Photography Keepsakes

Today was the first day of 2nd grade for Abigail and the first day of kindergarten for Grace. They were more than a little bit excited. The morning started off interesting enough. Actually the interesting part of it started last night when neither Julie nor I were able to sleep. Our schedules have been so out of whack — staying up so late — that we weren’t able to go to bed. So that was a little rough. Then, at about 6:30, I got a call from concerning an emergency with one of our databases. So in between trying to quell that fire and trying to get everyone ready, it was a little hectic.

In the end, though, everyone got off OK and everything went well. The girls looked cute and excited. I posted some pictures out on Flickr:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/midder/

Yesterday we were able to see Grandma Kay and Aunt Susi. Grandma looked great and it’s always exciting to see Susi. Maybe Uncle Mikey will make it down one of these days as well, grumpy old man that he is. Or maybe we’ll even make it up to Moab. He says he wants people to visit, but I’m afraid he’d only be good for a day or so before he’d want us to leave. Maybe we’ll test him out.

We decided that Lucy has been in diapers long enough and that it was time to start potty training. It’s been a mild success — she’s actually done very well. The girl needs something to hold her attention, and this sometimes does and sometimes doesn’t. Overall, though, it’s been good.

This is the week that my dad has a share on a Lake Powell houseboat. The boat is called Going My Way, and we’ve been going its way for many years. I think my mom and dad have been going its way for nearly 20 years, which is hard to imagine. Of course they always went during the week of my birthday growing up, which has been the root cause for much counseling ever since. But I digress . . . We decided not to go this year. We realized sometime during the week when Gwenyth was on her 3rd hour of screaming and Lucy just created a puddle in the bathroom that it probably wasn’t going to be our year. It might take the rest of the family another 20 years to recover from that type of a trip, not to mention the “what’s wrong with Brian’s kids?” sentiment they’d all harbor for at least that long. So we’re home.

I put a bunch of new pictures up, mostly of Lucy. There are a few at our Potty Party, which was quite the hit. We were celebrating the donning of “big girl pants.” Very exciting. The pictures are here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/midder/

or you should be able to see them to the right.

Tomorrow, Grandma Eslin has volunteered to take Abigail and Grace overnight before they start school next week. We’re going to Erawan before hand. 🙂

There’s always something going on, always somewhere to go. It’s been a busy few weeks or so. Some friends, Ryan and Sherri Steele, are moving to Tucson next week. We had them and Aaron and Krisanne over on Friday. It was a good time. Saturday was Elsie’s 1st birthday party at Janene’s house. I think that Heather and Cleine know more people than I ever will. There were quite a few people there.

Abigail and Grace are gearing up for school. Abby’s been telling me for 3 weeks that her school starts in 2 weeks. So it’s coming up soon, I guess. Gwen is growing. Lucy is Lucy. And Julie and I are trying to keep up. Meanwhile it finally got below 100 a few days ago. I think we’ve had 3 days in a row now, and the next few days look about the same. Still no measurable rain, but we’ll take it for now.
There are a few new pictures here.