Carlie & Bubbles

Just some fun pictures of the kids outside. I'll post more of Alex & Kendalls waterfight later!

My 1st post Reunion goal...

I've posted a lot this month, so I figured what's one more? My first goal inspired by the 20 year reunion is to get back into running, so, here it is for the world to see! (or at least my invitees to the blog ;o) ) I'm going to run in the Denver 1/2 marathon Oct 19th. I'd better get training! Now you all know and can give me a hard time if I'm slacking off!

Tornado!

We had another tornado! It doesn't look like much from this photo, (the top pic was from the news) but it made the news, and MSN too! (you can barely see the lt brown column going up in the middle) One was a mile wide, and not too far from us. We're used to getting tornado watches, but not many warnings. I was at the club working out when this one hit. We were all ordered into the locker rooms. Of course no one wanted to go to the lockers, instead we all gathered at the large plate glass windows to try to see funnels, to the dismay of the highly trained "in the event of a tornado" staff. Several members ran outside to stand on the hill to watch the funnel that kept peeping out of the clouds above the gym. Again, to the dismay of the now close to panicked staff. The locker rooms were no fun. (they eventually herded us that way) They were full of crying kids from the daycare trying to find dad, in the womens locker area. After 20 minutes they said they would no longer hold us hostage, we are free to go. The warning was still in effect, so leave at your own risk, or stay in the safest place possible, the locker rooms. Of course everyone left. Driving home I saw streets lined with people taking pictures standing on top of cars, and sitting on fences. You can tell we all panicked at the sight of a tornado!

The DNC

Thursday will be Barack Obama's acceptance speech at Invesco Field for the Democratic National Convention. Scott, in typical Scott fashion, has rounded up tickets, in a box, next to Hillary Clinton, for the speech. Alex and Scott will be attending the speech. How cool of a story will that be to one day tell Alex's kids? I was at the acceptance speech for the first black Democratic Presidential nominee, maybe she can even say the first black president. I'll update you all on how it goes!

Update: Alex had a lot of fun at the convention. She thought Barack was amazing! She said she wants him to win in November over Mccain. I asked her "why do you want him to win?" She said: "because he had a really good speeech". I asked her: "what is it that Barack believes in that you really believe in?" She said her dad likes him and is going to vote for him. Hmmmm, so I asked her: "what don't you like about Mccain?" Again no answer. Let this be a lesson for us all! I told her she needs to always check out both sides and do her research before making any major decisions. I said you make up your own mind, don't be like a sheep and blindly follow the guy in front of you. I told her I don't care who you like, or don't like, just so long as it's YOUR choice, not anyone elses. I hope she gets it. I hope America gets it!

In Preparation for School.....

OK, backing up a little to the day before school. There was a lot going on to write about, so here I go! First of all, Alex had to get a few things done before school. We'd already done the mega, fight our way to the last purple, wide ruled, 70 page notebook, shopping trip. The school is very specific about what colors, sizes etc to buy. (By the way, I lost that fight!) Alex's "green" notebook is brown, with a picture of a puppy on it. BUT, the puppy is sitting on green grass. It'll have to do. The others are similar in that you have to have a little creativity and imagination to see which notebook is which. Since that was all done last week, I had time to go beg in the streets for money to have everyone get haircuts. (joking, but I felt like it! School is expensive!)

Carlie got her first haircut ever. She was so cute! She had to hold my hand the whole time, and asked if it'd hurt. We told her no, and she seemed ok with that. She still wanted princess hair, specifically Cinderella, so we just got a trim. As you can see by the picture, she then got a french twist to have Cinderella "at the Ball" hair. The suckers they had really helped, I hardly heard a word from her the whole time!

Alex wanted something more radical than a trim. She ended up with bangs, and highlights. She looks great!

After haircuts, including my cut, and Kendall's bang trim, we headed for lunch at Pannera. Everyone's favorite! What a day out with the girls. I thought by now Carlie would be ready for a nap, (hair took 2 hours) but she seemed to be holding up pretty well. We decided to go get a back to school outfit for Alex. We headed to Kohls, and after a lot of looking we found "the outfit!" (and Carlie found Star Wars swords) The kids were doing great, but I was tired! We headed home, ready and stylin' for the new school year!

Alex's First Day of School

Alex went back to school today as a 5th grader! This is important, she's one of the "big dogs" in school now. Here elementary, High Plains, goes k through 5th. After that she's in Middle school. I can't believe she's so big! Alex was pretty nervous about which class she'd end up in. Apparently there's a mean teacher in 5th grade that everyone trys to steer clear of. After last year of a mean teacher, I don't think either one of us could take another year of it. Well, I took her to school early this morning so I could walk her in and get here all set up. (and to carry her super heavy bookbag, with a years worth of pencils, paper etc...) First thing we found out is that she has a nice teacher! Yea! Then came the bad news, her best friend Lindsey isn't at High Plains this year. Hopefully she'll make a bunch of new friends. Here is a picture of her on her first day.

My picture of some Rebar

More Pictures from walks...