1st Day of School

Where did the summer go?

Seriously it flew by.....guess we must have been having fun!

You are looking at Sophomore Class President right here!  Woot Woot!

I don't want Kiersten to be a sophomore but I am so proud of the young woman she is becoming!  She is amazing and I love her more than I can express.  This lady has one busy year ahead of her.  She is taking a dual college credit zero hour class, Western Civilization, which means she has to be to school at 6:30 in the morning.  She doesn't get out of school till 3:36 and then has to leave for dance at 5:10.  Her dance classes go till 8:30 every night but Wednesday's.  On Wednesday's they start at 5:00 and get out at 7:00, then she'll go straight to mutual.  I am not sure where she is going to find the time to study or do homework.  I already feel sorry for her and just thinking about her schedule makes me tired!!!

Word.....

Watch out 5th grade, here comes Logan Cluff!

Logan and us decided it was time for him to switch over to Pima school this year.

He said he is "ready for the ladies!"

Watch out.....can't imagine what he is going to be like when he gets hormones!

He is going to do amazing this year!  Such a fun and smart kid!

Hunter is a big, bad 8th grader this year!

Okay maybe not so big, but he is super cool!  Still waiting on that growth spurt he is dying to get!

He is such a handsome guy, the ladies love him, he is taking Geometry at the high school.  Only him and one other 8th grader take that high of math.........such a smarty pants!

Rock that Junior High Hunter!

Grant is so excited to be in 1st grade this year.  He has heard from his brothers how awesome, Mrs. Lines is!  So we already know its going to be a fabulous year of learning for this handsome kid!

Now if I can just find a place to send Ella I will be set!  Hahaha!

I wasn't ready for summer to end.  But ready or not school is here!

Poisonous Something or Other....

Hunter is just attracted to poisonous plants I tell ya.

While we were picking raspberries Hunter walked aways off to go pee.  He must have gotten in to some poison ivy or poison oak.  By Friday morning the hives were so bad I took him to the doctor.  The doctor gave him a steroid creme to use and told me to give him benedryl to help with the extreme itching.  So we did that.  

By Saturday night Hunter's whole knee had swollen up and the itching was getting much worse.  It was to the point of being painful, which is a big deal with Hunter because he has such a high tolerance for pain.  I took Hunter to my friend who's a nurse, Angela Paull.  She said for sure he is allergic to the steroid creme.  So Sunday Hunter laid all day on the couch.  

On Monday I took him back to the doctor.  The doctor agreed that Hunter was having an allergic reaction to the creme, so he prescribed a steroid pill.  It took about 2 weeks for the itching to finally stop.  It was so crazy!

So glad this didn't happen to one of my other kids.  Hunter is the toughest for sure!  I felt so bad for Hunter because it was quite painful and extremely itchy for so long!  

Then he tells me, "Well when I was going pee I thought the plants looked like poison ivy!"

Seriously kid, I'd think he would have learned by now that poison ivy is NO FUN!  Guess he hasn't learned that lesson yet.  Maybe this time it will sink in!

Safford Skate Park Ribbon Cutting Ceremony

Justin and Brian decided to donate all the concrete for this project in honor of Doyle, who was an avid skateboarder.  

Justin has been pretty excited for this project as you can tell from his smiling face in this picture.  His head is above the woman in the blue shirt towards the right of the picture.

My other kids weren't feeling well so they didn't come to the ribbon cutting.  But Logan and Grant were stoked to go!

I wore my red vans and a vans shirt, in honor of the celebration.  

It is a super cool skate park and we feel so blessed to have been able to help contribute to making it.  Dr. Romero spearheaded the project and really made it come to life.  So grateful for her determination!

I know for sure, Doyle was smiling down on us today!  He would have loved seeing his cute nephews out there riding the park, even if they were on scooters instead of skateboards.  

The boys are already planning how they can ride their scooters from dance down to the skate park!  

Happy Jack

We were so luck and got invited by Tamra and Jed Hughes to get stay at their uncles cabin in Happy Jack for four days.

The cabin was huge....seven large bedrooms with 5 bathrooms, not including the smaller cabin that they are remodeling.  It was so fun to stay in the same cabin with the Hughes and the Peterson's. 

The cabin had foosball, air hockey, a pool table and lots of games.  

The kids enjoyed staying up late playing games.  One night us adults stayed up till midnight playing the card game Oh Heck.  It was super fun!  First time I learned sweet Michele Peterson is very competitive.  It was a fun night with lots of laughs.  Helps when you get super tired, it makes everything funny :)

You know it's a great trip when 20 minutes into the drive home you have all 5 kids totally ASLEEP!

We seriously had so much fun!  We are already talking about doing it again next summer!

