1st grade, 4th grade

This week was the first week of school.  Joseph started 4th grade and Samuel started 1st grade.  Both of my boys will be in school all day. I am excited to volunteer and help in their classes.  They are both in elementary school, but are attending different schools.  Joseph got admitted to CAS and is in the accelerated learning program.  He is excited because his teacher promised him that school would never be boring.  

Samuel is liking his new teacher.  She is really nice.  He was nervous to go into 1st grade because he did not feel prepared.  I think he will manage just fine.  

We are still in Provo.  Joe still collects old video games.  I love collecting board games, books and Pyrex.  We are renting right now and looking at the possibility of buying a house here in Provo and getting another car.  

Life has been crazy.  Jeff has come to visit us a few times from England.  Our boys enjoy playing with their English cousins who now live in Utah.  We get to see them when Jeff is in town.  Edward just moved back from Indiana a few weeks back.  That means that Ernest is the anomaly living in West Virginia.  :)

This summer we drove to New Jersey to visit.  It was a long drive and fun trip.  I don't think I want to do it again anytime soon.  We also visited Humboldt State Park and Redwoods National Park.  Samuel loved the Redwoods.  We visited Glass Beach in Fort Bragg while we were there.  We saw seals and lots of little crabs.  Joseph enjoyed all the creatures we observed.  

A few weeks back we got a hamster.  The boys named her Claire after the character in Jurassic World.  She got out of her habitat one day and we couldn't find her.  Joe and I ended up going into the basement.  She was there in the crawl space.  After crawling through webs in a cramped space, we got her back.  Our boys were happy.