tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-87870317764844794932024-03-19T00:10:00.168-07:00Mississippi MowersI started this blog when we moved to Mississippi so we could share our adventures. We are no longer in Mississippi, but we still like to think of life as an adventure!Diedrehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04671795157668266148noreply@blogger.comBlogger120125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8787031776484479493.post-47373839266246041052018-08-28T22:08:00.000-07:002018-08-28T22:08:30.503-07:00July 2018, Part 1I started to type up one big post for this month, but it was just getting WAY too big. Too many pictures to upload and get inserted where I wanted them. Instead I'm going to break things up a bit. So, without further ado, here's the first half of the month of July.<br />
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Our month started out the same way the last one ended, with <a href="http://mississippimowers.blogspot.com/2018/08/camping.html" target="_blank">our awesome camping trip</a> spilling over into the first day of this month. We spent a few days recovering from that adventure and trying to figure out how we made so much dirty laundry in such a short number of days. As much as I just wanted to sleep for a week though, the kids were not content to just sit around and stare at the walls. Darn it! So, we ventured out to a local park that has a nice little stream running through it. I spread out a blanket in the shade of a nice big tree and just lounged around while the kids went wading. It was a pretty awesome way to spend a day!<br />
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Of course, this being the beginning of July there's only so much relaxation that can happen anyways because it's time for Independence Day! We weren't really sure how we wanted to spend our day, so we scoured the internet for ideas, and then set out to see what we could find to do. We started our morning at the Mormon Station State Park, site of the oldest white settlement in the state of Nevada. The state park had a ton of fun games for the kids to play, and they loved running around and checking them all out. Even Ethan and I joined in. :)<br />
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Also at the state park there was some amazing live music. We hadn't figured there would be enough here to make us want to stay all day, but boy were we wrong. Next year we're going back to Genoa and Mormon Station prepared with picnics, chairs, and anything else we might need to just sit and enjoy the bulk of the day here. The music was spectacular, with some really great performers. Our favorite were the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I1_XElMpm-0" target="_blank">Sierra Silverstrings</a>, who reminded us of a fiddling version of the the little girls on Oh Brother Where Art Thou. It was great folk/americana type music and we just ate it up. The atmosphere here was great, and we could have spent the whole day lounging on the grass soaking it all in if we had come a bit better prepared.<br />
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From there we headed down the road to Minden to see what their town celebration had to offer. It was a lot more upbeat of a get-together, with loud music blaring over the speakers, bouncy houses, and free hots dogs and ice cream for lunch. They had blocked off all the streets around the park at the town center so kids were doing laps on their bikes and scooters while parents sat in the sparse shade and chatted. It was fun, but honestly so busy we found it to be a little overwhelming.<br />
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That night we went into Carson City to watch the fireworks. One of the LDS church buildings happens to be just about the closest one can get to where the city launches the fireworks, and church members all gather there for an unofficial dessert potluck. They block off the end of the parking lot so kids can ride bikes and play, and everyone sets up their chairs or blankets on the lawn to socialize until the show starts. It was a pretty good show, and we all really enjoyed the time to meet new friends and get to know some people from our ward better.<br />
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The kids had asked several times in a fairly short time period about how money is made, so when we heard that the historic coin press operates once a month at the Nevada State Museum we decided to go. The coin press was interesting, but the kids really loved the almost real underground mine and all the dead animals (taxidermy and fossils). There's also a fun ghost town, but it creeped the kids out so we didn't spend much time there.<br />
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It was around this time that we finally broke down and turned on our A/C for the first time. It was finally starting to feel like summer around here! Despite the warmer temperatures (still WAY better than what we dealt with in AZ, or even NM) we decided to get out and hike a little trail near town that we'd heard really good things about. We're trying to convince our kids that hiking is in fact NOT torture, but can actually be fun. This trail seemed like a good candidate for this life lesson. :)<br />
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It's a very short walk, but it is up a somewhat steep trail with a couple of switchbacks. It provided just enough of a challenge that the kids could really feel like they'd accomplished something without being totally worn out. And the view out over the valley was pretty darn great!<br />
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In order to really solidify the "hiking is cool" message, our trail of choice ends in a beautiful little waterfall with a pool at the bottom that is perfect for wading in (if you don't mind wading in ice cold water that is).<br />
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The kids had a marvelous time playing in the water and climbing on the rocks, while I tried to not freak out about all the different ways they could get hurt on the edge of this steep hill.<br />
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Our route back through town towards home led us right past the Farmer's Market, so we decided to stop in for a few minutes. The kids were pretty thrilled to find someone doing free face painting and stubbornly stood in line despite the bright sun and the rising temperatures. <br />
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About half-way through the month we noticed a definite change in the air, and I'm not talking about a change of season, or weather. Huge amounts of smoke from large forest fires in California and Northern Nevada were settling in our valley, making life not quite so fun as it had been. We went from some pretty great views of the mountains from our front porch to not being able to see even the small hills a mile away. <br />
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At one point the little town directly south of us was declared to have the worst air quality in the country, even worse than towns much closer to the fire. There were stories of people just 10 miles south of us having to wipe the ashes off their cars before they drove anywhere, and even of people getting Poison Oak burns from the oils in the ashes and smoke.<br />
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It just seemed to get worse and worse each day, too. What should have been some prime summer adventuring time ended up being several weeks of leaving the house as little as possible, and typically only to go straight to somewhere indoors with clean filtered air. We managed to keep Erik's asthma under control, but it was a constant worry, especially on days when just breathing normally was enough to make your eyes water and your sinus's burn.<br />
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So, how did we survive the smokepocalypse? Find out in the next blog post! :)Diedrehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04671795157668266148noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8787031776484479493.post-18579772420138938872018-08-09T22:02:00.000-07:002018-08-20T20:34:34.520-07:00Camping! <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
During the weekend that spanned the ending of June and the beginning of July we decided to go on a camping trip. Our tax return provided us with tents and a few other items we wanted in order to be able to camp comfortably, so for the first time in a couple of years we were finally all set to get out there and enjoy a few days in the great outdoors. </div>
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We thought we had made reservations at the Silver Creek campground, across the state line in California, but when we got there we learned there'd been a mix-up with the dates and there was not an empty place in the entire campground. We debated heading down the road until we found another campground, and just crossing our fingers that there would be room for us there. With daylight fading though, we knew we needed to get camp set up sooner rather than later, so we found a little dirt road that headed off into the trees and made camp out in the middle of the forest.<br />
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With fire restrictions we couldn't have a fire outside of an official fire pit, so not only was our camp "dry" (no running water), but it was pretty cold as well. We did have a propane burner that we were able to heat water for hot cocoa though, so life wasn't <i>too</i> rough for us there. :) We'd eaten dinner on the drive out there, and had breakfast all pre-made for the morning, so we really didn't require a fire at all that first night.<br />
We were camped a short walk from Silver Creek, which was tiny but pretty. Ethan took the kids for a pre-bedtime walk and of course the first thing they did was get soaking wet. When I went looking for them a few minutes later I found them all playing in the water. Erik was having a marvelous time experimenting with building/blocking different channels for the water and watching what happened. It was fun to watch him experiment with it all. That kid has such an analytical mind, and it's so fun to see what he comes up with. Sharli was having fun climbing around on the rocks and Maren was pretty obsessed with throwing "boats" (sticks) in the water to watch them float away.<br />
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That night was pretty cold, but we mostly managed to keep everyone warm enough to sleep through the night. We were all pretty excited to wrap our hands around cups of hot cocoa in the morning though! The kids were up crazy early, so we ate breakfast and then the kids went with Ethan for a hike while I struck camp. We really did like our little secluded forest glade and would gladly have spent another night there, but we were running out of water and had to move somewhere else.<br />
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After I got everything loaded in the car I went and found the rest of the crew and we wandered around the forest for a little while. The kids found this great fallen tree and spent a while climbing all over it. Erik decided it looks just like "where the bears live" and was so excited to be able to play here.<br />
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Of course we also had to go back and say our goodbyes to the creek. I think we even managed to stay mostly dry that morning, which for us is a miracle. :)<br />
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Erik is such a little hoarder, and wanted to take home every tree and rock and stick that we saw. We had to convince him that taking pictures with/of/on them was as good as it was going to get.<br />
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Sharli was not terribly interested in sticks and rocks, but she was constantly on the lookout for anything pretty. She is such a girly girl, but it's so much fun!<br />
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While we could have happily wandered the woods all day, we knew there were places we wanted to visit and things we wanted to see that day, so we finally wandered our way back to the car.<br />
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We said goodbye to our campsite, piled into our trusty Durango, and hit the road.<br />
