Bryson's Pre-K Graduation 2015

Today, Bryson started his first day of Kindergarten. I'm a little behind on my blog so I thought today would be a good day to write about his year in Pre-K.  Bryson has always went to school with me, so it's weird not being there and knowing exactly what he's doing. He is very smart, and sweet with an awesome personality so I know he'll be fine, but it's still hard not being there.
Bryson grew a lot this year. He has always been smart but he learned so much this year not only at school but at home. He can count to 120, can count to 100 by 10's, can write all of his letters and numbers 1-20, and can write anything that you show him. He loves drawing. Whenever somebody has a birthday, he makes them a card. Not only does it save money on a store bought card but he gets to practice his writing and he gets to draw whatever he wants which is something he loves to do. He is also reading short books with some help. He recognizes a lot of sight words and with help, has been able to sound out words to read an entire book. It takes him a long time to read a book but the more he has practiced, the better he has gotten. Robert has made a habit of getting him to read just about every night at bedtime.Instead of him reading the bedtime story to Bryson, he gets Bryson to read it to him. I'm amazed at how smart he has become!
He had a lot of special friends this year in Pre-K but his two best friends were Lucy and Mackenzie. He always told me that Lucy was his girlfriend and Mackenzie was his best friend. It's a little sad that he won't be with either of them this year, but Lucy is right next door to him at big school.
I knew at graduation I would probably cry my eyes out, but I tried my best not to since I not only had to be there as a parent, but as a teacher too. I couldn't cry on stage while trying to give my class their awards and help them sing their songs. It was hard, but I managed to make it through the entire thing without crying. I got teary eyed, but I didn't cry. I'm so thankful that we have so much family in town that can come support and cheer Bryson on whenever he has a special event. Granna, Papa, Robbie, Martha, Will, Lola, Lisa, Amy, Erin, Eli and Shawn all came to celebrate his special day with us. These last 5 years have flown by. I still can't believe I sent my baby to big school today. Where has the time gone?

Washington D.C 2015

Robert works for a pretty awesome company. Each year they reward their best employees with an award called The Ring of Excellence. Robert was awarded for outstanding customer service (and the fact that he completely turned around a failing branch). Not only do these employees get a ring for their achievement but they also get a free trip. Not just free airfare and hotel, but everything completely free! How awesome is that! This year the company took them to Washington D.C. Robert was excited because he's never been. I was excited to go anywhere. We had a tough start to our year and I just really needed a break from everything. This trip was the perfect thing for that. Our first night to arrive was the awards dinner in the hotel. This was also Robert's birthday!  Each employee received their ring and gave a small speech while we enjoyed a pretty fancy dinner. It wasn't too bad, but definitely not our taste. The next day we met for breakfast and were broken into groups for a scavenger hunt of the city. This was a quick and great way to see a lot of the sights of D.C.  Of course for dinner and the scavenger hunt we were paired with the owner of the company. At the time Robert was up for a promotion but had not heard if he got it or not. He must have made a great impression because he got the well deserved promotion!

After the scavenger hunt, we went back to our hotel room for lunch and had the afternoon to do whatever we wanted. We did so much that morning that we just ordered room service and took a nap before getting dressed for dinner. We had no idea what dinner was. It was a big surprise. We loaded up in this awesome bus and drove to the Capitol. It was after hours but the company had arranged for an after hours VIP tour of the Capitol! Our tour guides were current and former Senators. We also were taken to places that the regular tours were not allowed to go. We even got to sit in the Senate chambers. It was pretty awesome. After the tour we went to eat at Johnny's Half Shell. It was nice to have our own room with our own waiters to make sure we had everything. All the food was amazing.

The next day we were free to do whatever we wanted to. We were given an all day bus pass so we could see more of the city faster. We were able to see everything we wanted to except for Arlington and the tomb of the unknown soldier. Thankfully our flight home the next day was late so knew we would be able to go before we left. We also got to see the President's helicopter land twice. I'm not a fan of our current President but it was still pretty cool to see.  After seeing all the sights, we had another surprise for dinner. We had dinner on a yacht on the Potomac River!

Sadly the next day was our last day. We had a late enough flight that we were able to do a little more sightseeing before we left. The first thing we did was go to Arlington to see the tomb of the unknown soldier. It had been so long since I've seen and Robert has never seen it so it was something we both knew we had to do before we left. It was amazing to watch. It took us a while to do that so we did not have time to go anywhere else so we just rode the tour bus back to the hotel. It was sad to see our vacation come to an end but we were both ready to get home to see Bryson. It was the longest we had both been away from him. Thankfully my parents were able to watch him and have a lot of fun with him while we were gone.