Fossil Creek

On Tuesday, we drove to Fossil Creek.  Honestly I didn't even know these places existed in Arizona.

Such a fun group!  We have never gone on a trip with these two families before but I am thinking there will be more trips with them in our future.

We hiked about 1/2 mile to a cool little spot where we camped out for several hours.

The water is crystal clear here.  We all joked that this place should be called "Clear Creek," not Fossil Creek.

The water is so clear you can snorkel.  We all had a great time snorkeling.  Not that there was cool colored fish or anything.  But there were lots of fish so that was fun!  The boys enjoyed catching fish in the nets, looking at them and then letting them go.

The water was a little crisp!

Ella loved going out into the waterfall run off and having it push her down stream.

Kids enjoyed jumping from this small water fall.  All us moms also jumped from here.  Then of course Ella wanted me to hold her and jump from it as well.

This is Logan caught mid air!

Ella and Jayne Peterson

These two were so cute together and had a great time playing.  Jayne is exactly one year older than Ella.

Craziest thing happened....

while we were chilling at this spot Kiersten recognized two boys who were in her EFY company this year.  Not only that, but the one on the right was her C.O.W. (crush of the week)., Decker.  It was so random that we would run into them in this situation.  Kiersten had fun visiting with them.  

She was pretty giddy after that.  It was cute!  Kiersten said, "Wow I didn't know Decker had a sixpack.  He had his shirt on the whole time at EFY!  That was a nice surprise!"

I'd hope he kept his shirt on at EFY.  It was a fun surprise to run into them.  

Justin didn't get in the water much today.  He kind of just vegged out on the bank most of the time.  He was super helpful though and watched Tamra's baby Cruz, so then both her and Jed could enjoy the water.  

The kids all had a grand time riding tubes down the creek and down some waterfalls.  What adventures they came back and told us about.  I just have to hold my breathe and say a prayer, then let the kids run off and be kids!

I sure love this family of mine!

We love the Hughes too!  Thanks for planning and including us on such a fun trip!  It was wonderful!

We hiked up another 1/2 mile to the large waterfall.  It was gorgeous!!!

Where the guy in the blue shorts is standing, Kiersten, Hunter and ME jumped off from there.  It was scary but exhilarating!

The kids all had so much fun cliff jumping!  It started to rain cats and dogs as we hiked back to the parking lot.  Kind of fun, kind of annoying.  The sky cleared up fast though.  And we were able to find one more cliff to jump from.  So many awesome spots at Fossil Creek!  It's a beautiful place!

This spot was back by the parking lot.  Of course we had to get a few more jumps in.  Kiersten, Hunter, Logan, Grant all jumped from this spot.  Okay so did I......but Jed pressured me.  Just kidding it didn't take much convincing for me to want to jump again!  Super Fun!

We ending the day by driving in to Camp Verde and having dinner at La Fonda's Mexican Restaurant.  It was yummy and the company was great!

Had such a fabulous day!

Clear Creek

Jed and Tamra planned the whole trip.  Sunday we got up to the cabin and just hung out, played games and visited.  Then on Monday we drove to Clear Creek.

It is super cool there!  There are these gorgeous rocks on each side.  Just breath taking!

Everyone enjoyed chilling out on the Hughes' huge raft!  It was perfect!

Can you spot Hunter at the top of the rocks?

No he didn't jump from there, thank goodness!

The kids enjoyed jumping from the batman rock.  Okay so did I.......it was exhilarating!  The other husbands jumped as well.  Justin just wanted to veg today, which was fine.  I enjoyed cliff jumping, kayaking and hanging out in the water with everyone!

Hunter and I went for a little cruise down the channel.

Ella is such a wild child...

She loved jumping off of this cliff!  It was probably a good 15 feet to the water.  She did it no problem and kept asking to do it again!  There were 5 and 6 year olds from the other families that wouldn't even jump from it.

All the kids enjoyed the kayaks!

Ella is also a rock climber!  We really had to keep an eye on her because she would be half way up the rock wall in a matter of seconds if you didn't.

It was a wonderful day!

We ended with dinner at Pizza Hut in Winslow.  

Thank the Heavens

I have never been so excited for a kid to lose their teeth in my life!!!

It was a wonderful day today!

Grant lost both front teeth today!  Justin helped pull one this morning and then this evening at the Pioneer Day celebrating, Gloria's sister Ada Mae, popped out the other one.  I thought I might kiss her I was so excited!!!

Yay....no more buck teeth!  I can enjoy looking at Grant's cute face again!  He looks so darn cute missing his two front teeth!

And his IQ automatically increased......hahaha!  Or at least my ability to take him seriously increased greatly!