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As we headed down CA Hwy 4, there were so many pretty places tucked away alongside the road. This little stream was so pretty that Ethan just couldn't pass it by without snapping a picture.<br />
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As we were driving we kept seeing signs for Mosquito Lake, and joking about how that was the LAST place we would ever want to stop. Why would anyone want to spend time at a lake so bug-infested that it has mosquito in the name? But then we saw it, and couldn't just drive past. It's really not more than a pond, but it was beautiful. With a cute little cabin on the far side, and lily pads floating on the surface it was spectacular.<br />
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Erik got busy throwing rocks into the water right away, but the girls were more focused on the plant life. Sharli was in love with all the wildflowers that were everywhere and wanted to pick them all to bring home with us. Again we settled for taking pictures.<br />
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Maren found this patch of super-soft moss, and was mesmerized. She sat there and petted it while the rest of us poked around the lake shore. When it was finally time to get back in the car she actually bent down and kissed the moss goodbye.<br />
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It may have only been about 9:00 in the morning at this point, but these kids had already been up since before 5 and put in a full day's hiking and exploring, so they crashed in the car for most of the rest of our drive.<br />
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All that driving was for the sole purpose of visiting Calaveras Big Trees State Park. And they aren't exaggerating with that title in the least! We had no idea, until we start researching ideas for our camping trip, that some of California's giant sequoias were just a couple hours' drive from our house. Seeing these trees has always been a "bucket-list" item for both Ethan and I, so we knew that as long as we were going to be half-way there on our trip we might as well go the rest of the way and check them out.<br />
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When you pull into the state park the forest actually looks totally normal. You can't tell that there's anything special growing here. In fact as we fought the crowds for a parking space we were feeling pretty disappointed. Here we'd driven all this way, paid to get into the park, and it was just another forest. We stuck around because a) we'd already paid to get into the place, and b) everyone was starving and we needed a place to eat our picnic lunch. As we were eating lunch we caught our first glimpse through the trees of the Discovery Tree Stump. We finished our meal, got it all packed away again, and hit the trail with renewed enthusiasm for our visit.<br />
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This tree stump was mind-blowing! Apparently over the years it has been used as a dance floor, a school house, and even a bowling alley. The majority of the tree remnants are still laying nearby so you can really get a feel for not only how big around it was, but also just how incredibly tall too. I mean, just look at the size of the knot holes there by Erik and Sharli sitting on the log!<br />
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We wandered down the trail in complete awe of the trees around us. Some of them you could walk right up to, and some they had blocked off to prevent damage to the root systems (which are just barely under the surface, contrary to what one would think with trees of this size).<br />
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We kept snapping picture after picture. One of us would be taking pictures like crazy, then the other would grab the camera and take a million pictures. We would laugh at ourselves, knowing that nobody in the world would ever want to sit and look at a hundred pictures of a bunch of trees, but still unable to stop ourselves. I really did try to pick only a few of the very best ones to share here, but it was rather hard to narrow it down.<br />
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I loved that even the kids appreciated the awesomeness of these trees. They were really suitably impressed.<br />
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There were a couple places where the huge trees had fallen and the hollow logs were still laying on the ground. This one was fairly small, but there was one that was so big it almost felt like you were walking into a cave instead of a tree.<br />
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Our hike through the trees ended up back at the Discovery Tree, where we sat to snap a few more pictures, because why not?<br />
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We also love all the amazingly huge pine cons that grow around here. They are as big as the kids' heads!<br />
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After we finished our hike we headed back up Hwy 4 towards home. We didn't have a plan for where to sleep that night, all we knew was we needed running water and a legal fire pit. The plan was to just stop at every campground we passed until we found one that looked like it had an empty spot, but all the ones right by state park were PACKED. We didn't even bother pulling in to check anywhere out until we got back to Mosquito Lake. Unfortunately it was full, but we didn't have to go too much farther before we found a nice little place that was mostly empty.<br />
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Pacific Valley Campground was a really nice little place. We were on the edge of a pretty little meadow with a little stream running through it. The ground was level and the grass was soft, which made for nice sleeping (if there is such a thing in a tent). Ethan took the kids for a walk to swim in the creek, with the intention to give me a chance to take a beak. I'm not so good at that though, so I got camp all set up while they were out splashing around. <br />
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<span style="text-align: start;">This little campground was really a pretty great little spot, except for one thing. The mosquitoes! They were horrible!!!</span></div>
We had a weenie roast and dutch-oven cobbler for dinner, and it was SO yummy! The kids crashed hard after the busy day, and Ethan and I sat by the fire and had a contest to see who could smash the greatest number of mosquitoes. I won! :)<br />
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The kids were up with the sun again in the morning, especially Erik who has always been an early riser. We had pancakes and sausage for breakfast, then struck camp for the last time.<br />
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Our campsite happened to be right by the hand-pump that supplied water to about half the campsite. The kids loved getting to help pump the water not just for us, but for any other obliging campers who consenting to letting the kids help them out.<br />
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The kids wanted to go back to the creek, so after we had everything all packed up we went back for a little walk so I could see the creek. They were so excited to show me where they'd been swimming the day before.<br />
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We headed back towards home along Hwy 4, which is the craziest state hwy I may have been on. It's quite narrow, with most of it being too narrow for two cars to pass one another. That doesn't stop anyone from driving crazy fast along here, and we were nearly run off the road a couple times be people who didn't even slow down before whizzing around us. And of course this is all happening on twisty mountain roads, often with pretty major drop-offs on one side.<br />
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There are so many pretty little places along this road though. This little glade was clear full of ferns and Columbine flowers. It was really pretty!<br />
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Our main destination along our way home was Highland's Lakes. It was a pretty rough drive on a rocky dirt road, but it was so beautiful once we got up to the lakes. There were a few other people up there, but not very many. It was almost like we had the place all to ourselves. The water was shockingly cold, but that didn't stop us at all!<br />
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The kids were pretty willing to spend all day wading in the water, but Ethan and I wimped out after a while. That water was so darn cold it hurt! We had spotted something just up the hill that we wanted to take a closer look at, so we got everyone dressed in warm dry clothes and went for a walk.<br />
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The wildflowers in the meadow by the lake were amazing! They were everywhere, and in every color you could want.<br />
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We wandered up the hillside and found our objective; this snow bank that was still lingering after the winter.<br />
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Maren wasn't real impressed with this weird cold stuff. She was mostly happy to just watch. The other kids (and Ethan) though jumped right in (literally) and had a blast!<br />
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We were really enjoying the snow, but the mosquitoes were pretty terrible up on the hillside so we headed back down. By this point we were all pretty worn out and ready to head for home. We had to stop for a while on the way down the mountain due to a motorcyclist who ran off the road. They had to stop traffic to get the life-flight helicopter in there to pull him out. It was pretty crazy to have had that all happen just ahead of us on the road, and we were pretty grateful to get off the mountain in one piece.<br />
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After a pit-stop at Dairy Queen, we made it home and were glad to be there! This was such a fun weekend and we hope to get to go camping again before it gets too cold this fall.Diedrehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04671795157668266148noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8787031776484479493.post-61892242511317840512018-08-06T23:02:00.001-07:002018-08-20T20:37:26.362-07:00June 2018<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
Well, June wasn't quite as busy as May was, but it was still an action packed month! It's hard to even know where to begin.</div>
We are in love with the summer weather here. We never got over 100 degrees, so even the hottest days weren't really all that bad. We spent lots of time visiting different parks around town, but the ones we frequent the most are the ones right here in our neighborhood. This day we took some kites the kids made and let them try their hand at flying. Erik was pretty excited about it, but Sharli mostly just wanted to go play on the toys at the park.<br />
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We also were still only a month into life in our new house, we did spend a lot of time working on getting settled. Maren loves trips to Walmart and Costco. Especially when I let her wear anything she wants. :)<br />
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We were still getting used to the new neighborhood and the new sights and sounds that come with it. One morning we were woken up fairly early by a strange sound. It sounded like the neighbors were burning the weeds in their back yard with a blow torch. I laid there for what felt like forever trying to figure out what I was hearing, and when I finally sat up to look out the window I nearly fell out of my bed. There, just exactly over the top of our neighbor's house, was a hot air balloon!<br />
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We grabbed clothes and shoes and ran out into the street to see what was going on. When it became clear that they were going to land right in the road a few houses away from us I went back in the house to get Erik and Sharli.<br />
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By the time the kids and I got back outside a moment later it was too late. The balloon had landed, quickly changed passengers, and taken off again. There were several other balloons floating nearby, and they all flew off together. It was so neat to get to see them so close.<br />
