan's out-grown clothes ready for a children's consignment sale, doing errands and generally getting ready for our Whistler trip. Aaron's parents are coming in tonight, then we drive up Sunday. We've never been so we are looking forward to it! It is also the site for the 2010 Winter Olympics so we're expecting lots of construction. Hopefully it won't be too bad.

Micah starts school in a week and a half. We didn't exactly plan our vacation well. He starts 2 days after we get back. We booked the house a year ago and I wasn't even thinking about school schedules! Our life is going to change! What a big step! My oldest is going to school. I get sad thinking about not having him around, but I know that it is the right decision for him.

I don't know think I've mentioned it here but Micah will be going to a Spanish immersion school in our local school district. It's a lottery system to get into the school. Micah made it into the half-day kindergarten class. Around here you have to pay for full day kindergarten at public schools-- I think this is a funding issue from the state as they only get enough funding for half day kindy. The Spanish Immersion program is a K-12 program with grades K-5 spent at the Spanish elementary school. Grades 6-12 are integrated into regular district schools with the students taking 1-2 special classes per year. By the time they are in 10th grade they take AP Spanish and in grades 11 and 12 they take college classes. What's nice about the program is that you can only enter in kindy. So if Micah continues the program, he will be with the same kids until he graduates. Since it is a special program and requires planning to attend the school, the parents are more involved. This makes the school more of a public/private hybrid.

They learn everything in Spanish from day one. I know very little Spanish so I will get to learn along with him! They don't even learn to read in English until 2nd or 3rd grade. The principal showed us the district test scores and the students are behind their peers in English in 2nd grade but by 5th grade they are equal or have surpassed other schools in the district.

It sounds great, but we'll see how it works out for Micah. I'm excited but sad to see my baby go off to school! I keep telling myself its only for 3 hours a day!

Ethan

5 1/2 months old

Ethan has been gaining weight like a champ! I am so very thankfull for Prevacid. It has literally changed my life. I can now wear the same clothes for one day. I don't have (new) carrot and prune stains on the carpet! I have a very happy baby! He's even getting some chubby cheeks!

On the other hand, it looks like he may have an allergy to amoxocillin and/or eggs. Sigh. Drug allergy would be pretty easy to deal with, but eggs? I sure hope not. We'll know for sure when we can get in to see the allergist.

I can't end on a down note. We got back Micah's latest blood test results and it looks like he might be outgrowing his allergy! This is a big blessing!!

Mt. Rainier

Aaron did make it to the summit. Their team was the only one to make it that day. They made it to the summit and within 10 minutes a cloud formed and caused white-out conditions. The water in his backpack froze instantly. Short story is the only way they found their way back down was by using the GPS I bought him for his birthday the previous month!

The kids and I drove down and met him when he came off the mountain. He came down at the White River Campground. We then drove around through Longmire to Whittaker's Bunkhouse in Ashford which is on the opposite side of the mountain.

The kids were VERY excited to stay at a motel. We thought briefly about camping.... but I chickened out. We went camping when Joel was a baby and he screamed just about the whole night. Definitely didn't want to experience that again with Ethan. Especially on a night that Aaron would be exhausted. The Bunkhouse is a very comfortable place to stay with kids. They even had a climbing wall out front that the kids had to try out.

This is outside the place we had breakfast:

Here is Joel, Ethan and I at Paradise. Notice the snow. Middle of July and there was still 5 feet of snow there!! We were hoping to do some hiking and to see the wildflowers. This year there was alot of late snowfall.

This is as far as we got on the trail:

Inside the newly remodelled Paradise Lodge:

My Dad with Ethan.

In Absentia

Okay, I haven't fallen off the face of the earth. I'm planning to update on what we've been up to this summer:
1. Mt. Rainier pictures and stories.
2. My Dad and Betty got married!
3. summer activities
4. Ethan's progress

I also celebrated a birthday yesterday. Yay, me. They threw a huge party for me in Beijing!

Now I have to brag for just a minute. Micah, age 5 1/2, currently knows more about geography then most adults. Yesterday he was putting together a world puzzle. It was halfway done and he pointed to Italy and identified it. Then proceeded to tell me where Sicily was located. Today we were playing a geography game where you draw a country card and then identify where it is located. We were working on Africa when I drew "Lesotho", which is located in the middle of South Africa. (I got it wrong!) We were looking at where it was located and Micah points to the country next to South Africa and says, "That's Swaziland". He was correct! How does he know this???? I didn't even know that. I've heard of Swaziland, and I could tell you it was in Africa, but I had no idea where it was located. Now I know.

Apparently its because of this website.