Colorado has been in the new a lot the last few days. It even made the news in Sydney as I have had a couple of friends there email me to make sure everything was ok. Everyone here is talking about the rain with most places around Denver experiencing record rainfall over the past few days. The kids don’t mind, though, as it can provide an instant lake. Like it did on their school playground when Marcy picked them up earlier this week.

Last weekend I was in San Francisco on business although it wasn’t all hard work. I was able to take a trip out on the Lending Club yacht which was very cool. It is a 73-foot long trimaran that is one of the fastest boats in San Francisco Bay.

While I was in San Francisco, Marcy took the on the annual Park Hill family bike ride which everyone seemed to enjoy.

One of the things that is great about our new house is our back yard. We have a large yard with lots of flowers planted by the previous owners. We even have a hummingbird feeder up but hadn’t seen any until this week. Marcy snapped this great photo of one getting nectar from the real thing.

The transition from Kindergarten to 1st grade is a very big deal at Waldorf. Jude has been counting down the days all summer until he got to be a “grader”. On Tuesday morning the big day finally arrived and he was excited. Here is with Marcy about to leave for his first day of 1st grade.

On the first day of school there is a big ceremony for the first graders and the entire school attends as well as the 1st grade and 8th grade parents. There is a rose ceremony where the 1st graders say goodbye to their parents and are led through a tunnel made of dozens of bigger kids with their 8th grade buddy. Every 1st grader gets an 8th grade buddy who they will get to know throughout their first year at the school. It was a wonderful ceremony and there was many a crying parent (including Marcy). Below is Jude sitting at his desk in the front row just before heading down to the rose ceremony.

The night before Jude’s first day of school was another milestone. Jude lost his second tooth. He proudly displayed it the next morning. You can see that the first tooth he lost has a new tooth coming in well.

It has been really hot in Denver these past two weeks and the swamp cooler broke down one day. So, Marcy set up the tents on the balcony and we all slept under the stars one night. Jude and Anna were pretty excited about it.

The last two weeks also saw the return of our piano after being completely restored and tuned. Our piano was built around 1930 (around the same age as our new house) and we bought it for $100 from a church. After having it restored it looks great and sounds even better.

We now have another musical instrument in the family. After Jude listened to the Magic Tree House story about Louis Armstrong in New Orleans he has wanted a trumpet. Instead of spending $500 on a new trumpet we decided to rent one. We may do lessons at some point but both Jude and Anna like to get it out regularly and blow through it. It is pretty cool to hear them play it.