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Not all our adventures were quite that spontaneous though. We spent one Saturday walking the "Blue Line Trail" through downtown Carson City, which led us past lots of historic homes/buildings and taught us a little bit of the history of the area.<br />
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The trail starts at what once was a US Mint but is now the Nevada State Museum, led us all over the historic downtown.<br />
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There were parts of this walk the kids liked more than others. It really wasn't a terribly kid-friendly activity, but they were good sports and managed to have some fun along the way.<br />
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I decided to start <a href="http://carsoncityfamily.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">a new blog</a> about family-friendly things to do in and around Carson City, so the kids and I got serious about exploring the parks and other attractions around town. It's been a fun adventure! It's more of a reference blog though, and all of our more personal family stories will still end up here on Mississippi Mowers.<br />
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It turns out that the biggest and best parade of the year around here was the Carson Valley Days parade. They blocked off all of downtown Minden (a little town to the south of us) and the parade was great! The kids had a blast, and came home with SO much candy and other free junk.<br />
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I think our kids almost believe that parades happen so everyone can drive by THEM and see THEM. Not the other way around. They loved waving at and interacting with anyone who gave them the chance.<br />
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One thing we didn't count on being a problem was the cute little American flags that someone handed our kids during the parade. The next day Sharli and and Erik were rough housing and Sharli got tackled with the end of the flag stick in her mouth. We got to go meet our new doctor and get her all checked out to make sure her throat was okay. It was fine, just a big scratch, but it was more adventure than I liked!<br />
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We got our first taste of Fire Season around here when Ethan noticed a strange cloud forming on the horizon one evening. He called me out to come see it and we realized it was not a cloud. It was smoke. The hillside just a few miles from our house was on fire, and the blaze was expanding pretty quickly. It was too close to nightfall for any air support to come in, so they had to just let it burn all night and put it out in the morning. It was pretty incredible to watch the lights of the fire move across the hillside that evening.<br />
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In our quest to explore our new surroundings we've been scouring the internet and any other information sources we can get our hands on for ideas of places to go and things to do. Some have been fairly simple, like this Tot Trek organized by the city to get kids out hiking the trails. We ended up making some new friends on this little hike that have opened the door to some fun new opportunities for us.<br />
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Other activities we've gone to have been a much bigger deal. Like the Saturday we spent at the Nevada Outdoor Experience. The kids got to see and do and learn so many fun things! This rock climbing wall was the first thing we saw as we walked over from the parking lot, and the kids were in line for it in a heartbeat. We were a little surprised when Sharli ended up being the more daring of our two climbers, but they both had a marvelous time.<br />
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In addition to rock climbing, the kids got to see animal skulls, live reptiles, practice milking a cow, shooting a wrist rocket, try their hand at metal detecting, panning for gold, and even archery.<br />
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I loved how all the people running the booths were willing to get down on the kids' level and help them get the most out of the experience. Even little Maren was never denied a chance to try her hand at something unless her size was a safety concern (such as with the rock climbing wall).</div>
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And oh my heavens, all the free stuff we came home with! Hats, bags, coloring books, duck calls (mom's *favorite*), and more.<br />
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The best free thing we got that day was a free lunch. Hot dogs, soda, juice, chips. The kids were in heaven!<br />
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Erik, with his engineering mind, just HAD to see how the climbing tower could possibly be taken down and hauled away on a trailer, so when it was all over we found a shady spot and watched the tear-down of the event. Erik was totally fascinated!<br />
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One thing we didn't end up doing with our kids was to get them enrolled in swim lessons. We did, however, find out that there was a nation-wide program that would get kids into one free swim lesson on a certain day, so we headed down to our local pool and enjoyed an hour of free swim time with one on one instructors for each of the two older kids. Hopefully we'll get them into swim lessons next year, because they loved the little taste they got of it this day.<br />
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Another really fun, free event we went to was an open house at the little local airport. There was a huge variety of aircraft there, and the kids loved wandering around and looking at it all.<br />
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Of course there was more free junk to bring home, which is always exciting (at least for the kids).<br />
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The same day as the airport open house, the Children's Museum was having a free admission day, so we decided to swing by there and check it out. It's one of the smaller children's museums we've been to, but it was still a lot of fun!<br />
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Erik was infatuated with this treadwall; a climbing wall that moves as you climb so you never reach the top. He spent a ton of time here that day.<br />
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The girls loved the grocery store/kitchen area, and spent a huge amount of time "cooking" food for Ethan and I to eat.<br />
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We also learned that there's a frisbee golf course just a couple miles from our house so we decided to give it a shot. It ended up being a lot more bushwhacking through the sage brush than most of us were up to, but one of these days Ethan and I will have to go back and give it a try just the two of us. I think it would end up being a lot of fun!<br />
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Some other highlights from this month:<br />
--We got to meet our new neighbors when we shared some spudnuts with them on National Doughnut Day. A few days later they came by and brought us a pile of warm fresh cookies. I think this is a friendship made in heaven. ;)<br />
--Maren decided she wanted to potty train, and did a pretty good job for a few weeks. She's over it now, but at least we know we're close to having no diapers in the house some day soon(ish).<br />
--We had our first out-of-tow family visitors when Uncle Jeff and Aunt Denise dropped by for a few hours while in town for a work training.<br />
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We ended the month of June with a three-day camping trip that took us to some really neat places, but I think that trip deserves its own post. You'll just have to wait to see where we went and what we saw.Diedrehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04671795157668266148noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8787031776484479493.post-13219602442262377022018-07-03T20:55:00.000-07:002018-07-03T20:55:21.026-07:00May 2018<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
Wow, I'm tired just thinking about all that happened in May this year. </div>
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Erik's last week of 1st grade, and last week at Discover U were the first week of the month. He sure loved his teacher, Mrs. Tuhy, and all his friends there. This school was so good for him!</div>
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Erik's last day was on the 2nd, and the next day we headed out for Nevada. The night before we left the kids went to play at a friends house and some of our ward members came to help us load the truck. It was sure hard to drive home to our empty house after picking the kids up and saying goodbye to our dear friends!<br />The first day of the move we drove 7 hours to our hotel in Las Vegas, and boy were we excited to get out of the car! We got settled and then headed down to the pool to burn some energy. Everyone had a ton of fun, so much so that Maren decided to bring along a souvenir and imprinted the pool deck on her forehead. Poor kid, that had to have really hurt, and the mark stuck around for a couple of days.<br />
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After we'd finished swimming we headed back up to our room to watch TV until the kids were ready to crash.<br />
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Sharli was the first to pass out, and looked so tiny in that big hotel bed.<br />
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Day 2 we woke up bright and early, ate some cold cereal for breakfast, and hit the road. After 10 very very long hours of driving we finally made it to our new house. Members of our new ward were waiting for us when we pulled up and had the truck halfway unloaded before I ever got to even set foot in my new home. People kept asking me where to put things and nearly fell down when they found out we'd never seen the place before. Luckily for us we really like our new home, and you just cannot beat the view from the front porch!<br />
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Amid all the hustle and bustle of un-packing and settling in, Erik started loosing teeth left and right. The poor tooth fairy was kept pretty busy during our first few weeks here!<br />
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A week or so after we got here the kids and I were getting a bit stir crazy in the house all day, so we piled in the car and headed up the mountain to check out Lake Tahoe. The first thing we did was find a park where we could have a picnic lunch. The kids couldn't believe the size of the pine cones around here!<br />
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At this point we hadn't seen more than a glimpse of the lake through the trees, but even that much was beautiful! I couldn't wait to finish up our lunch and get down to the lake.<br />
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I had not really made any plans, and didn't even really know where to go up there. I just followed signs until I found a beach the had free parking that day. The kids hit the ground running and were so excited to go check out the water.<br />
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They did pretty good staying in the shallows and mostly keeping dry, but poor Maren ended up face planting right into the water. Talk about cold!<br />
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There was a big beautiful Canada Goose that kept bobbing past to check us out. He was probably hoping we had something yummy for him. <br />
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In between adventures life went on as usual. Lots of unpacking, cleaning, and organizing. We did discover that our local library has a Lego club, so we started going to that every week and we love it!<br />
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One of the first adventures that Ethan got to come on with us was to check out Washoe Lake State Park. They were having a big event that allowed us to get into the park for free. There were all kinds of fun booths and displays to see, but our favorite was the handcar they'd set up for the day in the parking lot.<br />
