Seattle Trip and First Day of Kindergarten

We went to Seattle over the weekend as a last get-away before school started. We started our visit with a stop at the Seattle Aquarium. We LOVE the Seattle Aquarium! The girls have watched almost every episode of Octonauts, so every creature they saw, the girls were like, "Oh! There's a spine nosed fish!" Or "There's a (something that I've never heard of)!" They loved it.

 These tide pools were our favorite. The girls were able to stick their fingers in and touch the creatures. Pyper loved it the most.

Jellyfish tube:

This was one of the cool things we could touch. Watch what it does!

 We also went to the outlet malls and got some great deals on school clothes for the girls. Sorry--no pictures because it was mad chaos with a million people around and our bunch of kids wandering and being independent. But we all made it back safely to the hotel. We even got our own private "room" at the Olive Garden. Rhett and the girls waited in the van until the table was ready, and I think they misunderstood me when I said two adults and five kids. I think they thought one kid and six adults because she brought out six adult glasses of water and one kiddie drink. Haha. But it's okay. We usually get crammed in the middle of the room at a table for four and we all have to squish in and eat over each other's elbows, so this was perfect for us!

We had such a fun trip. It was wonderful to spend all the time together before the girls head off to school again.

And today was Claire's FIRST day of Kindergarten! She was so excited. 

Junie is growing and changing so much! I can't believe it. She also starting to smile. Her smiles are often, and it's almost a guarantee that she'll smile every time that Rhett breaks into singing "Hey June" to the Beetles song "Hey Jude." It's so sweet.

Another big thing about today was Summer got to change her earrings for the first time! (And NO ONE passed out! woohoo!)
She was so excited that she woke up at 5:30 and came busting into our room with the earrings she'd picked out. I made her go back and get her pillow and blanket and lay on our floor. Surprisingly, she fell asleep (she usually doesn't ever fall back asleep once she's awake) and I caught this picture.

After Claire got home, she told us about her day. Everything she said, Summer would say, "Oh! I love the owl chart!" Or "That's my favorite!" (Claire has Mrs. Ochse like Summer did.) It was so cute.

 What a big girl! I can't believe it. Sure, she went to preschool since she was like 18 months old. But Kindergarten is different. It's the step everyone takes that says "I'm growing up!" Yes, I got a little teary eyed as I thought of her throughout the day. Our sweet Claire is off to school, getting ready to change the world.