First Day of School

I don't know if you've heard, but it is SUPER embarrassing if your Mom walks you to class or even drops you off at the door on your first day of Third Grade. So, obviously we sent our third grader off on the bus all by his independent-self to navigate the first day.

 

 Meanwhile, the Kindergartners started a week later...so we found a few fun things to do together...

 And then they were off to their very first day of Kindergarten!!

 (Kaia left in purple; Ashlyn right in denim).

 Of course after waiting THREE LONG YEARS to ride that bus, the girls wanted to ride with our neighborhood gang on the very first day!

 ...but its still cool for your parents to come to your classroom in Kindergarten, so we also drove over there to take a few pics and say good bye. Kaia & Ashlyn were assigned a seat near each other, but not at the same table. I already love their teacher so so much. Its going to be a great year for these two!

And they made it home safe and sound! What an exciting (and a teensy bit bittersweet) day!

More Summer Fun

Its always hard to say good by to another great summer...my favorite season of all. 

We spent a great 4th of July watching a neighborhood parade and lighting sparklers with good friends...

Took a few trips to Astoria to play with cousins and stay at Grandma & Grandpa's House. 

Always a good vacation spot!

We spend a great weekend Glamping with cousins & enjoying Mt. Hood (in the rain)!

And squeezed in one last camping trip with neighbors to Silver Falls.

 The last week of summer on an especially hot day, we made $9 at our very first lemonade stand. We were pretty busy for the better part of 2 hours, before we ran dry. I learned (from our customers) that the price of lemonade has increased above our asking price of 25 cents.

Good Bye Summer! We are off to school...

Road Trip Part 4: Crater Lake & Safari Park

 After tent camping for 3 nights, we were ready for some restaurant food & hot showers! Our last night we stayed at the Crater Lake Lodge. The lake was huge, blue, and the ground was still covered with snow. The food was amazing and the showers were exceptional. The gift shop had a few nice souvenirs and the hot chocolate served outside on the desk was *almost* enough to encourage the kids to stay up late to watch for stars.

 The next morning we made our last stop at the Safari Park on the way home. A first for all of us!

 Lots of close encounters. This giraffe came so close and looked right down through our sunroof while we slowly drove by.

 

Last, but not least we decided that our dirty, filthy car need to get cleaned before we headed home. Fortunately this task was right up George's alley...

As it turns out Elephants are great at getting cars wet, but not so great at getting dirt out of every TEENY TINY nook & cranny of a car. However, it was the most fun car wash we have ever been in!

Road Trip Part 3: Fern Canyon

One of our very favorite days on this trip was a day-trip to Fern Canyon & the hike through the canyon. Advice to parents of children who do not especially like to "go hiking" : Strap on some water shoes and find a hike IN A STREAM. Its pretty much the best type of hiking around. Just ask the Cunningham Kids...

 This was everyone's very favorite day of the trip!  Especially this particular eight year old who loves the out-of-doors. He would have hiked, splashed, crawled over logs, and explored ALL DAY AND NIGHT if we would have had more time here.

 Then to top off an already great day, we drove through a tree. So, there's that item to cross off the bucket list!

Road Trip Part 2: Redwood Forest

Our next stop was the California Redwood Forest. Land of the World's Biggest Trees.

 Of course, that means we had to find a redwood stump to build Legos on...obviously.

 RIGHT BY our campsite was the Smith River, which proved to be a great playground for these adventurous kids. We skipped rocks, swam, found treasures, played paddle ball & football on the rocky beach.

 Check out these teeny tiny kids...

 Like all good tourists, we visited the home of Paul Bunyan & the Trees of Mystery.

 And rode the Gondola up the hill to see the *amazing* views of the Great Redwood Forest. (*Note to self: on an overcast day you can't even see the parking lot below...)

 And of course, we all thoroughly enjoyed camping in the great out doors. Apparently we fed these kids too many marshmallows!