Going, Going, Going.... G.O.N.E.



First Day of School

Today was the first day of school for the kiddos.  Derrin is now a fifth grader, a "big kid" in elementary.  Kloe is now a third grader.  I went to school with them this morning to meet their teachers.  Both teachers seem to be really nice, so hopefully this bodes well for a good school year.  Actually, both kids just walked in the door from their first day and said they LOVE their new teachers.  This does bode well.

I can not believe that summer vacation is over for them already!  This summer was one of the fastest on record- I'm pretty sure that is a documented fact.  It looks as though I will have one more month before my summer vacation is over and I go back to work to my part time office job; I am still working for Derrick's business keeping the numbers balanced.  So, while I have more free time, I better concentrate on soaking up every last molecule of sunshine out there.  I'd also better concentrate on bringing some order to this house.  There are still bags that have not been completely unpacked from our Seattle trip.

We went camping with our friends Rob and Deana and their kiddos this weekend.  It was our last chance to really soak up some friend/nature/sunshine/swimming time for the summer. 

The lake we went to was AWESOME; warm, calm and beautiful.  It even had a sandy beach; something rare for these parts.  The kids lived in the water while we were there, and even the grown ups (myself included) spent a lot of time in the water.

We had a great time with Deana and Rob, and the kids all got along really well, which always makes me happy.  Age wise, she is right between their little girls Olivia and Alena.  They all ran around together (usually in groups of two... the mystery of why groups of three NEVER work out with little or big girls goes on and on....) and Derrin was able to hang out with their son Tyler.  All of them had a great time:)

Kloe and Alena seem to have a lot of similarities.  Same sense of humor and that little splash of crazy that makes us wonder what we are going to have going on once teenhood sets in.

I came up out of the lake at one point to dry off on the beach, and Derrick was smiling about something.  When I asked him what was up, he told me that the little girls had run over to him and told him very seriously that there was a headstone on the beach. 

He laughed, thinking their imaginations were going wild (not an uncalled for assumption, actually), and said he was pretty sure that there weren't any headstones on the beach.  They insisted that not only was there a headstone, but you could actually see stones around a grave.  When he again said he didn't think that graves and headstones would be allowed at the beach, they asked him if he'd like to see it. 

Looking Oh So Sad

He agreed, and as they let him to a stone sticking up that really did, strangely enough, look like a headstone.  He was thinking that was weird, he could have sworn there wouldn't be an actual headstone, but then he looked closer and saw the name on the stone was HIS (in little kid handwriting), and the girls were behind him giggling. 

There is no way to tell that story without sounding morbid, but I tell you, this is SO FUNNY.  No one EVER tricks Derrick, but because of their perfect delivery, these two little monkeys pulled a bit of a fast one on him!  I laughed so hard when he told me the story:) If it is a flash of what we have to look forward to when they get older, we'd better hold on to our hats.

Anyways, we will have to remember weekends like this one to get us through the winter.

Even a cold water wuss like me could get in the water!

Olivia's night art around a campfire