3rd Grade!

Spencer's first day of 3rd Grade was on September 6th.  He wasn't quite as excited about starting school as he has been in the past.  I think it was because I tried to pack too many swimming lessons into the summer and he didn't have enough time to relax and play.  I need to remember that for next summer!

Spencer is in Mrs. Hill's class this year and was excited that he finally got to move upstairs in the school building.  He has several boys from our ward in his class, including his peanut allergy buddy who has been in his class every year since kindergarten. 

So far, things have been going very well.  This is only Mrs. Hill's second year of teaching, but she is enthusiastic and willing to work hard to make sure Spencer is being challenged.  Our district's TAG program is pretty much non-existent because they want the teachers to do all of the extensions.  A good idea in theory, but so difficult to put into practice.  So far, I get more bugged than Spencer does when the work is too easy for him.  I'm glad he doesn't mind it too much, but I worry about him not learning how to work hard in school.  I joined a parent group that advocates for challenging education this fall and am hoping to learn how I can better advocate for Spencer in the classroom.

Anyway, Spencer came down with one of his coughs on Labor Day, the day before school started.  I knew he would be crushed to miss the first day so I sent him to school despite my better judgement.  When he crashed onto the couch after school and slept for 1.5 hours, I knew he wouldn't need to stay home the next day.  Spencer cried about it a little, but was ok when I let him get a movie from the library and watch it in a blanket fort in the living room.  I love the simple things that make him happy!  He was still coughing on the third day of school, but I sent him anyway and he did alright the rest of the week.

1st Cub Camp!

Flashback to July!  Spencer got to go to his first Cub Scout Day Camp during the last week of July.  These pictures were one Alan's phone and I forgot about it until now. :)

Our Troupe went to Camp Ireland in Hillsboro which is the same day camp Alan went to as a Cub Scout!  It was a 5-day camp, from about 8:00-4:00 every day.  A little much for an 8-year-old if you ask me, but Spencer LOVED it!  He came home filthy and exhausted every day. Each family was supposed to provide one adult volunteer during the week.  Because it was hot and I knew I would get a migraine, Alan went for our family.  I think he had a pretty good time too.

The camp had a super hero theme this year so the boys made shields.

Both Alan's and Spencer's favorite activity was the timed obstacle course.  They had a great time competing against themselves and each other. 

A fun group of 8-10 year old boys!  I'm so grateful that Spencer has such a large group of good kids in our ward.

Spencer also liked archery.  He got to do lots of things he had never tried before.

Family Bike Rides

Thanks to my parent's generosity, I got a nice bike for my birthday back in June.  I quickly discovered that I couldn't ride it very often though because my little buddy Mason is almost always with me.  We decided we needed a bike trailer so we could all ride together.  It came in the mail while we were in Utah.

I'm so glad I have a handy husband to put stuff like this together for me!

We tested it out a little on the street in front of our house and Mason loved it.  He didn't want to stop!  So we planned a family bike ride and picnic at Champoeg National Park about 20 minutes south of us.  I didn't take a single picture that evening so words will have to suffice.

It was almost 90 degrees outside on the evening we had set aside to go, but we decided to go anyway because Alan doesn't have much free time these days.  We loaded all of the bikes and the trailer into Alan's Dad's pick-up and headed out.  It was hot, but there was lots of shade on the trail so it wasn't too bad. 

We stopped for a yummy picnic dinner about 2 miles into our 8 mile round-trip planned ride.  Mason had fun running around while he was supposed to be eating.  The plan was to ride 4 miles to a store, get ice cream cones, and then ride the 4 miles back to our cars.  There were a lot of hills toward the end of the first half.  I got a good workout pulling Mason and Spencer really struggled with his used bike.  We were almost to the little store, when Spencer's handle bars wiggled loose, bent forward, and he lost control.  Spencer didn't get hurt badly, just a few scrapes, but he was a little shaken up and didn't want to ride anymore.  Alan rode ahead and sadly found that the store was closed so no ice cream cones for us! :(  We didn't have an allen wrench to fix Spencer's handle bars so Alan wound up riding back to the truck and then came to pick us up.  The evening certainly didn't turn out as planned, but it was a memorable first family bike ride!  We keep an allen wrench attached to Spencer's bike now!

Our next family ride was just down to the library one Friday evening.  Sadly again, the library was closed by the time we got there!  We need to get better and checking store hours before we try riding to them!  Neither Alan or I had brought our wallets so we couldn't even get donuts from the little shop attached to our library to make Spencer feel better.  Luckily, we had some ice cream in the freezer.  :)

Not all of our rides have been bad though.  The boys and I have ridden to parks and run errands around town and have had a great time.  It's much faster than running with a jogging stroller!  We're about to the end of nice bike riding weather now, but I'm excited to do more rides next summer.

Utah Trip - On the way home

We decided to take two days getting back home to Oregon so we could stop and spend a little time with Geoff's family in Boise.  They were so nice to feed us and let us take over their rooms for a night on a crazy day that was Tanya's first day working full time!

Geoff made a yummy dinner for us and then we all went swimming at their community pool.  It was a little cool that evening and we had the whole thing to ourselves! 

Geoff's kids are getting so grown-up and it was fun to watch them.  They introduced Spencer to the game of chicken!

Mason had fun until he tripped and scrapped up his knees, again!  He did that about weekly all summer.  He spent the rest of the time watching the kids play while snuggled in a towel.

Braden was really cute with Mason this time.  They played kitchen together for awhile.

Spencer and Kaitlyn played foosball while Alan schooled everyone else in ping pong.

Mason really loved Lexie.  She is a sweet, patient dog!

Thanks so much for letting us stay Geoff and Tayna!  We love to visit your family!

And that was the end of our summer vacation!  It seems like it was super long since it took me two months to blog about it! ;)