Nora’s promotion was first. She was the only one promoting to a blue stripe, so she had to do her form all by herself. I was worried that she would be nervous, but she was awesome.

Ian and Emma had a combined promotion this time. It was a little bit crazy and there were tons of kids.

Emma did her form first:

And Ian performed his a little bit after her:

Then they both got their belts.

Then they did the belt ceremony. Ian was in the back of the room, so I couldn’t really see him. I just got some pictures of Emma.

Emma was really excited about her new belt. Can you tell?

It was a crazy and fun night at karate. I’m really proud of the dedication and hard work they have all put into karate.

Yesterday was the first day of school for Emma, Ian, and Nora. Everything went off without a hitch. Everyone was happy to go and they all seemed to like their teachers. Nora is in her last year of montessori and has Stevie for a teacher again this year. Ian is starting second grade with Ms. Hendrickson and Emma is starting fourth grade with Mrs. Jerome. Ms. Hendrickson plays hockey so Ian was really excited about that. Mrs. Jerome told Emma that her favorite things were art and reading and Emma was over the moon about that. I’m excited to see what this school year will bring.

The past few years Scott and I have really enjoyed watching the Tour de France bike race. So much so that I really missed it when it ended this year….I think I was having withdrawals.

To ease my symptoms we decided to go see the Tour of Utah, much of which was held in our home town this past week. It is known as the toughest stage race in the world, and after watching the riders this week, I can believe it.

Some of the worlds best bike riders were here for it including, Levi Leipheimer, Christian Van de Velde, George Hincape, Tejay Vangarderen and many others. After watching them on tv for the past few years it was a lot of fun to be able to see them in person.

We watched the opening prologue at the Utah Olympic Park and the sixth stage at the Utah capitol building. At the capitol we got to watch them come around 12 times, since it was a loop.

We furiously cheered for Levi to win each time he came around. Team Radio Shack really worked hard and ran themselves into the ground for Levi on the first 4-5 laps. They looked totally spent by the end, but they did what they needed to.

Today I watched the last stage on the internet and was thrilled to see Levi get the win. It was a really fun few days. I can’t wait to see it again next year.

We have a family friend who works as a storyboard artist for Dreamworks. Since Emma loves art and drawing, we thought it might be fun for her to visit and see what goes into some of the animated movies. We had a great day on the campus. We got to eat lunch in the employee cafeteria and see what a day looks like for an animator. Emma really enjoyed it.

I enjoyed it too, but my favorite part of the trip was just spending time with Emma. Having her just by herself made me see how grown up she is getting. Parenting didn’t feel like work at all….it was more like hanging out with one of my friends. Spending time alone with her showed me just how much she does for herself and how independent she is becoming.

I took a few pictures of her when we went to lunch at one of my favorite lunch spots: The Beachcomber

All three of the kids decided to be Harry Potter with a mustache. Of course it was done with a permanent marker. Luckily it came off quite easily. Fun times with Dad!

He also made this card:

When I got home Scott showed them to me and we both just laughed hysterically! He took so much more time to write this card than he would have to just write the sentence.

This is life with Ian!