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After exploring the event we went to check out the rest of the park. There is a really fun little maze for the kids to play in and we spent quite a while in there!<br />
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Near the maze was a sign for a trail to the beach, so we decided to check it out. A bit of a walk, and a scramble over a sand dune and we were there. Not as pretty as Tahoe, but still a fun place to sit and watch the water. The kids loved dipping their toes in the water and making sand castles.<br />
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Of course we also had to get Ethan up to Tahoe for his first visit, so on a day when he wasn't working we loaded up the car and headed up the mountain again. It was a cold day (about 49 degrees), but we didn't let that stop us.<br />
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We found ourselves all bundled up at Nevada Beach. While it was too cold to even put our toes in, we did have a lot of fun just watching the water and playing in the sand.<br />
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What started out as a beautiful, mostly clear day changed pretty quickly on us. It was pretty spectacular to watch the storm roll in over the lake and take over everything. We found a library that had a great kids' area and spent a long time playing there and waiting for the storm to blow over. It was really a fun day and I can't wait to go back up there again, though we'll probably wait until Fall when most of the tourists leave.<br />
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Our first few weeks in Carson saw more rainy weather than our kids had seen in the entire year we lived in Arizona. It was hard to keep everyone busy while things were so cold and wet, so we were on the look-out for fun (indoor) places to blow off some steam. One of the kids' favorites was the Nevada Railroad Museum. It was pretty cheap, and was a lot of fun for all of us.<br />
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As the rain continued we finally got unpacked enough that I could start thinking about decorating. It's fun to have some new pictures of us all on the walls, and really made if feel more homey in here. </div>
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The kids weren't too sure about all the wet everywhere. I even turned a blind eye one day and gave them free run of a huge puddle, and they didn't even know what to do with it. Next time it rains here I'm going to have to get out there and show them how it's done.<br />
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Probably our very favorite Saturday of the month was when we went down to the railroad museum to ride the trains! It was a cool day, and there weren't very many people there to ride, so we nearly had the place to ourselves.<br />
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We went into the Wabuska Depot and bought our tickets, then climbed aboard.<br />
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The kids were SO excited, and Ethan and I weren't too far behind.<br />
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We got our tickets stamped by the conductor and we were off!<br />
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It was really incredible to watch these machines in action. We really enjoyed our ride, but it was just as fun to sit in the grass and watch the trains go by for the rest of the morning.<br />
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Because it was the first run of the season they tried to make it a big event. Smokey the bear was there to great the kids and hand out free trinkets. The kids were pretty thrilled to walk away with all the puzzles, frisbees, book marks, and coloring books they could get their hands on.<br />
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We ended up playing frsibee (thanks Smokey!) for a long time on the lawn while watching the locomotives go by, and it was just a really really enjoyable day.<br />
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One of the first things we did after settling in was to go sign up for a Costco Membership. The kids love going there, and think the number one reason to do so is to eat all the samples. The next reason is to look at all the books. If Mom happens to pick up a few groceries while we're there then it's just a bonus. :)<br />
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On Memorial Day we decided to take another trip up the mountain, this time to Spooner Lake. We took the kids for a 2.5ish mile hike around the little lake, and had a lot of fun. The kids were troupers, and even Maren walked almost the whole way. It did take us all day, but we did it!<br />
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Really, the smell in these mountains is so amazing that you don't even have to bury your nose in the tree bark to smell it, but we did it anyway.<br />
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We brought along our Naturalist's Adventure Pack that Grandma Kathleen gave the kids for Christmas and they each got to take a turn carrying it. They love getting to use all the neat tools for checking everything out!<br />
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Our favorite find of the day was the Snow Flowers we found growing by the trail. We'd never seen anything like it and wouldn't have had any idea what it was if a passing hiker hadn't said something about it.<br />
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Of course Maren hiked in style the whole time with her kitty ears and her shades. It was fun to watch the reactions from the passing hikers.<br />
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We drove a little ways around Tahoe and decided to take a different route home than we'd done the previous times we were up there. We found a place that still had snow on the ground, and the kids were too excited not to stop. They didn't care that they didn't have coats or gloves, they just dove right in.<br />
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Looking back I'm amazed at how many fun things we packed into our first month here, and I'm excited to see what else we'll come up with to see and do. This place has so many neat opportunities.Diedrehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04671795157668266148noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8787031776484479493.post-7514517722471529822018-07-03T13:41:00.000-07:002018-07-03T13:41:01.895-07:00April 2018<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
I have to be honest. The month of April is kind of a blur. We were so busy frantically packing, house hunting, and trying to find someone to lease our AZ home that everything else was an afterthought.<br />We did start of the first of the month with Easter Sunday. We went over to Nate and Kate's house and had a fun time with them and Kett and Cameron. The kids got to hunt for Easter eggs and play, while the adults visited. It was really nice. </div>
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As long as we had all the Mower grandkids together in one place we went ahead and snapped another picture of them all. Who knows when we'll all be in the same place again. </div>
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After that bit of fun, things just got crazy. I started making almost daily runs to WalMart to scavenge for boxes (and buy leftover Easter candy on clearance...).<br />
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I tried to pack a couple boxes each day, as well as keep the house clean enough to show to prospective tenants. It was exhausting!<br />
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The kids did a great job of entertaining themselves and each other. Erik was loving the mountains of cardboard laying around to create with. He even make a model of the solar system with one. <br />
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Sharli discovered that she can entertain Maren by retelling well-known books to her, which was a huge sanity saver! Thank goodness for her little helper heart!<br />
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In addition to all the moving preparations, we were also trying to squeeze in as much time as we could with all our friends. With temperatures hitting the triple digits already we made several trips to the splash pads around town, as well as a super fun day at an indoor play place. We sure love our AZ friends!<br />
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Sharli continued to go to our twice-weekly preschool co-op right up until the day before we moved. Having those days where she was doing preschool and Maren was doing toddler swap with my friend Tiffany was such a huge help when it came to getting stuff done. Here they are waiting for their ride to their respective activities. </div>
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So much happened this month, I feel like there should be way more to share here, but it was just a ton of crazy tiny details that get lost in the big picture.Diedrehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04671795157668266148noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8787031776484479493.post-16812473639698080082018-07-02T14:14:00.002-07:002018-07-02T14:14:31.456-07:00March 2018<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
Wow, if ever there was an action-packed month, this was it! Honestly I could break this all up into at least 3 different posts, but in the interest of time I'm going to condense things down. Things aren't quite in the right order, but it will have to do...</div>
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<b><u><span style="font-size: large;">Everyday Life</span></u></b></div>
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Just the craziness of everyday life is enough to keep us hopping around here. With school, church, preschool co-op, etc there is always something to do. </div>
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One of our favorite ways to pass the time is going to the library. There are so many great libraries around the Phoenix valley, sometimes it's hard to pick which one to go to. This particular day we were at Sunrise Mountain Library in Peoria. </div>
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Once a week, after dropping Erik off at school, the girls and I head over to Peoria for my Chiropractor appointment. Often there are errands to run when we're done there, but it's early enough that not all the places we need to go are open yet. One way we have filled time is by wandering the mall. This day we were there as the Disney store was opening and Sharli got selected to perform the magic "rites" to put the magic into the store. Sadly, I didn't get a great picture, but she had a marvelous time!</div>
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Another favorite at the mall is the pet store, of course! If only all the cute little babies weren't locked away where you can't touch them!<br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmewlo-GsMtdo2wfXPqma0iEclZuO4KwzN18w1M-lEKPVPiSlbG2hljtc-RIWiZxWpQajX_yBtfhDl4LJy0GuBK8IemHvp9sV0eyirX82YcsX3faHjv9YkiK1E7viHrZPe1RU6MwAYID6d/s1600/0313181015.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmewlo-GsMtdo2wfXPqma0iEclZuO4KwzN18w1M-lEKPVPiSlbG2hljtc-RIWiZxWpQajX_yBtfhDl4LJy0GuBK8IemHvp9sV0eyirX82YcsX3faHjv9YkiK1E7viHrZPe1RU6MwAYID6d/s400/0313181015.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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Ethan made the kids' wildest dreams come true by building them a bunk bed. They LOVE it, but they still tend to sleep on the floor as much as they do on their beds. Goof balls!<br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJdrowXsyleMH65PcA_0Jh75suTNdbz9pCjqK9S82M9pRkp4MalQSVrJ66ECcNfS_aT8q53FL8BFOswTyakWGjdyFQjF-9VyrI2OKeD4nSoJK5fwjG_Br6t_wnDUD6Aa1jEk1yJIT0bfk-/s1600/0315182332.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="900" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJdrowXsyleMH65PcA_0Jh75suTNdbz9pCjqK9S82M9pRkp4MalQSVrJ66ECcNfS_aT8q53FL8BFOswTyakWGjdyFQjF-9VyrI2OKeD4nSoJK5fwjG_Br6t_wnDUD6Aa1jEk1yJIT0bfk-/s400/0315182332.jpg" width="225" /></a></div>
