Preschool, Buddy Walk & More Summer Fun

Kaelyn started pre-school last week.  She goes twice a week for a couple of hours and even gets to ride the BIG yellow bus to and from school.  It was a little strange handing her over to the bus driver that first day...and second day.  She came home happy though so it must have been good.  One of these days Bryn and I will have to go watch her in the big window to see how she does.  

Handing my little munchkin off to the bus aide

Dad and Bryn watching as the bus drove away

There she goes

Kaelyn waiting for the Bus on her 2nd day of school

Our first Buddy Walk with the Utah Down Syndrome Foundation was a success!  We got there bright and early to run the 5K.  More than half of the 5K participants were from our family :)  My brother Bart won the men's division pushing two kids in a single jogging stroller and my BFF Jamie won the women's division running with her husband who was also pushing two kids in a single jogging stroller.   I guess thats the way to do it :)My other brother Rick took second, he ran in honor of Bryn because she can't walk yet, so she got to ride in our stroller.  We even had my niece and nephews there to be our pacers on their bikes.  We couldn't keep up so they had to keep coming back for us.  It was fun running with all my family.  

Then we went and set up the Reece's Rainbow booth so we could share our story and the stories of all the orphaned children with other families touched by Down syndrome.  I got quite emotional talking with one lady and could barely talk by the end of our conversation.  I could tell she was touched by what she heard and will hopefully be able to help these little ones some way.

There were so many fun and free activities for the kids to do.  Bounce houses, games, gymnastic obstacle courses, all the snow cones, cotton candy and pop corn you could eat.  It was really well done and lots of people put many hours into making it happen.  I will definitely have to get more involved once we get Victoria home and settled.  

Cousin Jackie sporting her new BW tee shirt and ballerina face paint.

Family photo opp before the Buddy Walk began.

Team "Kaelyn's Peeps" gathering prior to the BW

Kaelyn and Cousin Quin doing some yoga and stretching to prepare for the BW

There was quite the crowd there, it was so fun seeing everyone there to Celebrate someone with Ds.

Aunt Wendy and the kids

Kaelyn and dad finishing the last leg of the walk.

Earlier this summer we went to our friends family cabin near Park City and they had a big 30 foot swing we got to play on.  It felt like I was on a roller coaster swinging that high, I even got a bit woozy afterwards.  I was sure to hold on tight because a fall from that height would cause some serious damage :)

Wayne swinging away

Bryn watching mom swing from down below

 We were able to meet up with our buddies Arina and Jaxon last week while they were in town from California.  We miss seeing them!  Hopefully we can take a trip to California in the near future and spend the day at Disney with them.  Little Arina was also adopted through Reeces Rainbow from the Ukraine a few years ago.  She is just a cute ball of energy!  Jaxon is just a stud!  He has been through so much, and continues to amaze us.

All the kiddos lined up in a row

Guess how many times I got asked if they were twins today?  I guess thats what happens when I dress them a like :)

A few weeks ago Wayne's younger brother got married and his sister Cheryl was trying out her new camera.  She took some great pictures of us in front of the pretty flowers at the reception center.

We call that Kaelyn's "I don't trust you, Phyllis" look.  (From the office)

Bryn was being very photogenic as you will see in the next few pictures

Kaelyn was not in the mood for pictures as you will see in the next few pictures

But after some fun dancing and swinging she decided she would smile for the camera

 Wow, over an hour later I'm finally done with the post!  I guess it wouldn't take so long if I did it more often :)