Kings Dominion

Soon after school started, we took our annual trips to Kings Dominion - courtesy of Frontline!

Charlotte was finally tall enough to drive the cars by herself!!!! It was a major milestone, for sure.

 On the farris wheel

 Another major milestone - he was tall enough to do the bumper cars!!

On the other hand...Carmen was too tall for those bumper cars :(

With Snoopy in "Snoopyville" (Dallin thinks it's call "Slurpeeville")

UVA - WAHOOWA!

After living in Charlottesville for 6 years, we've finally decided to jump on the bandwagon and be UVA fans!  To get us really in the school spirit, we went to the "Paint the Town Orange" event before the first football game.

Face paint was courtesy of Carmen!

 We really got into the school spirit! 

 Even though UVA lost, we still had a really fun time.

 Except, this kid who slept through most of the game....

First Day of School 2016

The dog days of summer are over and school has started! We all are looking forward to a fresh new start at school. Changing schools in the middle of the year was tough on all of us. Starting fresh from the beginning is going so much better. 

Wow, are those some adorable kids!

 Charlotte starts 2nd grade with Mrs. Ealy at Meriwether Lewis

 Aliza starts 4th grade with Mr. Wilson at Meriwether Lewis

 Carmen starts 6th grade: Henley Middle School

I had to add this picture because it totally made me tear up after she got on the bus!

 

Dallin started Pre-K with Ms. Travis and Ms. Susanne at Olivet Presbyterian Church.

Drowning

Here are the near drowning details: We were swimming at a friends pool with some other families. I was simply distracted by 4 kids and our dog. I was helping one kid get food and had told Carmen and Aliza to watch Dallin for a few minutes. He was just jumping off the side of the pool over and over again. Next thing I knew someone told me Dallin was crying...when I went over to check on him Carmen had him on the side of the pool. He was breathing but obviously very upset and totally pale as a ghost! Carmen said she saw him under the water and pulled him out and he was all blue!

I'm not sure of all the details. I really don't know how long he was under the water.... My guess it that everytime he got out to jump again, he was slowly inching closer to the deep end without even realizing it. Then he jumped and suddenly couldn't reach anymore! He never lost consciousness but when I kept asking him questions, he wasn't making any sense to me! We immediately went home and I got everyone ready for bed. He was being really lethargic and just laying on the floor. He fell right asleep in my bed. I started panicking that he could experience "secondary drowning". So I woke him up and took him to the ER. Everything looked fine, but they kept him for 12 hours of observation.  It was scary and I was traumatized. I was hesitant to share our story, but I also wanted to use it as an educational experience. I wasn't paying attention and it only took a few minutes for him to drown. And there were tons of people all round and no one else even knew it had happened until after we left. So I'm sharing it because I really want others to learn to always be vigilant around water!!!

Dallin quickly learned that each new person who came into the room would ask him if he wanted a Popsicle. I think this was his 3rd or 4th one!  He was a little scared, but mostly loved all the attention.

Our good friend, Doug McGowan, came and brought Dallin some puppies and a UVA blanket! It was so sweet of him. Since David was out of town, I had to call on friends to help me. Our neighbor, Eric Sorensen,  is an ER nurse and met us at the car and carried Dallin straight into the ER and to a room. We didn't even have to wait! And then Doug met us there to help give a Priesthood blessing to both Dallin and myself. And our sweet friend Jill Snow, whose pool we were swimming at, met me there too. I wish I'd gotten a picture of everyone. It really turned into a party and I was so grateful for each of them who helped me feel better and lightened the mood a lot! 

After so many Popsicle, AND the TV all to himself, this kid wasn't going to bed. This picture was taken at 4am! 

Summer Wrap Up

Our Summer was pretty great. At the beginning of the summer, the kids created a "bucket list" of all the things they wanted to do. I thought I'd taken a picture of the list, but I can't seem to find it. It included a lot of things, and I think the only thing on the list we didn't get done was hike up to Sugar Hollow. But we kept pretty busy! Here were some of our outings....

Playing on the swings:

Get a dog was on the list:

 Bowling:

 Shenandoah Acres with cousins:

 Horse back riding: (thanks to Poppy for pulling it off)

 Watch a family of chinchillas; mom, dad and 3 babies:

 Virginia Children's museum downtown:

 Milkshakes at Timberlake Pharmacy:

 Amazement Square:

 See Finding Dory:

 And then we needed some downtime too: