today was gavin’s graduation from preschool!  we thought we’d take this opportunity to let gavin know just how happy we are:

gavin–

we are so very proud of all you’ve done this year in your very first year in school.  we were nervous; we didn’t know what to expect or how good (or bad) your teachers would be, how well you’d do being away from home without mommy or daddy around for the first time.  but you took everything in stride.  you were so excited your first day, and throughout the year you showed us how eager you were to learn.  and you did!  you learned so much, and would come home singing the songs and rhymes you learned in school.  we had the chance mid-year to transfer you into a different — and better — school and, even though if was at a rough time, smack in the middle of the day, you showed us every day that it was the right decision.  you made some good friends.  you liked your teachers. (your teachers adored you!)  you even went to a couple birthday parties.  it was a good year.  we’re so happy for you and can’t wait to see you tackle the challenges of kindergarten in another new school.  we know you can do it!

we love you very much!

~mommy & daddy (and lilah, too!)

more graduation pics here

we found a neat hike up the mountains a few weeks back.  it was beautiful, but of course we left the camera at home.  we went back over the weekend, this time bringing the camera.  gavin, of course, was busily hunting for new additions for his rock collection.

"i found a rock!" he says, while surrounded by rocks...

you can see more pics from our adventure in the mountains here.

meanwhile, lilah found a new, fashionable use for stickers:

grandma & grandpa R came to visit the kids (and, presumably, us too) from California.  we had lots of fun adventures like going to red butte garden (gavin was excited to show grandma and grandpa around), the clark planetarium and the living planet aquarium.  gavin was especially excited about grandpa’s new car, complete with sun roof, rear camera and display when you back up and a GPS (that had some problems with Salt Lake City’s numeric addressing system) that talked!

more pics from their visit can be found in the flickr gallery we made.

gavin and lilah have been playing a lot more together for longer periods of time.  i snapped these pics when they were being particularly cute together one evening during dinner.

we took a long road trip with g-ma & g-pa to moscow, idaho to see the kids’ great-grandparents there.  it was a two-day drive and the kids were wiped but we were glad we split the drive up rather than try the 11-12 hour trek in one go.  the kids had a good time hanging with the fam and exploring great-grandma & great-grandpa’s house.