September

September means back to school, soccer, and the weather changing.  We did all of those things.  The biggest news around the Clark house is that TREY STARTED KINDERGARTEN!!!

The last few days before school started included some important requirements...

Backyard camping with Dad

Morning park trip with Mom

Last summer playdate with Ana

Love watching these two kids love their books, 

just like their parents.

Trey's first day of school was my first day of school, but I was lucky that my principal let me come in an hour or so late so that I could walk him to his classroom (definitely a benefit of being a specialist and not having my own classroom).  I thought I would be sad, but maybe because there was so much anticipation building up to the big day, I wasn't.

Trey had met his teacher, Mrs. Moon, during an open house the week before and seen his classroom, so he walked in comfortably and said hello.  She told him what to do with his things and how to choose a desk.  It was crazy for me to see my baby boy settling in to his new kindergarten class.  How did this happen???

Obligatory family shot on the first day of kindergarten!

Trey joined a soccer team with some other kindergarten students from our neighborhood.  Most go to Errol Hassell, but some go to other private or charter schools in the area.  It turned out that three of the boys are in his class, so it was fun for both of us to have familiar faces on the first day.  Trey enjoyed going to soccer practice, but he was never a fan of the games.  I think he's not an aggressive enough boy to get in the middle of things and try to kick the ball, and he doesn't care enough to play defense.  Let's just say that soccer is not his game.

A rare moment when Trey's feet and the soccer ball were near each other

Ditto

One of my favorite pictures of Trey's soccer season.  

As you can see, the team is in one part of the field,

and Trey is going the opposite direction.

Classic.

One week Trey's coach was out of town, and Trey volunteered Randy to fill in.  

As you can imagine, Randy was thrilled.

Here's another classic shot.

Trey's team was on one side of the field,

and he was on the other spinning in circles with his arms out.

One weekend we met Mindy and Camille at the Children's Museum.  My membership has run out, and I think if I renew this may be the last year we join.  Does anyone know how old kids are when they stop enjoying the Children's Museum?

Camille and Trey, with face paint, practicing the selfie

If you haven't learned, we spend a lot of time with Grady and Case.  Julie and I are so lucky to live a mile apart so that we can see each other all of the time.  So lucky.

Julie and I took Grady and Trey to go see Wild Kratts Live.  It's a great animal show on PBS, and both boys really like this show.  Trey was sort of over it by the time we went to see the live show, but he still enjoyed it.

Trey's latest obsession, which apparently started in September, is to take pictures and videos.  I have to erase multiple pictures each time he gets his paws on my phone (yesterday I erased 146 pictures that he took at dinner on Monday night).  He loves taking videos as well and dreams of being just like the folks on Hobby Kids TV on YouTube.  Every so often, we get a keeper (or at least something that resembles a keeper), and I like these two unposed shots of us hanging out on our deck one September night.  We won't spend much time out there again until spring, but it is one of our favorite places to be when the weather is nice.

One final hoorah

For the last weekend of summer, we took a Clark family road trip to Southern Oregon.  It was the only weekend of the summer when I didn't have work commitments, and I just wanted to GET AWAY.  We splurged a little and stayed at a little house on the Rogue River in Gold Hill, Oregon.  I say splurged, but it wasn't much more than a hotel would have cost and we had the luxury of a kitchen and living area.  It was also a great central location to all of the wine tasting and other places we wanted to visit.

When we arrived in Southern Oregon, the sky was blue and the weather was great, as you can see from the picture below.  By the time we left, you couldn't see much to the left or right of you because of the forest fires that were happening across the state and polluting the atmosphere.

Our first stop was a winery right off the freeway.  We were antsy to get out of the car, stretch our legs, and taste some wine from this region of the state.

Blue sky at Del Rio Vineyards

Wine for us and peanut butter for Trey

Trey taking his first photo of us...didn't do too bad of a job, huh?

Trey beginning his love affair with selfies

Trey playing with his toys while I sat on the couch and read my book...

perfect vacation in my book!

The next day we headed out for some wine tasting.  I had a few on my list that I wanted to try after drinking their wine at a southern Oregon wine festival in Portland a few years before.  First we went to Kriselle Cellars.  The wine was okay, but not as wonderful as I remembered.

