A boy and his bike

This is Kurt - Michelle has recruited me to do some of these posts now. Today is officially my last day of my long vacation from school and we've had a great month off. For a little background, since I've been in school, we go somewhere every time I have a week off, so a month with no trip is new to us. We've gotten a lot done - the house cleaned, carpets steamed, cars cleaned, finished the fence and stained it, etc.

On to the topic of the post - Lincoln has been asking to take his training wheels off his bike ever since I took them of Natalie's. Unfortunately, Natalie hasn't had much success with the whole balancing part and so she hasn't ridden her bike for a while. I kept putting Lincoln off to avoid having two kids struggling to ride their bikes and being forever banished to bending over, running behind a child that isn't close to being able to ride his/her bike. I may be selfish, lazy, or whatever, but after about 10 minutes of running bent over I'm done but the child never is.

Well, a couple of weeks ago Lincoln approached me again and I decided to let him try. He had really shown an uncanny ability to balance on the little scooter we have so outside we went.

We took off the wheels (he was really excited we were using the tools on HIS bike) and I took him over to the park next door where the grass would soften his landing. I put him on and we got going. After about 10 feet I don't know why, but I let go. Much to my suprise, he rode another 25 feet before falling. I had stopped walking when I let go and when he looked back at me, he realized what had just happened and started laughing. We went out to the road and he really took off. By the end of the hour he was riding up and down curbs, in circles, and he even rode down the hill to the bottom of our subdivision - which is pretty steep. Of course, it wasn't all fun and games. At one point when he was still trying to learn how to get the bike started on his own he was crying every 30 seconds so Michelle had to put the bike up. I came back outside and explained that he could have the bike as long as he understood the rule that as long as he has his bike, NO CRYING IS ALLOWED NO MATTER WHAT HAPPENS. I wonder what the psychologists would say about that rule. Since I made it up, things have been great. Of course, we are all excited for him and now all he wants to do is ride his bike. It's just too bad the rains started this week and it may not be sunny until next June..........

Go Cougars! I mean Huskies! No Cougars!

Kurt and I had sooo much fun at the BYU vs UW game on Saturday. I wanted to paint my face half purple and half blue but Kurt wouldn't let me! We were sitting with all our fellow alumni from BYU some from church and some from dental school. I have to say I haven't been to a more fun game since the BYU UTAH game I went to with K and my parents. Kurt was hoarse on Sunday between yelling at the refs and for the touchdowns. Too fun. The kids were at the zoo with our wonderful great awesome friends the Morgans. They came home with posters, tatoos, stickers, flamingo visers, and bubbles.

sharpening pencils

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Natalie started school this week. Kurt made her a giant minnie mouse pancake. That morning I was going over her list of supplies she's supposed to bring and we realized that her list specifies a 24 pack of SHARPENED no 2 pencils. So we busted out the new sharpener and the kids had so much fun. Natalie was so excited. She was planning to take the bus but changed her mind and asked dad to take her that morning. Kurt and Lincoln went since L had a check-up with the dr. that morning that K was taking him since I needed to be here to b-sit for a friend. They were so cute when they left. Natalie has two of her neighborhood friends in the class and also her favorite school friend from last year. She also got to bring pikachu with her to show the class as the teacher assigned the kids to bring one thing the first day that helps others learn about them. Pikachu? Oh well she was so happy to take him. Whatever. From what i got out of her when she got home she seemed to love her teacher and first day of first grade. I'm still getting used to having a kid in school all day long.

So when they all left it was just me and Maya. It was so quiet. And kind-of peaceful. Maya cried when they left but I distracted her quickly with her dolls and pretty soon we were just playing in her room. She started rocking on her big rocking chair then stopped it suddenly and looked at me and said, "mommy home." then I agreed, "yep mommy is home" and she went back to rocking. It was one of those I'm so glad I get to be home with my kids moment. It meant a lot to me. Thanks Maya for noticing.

park days with the ward moms

Kurt's white coat ceremony

summer has been so funa nd went by too fast. I would say it's been busy but that would imply that I didn't sit around in the backyard by the kids pool or sit and read while the kids played at the park and i definitely got to do those things. It's been full. Full is a good word because I feel like we have made some really great friends and have been enjoying our ward callings and other hobbies. I guess Kurt might say busy though. He took the boards and passed! Yeah!

I have pictures of it all but I don't know how to put a picture on and then write about it underneath without making a new post. . .I know I'm a sad little blogger.

Oh well, here's what we did:
-T-ball with the YMCA for lincoln and Natalie--very fun and entertaining.
-Carol and Allen and kids--canoes, beach, zoo, beach, motorcycle shopping with Allen : )
-Adele and Josh came up for a week--hikes, beach, space needle, mariners game, pikes place, shopping, canoeing, hiking, snoqualmie falls, (i'm sure I missed something we did a ton!)
Kurt's white coat ceremony. They recognize the change from didactic learning to practical application by presenting the students with a white coat. He is now an official student doctor who will be practicing on patients. I'm so proud!
-Thursday park days with Aimee and Jillian. We go together and meet the rest of the moms at different parks or beaches in the area. It's so fun to see how much is just around the corner from us here. The perks to living in a big city.
there's more but seriously I'm just going to have to save things for a different post.