One month in!

Well, Emily is one month into her new school year at her new school. So far, she really likes it! She finally feels challenged and likes the other kids, so things are going really well. She has a long school day - we aim to drop her off at 7:30am and pick her up at 4:30pm. Her school day actually ends at 3:15pm, but then most of the kids stay for Homework Club, which is great because it means that by the time I pick her up, her homework is done for the day. Despite the long hours, Emily seems to be excited about her days and she seems to be doing well in class.

At the university pool

One of the things that has been nice about being in a lab school at the university is that they have access to the entire campus and definitely try to take advantage of it. One day for P.E. they went swimming in the university pool, and another day they went on a walking tour to see the set up behind one of the home football games. They have also gone to watch one of the girls' volleyball games, and we have free tickets to some of the other sporting events on campus.

So, school is going well and violin is going well. We are back to weekly lessons, which is good because now Emily has new material to work on rather than just "treading water" as we did all summer. Speaking of summer, I realized that school started so quickly after our travels that I didn't get a chance to post any photos from our trip. Here, at long last, are a few highlights:

Butterfly Conservatory at Niagara Falls

We spent a few nights at Niagara Falls, which I thought was lovely. Emily didn't seem too impressed, even with the tour behind the falls, etc., but since we have been home she has talked about it and seems to have fond memories. The Butterfly Conservatory was a big hit, though, and she was able to get a few of them to land on her.

Ithaca is Gorges

She seemed pretty happy with our stop off in Ithaca. It was rainy a lot of the time, but we did get a chance to tour Cornell and do a little walking in the gorges.

During our stop in Virginia, she was lucky enough to go to the Air and Space Museum with Uncle Greg. She also scored a donut from Duck Donuts, and a manicure and pedicure. Quite the life.

Relaxing in the gardens at the Biltmore

We also made a short stop in Asheville and toured the Biltmore. They had the Chihuly glass exhibit going on, which was cool. As for the tour itself, Emily started to fatigue towards the end, but I think that she had fun. We met some friends there, so she was definitely happy to have another girl her age to pal around with.

Finally, we were able to see just a little bit of the Smokey Mountains on the way home. We would have loved to have spent longer, but we just ran out of time. What we did see, though, I think that Emily really liked.

All in all, probably nothing as spectacular as last summer's trip out west, but still good to do. Yesterday Emily told me that when she grows up she wants to own an RV so that she can take her two kids (yes, apparently she has decided on two), around the country to see the things that she has seen, just without the hassle of having to stay in hotels. So, clearly, all of the travel that we are doing is making an impression on her.:)