We got pictures taken of G for school last week after we got back from California…

photography by Blackburn Studio

The photographer is actually an OC parent and his son will be in G’s class so he offered to do the shoot for free.

We’re busy catching up after our week-long trek to California, in particular Pescadero and Butano State Park.  In the midst of all this catching up with work and other things, we’re also getting ready for Gavin to start kindergarten next week! Nevertheless, we took lots of pics on our trip and thought we should post them here before we’re completely overwhelmed.

Pictures are uploading to Flickr as I type this The rest of the pictures are on Flickr, so be sure to check my Flickr photostream to see all the pics we took on the trip.  Here’s the link straight to the pics from our trip.  And if you’re family or friends and can’t see pics of the kids, make sure you log in with your Yahoo account and add me as a contact.

i haven’t been doing the best job of posting pics up here, i know.  i realize this as the most recent pics are from g’s graduation, now almost 3 months gone.  that said, i have been keeping things updated on flickr, so you can check out the latest pics (sans witticisms) there (presuming you are my “friend”, which you have to be to see pics of us or the kids.  sorry, stalker prevention measures.)  recent sets over there include:

• our overnight camping trip in the uintahs (first ever with samosa, unfortunately, we only got a pair of decent pics out of it)
• hiking trek up city creek canyon
• 4th of july fireworks at sugarhouse (& g-ma & g-pa’s)

to see these pics on flickr, head over to my flickr page and then click on “add jazzs3quence as a contact” under the “jazzs3quence’s photostream” heading (farthest on the right).

good.  now that’s out of the way.

can you believe it’s been 5 years?

it’s so dumbfounding i literally can’t think of anything else to say.  since pictures are supposed to speak a thousand words, here’s a couple thousand to speak in my stead.

Happy 5th birthday, Gavin!

(note: these images have been digitally altered for prettiness.  to see the unaltered versions, and more pics, go to the flickr photoset.)

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.

i took a lot of pics on easter.  here are some of our favorites…

the kids have been working on their faces

gavin happy

gavin excited

gavin grumpy

gavin angry

i don’t remember what this was supposed to be, but what it actually is is gavin saying okay mom and dad, that’s enough now

similarly, i think this was intended to be grumpy but came across more confused…

lilah happy

lilah excited

lilah surprised

lilah grumpy