The McCoys

Utah tested for his red belt on Ciera's birthday. He had a great test, had fun, and proved that he new his curriculum and was ready for a red belt.

The kids had a great first day at school, but are sad that summer is over. Now its time to get busy with homework and afterschool activities and try to get back into the routine of things, and unfortunetely that means less time to play with friends. Thankfully it will start getting dark earlier soon, and that will help reinforce the earlier bedtime.

I drove the kids to school on the first day, and then told them I would pick them up after school. Shane and I went to pick them up, and Ciera barely said hi- she just asked if she could ride the bus home with all her friends. We let her and she was happy as could be, that social butterfly.

Utah starts his indoor baseball league tonight. He's a bit anxious about it because they haven't held practices, Shane is not coaching, and he doesn't know anyone. I think getting through the first night will make him feel better about it.

This week is a busy last week of summer break at the McCoy home. Thursday, the kids will be bringing their school supplies to school, and Utah will meet his new teacher. Ciera will get to see her teacher, but since she had her last year, it's not nerve-wracking for her. She loves Mrs. Keyes, so we know this will be another great school year for Ciera. Utah is excited because a couple of his good friends are in his class, but he's reserved at the same time about starting another year of school and all the work it will bring.

We're leaving Friday afternoon for a weekend camping trip to Door County! We've talked about going there since shortly after we moved here, but we always put it off or change our plans to something else. We will be camping near Fish Creek, WI, at Penisula State Park, which is supposed to be the most popular state park in Wisconsin for camping. We are taking Max with us on this trip, so it will be a new experience camping with two kids and a dog. Hopefully it goes well and we'll be able to plan more trips in the future. We hate to board him, but there are just no other options for long trips when we go far from home.

Next week Tuesday marks the beginning of the school year for the kids and myself. Here we go.....

The last day of our vacation we went to Seaside Heights, a beachfront town that we used to spend time at when we lived in New Jersey. We didn't take the camera with us to the beach, but the kids both bought body boards that we all used to ride the waves with. It was a lot of fun.

We'd told the kids about going crabbing when we lived in NJ, and they really wanted to try it. They were both extremely brave holding the crabs and picking them up. I think Utah got pinched once, but it only hurt for a couple seconds. We threw all the crabs back and then gave our trap to another family when we were leaving since we won't be crabbing again any time soon.

We saw quite a bit on our day in New York City. We ended up going a day earlier than planned because the weather was dreary and not quite a beach day. We started off about 11:30 and headed to Staten Island to catch the ferry over, just like we used to when we lived in Jersey. Utah stood by the rail on the ferry the whole way over, watching and taking in the sights. Although it was hazy and we couldn't see really far, we were still able to see the Statue of Liberty and the city. When we landed in Manhattan, we headed straight for the subway to take us to Chinatown to go eat lunch. We checked out some of the shops and Utah and Ciera both found souveniers. We ate sweet and sour chicken, rice, some type of noodle dish that Shane ordered and I had some soup as well. It was fun to sit in Chinatown and eat and look out the windows people watching. We saw some Amish people walk by, which seemed really out of place in the city.

After eating, we went to Times Square and checked out the big Toys R Us that was put in after we moved. It was fun to see the kids taking everything in. They did really well in the big city and didn't even beg to be carried.

We also saw St. Patrick's cathedral, FAO Swartz, Build A Bear (the biggest) where Ciera stuffed a black lab she named Maxi to match our dog, and then we headed to Central Park and took a short buggy ride through part of the park.

The kids did so good, and there is so much that we weren't able to see in NYC, that it would be a lot of fun to go back sometime when we could stay in the city and spend 3-4 days seeing the sights with them and maybe seeing a show as well. They loved the city and the time we spent there.

We spent a day at Six Flags in New Jersey and were most impressed with the Safari. We never went there when we lived in NJ because Utah was so little.