First day of school

On Tuesday September 22, 2009 Danica had her first day of school. Or as she is quick to correct you pre-school. She was so excited. The Friday before there was an orientation for the kids for about and hour so they could see their classroom and meet their teachers. I knew she wouldn't have any problems with being there without us when she was painting and told me to "go away Mommy" There is 20 kids in her class with 2 teachers. It is about 50/50 boys and girls. She is there Tuesday and Thursday from 9-11:30. She had a blast. Outside the house getting ready to leave. With the backpack on.

So excited to get going! She kept saying "Mommy it's time to go!"

At the school with her new nametag on.
A quick picture with Mommy before going in. I can't believe I forgot my camera at first! I fortunately remembered it right after I had pulled off our street and was able to run back and get it.

Standing in line waiting to go in. She was so impatient! She wanted to get right in there but it took awhile since it was the first day with the sign-in process.

Heading in!

Coming out after the first day! She had so much fun!

Trying to wait patiently while Mommy signed her out. She was so talkative after I picked her up. We then went to the Carousel to ride the horses to celebrate her first day of school.

Knocking Knuckles

Danica loves to knock knuckles. She even got Great Grandpa Von to knock with her.
Grandpa Von would knock with her and then pull back his hands like it scared or hurt him. She would then giggle and it would start all over again.

This was her way of delaying going to bed. She was supposed to be going around the table giving kisses and hugs.

And then she didn't want to give Grandpa a kiss on the check or lips. She wanted to give it on his forehead.

Which was very cute.

More good times

So here are some pictures of the time in MN spent with my side of the family. Danica loved getting to see her grandparents and cousins. She would get upset when we told her we would have to leave one set of grandparents house but as soon as we told her we were going to the other house she was fine. Clearly no favorite grandparent for Danica. She know they all spoil her equally with love! She also would declare that she has "4 grandmas and papas...I have 2 grandmas (picture her holding up 2 fingers!) and 2 papas!"


Here is my Mom getting smothered by 3 out of the 4 grandkids. Nicholas is right up front and Emmarie is still trying to break that thumb sucking habit.

One of Danica's favorite pastimes is reading. And she usually found willing people to read to her while in MN.

Danica learned how to have a tea party with Grandma Lou. Real teacups and everything. Way to go Grandma for figuring out a way to get Danica to drink nasty tasting medicine. Even mixed with juice it was gross. Why they can't make kids medicine in chewables is beyond me.

She even had two cups she was drinking from.

A very upset Danica. I have no idea why. We were probably leaving one grandparents house for another. Either that or she was is dire need of a nap. There was no such thing as a set routine on this vacation. Gotta love time zone change.

Janeen and Justin had just (like the week before) moved into their new house and got some chickens. They got 4 adult layers and a bunch of chicks. Some for laying and the others....well we won't go there. Danica loved the chickens.

Very gently touching the chick. There is not too much cuter than a baby chick.

Just relaxing in the car.

Eating at Tim and Monica's house. We seemed to do a lot of eating while in MN.

Mmmmm Culvers.

Danica loves "playing" the piano. So it was probably a good thing that I didn't show her the very old organ that my folks have. Danica did a pretty good job staying on Grandma's lap while Grandma pushed the foot petals.

Good times in MN

I'll start off by saying if you ever get the chance to fly through the night with a three year old. Don't. I'm not saying that our flight to MN was bad. It definitely could have been worse. But still. Daylight hours would have been nicer. Of course the tickets were much more spendy so oh well. Our flight left at 12:30 in the morning. It wasn't too hard on me since I had just finished working a week of graveyard shifts and had slept about 5 hours during the day. We left for the airport about an hour and a half after Danica is normally in bed and asleep. So she was defintely in wired mode. She didn't even fall asleep on the way to the airport. She was so tired but held up pretty well. We got on the plane and of course there was so much going on she wanted to look around and not settle down and go to sleep. She finally laid her head on my lap which meant her feet were on Jason's (who got kicked the entire flight and therefore didn't get much sleep either) We had turbulence the entire flight. Not bad but constant. I hate turbulence. I was awake for most of the flight. And bored. Very bored. Danica slept about 2 and a half hours out of the 3 hour 15 minute flight. She didn't want to wake up. Who could blame her. In Oregon time she didn't go to bed until 1 am and was woken up at 3:30 in the morning. She did fine once she saw her Grandma and Papa Ryther at the airport.

