Too Much Growing Up!

September 7th was a big day at the Walker home! Not only was it Isaac's 1st Birthday, but it was also Malea's first day of Pre-school! Needless to say, I was quite emotional that day!

Malea's First Day of Pre-school!
Age 3 1/2 years

Malea with Teacher Linda :)

Malea had a great first day :) She was a little apprehensive at first but had a lot of fun. I waited until I got in the car after dropping her off to break down and cry :'(

Isaac's 1st Birthday Party!
September 7th, 2011

Isaac showing us how old he is today :)

We had his party at Heritage Park in Springville (thanks to Grandpa Rick for helping us get the pavilion through his work at the city and for getting the park looking great for the party!)

It was a Sesame Street theme, Isaac's fav!

I made a slide show with pictures from Isaac's first year :) I can't hardly watch it without crying! I can't believe it has been a year!

Isaac's Cake

He didn't hold back!

Happy 1st Birthday Isaac! We love you so much!
XOXO

Graduate School

So guess what?.....I have been accepted to graduate school!!!!

I will be doing a Masters in School Counseling at Adams State College in Alamosa, Colorado.

I've done A LOT of research in to different programs and what the requirements are in Utah to become licensed. I have been looking in to grad school for about 4-5 months. ASC is going to be a good fit for me and my situation. I was also really considering a program at the University of North Dakota that is similar to the one at Adams State, but they didn't have the CACREP accredidation that Utah requires. Don't worry, I won't be uprooting my family to Colorado! Almost the whole program is online. I do have to go there once a summer for a week for what they call a summer intensive. The students in my cohort will all meet there and we will do some face-to-face coursework and practice actual counseling. I will also be evaluated by the professors and be given things to work on. The nice thing about that is my husband has an aunt and uncle who live in Durango, CO which is only 2-3 hours from Alamosa. So we will be able to make a little family trip out of it. :) My last couple of semesters of the program will be an internship at a local school of my choice. I will have to complete 100 practicum hours and 600 internship hours (spread out over two semesters).

I am so excited, but a little nervous too. I have never even taken an online class before, so I'm sure it will be an adjustment. I will have to be very self motivated. :) I just don't think that I could do it any other way, especially being a mom. There is so much flexibility with doing an online program. I am also trying not to give in to my insecurities. I've been out of school for over 4 years, and I have two kids! Ahhh! I just have to keep reminding myself that I can't look at the whole thing at once. My Grandma "M" used to say, "by the inch its a cinch, by the yard its hard."

Wish me luck!

Camping 2011

This year for our annual camping trip we decided to go to Jolley's Ranch up Hobblecreek canyon in Springville. We usually go up American Fork canyon but with Isaac being so young we wanted to be a little closer to home just in case. We had a lot of fun! It was Isaac's first camping trip :)

We always do tin foil dinners the first night :) This has been a tradition of ours since before we had kids!

Sleeping in a tent with all four of us, one being a baby = no one slept very well. Oh well, its all part of the experience I guess! I am always so worried about the kids being warm enough that I ended up sleeping horrible the first night. Then Isaac woke up at like 5:30am so I took him outside of the tent to keep him from waking everyone else up.

So cute, Daddy & Malea snuggling

While we were up there we saw SO many caterpillars! It was really cool. This is one of my favorite pictures, you can just see on her face how proud she is (see the caterpillar on her hand). She ended up putting it in a cup with some leaves and it turned itself in to a caccoon!

Daddy cooking the bacon :) For the record I cooked everything else, but the grease splattering on a gas stove makes the flames roar and it always freaks me out!

Much needed nap time :)

This was so funny....there is a little doggy door on our tent, and when I was walking back from taking Malea to the bathroom Isaac saw me and started crying. I took this cute picture :) This was at the height of his separation anxiety/I-only-want-mommy phase

We took Malea down to a part of the creek that was not as fast and more shallow (most parts of the water were SO fast and really high this year, it was scary). She had fun playing in the water even though it was sooo cold. Isaac didn't like it for very long....I don't know how Malea could stand it!

Muddy Bum :)

Hanging out by the fire....one of my favorite parts of camping

(Malea looks so big in that hiking backpack lol)

After playing at the nearby playground, we went back and roasted 'mallows and then went to bed early that second night....we were pooped!

Washington Trip 2011

We just got back from visiting Keith's parents for the 4th of July....it was lots of fun! We haven't been since summer of 2009 because I was pregnant with Isaac all last year and didn't really feel up to traveling :P

The kids did surprisingly well on the drive, I actually had a harder time than them! (I get car sick really bad...not fun). We rented a Hyundai Sonata, which I absolutely loved. It had XM radio, so Keith and I had a blast rocking out to the 90's channel! I was so sad to have to give that car back :(

Grandma "Dub" had the pool set up when we got there :)

It was fun seeing friends we hadn't seen for a while!

(L to R: Chud, Emily & baby Isaac Lundgreen, Desiree, John, & Tommy Wolfgramm, and us)

Family photo
4th of July

Family BBQ....the food was so yummy!

Waiting for the fireworks to start. They do a fireworks show over the Columbia River, it was way cool!

We decided to also spend a day and drive out to Seattle. Its about 3 1/2-4 hours from the tri-cities. We visited with some friends out there and saw the waterfront. We also ate at the yummy fish house Ivar's, it was so good!

We met up with our friend Bri Wilson (her husband Ben was out of town unfortunately) and spent the day with her and their cute girls. Malea had a blast playing with them!

(Ginny, Vera, Malea, & Violet)

Seattle Waterfront

We got Malea the same Seattle bear (in pink) when we were there 2 years ago :)

Bri also took us to the Seattle Center Children's Museum, they have so many fun things for kids to do!

After the museum we met up with the other Wilson's (Brandon and Ashley) at a park and had pizza. We were excited to meet baby Ezra for the first time!

Bri was nice enough to let us spend the night at their house. Malea and the girls had fun playing dress-up :)

After we got back from Seattle, you could tell the kids (Malea especially) were starting to burn out. We wanted to make sure and do the last thing on our list though, which was to go for a ride on the boat.

Here's a picture of the kids with Grandma and Grandpa "Dub" the night before we were leaving (we weren't going to see Grandpa in the morning because he had to work)

We had so much fun!