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Maren is just getting too stinkin' smart! She knows our family rule is to hold hands while crossing the road/parking lot. So she found the loop hold and holds her own hand now. I am going to need to be very careful with what I say to this kid!<br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEuAN90aO8Jx8orLKClO0hFvtxE-Erh-PKBlHtTeLqY52NH45m9j8PzKkSbkj7tYjgjZUmi2pLnadnDUc1YzOOxHxS1QLiQCkrx3240Srj-o-inljh-kRomW7g4bRxKzrHMTJ4k5WpONTr/s1600/0324181147.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="900" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEuAN90aO8Jx8orLKClO0hFvtxE-Erh-PKBlHtTeLqY52NH45m9j8PzKkSbkj7tYjgjZUmi2pLnadnDUc1YzOOxHxS1QLiQCkrx3240Srj-o-inljh-kRomW7g4bRxKzrHMTJ4k5WpONTr/s400/0324181147.jpg" width="225" /></a></div>
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<b><u><span style="font-size: large;">Maricopa Live Steamers </span></u></b></div>
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Every-other Sunday is "Mower Sunday", where we meet up with Nate and Kate (and their crew) for dinner and a few hours of Mower time. It's a fun tradition and<span style="font-family: inherit;"> we all look forward to it. This particular time we met them at <span style="background-color: white; color: #0c1725;"><a href="https://www.maricopacountyparks.net/things-to-do/activity/train-rides/" target="_blank">Adobe Dam Regional Park</a> for a free ride on a miniature railway. Put the words "free" and "trains" together and we just can't say no. (Honestly, just say free and we'll probably be there.)</span></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTHsCO9gvwh3oSny73h4gIGPtyQvalUUYyxeCy8bM7Ir9cg7KJkgP6JNyqkhsvaBtAiDI344t_PIdSp2qBxKi4XaVesar4c4s3GwpUxg6qbOkJTRa_iRVIi3jVkJfm2oH_Kd5vDbbyboLd/s1600/0304181245.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="896" data-original-width="1600" height="223" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTHsCO9gvwh3oSny73h4gIGPtyQvalUUYyxeCy8bM7Ir9cg7KJkgP6JNyqkhsvaBtAiDI344t_PIdSp2qBxKi4XaVesar4c4s3GwpUxg6qbOkJTRa_iRVIi3jVkJfm2oH_Kd5vDbbyboLd/s400/0304181245.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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We took a ride around one of the tracks and made a stop at the museum and the model train display. The kids loved getting to watch the tiny trains running around all over, especially the one that looks like Thomas the Tank Engine. </div>
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We had so much fun we decided to go for another ride and check out another one of the tracks. We all climbed aboard and pulled out of the station. A moment later it was discovered that a brush fire had started on the property and they had to divert us from our intended route, and we ended up back on the track we'd ridden the first time. It was still fun, but it would have been fun to see some more of the park. </div>
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<b><u><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"> Easter!</span></u></b></div>
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Easter time is always so much fun! We kicked off the season by going to the Rand's house for a big Easter party for all our playgroup friends. The kids got to play and hunt for eggs and eat candy, so it was a hit! </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcB0OvYB2mK59jJICC8j1Icms6CuJlSyBat2e_yYLJlH2Wwy72zZhq_SUlwz5Mnp7FloXYAMEytwQ1FcnoD-BjTEedrft70mXHp4vDTYxabp1TLlvaO3USr_4Pd8czQgN3MM1BKtfBIHLv/s1600/0326181147c.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="900" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcB0OvYB2mK59jJICC8j1Icms6CuJlSyBat2e_yYLJlH2Wwy72zZhq_SUlwz5Mnp7FloXYAMEytwQ1FcnoD-BjTEedrft70mXHp4vDTYxabp1TLlvaO3USr_4Pd8czQgN3MM1BKtfBIHLv/s400/0326181147c.jpg" width="225" /></a></div>
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We also went to our church Easter breakfast/egg hunt and had a nice time visiting with our friends there. The egg hunt was a little lacking, but it's not like we really needed all that candy anyways. :)<br />Of course we also made sure we dyed eggs as a family. The kids loved it, and made a HUGE mess. Their hands were multi-color for days. </div>
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<b><u><span style="font-size: large;">Animal Encounters: Rio Salado Audubon Center</span></u></b></div>
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With the weather still pretty comfortable outside this time of year we tried to get outside as much as possible. When we heard about the <a href="http://riosalado.audubon.org/programs/arizona-animal-encounters" target="_blank">Animal Encounters</a> events at the Audubon Center we knew we wanted to check that out (remember what I said about the word "free"?). It was so fun to explore the park and learn about (and see) some of the birds in our area. </div>
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After exploring the gardens and watching the bird show we found a spot for a picnic lunch and then wandered down by the river to see what we could find. </div>
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<b><u><span style="font-size: large;">Luke AFB Luke Days!</span></u></b> </div>
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Probably the most action packed day we had this month was the day we went to Luke Days at the nearby Airforce base. We got to wander around and view SO many aircraft and other vehicles on the ground. The ones we got to climb inside of were our favorite, but they were all super interesting!</div>
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In addition to the static displays, there was the constant roar of aircraft over head, everything from WWI bi-planes doing stunts, to WWII aircraft re-enacting decisive battles (complete with fiery explosions!), to modern super-sonic jets shooting straight up into the sky. It was amazing! </div>
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We found ourselves seated toward the end of the runway, which was fun because we were right by the staging area where the aircraft lined up for their turn in the air. </div>
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When the kids started to get too hot and tired to watch the planes anymore we wandered over to the shade of the STEAM village to enjoy some science, technology, engineering, and math activities. They had great stuff for all ages. </div>
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Possibly the kids' favorite part of the whole day was the school bus shuttle ride to and from the parking lot. This truly fulfilled a life long wish for at least one of our kids. </div>
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Our playgroup friends all wanted to go back to the Fire Station for another tour before it got too hot in the summertime, so I set up a tour for our group. As the organizer I got there early and we waited outside for our group. </div>
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When everyone was there, we went inside and started our tour. We got to see the living quarters and offices, then we headed out to the engine bay. We were about to check out the engine when a fire call came in and they had to leave. :( We knew this was a risk of a station tour, but we were disappointed not to get to have the same <a href="http://weplay2learn.blogspot.com/2017/08/field-trip-fire-station-tour.html" target="_blank">experience as the last time</a>. </div>
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<b><u><span style="font-size: large;">Diedre and Ethan's Excellent Adventure</span></u></b></div>
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While this part of March only lasted for 3 days, it was definitely the most life changing thing we did all month. Ethan got a phone call from the Nevada State AG Department, offering him a job as a wildlife biologist in Carson City. It looked like a really great career move, but having never been to that area we wanted to make sure it was right for our family before accepting the job. We left the kids with Nate and Kate and drove 13 hours (in one day) to Carson City. The first half of the drive is just a lot of boring desert, but (as we went via CA) as soon as we got to the Sierra Nevada mountains it was GORGEOUS! We really enjoyed getting to see all the beautiful new country! </div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzcEmNEfihHxyO5PDqieSFy68ka_8ZhUpnqYfSo6kym8ypjiDP8YnPGXSdkU0_QMUoJV5OwYzUSCNVLmUrj-J7U4UD5jvDC3VvaQ56fsDq35jqOL-ctPWRwtxFM4NTqnwqwzunGqaXO3KN/s1600/0319181711.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzcEmNEfihHxyO5PDqieSFy68ka_8ZhUpnqYfSo6kym8ypjiDP8YnPGXSdkU0_QMUoJV5OwYzUSCNVLmUrj-J7U4UD5jvDC3VvaQ56fsDq35jqOL-ctPWRwtxFM4NTqnwqwzunGqaXO3KN/s400/0319181711.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Mt. Whitney Fish Hatchery</td></tr>
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We spent half a day in and around Carson City, checking out the housing market and getting a feel for the lay of the land. We loved everything we saw and knew that it was our future home. How could it not be with this as the view? </div>
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Day 2 of our trip we left Carson City by lunch time and headed through the mountains back down to Las Vegas. We found a hotel to crash at for the night, then went the rest of the way home the next day. We stopped in Payson to pick the kids up from Kett and Cameron (Nate and Kate had dropped them off there that morning) and we all got home by around 10 pm. It ended up being more than 1700 miles in three days. I think we're crazy! The trip had to be quick so Ethan could get back to work, but we were able to see what we wanted to make our decision, so it was worth it. </div>
Diedrehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04671795157668266148noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8787031776484479493.post-5156611492829330832018-06-14T21:02:00.000-07:002018-06-14T21:02:13.061-07:00February 2018<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
February was a pretty great month! The first half of it was consumed by prepping for and celebrating Sharli's 4th birthday. She decided she wanted a rainbow birthday this year, and we went all out. Rainbow playdough, rainbow snacks, rainbow decorations, rainbow cake, rainbow coloring pages, and 40 pound of rainbow rice. SO much rainbow! I tried to have everything set up so that the moms could turn the kids loose to play, then sit and enjoy some mom chatter while the kids played. It mostly worked. :)</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPogynzKfz9JYJkfyaSYh8ZELDEFskczw0Sw_LBaeewTLhyTtL9MpN5x_6Jed4Twx-cdZipePLLRdHZwkHrXCy_6uV10w3npmuLgzoTjwbOvHh3AukftFY5YbgKRLHJAaNsfzxFJ584q_Y/s1600/0215180744.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPogynzKfz9JYJkfyaSYh8ZELDEFskczw0Sw_LBaeewTLhyTtL9MpN5x_6Jed4Twx-cdZipePLLRdHZwkHrXCy_6uV10w3npmuLgzoTjwbOvHh3AukftFY5YbgKRLHJAaNsfzxFJ584q_Y/s400/0215180744.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">40 lbs of rainbow dyed rice? Why yes, I have lost my mind. </td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">But look how much fun!!!</td></tr>
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Clearly I've lost my mind, because I also made a billion rainbow sugar cookies. Which the kids decided they didn't like. BUT I liked them, and may have eaten way too many... so still a win? </div>
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The kids ran around like crazy people, both inside and outside. They had a marvelous time!<br />
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And of course the birthday cake was a great success. It was rainbow frosted and pink on the inside after all, so what could be wrong with that?<br />
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And can we just say that whoever the psycho is who hung up all those streamers and piped all that frosting onto that cake is pretty amazing. Just saying...<br />
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Sharli's birthday isn't the only one in February. When it was my turn to go out for my birthday we did a babysitting swap with my dear friend (who also had a birthday this month) so that we could go out for dinner that night. Ethan and I found a great little Mexican food place and had a really nice evening just the two of us. Perfect birthday! <br />
