First week of School

Hi Everyone

All has gone extremely well so far and we are on day 3 of school. The children are excited each morning, which is great, and the house is looking a lot cleaner! Jacob had to skip into first grade, or he would have been in with Abi. All seems fine. We have a back to school night for him in a week or so so I'll find out more then. I've included a photo of them on the steps from Monday.

Did lots of drive throughs yesterday. Not sure if you have all of these in the UK:
drive through bank, pharmacy, liquor store, Starbucks. I don't normally visit these all in one day so it was a bit strange!

Also Jacob was having a cuddle in bed this morning and said laying on me was like laying on a warm beanbag. Today I am off to the gym!

Labor Day here this coming weekend so we're trying to decide what to so. Have booked for Disney California in October. I will not be telling the children until we are in the car to go though!

Hope all's well

Rachael.

Our Visit To Arizona

Hi All

While Allen was away in the UK I decided to go to visit our friend Carrie. We first met Carrie in DC as Jake was in preschool with Jacob. They then moved to Denver and we visited each time we came out on holiday here. Then, as we moved here, they moved to Page, Arizona. We visited them last October and camped at Easter in Zion National Park. We all get on very well and once again the trip was great fun and actually quite relaxing (hope Carrie felt the same!). It was an 11 hour drive there which I decided to do in one go. Jacob and Abi were pretty good, mainly due to the DVD players and Mc Donalds stops. We spent most of our time at the beach on Lake Powell. Luckily Carrie has friends who own a boat so we had a day on the Lake - the Lake is about 400 miles long so we got to see a small part of it. I've included photos of Carrie and Jake with an arch behind called Rachael's Arch. Also one of Abi, Jacob and Annie swimming. We also did a hike to Horseshoe bend. A look out point that shows a horse shoe bend in the Colorado River. The children loved it, they generally ran there and back. I've included a photo to try and show the amazing scenery.

After 4 nights and three days we drove back. Unfortunately it took 14 hours to get back due to traffic and the engine of our mini van blowing up (a mini van is a people carrier). I dumped the car in Denver and luckily Allen was back and could pick us all up. The garage said it would cost between $3000 and $5000 to fix so we decided to sell it for scrap as it looks like we'll be leaving sooner than we thought for (maybe as early as Jan 09). I'm happy that Allen will be promoted but would like the children to finish the school year.

Speaking of school Jacob had a hair cut today - see photo. He's so excited about starting school. We've had to jump him a year as Jacob and Abi would have been put in the same class and that would have been a nightmare for all concerned. Academically he'll be fine, but emotionally it may be tough! Back to school BBQ tomorrow and first day Monday - hooray! Abi is strangely quiet on the school front. I'm not sure she wants to go full time so we'll see what happens next week.

So it's the end of the summer for us, very weird but we are really looking forward to Mum and Dad arriving. We have loads planned which now involves hiring big cars too as we're going to try being a one car family for a bit. Luckily our friendly neighbours have a spare 7 seater we can borrow.

Hope everyone's well and have also had a great summer.

Maybe seeing you in January

Rachael.

PS I will try a video clip again but if you can't view it go to Carrie blog at:
www.sweatlands.blogspot.com/ and you will see Jaocb and Abi on that.

21 again?

Hi

I had a lovely birthday on Wednesday. It started with Abi bursting through the bedroom door shouting 37 today! Closely followed by Happy Birthday sung by my three favourite people and at lastly a cup of coffee! Jacob and Abi had been to Colour me Mine with Allen and painted some pottery items. Jacob chose a heart shaped box and painted a transformer on the top! Abi chose a handbag shaped money box. Once I'd opened it she hurried off to put her money in it! They were great gifts. I'm getting golf lessons from everyone else so, perhaps, Allen and I can venture out on the golf course together without me trying to knock his head off with the club.

Allen and I dropped the kids at zoo camp and then went out for coffee and cake. I had a crappy magazine to read and spent the next 2 hours enjoying the peace and reading about the Jolie Pitt twins. Having picked up the children we then had a picnic followed by ice cream at a very nice place that makes it's own ice cream on the premises. Later we ordered Chinese Take away and I made raspberry champagne cocktails that were tasty. A relaxing day all in all. The photos are off blowing out the candles and flowers my sister sent - thank you very much Katharine and co.

All's well, Jacob's eyes are healing nicely, we can finally swim on Tuesday. Allen leaves for the UK tomorrow - Saturday. Jacob's in school camp next week and Abi does 2 days at ballet camp. It's a Snow White theme - the only outfit we don't have. She's very excited about it all. Next Saturday me and the children are off to visit Carrie in Page, Arizona. We can't wait to see them all.

Hope everyone's well

Rachael.