Life with the Gerritsen's: September 2011

Back to school!

Jeremy at Back to School night the day before he started school. He got to meet his teacher and see his classroom and desk for the first time.

Jeremy's teacher Mrs. Powell

First day of school. This is in front of the school.

The principal Mr. Rhees with the boys.

Alex and Jeremy go to breakfast in the morning at the school.

Alex's first day. Jeremy insisted that Alex had a picture in front of the house just like he did when he started school.

Alex's new backpack. It's Mario, which Alex loves!

Hanging up his backpack. He has his own hook.

Alex's teacher Mrs. Judkins

Finding his cubby with all his supplies!

Alex's desk.

I have to say that I don't remember if I got choked up when Jeremy started school. He was so excited to start, especially after 3 years of preschool. And he rode the bus. But with Alex, we live just down the street from the school and they get to walk back and forth each day. I had been walking with Alex down to the school the first week that Jeremy started because Jeremy started a week before Alex. I wanted Alex to get used to going to breakfast with Jeremy and going to school. You would think that doing this would have prepared me to send Alex off to school that next week. But as I went to walk home after I dropped Alex at his class, I was pretty tearful and chocked up!! It was such a weird experience. I am an emotional person but this seemed strange to me! I guess it really hit me that now I have two kids in school! And we had talked for quite awhile about when Alex would start and now he was! But aside from that, I am so proud of my boys. They love school and we were going to go to the school in our old neighborhood because Jeremy was still in the Spanish program. But when school was getting closer, the boys really wanted to go and check out North Ogden because it was where all their new friends were going and they see it all the time. So we went and checked it out one day and the boys just fell in love. And as a Mom, that's all that you want, for your kids to be happy. So even though Mom and Dad were a little sad to see Jeremy not continuing to learn Spanish, we know that one day he can decide to go back to it or do whatever he would like to. Majestic was a great school for Jeremy and I appreciate all the memories there but I am excited for new memories that are already being made (and Ben loves that the boys are going to his Alma Mater, even though it's not the original school that he went to).

Part two-various other activities

Jeremy played baseball again this year. Ben was his coach. He even got to be catcher one game.

Jeremy got to try rock climbing at a friend's birthday party.

Father's Day breakfast

We bought Dad this backpack at Dixie college when we were in St. George and gave it to him for Fathers Day. We love you Dad!

Uncle Jeff was in Widowmaker hillclimb. Cousin Scott helped the boys to the car after it was done.

Here is Uncle Jeff getting ready for one of his races.

Playing at Dinasour Park. We have a season pass. Ben also got season passes for him, Alex and Jeremy to Toads and they have had fun doing laser tag, the batting cages and the go karts. Jeremy can't wait until he's old enough to do one on his own!

Isaac loves to help Grandma and Grandpa in the garden.

Splash pad in Riverdale. We also enjoyed swimming at North Shore this summer.

We love the treehouse and when the cousins are in town, we love to go there and play! It was fun to see Elisa and Lydia from back East. We always enjoy playing with Preston, Sam and Addy. We also got to see Jacob, Aaron and Zach from Ohio earlier in the summer and had fun hanging with them!

Mom had her 20th high school reunion ! A two day event. The first night was a picnic at a park in the town she went to high school. Alex sat on a Harley of one of the guys that was there. Then the second night, just Dad and Mom went to a fancy restaurant for the second night. It was pretty fun to see how everyone has changed and all the things they have done!

Grandma's blocks are a lot of fun and Jeremy made this fun tower.

Jeremy and Alex got to touch a lizard at the Bean Museum

We went down to the Bean Museum at the BYU campus. It was fun to see all the stuffed animals on display.

We went to see BYU's football first practice. Uncle Paul films the team and he got us in to see it.

This is what summer is all about!

Isaac went with Dad to a Raptors game and insisted on wearing his gear for it. He loves baseball and often grabs his mit, the bat and a ball in the house or runs outside for Dad to pitch to him.

This is Isaac turning on water to the bath. He is covered in mud. This was a common occurance this summer. Our neighbors and the boys loved to play in mud and water at the neighbors so we had a lot of baths!

Jeremy doing his craft at the North Ogden Art Fair

Alex doing his. Alex is quite the artist and loves to color pictures whenever he can. He even had a notebook full of them but it got ruined when he left it outside in the rain.

Our summer in review part one-trip to St. George

We stopped at Cove Fort

I can't believe I have gotten so behind but alas here I am to try to catch up! Our summer was good. We got in one trip, a lot of playing with friends and just enjoying the time away from school (although at the end, everyone was glad to get back in school!)
As I mentioned, we had a family trip. We went down to St. George, Zions and Bryce with Ben's parents. Ben's Aunt Nancy, Uncle Dick, Aunt Betty and Cousin Jason live in St. George so we visited with them and they also went to Zions and Bryce with us. We had lots of fun seeing the sights.