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Also in February was Chinese New Year, so we headed over to Phoenix to a big multi-day festival to celebrate that. It was fun, but might have been a bit more exciting if we'd picked a time other than first thing Sunday morning to attend. Oh well.<br />
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The kids were pretty impressed with the lion dance and the karate demonstrations. It wasn't a complete waste of a drive.<br />
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<br />Diedrehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04671795157668266148noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8787031776484479493.post-75164464639837879632018-06-07T20:21:00.000-07:002018-06-07T20:21:04.484-07:00January 2018<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
Happy New Year! </div>
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Our New Year started off on the right foot for sure! Erik got a book all about pranking from his sweet Aunt Marquette for Christmas, so he spent pretty much all of January pranking us all. He'd write "pranked" on a slip of paper and stuff it in your shoe, under the bathroom door, in a cupboard, and pretty much anywhere else he could find to stick them. His favorite though was drawing pictures of scary monsters and taping under the toilet lid so they'd scare you when you went to do your business. Made me laugh every time, but don't tell him that. :)</div>
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The other thing we did to kick off the year was to go for a hike at Skyline Park. It was a fun hike and a great chance to explore the world around us. </div>
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Hiking with a two-year-old is always fun. You get to take lots of temper tantrum breaks. Oh well, at least she's cute, right?<br />
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Because the weather is so amazing this time of year in this valley we tried to get outside as much as we could. We spent a day down at Estrella Mountain Regional Park, and had a blast hiking around. This was definitely a place we could go back to again and again.<br />
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Look, it was actually cool enough that we wore jackets!<br />
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The play area at this park was really neat. There were so many great and unique play structures, including a giant tarantula the kids could climb all over. Maren was not a fan of that one.<br />
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For me, the highlight of this month was going to visit my family in New Mexico. With Mom's health problems she couldn't come to visit us, so we went to her instead. It was so nice to spend a quiet couple of days with them! The kids just ate up all the Grandma/Grandpa time.<br />
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It was so good to see Mom feeling well enough to get down on the floor and play for a while. The kids loved it so much!<br />
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All the play time with the cousins (and Aunt Carolyn) was fun too. <br />
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And oh boy do we love our Grandpa!!!<br />
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On our way home from Cotton City we stopped by the Coolidge Dam on our way home, and I was blown away by how beautiful it is! To have something like this tucked away in the desert is kind of mind blowing.<br />
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All the art-deco details were really great!<br />
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The kids though this place was super cool. It just about gave me a heart attack to have them all running around on something with such huge drop-offs on either side.<br />
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Look at that eagle! So pretty.<br />
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The railings were at just the wrong height for the kids to be able to see the view, but Erik figured out a work around, goofy kid.<br />
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<br />Diedrehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04671795157668266148noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8787031776484479493.post-43910327243446599292018-05-31T14:25:00.002-07:002018-05-31T20:00:04.177-07:00December 2017 Ahhh, December. The days of frost nipping your nose, white Christmas, sleigh rides... Unless you live in the Phoenix valley. In that case it is the time to sleep with your windows open at night to enjoy the cool breeze, and eat the yummy tomatoes out of your garden in the back yard. I tell you what. Winter living in El Mirage is pretty darn nice!<br />
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The weather was so lovely we tried to get outside as much as we could. We spent one Saturday at the <a href="https://www.glendaleaz.com/srpha/" target="_blank">Historic Saguaro Ranch</a> in Glendale. It was really fun to tour the old ranch house and wander the grounds. There were rabbits in the rose garden, and peacocks on the lawns. It was a really fun place to spend a day. </div>
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It is also right next to the local public library, and since we can't resist a library to save our lives we walked over to check it out and spend some time play over there.<br />
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Another fun family outing we went on this month was to meet up with Nate and his kids to see the Christmas lights at the Mesa temple. The kids loved it! It was even chilly enough to justify wearing light jackets (I think the only time all winter we needed them). </div>
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December is always full of lots of little (and big) things to do, so we stayed pretty busy this month. Some of the big events though are worth mentioning. Maren turned 2! I think of all our kids the term "terrible twos" applies best to this one.<br />
For her birthday I made her a rainbow cake and we gobbled that up and opened presents. I think she liked it all!<br />
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The baby doll and stroller that she got from us were a HUGE hit! She has loved these so much, and sleeps with her baby every night.<br />
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She does tend to use the stroller as a carry-all for anything and everything she can get her hands on. You wouldn't believe how much can fit in these little things!<br />
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Next up is CHIRSTMAS! We had a nice quiet Christmas at home this year, just us. We did stream the kids opening their presents so Grandma Paralee and Grandpa Scott could see the fun. They'd hoped to visit around this time, but it just didn't work out.<br />
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Because we were so busy with the presents I barely took any pictures. I didn't realize until later that I didn't have any of Erik. Oops.<br />
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A day or two after Christmas I got hit with the flu and spent most of the week laying on the couch wishing I could just die already. Luckily the kids are pretty resourceful, and even Maren figured out how to feed herself on her own.<br />
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We finished off the year with Erik's school program. It was Disney themed, so all the kids were invited to attend dressed as a Disney character. Erik went as Prince Eric, Sharli as Princess Sofia, and Maren just wanted to look pretty and wore her favorite Sunday dress.<br />
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Erik's class did great with their version of "When you Wish Upon a Star", and then had a lot of fun at the party afterwards. He's sure loved this school!<br />
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What a great year 2017 was for our family! We made some great memories with our Glenwood friends, moved to a new home in El Mirage, and got to see and do so many neat things.Diedrehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04671795157668266148noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8787031776484479493.post-17827182478359779042018-04-16T21:18:00.001-07:002018-04-16T21:18:11.718-07:00November 2017 What a fun month this was!<br />
I'll start off with some of the little day-to-day things that made me smile this month, then work up to some of the bigger events.<br />
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Maren has developed a real love for shoes. She wants to wear every shoe she sees...at the same time. If you want to make her happy just make a big pile of shoes right on top of her. Really. The more the better! If you want to make her cry then all you have to do is remind her that there is only room on each foot for one shoe at a time. She hates that little fact of life.<br />
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Because it's too hot to do a parade and make a big deal out of Independence Day around here, instead they make a big deal about Veterans' Day. We had a marvelous time at the parade, catching candy and watching all the floats go by. I think Sharli was just a *little* excited.<br />
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It rained! Well, it spit at us a bit and we were just happy to get what we could get. I am blown away by how dry this place is, and this is coming from someone who has lived in the desert her whole life (except for the time in Mississippi).<br />
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The kids continue to fall asleep in hilarious ways/places. These too just want to be close to each other all the time, even if it means one of them has to sleep on the floor.<br />
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Other reasons to sleep on the floor include taking a nap on the floor, just to prove that they weren't really tired and didn't actually need a nap. It's totally convincing, right?<br />
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Cooler weather mean kids get outside to play more often, which means that the ice cream truck has started making regular runs through the neighborhood. If only my kids' Mom wasn't too mean and stingy to buy anything for them. That doesn't stop them from running to watch it drive past, EVERY SINGLE TIME he goes by.<br />
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Sharli is still a little fashion Diva. She just wants to look great no matter what the occasion. Where on earth did this Tom Boy mommy get such a girly girl?!<br />
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Ethan and I decided our huge living room wall was just too big and empty. We bought a sheet of foam insulation and created this painting to fill up our wall.<br />
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We bought a bottle of bubble bath! Hooray for trips to the dollar store! And for bathtubs full of bubbles!<br />
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Erik is getting to be a really solid reader. I love that when I'm busy and Maren brings me a book to read to her I can tell her to take it to Erik. They were both a bit shocked the first time I suggested it, but they both warmed up to the idea pretty quickly.<br />
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Another favorite dollar store purchase is puzzles. These kids love putting together puzzles and are getting pretty darn good at it.<br />
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We took advantage of the glorious weather to get outside as a family and go for a hike at White Tank Mountain Regional Park. <a href="http://mississippimowers.blogspot.com/2017/07/april-2017.html?m=0" target="_blank">We've been here before</a>, but there are so many different trails to hike we decided to go back. It's always nice to get out of the city and enjoy being surrounded by nature.<br />
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Even though it was November, it was still pretty warm, so we took lots of breaks for water, esepcially if there was a nice place to sit or a patch of shade.<br />
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The kids love looking for interesting rocks and plants, and of course we're always on the look out for any lizards we can find.<br />