So here are some completely random pictures from our visit to MN in August. These ones are of the Ryther side of the family. We had a wonderful trip that went by all too fast. Danica loved playing with all of her cousins. It was nice that Dana and Jessica were able to come up from Kansas City with their two boys while we were there.

On the first night we were there we had some corn on the cob. Danica absolutely loves corn on the cob and if you want her to eat anything else for a meal you better not give her the corn until she is done with everything else! She was helping Papa Don husk the corn and one of them (I'm not sure which one!) decided it would be funny for him to have an ear of corn in his ear. They both seemed to think it was hilarious.

Danica loves "working out" with Daddy and so when she saw Daddy and Papa Don lifting weights she wanted in on the action too!

Danica and Adrian rolling a ball back and forth. Back and forth. Back and forth. You get the idea.

While we were staying at Jason's folk's house Danica slept in Don's office on a couple of couch cushions. Just to show how much of a restless sleeper she can be here is a pic of her wedged up against the desk. I am amazed that she didn't end up on the actual floor!

A little action shot of jumping off of the big rocks.

Adrian getting in on the action as well.

Danica, Adrian and Adam all looking at a tiny toad. I don't think I have ever seen the tiny little toads and frogs in Oregon. I saw a bunch of them while we were in MN. I think that they are so cute. The ones that are about 3/4 of an inch. Danica really liked them too.

Taking a ride on the tractor, aka riding lawn mower, with Papa Don. Apparently this is a big hit with Adrian and Adam when they come to visit and Danica wanted to give it a shot. She thought it was fun but she was holding on for dear life!

Having some ice cream. Always a hit with the kids. (and Papa too!)

Danica and Adrian attempting to play Swedish golf or whatever the heck it is called. I think they wanted to play just so they would have weapons they could hurl at each other!

Fun in the sand

We spent some time out on the coast a couple of weeks ago. It was supposed to be really nice that day so we stayed away from the popular spots and found one that had only a few people really spread out since you could drive on the beach. It was supposed to be sunny but when we were there it was overcast. It was still nice to just sit on the beach a couple of hours.

Jason read and I helped Danica shovel sand. She had never really played on the beach and she loved it! She played with those shovels and bucket for 2 hours no problem.

Here is a cute picture of her with her pigtails. She got her haircut a couple of days later so this is one of the last pigtail shots of her.

Putting sand in the bucket....Dumping sand out of the bucket...and repeat.
She really liked making foot prints in the sand. At one point four people on horses came riding down the beach and Danica was very excited to she the horses.

She had to brush the sand off of her hand periodically. But for the most part she didn't mind the sand on her.

This was actually the first picture I took. She saw the camera and decided to pose for it. All the while saying "cheese!"

Dancing queen!

The other day I decided to actually get out my Dancing with the Stars workout video and try it. (That was the first and last time I will be doing that video!) I thought that I had plenty of floor space but was clearly wrong. Apparently I should have an entire ballroom of floor space for this video. Anyway... Danica loved the video. And yes I mean loved. She had a blast trying to follow along with the instructors and was just dancing around the room.

A couple of days later I told her she could watch a show and to pick one out. She declared that she wanted to do the dancing one. I informed her that Mommy wasn't going to be doing the video with her (having already learned my lesson) and she insisted that the dancing was what she wanted. So I put it in and sure enough she was dancing up a storm. She seems to like the warm up portion the best and that is what I was able to get video of.

You can kindof hear her talking along with the instructor. I tried to put the video on one time with just the music and no talking and she informed me that that was not the way it was supposed to be. She would finally dance once I had changed it so you could hear instructions. Jason and I were watching her dance along once and when she discovered us watching she didn't like it and came over and shut the door on us so we wouldn't disturb her. We then laughed and were told to "stop laughing!" through the shut door. Of course that only made it worse but we did move away from the door so she couldn't hear us.

Back seat driver

In the last week or so Danica has become quite the backseat driver. She is constantly looking for stop signs on the road. When she spots one she declares (loudly by the way) "Sign says STOP!" Sometimes you'll get a "sign says go" at a stoplight or whenever she decides that the car has been sitting in one place for far too long. She also announces that "I see more octagons!" and "Octagons have 8 sides. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8!" It is amusing at first but after 10 minutes of driving through town having to constantly stop and go....it gets old.