First Day of Kindergarten

Today was Connor and Ryan's first day of kindergarten at St. Joseph of Cupertino School. They have been looking forward to starting kindergarten for months now. Last night they started to get a bit nervous with the "big day" so close. This morning Connor was super excited. Ryan was still a bit nervous.
For kindergarten, they have uniforms to wear. They have navy blue shorts or pants and white or grey polo shirts. Connor decided he wanted pants and Ryan wanted shorts. They are just determined to be different, which is nice to see.

Connor was all into posing for the pictures this morning and was all smiles.

Ryan, not so much. I was lucky to get even a few pictures of Ryan. In this picture, Ryan is "almost" smiling.

The boys are excited to have new backpacks too. They picked them out themselves and Ryan chose red, Connor brown.

We arrived at school the same time as Malia, a friend from preschool, so that helped with the nervousness. The three of them sat together in class and played together at recess. Today, they got to sit anywhere. Tomorrow, they are split up in color groups. Connor and Malia are in the yellow group. Ryan is in the blue group. We requested that Connor and Ryan be in separate groups to help them be more independent.

Here is a picture of Connor and Ryan outside the classroom when we were waiting for the class to open.

When Connor and Ryan saw the camera, they wanted to take pictures too, so the below picture is a picture of Ryan and me taken by Connor.

And, this one is a picture of Connor and Ed taken by Ryan.

After the kids found their assigned hook for their backpack and their cubby, they sat down on the rug. Connor, Ryan and Malia all sat together. In the below picture, Connor is yawning and Malia is talking to Ryan.

When class started, Mrs. Schwoop sat down in front of the kids and told them to blow kisses and wave to Mom and Dad. I guess that was our *hint* to leave the room.

After we dropped the kids off, there was coffee and pastries for the parents and the principal welcomed everyone back and made some announcements. After that, the parents were invited to join the kids in their morning assembly. Then, while the kids were at recess, all the kindergarten parents were invited into the classroom for the teacher to make some announcements and explain what to expect and what is happening this week and the coming weeks. Soon after that it was 11am dismissal and the first day was over. Below is a picture taken after school with their teacher, Mrs. Schwoop.

Below is a picture with Ryan, Krysabelle, Malia and Connor taken after school. Krysabelle is in 5th grade this year and is Connor and Ryan's preschool teacher's daughter. Malia is a friend from preschool. Malia, Connor and Ryan all started at Mrs. Zaidee's preschool when they were just over a year old, so they grew up together.

After school, we went to Chuck E Cheese with Malia and Krysabelle for lunch and playtime.

Below is a picture of Connor, Ryan and Mrs. Zaidee, their preschool teacher taken at Chuck E Cheese.

And here is Ryan and Malia playing a game.

And riding in the Chuck E Cheese car.

The kids had a great day and are excited for tomorrow. Connor and Ryan's favorite part of school was going to the park (i.e. the playground at recess). When I asked what they learned, Ryan told me they learned how to walk in a line with one finger on their lips and the other on their hips so they are quiet and have their hands to themselves.

Tomorrow, Connor, Ryan and Malia are going to spend the afternoon at their old preschool after school for a party to celebrate going to kindergarten.

Santa Rosa Half Marathon

Today I ran the Santa Rosa Half Marathon with my sister-in-law, Cara. The race started at 7am, so it was still dark when we got there.
We ran the race together and had a great time. Luckily the heat wave broke, so the weather was perfect.

Picnic

On Saturday, we went to a picnic at a local park to meet some of Connor and Ryan's kindergarten classmates. The picnic started at noon, but we arrived at the park at 11am to allow time for the kids to play since we had to leave at 1pm.

Steve is visiting from Seattle, so here are a couple of pictures of Steve playing with Connor and Ryan. They especially enjoyed playing tag with Steve.

Connor and Ryan are now able to do the monkey bars on their own, although they still want help at times.

I didn't manage to get any pictures of the boys playing with their classmates, but they enjoyed playing tag with them and other games. I was too busy talking with the other parents.

Exploring Yosemite with two 5 year olds

On Saturday morning we drove to Yosemite so I could hike Half Dome on Sunday. When we got to Curry Village, there was a deer by the parking lot and two baby deer nearby.
We took the Yosemite shuttle to stop #16, Happy Isles. I wanted to come here to see where the Half Dome hike would start to make sure we could find it in the dark.

We walked part of the trail and the kids explored and climbed rocks along the way.

It was fun to watch 5 year olds explore and have fun.

We even saw a snake!

Ryan got excited to see horses and insisted that Ed take a picture of them...

Then we hiked Little Yosemite Falls and the kids climbed more rocks and explored caves looking for bears. Of course, no vacation is complete without tears, so here is Ryan after he fell and scrapped his knee. I am so concerned, can't you tell?

On the Yosemite shuttle.

All smiles from Ryan...

Now on to Sunday.... Ed and the boys spent the day together while I hiked Half Dome.

Connor and Ryan went on a nature walk with a ranger.

In the below picture, Ryan is following the ranger's directions. He is closing his eye's and listening.

To earn their Jr. Ranger badges, Connor and Ryan had to go on a hike or nature walk, meet with a ranger, and fill out the paperwork drawing a picture of what they saw and describe what they heard and smelled.

At Glacier Point, Connor and Ryan both wanted a picture of with Half Dome without their brother since "Mommy was hiking Half Dome." Below is Connor's picture.

And here is Ryan.

When we left Yosemite, Connor and Ryan asked if we could come back again and stay longer. They enjoyed the weekend. They also want to practice hiking so they can go on longer hikes with Mommy.

Half Dome Hike

Beginning in 2010, permits are required to hike half dome. There are 300 permits per day available and sell out within minutes of being available. I ended up buying a permit on craigslist from someone who changed their mind about hiking it.
I drove up on Saturday with Ed and the kids. On Saturday we explored the park and took a short hike to a waterfall. We stayed at a cabin in El Portal since everywhere inside the park was sold out. I started the hike at 5am, so the first hour was in the dark. Below is my first view of half dome around 6am.

And here I am taking a break to take a picture.

A view of Nevada Falls.

At the top of Nevada Falls watching the water fall off the edge.

It was probably around 7am when I got to the top of Nevada falls.

And then I saw a black bear right near the trail after Nevada falls.

Another view of Half Dome. It looks so far away!

I saw a deer on the trail too.

Getting closer...

The worst part of the hike was sub dome. To get up sub dome, you had to climb lots of rock steps. Going up, I just knew I would fall coming down. And sure enough, I did. I scrapped up and bruised my knee and then fell back hitting my backpack. Ouch!

Another view of the sub dome trail and stairs.

The view from sub dome was pretty. You can tell how high up I am already, and there is more to go!

This is looking up sub dome. At this point I am just wondering how much further it is.

More steps. I felt like a mountain goat climbing this.

Wooo hooo. I finally can see half dome peaking over sub dome.

If you look carefully, you can see the cables going up half dome.

And those little dots on the side are people climbing up.

I got to Half Dome around 10am and spent about an hour or so at the top. After climbing up the cables, my arms were so sore, I needed the time to recover before coming back down.

When I first saw the cables close up, I really started to think I was crazy for doing this. But, there was no way I came this far and not go all the way to the top. So, up I went.

I made it!

Sitting on the side. It sure is a long way down!

I am not sure why there were so many rock statues on top. But, they look cool.

And, back down I go. When I went up, the down looked pretty scary. But, it turned out that the down was much easier than the up.

In this picture you can see how steep it is climbing the side of Half Dome. This is taken from the cables on the side of Half Dome.

A view while heading back down.

My original plan was to take Mist Trail up and John Muir trail down, but when I got to the junction in the morning when it was dark, there was a group of people waiting blocking the way to Mist Trail, so I didn't realize I was on John Muir Trail until it was too late. It definitely would have been easier to do John Muir Trail down because going down all the rock steps on Mist Trail was a very slow process at the end of the day, especially when I already fell once. This is Nevada Falls as seen from Mist Trail.

Nevada Falls.

This is a picture on top of Vernal Falls.

This is a picture of me with Vernal Falls in the background.

Another picture of Vernal Falls.

I finished the hike at 3:30pm, so the hike was 10 1/2 hours (including spending about an hour on top). The weather was nice for the hike. It was probably about 80. At the top of Half Dome it was cold and windy. I brought 4 liters of water but only drank 2 1/2 liters. I brought 9 energy bars, but only ate 3 and gave some away to a couple backpackers who lost all his food to bears. After the hike, I had pizza at Curry Village. That pizza tasted awesome after a long day of hiking. I feel sore, battered and bruised from the hike, but it was an awesome experience that I will remember.