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Erik LOVES to climb, if there is something to scale, he will attempt it.<br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"> He is not quite so fond of walking though. At one point in our hike Erik told Ethan, "<span style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129;">I don't know how much more of this walking stuff I can take." Ethan tried to encourage him by saying, "</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129;">Come on, you can do it! We'll be desert explorers!" Without missing a beat, Erik replied, </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129;">"More like death explorers."</span></span><br />
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Sharli wanted to try her hand at photography, so we have a rare picture with both Ethan and I together. She did a pretty good job!<br />
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For Thanksgiving, we went over to Gilbert to celebrate with the Arnett clan. We met at a nice park and had a picnic style lunch and then turned the kids loose to play with their cousins. We had a really nice afternoon together, then headed home. And good thing too, because we'd only been home a few minutes when a neighbor came knocking on our door looking for a fire extinguisher. There was a flaming turkey fryer a few houses away, and we were able to supply the extinguisher to take care of it.<br />As fun as all that was, Ethan was still really craving a more traditional sit-down dinner, so for the first time ever we made the full Thanksgiving meal for our family at our home. Ethan brined the turkey and we worked together to cook that and prepare all the other sides and desserts to go along. It was pretty yummy, and even the kids enjoyed it. <br />
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Well, Erik and Sharli enjoyed it. Maren started throwing up just as we were dishing up the meal, so we took turns holding the puker while the other parent ate. Oh well.<br />
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After Thanksgiving it is, of course, officially Christmas time, so we broke out the decorations and got them put up together as a family. The kids were SO excited to FINALLY be getting close to Christmas!<br />
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<br />Diedrehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04671795157668266148noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8787031776484479493.post-8910284066444924202018-04-16T20:29:00.001-07:002018-04-16T20:29:52.527-07:00October 2017 We kicked off the month of October with a secret trip to Cotton City. Brigham made plans to fly down from Utah, and coordinated with Marquette, Carolyn, and I to get as many of the family home at one time as we could manage, without Mom or Dad knowing anything about it. The only person we were missing was Nina.<br />Ethan and I picked Brigham up from the airport in Phoenix and headed for NM. Instead of going straight to Mom and Dad's house, we went next door to Carolyn's house and sent Brigham over on foot from there. I would have loved to be there to see Mom's face as he came walking in the door. After stalling for a couple of minutes the rest of us headed over. We all came walking in the door and Mom melted into a puddle of tears. It has been a rough several months for her, health-wise, and it meant the world to her to have everyone gathered together. We spent a couple of days all together there, and it was so nice to be able to visit with everyone and to watch Mom's face as she watched us all together. At the end of the weekend we took Brigham back to the airport, and life went on as usual.<br />
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Thankfully, October brought in some consistently pleasant weather, so we were able to spend a lot more time outside. The day we surprised Erik by picking him up from school and taking him for a picnic in the park was a lot of fun. The kids loved the fall themed food, too.<br />
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The girls were just super excited to have an excuse to use the lunchboxes Grandma gave them.<br />
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The rest of the month was fairly quiet. A few highlights were:<br />
-when we discovered the entertainment value behind a book of stickers. Keeping kids quiet in church was never so easy!<br />
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-I started trying to get the kids helping in the kitchen more. They love to be doing whatever I'm doing!<br />
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-Using pudding to practice writing spelling words. All that sugar makes for some hyper kids!</div>
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-We had a really fun Halloween. We enjoyed the church Halloween party, but the real fun was carving Jack-o-Lanterns (Erik and Daddy were a team, and Sharli and Mommy were a team) and going Trick-or-Treating. The kids had so much fun walking around the neighborhood collecting LOADS of candy.<br />
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Princess Sofia the First, Captain America, and Queen Elsa.<br />
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<br />Diedrehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04671795157668266148noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8787031776484479493.post-18286058414011834822017-12-28T19:49:00.001-08:002017-12-28T19:49:45.424-08:00September 2017September was a fun month in the Mower household. We kicked it off with a trip up to Payson to see Kett and Cam and their family. We enjoyed playing at the park, swimming in the river, and a visit to the Tonto Natural Bridge. Of course, I forgot to take pictures of anything though. Oh well. The kids sure had fun playing together!<br />
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I may have taken almost no pictures, but Marquette didn't disappoint. She took a few picture of our family, and it's really fun to have an up to date set of family pictures. <a href="http://marquettelareeblog.com/2017/09/mower-family-tonto-natural-bridge-state-park.html" target="_blank">Click here </a>for more pictures. </div>
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We returned home and, other than enjoying some yummy birthday cake in Ethan's honor, things went back to life as usual. Erik went back to school and the girls love to help me with the housework, especially jobs like laundry...<br />
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...and dishes.<br />
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They go with me to my weekly chiropractor visits and are normally pretty patient during all the sitting and waiting they end up having to do.<br />
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September brought a bit of slightly cooler weather (at that point anything less than 100 degrees was considered pleasant), so we got to spend a bit more time outside doing things like picnicking in the park.<br />
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Somewhere or other we heard about the Smithsonian's "Museum Day Live" event, which enabled a person to get two free tickets into a variety of affiliated museums. We headed out first thing in the morning to visit the Pueblo Grande Museum. They had a nice little visitor's center with some fun activities for the kids. They got to do things like build their own pueblo...<br />
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...and try their hand at making petroglyphs.<br />
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After we'd seen all the was to see inside we headed out to explore the rest of the park. Maren was excited to get out and move, although she was decidedly less excited about having to stay on the trails.<br />
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One fun thing about this museum is that it's located right by the city's major airport. This meant we got to watch planes take-off and land the whole time we were there.<br />
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We really enjoyed learning about the ancient Hohokam people and the history of the area. The kids mostly just enjoyed running around like wild hooligans.<br />
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As the temperature started rising we decided it was time to go get some lunch. We went to Portillo's for some gourmet hot dogs. The atmosphere of the place was really fun, but the hot dogs weren't anything too terribly special. <br />
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After lunch we headed over to the AZ Museum of Natural History to meet up with Aunt Kate and some cousins. The kids got to see dinosaurs, pan for gold, check out some old-timey jail cells, and just generally have a marvelous time.<br />
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We sure love finding affordable options to explore all the fun things around here! </div>
<span id="goog_1483839920"></span><span id="goog_1483839921"></span>Diedrehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04671795157668266148noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8787031776484479493.post-48325141369247942642017-10-12T14:35:00.002-07:002017-10-12T14:35:16.705-07:00August 2017Erik started first grade this month! We found a great charter school that seemed like a much better fit for him than where he was at last year and so far he loves it. It's crazy to see how big he is!<br />
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Having Erik in back in school made me realize how much easier life is with only two kids around most of the day. Just having one less kid to wrangle in the grocery store makes such a big difference! (And it means I can use the cute fire truck shopping carts because there's enough seats for everyone. This also makes shopping much easier.)<br />
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It's been fun to see Sharli and Maren becoming buddies now that Sharli doesn't have Erik around to play with all morning. They still have normal sibling squabbles, but they're also learning to enjoy each other too. It gives me hope that someday they might actually be friends!<br />
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It's a good thing Maren lets Sharli distract her most of the time, because she's learning to create her own ways to entertain herself, and most of them are NOT Mom approved. Like this day when she learned the value of a step stool and helped herself to the kitchen drawers.<br />
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Maren's not the only one coming up with creative ways to entertain herself. Sharli got bored and invented "nose coloring". Oh well, it kept her busy for a very long time. </div>
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As cute and fun (and crazy and frustrating) as they all are when they're awake, I still love to watch them sleep. They're so peaceful and sweet. Plus they tend to provide some entertainment for us while lying there unconscious, so it's a win for everyone!<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcTUXzjlkdf6dXzcy0_p0psr3IPwVeJi7Axwtphsx-i50fOJq-aRnTWyAAjtCcjFubE4eWEoHn0YtAXHyES-HBx1vE65-8FkNX7k2Fco2_0YAO7nHoO4NqOHyF-ypNdf1uR3BDk3w9RIQC/s1600/0822172240.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="450" data-original-width="800" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcTUXzjlkdf6dXzcy0_p0psr3IPwVeJi7Axwtphsx-i50fOJq-aRnTWyAAjtCcjFubE4eWEoHn0YtAXHyES-HBx1vE65-8FkNX7k2Fco2_0YAO7nHoO4NqOHyF-ypNdf1uR3BDk3w9RIQC/s400/0822172240.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">He had to have the headband that matched his PJ's...</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">She fell asleep sitting up. Good thing her tiger was there to catch her when she fell over.</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Nap time on top of the bookshelf. Makes perfect sense.</td></tr>
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While this month was pretty low key, we did have some fun visitors! Grandma and Grandpa Richins came with Uncle Heber and hung out for a few days. We really enjoyed having them around! We took them to try out a new ice cream place, and we all loved it!<br />
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Grandma Kathleen came to visit a week or two later, and it was so much fun to get to spend some time with her! We met up with cousins and enjoyed the AZ Science Center. It was a fun day and a great chance for the kiddos to enjoy being with their extended family.<br />
