Father's Day/Idaho X Sports

For Father's Day we took a short drive to Garden Valley, Idaho to go to an adventure park a friend told me about. The place was called Idaho X Sports and it had a summer sled hill!  Sounded like fun so we headed out. Lucky for us we were literally the only ones there.  We had the entire sled hill to ourselves.  Grady had a great time on the sled hill, Graham was distraught that he didn't meet the height requirement and both boys jumped their hearts out.  We enjoyed a nice picnic in the afternoon Idaho sun, a perfect day.  I love that there are so many new places to explore right in our backyard and that we don't have to spend three hours in traffic to get there.  Idaho love!  Daddy love!  A great little family adventure.

From my car window, just no place like home. 

Chris and I even did flips on the trampoline jumpy thing and I found the first thing that I am better at than he is, even if it is because I don't have man parts that aren't comfortable in a harness, I will take it!

Chris is so sweet with the boys when opening gifts.  He makes them feel like they picked out the perfect gift for him.  He is a great daddy and we are so thankful to have him!

Preschool

As we are solidly into Grady's second year of preschool, I figured putting up preschool graduation pictures from last year seems fitting (and completely timely) - ha! One day I will get back on top of this blog, but until then I am not going to beat myself up and I am just going to slowly catch up.

Grady's preschool graduation was adorable.  Some moms and dad's were literally weeping.  While I am typically a weeper, I was not in tears, I was just incredibly happy and proud.  Grady has come a long way in terms of academic and social development.  He had a cast of teachers who showed him more love than I ever thought possible. Every morning Grady was greeted with a huge hug and words of encouragement for how well he did on his homework (a maze or tracing letters).  Having his best bud and favorite person Cameron in the class doesn't hurt either.   We LOVE Eagle Christian Preschool.

Special Day Plate for last day or preschool

Clean Plate Club

BFFs

 They did the pledge of allegiance of the days of the week dance to the Adams Family theme song.

This is the kind of love this boy gets every day.  How lucky are we!

Grady discovered the Oreos at the snack table and gladly helped himself many-a-time over.

Traditional last day of school treat, following Oreo engorgement

Year two of preschool has been even better.   Grady is gaining even more confidence, making friends, learning a lot, and laughing every day.  Grady is not a "school kid" like I was so sometimes I find myself wishing that he'd have the desire to impress teachers like I did, but then I realize that I need to follow his lead and if he has confidence without having to feel validated by an outside source he'll probably be all the better for it. Even though Grady is not the top of class in terms of academics, his teachers adore him and celebrate everything that makes him special.  I am told that they go home almost every day with some funny story about Grady and that he gets their adult sarcasm. Recently Grady announced to us that "he loves math."  Math at 4 consists of counting and simple "take away" and addition problems, but when found him outside trying to draw math problems with his sidewalk chalk recently I thought maybe he really does love math.  Mrs. Sue also showed him a special way to draw a 5 and I found about one hundred 5s all around our house.   It is awesome to see him find his own thing and make his own path and I am just so grateful that he has such a safe, fun, and challenging place to start doing that.  If I could send him to college at Eagle Christian Preschool, I would. Love our preschool and our preschooler.  Keep being you, Grady!

Getting some energy out before heading to the first day pf Pre-K2 and desk sitting for this boy.  Sitting still is not his strength, but jumping might be!

A natural smile for that traditional first day photo. 

Daddy Love

Instead of whining about far behind I am on my blog, I am going to say that sometimes things just happen for a reason. Maybe there is a reason I hadn't yet finished this blog about daddy.  Maybe my heart has recently began to have heart overload in a new and different way for this man who I call my husband and my children call dad, daddy, and daddiola.

How I got so lucky to have Chris in my life, I will never know or understand, but I will always be grateful.   He is a wonderful husband, a fantastic daddy, and just a really good human being.  I wish I did a better job of celebrating him and expressing how grateful I am that he is mine and that I am his and how thankful I am that we have the privilege of growing our family together. I should tell him these things every day, but instead two careers and two crazy kids sometimes has a way of leaving me with only the words "I love you." Those are nice words and those words are necessary and a part of our daily vocabulary, but because of the their frequency and the habitual way we often utter the words, they also don't really quite do justice to the way I feel about Chris when I really take time to reflect on what he is to me.  Today and every day, I love Chris, but I also appreciate him, learn from him, think he is funny, think he is hot, admire him, trust him, respect him, look at him with amazement, wonder how he can accomplish so much in a day, feel encouraged by him, seek his advice, and take comfort in him.  I have so much more than love for this man, I have heart overload for him.

Happy father's day daddy!

Happy birthday daddy.  The third week of June is officially daddy's week!

We love you so much, Chris.  Thank you for giving us so much.