Fall?

Its amazing to me that Halloween is only two weeks away

It's hard to believe its fall

Most days the kids run around in shorts

And the water park is still a frequent destination

And afternoons are enjoyed on the beach

  The leaves haven't changed 

And I am not sure if they will

Its different and feels a little weird sometimes

But its a good weird  

Checking in

Hmmm... Where to start?
Its been busy since I last checked in here

The craziness of moving 2,760 miles has slowly worn off
And this place is feeling much less like vacation
and more and more like home

The kids are adjusting amazingly well
They love it here
William and Bri started school at the beginning of the month
We home schooled William for a year and a half so it was an adjustment
But he is doing well and has made lots of new friends

Bri is going to preschool 3 days a week in the morning
I must have gone back and forth 100 times
if I should send her or keep her home another year
But she loves school and her teacher
So I'm happy

And its given me a little time during the day
That it is just me and David
We have never really had 1 on 1 time together before
So its really nice doing things with just the two of us

I am sure there is a ton that I am not thinking of
But I just want to stop by and give a quick update
I have so many photos to post but I don't want to overwhelm this post
So check out my Flickr on the right sidebar
and you can see some of what we have been up to

splish splash

Weekendness

beach day

Today was our first real beach day
And it was so nice
Its a lot closer then the beach was when we lived on the east coast
So I think we will be visiting pretty frequently
Now that I know how to get there and all

Its funny the little differences between the beach here and back east
For one the water is sooo much colder then it is in Jersey

William was fearless and splashed around
But there is no way you will catch me in there past my ankles anytime soon

Also the water is so blue here
I'm used to a greener hued ocean

And the sand seems to be much coarser
But maybe that was just the beach we were on today
I don't know 

And I just can't get over the mountains
I feel like everywhere I look there are big beautiful mountains
Even at the beach!

Out West!

We are finally in our new home
Things are starting to get settled
I love our new house so much more then I expected
The location is amazing
Mountain views in just about every direction
The weather is perfect
70 degrees everyday so far and sunny

 The kids love it
They have lots of outside space to run
And the weather is so nice here is can actually use it
Back east there were maybe 3 months of the year
that we really spent our days outside
So they are really excited

The trip out here was long
But I was so amazed at how well the kids handled it
8+ hours of driving a day with 3 kids and a dog was a lot
but we made it here and it was so worth it

~near and far~

You can here crickets chirping
Its been so quite around here
In this little corner of the blog world
So I thought I would pop in really quick and give a little update 
We are in the process of a BIG move
Right now I am packing all of our belongings
And in a few short days we will be leaving on the adventure of our lifetime
We will be driving almost 3,000 miles to our new home
I am so excited and nervous at the same time

I can't wait to share this part of our journey with you guys
Hopefully we will have some wifi on the road
But if not I will have lots to share
when we arrive on the other side of the country next week!

look who's 7!!

We had a great day at Will's favorite playground
I didn't bring my camera because I wanted it to be all about him
It can be a distraction,
taking pictures
Everything viewed through a little rectangle
Its amazing how panoramic reality is
Sometimes you just have to step back
to see it

We had gluten-free brownies with almond ice cream for dessert
(not a bowl of fire as it appears in the photos)
It was my first successful gluten-free baking experience
After 2 years of failure it was a welcomed surprise
All in all it was a great relaxed day
I am still in shock that I have a 7 year old!

Toddler

It feels like this little boy went from baby to toddler overnight 

I'm not sure I'm ready for it