Big Man on Campus

The big day is finally here. Elliot is a 1st grader. As he was eating breakfast, which was mostly pushing his cereal around because he was too excited, he said to me, "So, I guess I'll see you tomorrow night?" In his mind being at school all day, literally means being at school all day. I already miss him. How can my little boy be in 1st grade, when I remember 1st grade? Mrs. Pearson's scowl is still etched in my brain. Elliot did allow me to walk him to class. I think only because he didn't know where his room was. However, once we got to the door he waved us off and went inside. No hugs, no kisses, no tears . . . at least not from him.

Mom, watch!

Lucy is at such a fun age. She is saying more and more every day. Her favorite word of the moment, besides no, is watch. All day long I hear, "Mom, watch" followed by a somersault, throwing a ball, putting on clothes, jumping and anything else she thinks is awesome. It's pretty cute and is helping to take the edge off of entering the terrible twos.

Sorry, there's no sound! The point of this post was to hear Lucy say, "Mom, watch." But her mom is not that smart with the new technology.

Bear Lake Favorites

We have a family tradition of dicussing our favorite things about trips on our drive home. So here are a few favorites from our latest trip to Bear Lake.

1. Elliot wakeboarding "for reals." He started from deep water and even tried to come back from outside the wake.

2. Tubing galore. The boys and cousins had a blast tubing. The highlight was Aunt Kathy's helicopter wipeout.

3. Minnetonka Cave. We were a little scared when they told us it would take 1 1/2 hours, but were pleasantly surprised by how well all the kids did. Lucy, the firecracker, hiked almost the entire way out by herself. As an added bonus we saw a moose on the drive home. That's a big deal to the Lyon/Spencer spawn.

4. Kathy's deluxe rice crispy treats. Imagine rice crispy treats topped with melted chocolate chips, browned marshmallows and cut up twix bars. Yummy!

5. Elliot being old enough to take Charlie mini-golfing sans parents! We watched them putt away from the comfort of our lawn chairs outside the condo.

6. Bourne marathon with a lil' Nacho on the side. Justin and I watched all 3 Bourne movies (I heart Matt Damon) and then subjected J.D. and Kathy to their first viewing of Nacho Libre. Everyone needs to see this movie with Justin. It is 1,000 times funnier.

7. Beach baby. Lucy loved, loved, loved the beach. She played in the sand and swam in the nasty "pool" someone dug and filled with lake water. I'm sure there were about a thousand disease causing germs in there, but she was so happy I couldn't take her out.

The only downer was missing Morgan and Geoff. They chose China over Bear Lake . . . whatever.

Thanks Nana and Grandpa! The Spencers heart Bear Lake.

Boating and Chocolate

Thanks to Grandpa Joe and the Hogan Expedition, the Spencers have become boaters this summer. Elliot is bound and determined to wakeboard. And thanks to a pretty awesome uncle, who tandem wakeboarded with both boys, and lots of practice Elliot got up last week twice by himself. Now we just have to work on staying up and deep water starts. Charlie tries to get in on the action, but he likes to go slow which doesn't really work.

When it's not Wednesday, our designated boating day, the kids have been playing a lot of star wars and eating a lot of popsicles. Apparently, Lucy likes chocolate.

Yellowstone

We made our annual trek to Yellowstone over the weekend. It seems our kids look forward to this trip more and more every year. And luckily, Yellowstone never disappoints. Charlie won the "What animal will we see first?" contest with bald eagle. The kids love to spot bears, elk, bison, pronghorn, coyotes and all manner of birds.
Our wolf hunt came up short this year. A ranger told the boys the white wolf we saw last year was killed by a rival pack in the fall. And, to add insult to injury, her pack left the park. Thus began the obsessing of how and why the white wolf died and when would she come back to Yellowstone. After two days of questions, Charlie told us the wolf would come back to Yellowstone when Jesus "corrected" (aka resurrected) her.

We hiked to many a stinky pot, which Lucy did not like at all and Charlie thought smelled like gopher, aka sulfur. The boys threw rocks at any water source they could spot. Elliot became a Jr. Ranger, again. We had a great time!

Thank you Grandma and Patrick! We love you.

Wasatch Back

I don't usually post about myself, but I did something over the weekend that was amazing. (That is to say, the experience was amazing, but I'm pretty awesome as well.)

I ran the Wasatch Back Ragnar Relay with my friend Annie and her fun and funny family. We spent 31 hours together running, driving, starving, not sleeping and then running some more. I can't tell you why running, driving and starving was so fun, but it was!

I was runner #2 and my legs combined for 15 miles. On my final leg I was passed (road killed) by Matt Garff. What?!! As if losing to him in the Boulton Fun Run wasn't enough.

Wanting to hurl after trying to catch Matt!

I am literally counting down the days until next year's race. For the first time since my kids arrived I feel like the "I want to be athletic" part of Sara is back and I'm loving it!

I'm so glad that he's my dad

Eight greats about this Dad

1. He watches break dancing instuctions online.
2. He does all the kids hair, including shampoo, cut and style.
3. He knows Charlie's temper comes from him.
4. He's taught the kids how to play every sport imaginable.
5. He reads to the boys every night.
6. Elliot and Charlie are the apples of his eye.
7. He picked out all the paint colors in our house.
8. Lucy melts his heart.