First Day of School

Today was Livia's first day of school! She started 2nd grade! I can't believe how big she is getting! She was so nervous and excited last night that she had a hard time sleeping, then this morning, she was so nervous that she had to sit down a few times because she felt nauseous! She was white as a ghost all morning. Even when I dropped her off at school she was still pale, (as you can see in the picture!) I did go back during her lunch break though to make sure she was okay, and sure enough she was. She looked better and was playing with another little girl! Sydney doesn't start her preschool until next week though, so we have been hanging out together!

Garnet Mining

Last weekend we went garnet mining at Emerald Creek in Clarkia, Idaho. It was only about 1 and 1/2 hours from Moscow. Both the girls love rocks and gems, especially Livia! They both have a rock collection, and when they get their allowance, they love going to the gem state store (here in Moscow) and buy nice rocks and gems. It's really cute. So we decided to take them garnet mining. Livia was especially excited because garnets are her birthstone! We found a lot of garnets, and a few really good, light purple ones too. We are going to take a few gems to the gem state store to have tumbled and polished for us. We were so dirty by the end of the day though, and I ended up just throwing the girls' clothes away, because the dirt had a lot of clay in it and stained everything! Good thing we wore grubbies! Here are a few pics from the day:

Here are some of our nicer garnets we found. They look much better held over a light or in the sunshine! It was lots of fun! We will definitely go again next year.

Huckleberry Picking

A few weekends ago, we were able to go huckleberry picking with Mike's mom in Priest River, Idaho. I haven't been huckleberry picking in a few years, so it was nice to get some! We went to an awesome place that was filled with huckleberries! We had very good luck! We picked for about 5 or 6 hours and I got 1 and 1/2 gallons! The girls came with us and did pretty good for the first few hours, but then they "played" the rest of the time while me and Diana picked. Mike wasn't there because he went fishing with his dad up at Priest Lake. It was lots of fun though, and now I have my year supply of huckleberries!!!

For anyone who has ever gone huckleberry picking before, this picture is heaven! All the plants looked like this! Just full of berries!

Don't they look so beautiful!? Here is 6 hours worth of work! For those who aren't familiar with huckleberries, they are a very precious berry. 1 gallon is worth about $40-$45, so we picked about $65 worth! We have been making huckleberry lemonade, pancakes, and I put some in my granola this morning. YUM YUM!

Update on Sydney

Here is the latest on Sydney's Eyes - She had her eye appointment again (every 2 months) and she has had some improvement with her vision. Her vision is now at 20/40, which is EXCELLENT considering she started at 20/200 a year and a half ago. So the patching is definitely working! (Thank Goodness!) However, her progression has slowed way down, so we are still going to continue the patching for 6 hours a day for another 2 months, and if there is still not very much improvement, than we may need to try something more drastic to try to get her vision at 20/20 with glasses. The doctor implied that almost all day patching may be our next step, which I am totally against, so hopefully this will be a good 2 months for Sydney and it won't come to that. I am very grateful that we have gotten her to this point so far though, and that some improvement has occurred. Sydney is such a good sport about it. She hardly every asks if she can take her patch off, and rarely complains; and she is only 4!!! Plus, now when other kids ask her about it (since they do - everywhere!) she answers them and doesn't even mind as much anymore. She is such a good little girl, and I can not wait until she can be done with the patching!!!

Sydney is always begging me to straighten her hair, like Livia's. So, I finally did. She LOVES it straight. She is constantly brushing it and playing with it. (Don't worry, it's not permanant. It goes curly again as soon as we wash it!) :) Here she is with straight hair!

Lemonade Anyone?

The girls have been asking all summer long if they can have a lemonade stand, so I finally said okay! Instead of a stand, we used their wagon so they could walk through the apartments. It was actually really cute and they earned $4.50 each. They were so happy, they loved every minute of it!

We're Back from Oregon!

Okay we are back from Oregon finally! We have actually been home for a little over a week now, but you know how it is... I finally posted some pics of our trip though. I know, it's a lot of pictures, but this is really just a sliver of all the ones we took! We had a blast in Oregon. The girls had so much fun! Their favorite part out of everything, was beach combing! They kept just about every little tiny shell they could find. They even saw a lot of starfish! It was so cool! Here are some pics.

While we were in Newport, Mike bought his very first kite! It was actually pretty fun though. I had never flown a kite that had handles and you could steer! The girls had loads of fun with it as well, especially Sydney! The ocean is a great place to fly a kite!

Here is the Yaquina Head Lighthouse in Newport. It is the oldest lighthouse in Oregon. It was fun to walk to the very top. I lost track of stairs after 83. There were a TON! Good leg workout!

Here we are at the Newport Aquarium. It was a huge highlight from our vacation. The girls loved all the sea life and the hands on stuff there.

Here are a few pics at the Portland Zoo. The weather was so nice while we were in Portland. It was in the 70's, so not too hot and not too cold. The zoo was definitely another highlight. Portland has an awesome zoo.

Here are some pictures of the OMSI (Portland Science Center). Sydney was a little scared of the electronic dinosaurs though, but they both liked how everything was hands on! They even had signs saying, "please touch the bones" and other things. Very funny! They even had a whole prenatal section, with real babies for almost every week of pregnancy. It was a little much for the girls, so we rushed through that room! :) It was a fun afternoon though.

When we got home, they couldn't wait to clean all of their little seashells they found! It was cute.