When people ask how we manage to take Trey wine tasting, we say, "Toys, snacks, and iPad."

I'm sure this view is beautiful on a clear day.

Later that day we went to a brewpub in Ashland and then went to the Scienceworks Museum in Ashland.  It was a great hands-on museum and we all had fun.  After that we went to meet Dora and her husband at Caldera Brewing for dinner.  It was a full and fun day!

Ginormous bubbles!

Human kaleidoscope!

The sky - a little different than when we arrived.

We decided to take a spontaneous roadtrip to see the Redwoods.  While I'm glad we went, it was a long drive for a short visit, and I wish we would have planned it a little better (opposite of spontaneity, I guess).  Also, some of our routes were shut down due to the fires, so that part we could not have expected.

Randy looking under rocks, as he always does when we are near a river

Back at our little house on the river...Trey and Randy did some fishing and I did some reading.  It was a glorious end to our trip, and I think we all enjoyed it.

Last weeks of summer

Conveniently, summer school ended on my birthday weekend.  I put in a lot of time in the 10 days leading up to finals (A LOT) and was able to turn in my last final exam on Saturday morning.  I don't even want to know how many pages I read and wrote in those last two weeks.  Randy and I celebrated by going to buy a new car!!!

Trey likes our new car too.  It was a great decision for us with all of the miles I commute for work.  On a drive I took last week I got 47.5 average miles per gallon on the drive which is over double what I got in the Subaru.

Our brand new Prius had ONE MILE on it when we got it!

On the Saturday night after I turned in my last final, Trey's karate school was having a Parents' Night Out event where we could drop him off to play for two hours.  He was really excited about the bounce house, so he was game to try it out.  We dropped him off and went to Decarli for a celebratory dinner - we decided we were celebrating the end of summer school, buying a new car, my birthday, and our anniversary all at once.

Trey and his favorite - the bounce house

One of our favorite brewfests is the Organic Brew Fest that is usually at the end of June.  This year it got rescheduled for my birthday weekend, so we met some friends there on Sunday afternoon.  Somehow I walked away with zero pictures!

That night Kris and John came over for dinner and we grilled up short ribs from Gartner's, one of my favorites.  We proceeded to drink a lot of delicious wine and play a lot of Yahtzee and Uno after Trey went to bed.  It was the perfect night.

The following week was my last real week of summer, and I wanted to live it up.  Trey and I were very busy and did a lot of fun things which included Pump It Up Jr, going to see Inside Out again, the Children's Museum, Oaks Park with Mindy and Camille, and lots of other fun things.

Trey at Pump It Up Jr.

Fun at the Children's Museum

Swimming with Daddy at Dave's pool

This is our third summer of going to preschool days at Oaks Park Amusement Park.  Trey was way more adventurous this year than last and even went on several of the rides alone with Camille.  No parents!  Even the roller coaster!  I was so impressed.

Unfortunately, the one ride he wanted me to join him on was the Tilt-a-Whirl.
As we were finishing up, I was telling the ride operator, "Anytime..." and "I'm ready to get off," because I was afraid I was going to throw up.  I don't know if he heard me or not, but the ride eventually stopped.  Thank God.

Trey and Camille in the red car of the roller coaster

All by themselves!!

I took a Collaborative Problem Solving class in the week before school started and was relieved that the class was really good.  It always sucks when you give up summer days for a crappy class.  I took a walk during my lunch break and got to enjoy some pretty scenery.

Last weekend we had the Kopplins over for dinner and the boys enjoyed making s'mores on the grill after dinner was done.

Trey has joined a soccer team that has boys who are going into kindergarten at his school.  We have learned that three of the boys are going to be in his class, so we are both excited about that.  I primarily had him join this team so I could meet some parents from his school, and so far that has been a success.  Trey's not a huge fan of soccer, so I don't see this becoming a life long sport for him.

On Friday night Randy and I went to see Kid Rock in concert.  I love Kid Rock!!!  The show was great, and I loved seeing him up there performing.  I also think it may be the only concert in our lives that we were both excited to see.

One last summer popsicle shot... love these three blondies.