March for Babies, and Zach's Last day of school!

Well, Zach's last day on the bus was technically before his last day of school. Once we moved, we were not on the bus route anymore, so this is his last day on the bus. He was so sad that he didn't get to go on the bus the following Monday, but I think between being in a new house, and Grandma Trout staying with us, he was pleasantly distracted enough! :) He had the BEST bus driver, she was fantastic and kind of like with his Teacher, it was comforting knowing he was with someone who really cared about him! We miss her already, but hopefully we'll see her again soon!



This was Zach's last day of school. It was a bitter-sweet day. He has made SUCH unbelievable progress from his first day of school, he's hardly recognizable as the same kid. He was also so lucky that he had (hands down) THE BEST group of teachers there could possibly be. You could always tell they truly cared about him, and he talked about them constantly at home. They made the scary (for us at least) transition to starting school so much more comfortable to deal with. We're really hoping we will end up with them again next year (we wont find out till probably next month once they have figured out the new boundaries) but if not we're so glad to have had them for Zach this last year, they had the personalities that made it possible for him to grow and make him feel comfortable being with them.
The week after we moved (the one weekend between the move and our trip down to California) we did our annual March of Dimes March for Babies walk. This year we went up to the Salt Lake walk for the first time, since the Provo one was when we were in California. It was a very neat experience, definitely a LOT more people that we were used to at the Provo ones! We love being able to participate in this walk as it means SO much to our family! I've said it before and you bet I'll say it again, no matter how many walks we do or how much money we raise we could NEVER be able to pay back the research the March of Dimes has funded, many of those things saved Zach's life. We are so grateful for them and the research they do and the awareness they bring to this cause that touches our family to deeply. Every year Zach becomes more and more "normal" I guess you could say and seeing him there it's probably hard to imagine where he came from, and it just makes me so happy to be able to give back, even if it's just to walk a few miles. Being around people who truly understand what it's like, who lives through the hell of months in the NICU, you can just feel a comradory (or however you spell that!) there.

Zach with his poster we made, we were walking through looking for where his ended up and he was SO excited when he found it! :)