Independence Day

Happy 4th of July!

The shot with just 2 kids reminds me of when we only had 2 kids...

8 yrs and many, many diaper changes ago.

Bryce Canyon

We visited Bryce Canyon last week.

We met a lot of family there, so the kids enjoyed cousin time.

FYI: if you have a 4th grader, you can get a free pass to all national parks.


(below) My parents. One of my bros (above)


We celebrated another milestone birthday. Our oldest is now 13. Crazy to think we have a teenager! Wish us luck with this chapter of life!

40th Fiesta!

Last week, we traveled to New Mexico. My husband's parents just moved there. We did a cousin temple trip with family names.

It was beautiful.

The kids loved being there.

The two below are the same year model.

And here are the '06 models...

So sunny & warm.

Loved watching these cute little hikers.

We also celebrated a milestone birthday!
Here's the 3-some that was there for the original event
-- 4 decades ago!

We had another fiesta here after returning home.

We bribed some other park-goers to pose as our friends for pictures. Again.
It was fun!
Thankfully, the pinata was the only casualty.

Guest of honor, cutting the cakes...

Mas tacos por favor

Hiking shots

We recently spent a sunny Saturday hiking. I got some cute pics.

This little girl is turning 4 soon! I call her my "understudy" because she talks to her siblings like she's in charge. She has her "I mean it" tone, her sweet tone, and even an "I know you don't like it but I'll explain sympathetically" tone. It's too funny.

O-oh-oh-oh sweet child o' mine

Here's the baby sitting by our piano. She's starting to sing little songs.
And today I was exercising to music & both little girls came over to join in. Their dance moves were great. It made it really fun. It might even inspire me to exercise again before NEXT New Years comes along!

Kid Christmas Survey

I've worried that having our kids write out a wish list fostered the wrong focus on the season. Yet, my better half felt differently, because he wants to give them specific gifts they want. This year we came up with an idea my husband & I both loved...a Christmas survey!

We printed out questions for everyone like, "What's your favorite Christmas tradition? What is one new thing you'd like to do this year? What are some things you'd like for Christmas?" 3 lines were provided to answer the gift question, so we have a few ideas, but are not building expectations they they'll get everything they can imagine. Plus, we like to surprise them with gifts not on their list too.

The last question was "who do you think we can help this Christmas and how?"
It was good to hear what makes Christmas feel special to them so we make sure we do those things.
And I like that their lists were not just about gifts, but about memory-making and serving others.
Hope your Holidays are sweet & filled with what matters most!

Fall Festival Games

Hope your fall has been fun! I can't believe it's November.
I've been helping to get a few games together for our school's upcoming fall festival.
Like this, for instance...

We have a duck race where kids use squirt bottles to squirt their floating racer towards the finish line. This is my favorite game to compete in...I mean, ahem, to "test out" to make sure it's fair and that each squirt bottle has comparable stream strength.

Soda bottles make great bowling pins.

And we put together some obstacles and targets for mini golf.

The windmill box turns the ball 90 degrees. Plus we have a ramp for hole 7. With a ramp and a windmill, that's legitimate put-put, right?

The best part about this is how much fun our kids have trying out the games! It's been fun to have them help me.