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<br />Diedrehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04671795157668266148noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8787031776484479493.post-2570595949229694632017-08-04T20:49:00.002-07:002017-08-21T20:30:53.389-07:00July 2017 Wow, looking through all the pictures from this month made me realize what a busy but super fun month this was. We got to see and do so many great things!<br />
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Of course we kicked the month off with Independence Day, and what better way to celebrate America than to watch a baseball game and some fire works?! The Phoenix valley is where all the major league baseball teams come for Spring Training, so there are nice ball fields all over the place. We went over to Surprise and watched the Rookie league match-up between the Kansas City Royals vs. The Texas Rangers.<br />
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Not being huge baseball fans we weren't really into the game (which moved SO SLOW!), but the atmosphere was fun and the kids really enjoyed wandering the stadium and taking it all in.<br />
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Erik had no idea what was going on, but he was sure excited to be there! Later in the evening someone even gave him a ball that had flown into the stands during the game. He was tickled pink! He named it "Bally Bally".<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">I love this picture!</td></tr>
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Maren's favorite part of the evening was when she scored a Dum Dum sucker. Best night ever!<br />
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After the awesome fireworks show we spent ages fighting the traffic to get home and get our tired kids in bed. It was a really nice day! We were a little sad to not be with the Payne clan in Lordsburg. This was the first time in 6 years we had to miss out on that party, but there's always next year!<br />
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The next big event of the month was Sharli's ear surgery. She had been dealing with hearing loss and ear aches since March, and we finally managed to get her in to get tubes put in her ears and her adenoids removed. She was sleepy the day of the surgery, and then after that you'd never know anything had happened to her. She was able to hear better almost instantly, and felt SO much better than she had for months!<br />
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A few days later we got to go to a fun Family Art Day at ASU, you can read all about that <a href="http://mississippimowers.blogspot.com/2017/08/asu-family-art-day.html" target="_blank">here</a>.<br />
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Ethan got to spend a couple of days over in Thatcher wandering through our old stomping grounds and being a "fish superhero", as the kids called him. He was with a team that hiked up Mt. Graham to rescue endangered Gila Trout after the Frye forest fire. It was hard work, but he got to see some pretty country. You can <a href="http://gilavalleycentral.net/gila-trout-saved-from-aftermath-of-frye-fire/" target="_blank">read about it here</a>.<br />
While he was gone, the kids and I joined in on Cow Appreciation Day at Chik-Fil-A. The kids were so proud of the hats they had made.<br />
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We have been really enjoying the library system here. They have just about anything you could want to watch or read. They also put on lots of great events, like the <a href="http://www.bangbangballooncompany.com/" target="_blank">Balloon Show</a> we went to.<br />
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Erik got to be a monster. Sharli didn't get picked to come up and help with the show, but she was lucky enough to score the princess' castle afterwards. They were pretty excited!</div>
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Maren is growing like a weed. She's practicing really hard for the "terrible twos", and oh boy is she getting good at it! ;) She has her good moments too. She learned to say "cheese" and smile for the camera. It's fun to be able to get some nice pictures of her cute smile now!<br />
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She found this little foam ball that she carried around for days. When it started to get a little shabby I cut a slit in it to make it work as a clown nose. She LOVES it! </div>
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One of the other big events that we can count on every July is Erik's birthday. He turned 6 this year! His birthday was a lot of fun. There was a water activity at the church that day (just a coincidence that it happened on his b-day), so he got his dream party without me having to do any of the work. He got water balloons, friends, slip-n-slides, popsicles, and fun, which is exactly what he most wanted. We had a coupon for a free cake from the grocery store, so we went to pick that up and they announced his birthday over the intercom so everyone knew it was his day. That night we had cake and ice cream, and discovered I had accidentally bought trick candles. He was totally confused at first when they kept relighting, then just frustrated. Oops. :)<br />
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We ended the month with a bang by going on a tour of our local fire station with some of our friends. It was really fun, and the kids loved getting to see it all. Read more about that <a href="http://weplay2learn.blogspot.com/2017/08/field-trip-fire-station-tour.html" target="_blank">here</a>.<br />
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<br />Diedrehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04671795157668266148noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8787031776484479493.post-20580649227839304572017-08-04T19:50:00.000-07:002017-08-04T19:50:04.532-07:00ASU Family Art DaySince moving to the Phoenix valley we've been really enjoying the opportunities to experience some fun new things that weren't available to us before. There's always something going on around here, and if you look hard enough you can typically even find things that are not only fun and family-friendly, but also FREE! Those things are our favorites!<br />
A few weeks ago we heard about the Family Art Day at the ASU modern art museum. It sounded like fun, so we piled in the car and headed that direction. There were fun, kid friendly crafts set up in each of the art galleries and even in the lobby. We spent a couple of hours working our way through them all and watching the kids have fun creating their own art. They got to try their hands at things like coil pottery and screen printing, as well as less sophisticated things like coloring refrigerator magnets and making superhero masks. They ate it all up!<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Coloring refrigerator magnets.</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Creating their own modern art.</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">We're not real big into modern art, but there were a few of the pieces that the kids enjoyed. </td></tr>
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After the art museum, we headed over to McDonald's to grab a quick lunch and a treat. Oh boy do we love cheap ice cream!<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">These super hero masks were probably the favorite of all the crafts we'd done that morning. </td></tr>
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Maren decided today was the day to master the art of drinking through a straw. She even put aside the ice cream in favor of her cup of ice water and a straw. It took some work, but she got it figured out. :)<br />
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After lunch we realized we were right down the street from the Bass Pro Shop, and there was no way we'd pass up the chance to go check that out! We haven't been to one of those since our trip to Mobile, AL when Erik was a baby. Of course we spent the most time in front of the big fish tank...<br />
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...but the camping section was a close second.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">We had to try out ALL the tents, chairs, and sleeping bags.</td></tr>
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This was such a fun day! I can't wait for the next Family Art Day in a few months! </div>
Diedrehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04671795157668266148noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8787031776484479493.post-31568981140606157252017-07-20T13:40:00.004-07:002017-07-20T13:40:32.949-07:00June 2017This was such a fun month around here! We started off on the first of the month taking the kids to their first ever dentist appointments. Erik did great and they were able to examine his mouth and get his teeth (mostly) cleaned. Sharli wasn't so sure, so they just kinda peeked in there for a quick look and then let her go. Maren was having nothing to do with it all and wouldn't let her touch them. Oh well. They all got balloons and bouncy balls out of the deal, so they were happy!<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Look how grown up he's getting!!! </td></tr>
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One event that we LOVE celebrating every June is National Donut Day, and this year was no exception. Ethan invited a friend from work and we ate donuts until we were very literally sick. It was amazing! And painful... :)<br />
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We had a fun visit from Kett and Cameron, and their kids got to spend a few days here with us playing with cousins and having a blast.<br />
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Even the babies got along pretty well and had a fun time.<br />
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One of our kids' favorite things to play (still) is Moana. They'll spend forever just voyaging through the living room in their make-shift boats. I love it!<br />
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Maren doesn't get in on the adventuring very often, but she does like to cuddle up nearby with her "gankget" and watch the fun from a safe distance.<br />
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One not-so-fun adventure we went on this month was Sharli's first visit to the Chiropractor. Poor thing threw out her neck while showing her muscles off to Erik at the crack of dawn. Luckily we found a chiropractor who could get her in right away and by the next day she was back to normal again. I hate neck pain so much, and it was so sad to watch her deal with it!<br />
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June was SO hot! We got within a few degrees of breaking the all time high temperature record for Phoenix, which tells you it was just WAY too hot! We tried really hard to just lay low and stay under the AC, but sometimes there were things going on that were worth leaving the house for. Like when we found out that Wildman Phil would be at the library with all his crazy critters. We met up with some friends for a great morning of learning about some fun animals.<br />
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Obviously the alligator was the kids' favorite, but all the animals were really neat.<br />
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Erik really loved this three-legged tortoise. They spent a few minutes gazing into each other's eyes...<br />
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This boy likes to think he's all grown up. He lost his second tooth this month is getting so big! Sometimes though he does something to remind me that he's still just a little guy though, like this day when he curled up for a nap while playing down the hall. I love this cute little/big guy.<br />
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Diedrehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04671795157668266148noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8787031776484479493.post-80452128802077670302017-07-19T13:31:00.000-07:002017-07-19T13:31:37.890-07:00May 2017 The month of May started off with a bang for us, with a visit from the Lathrop family. Sally has been my best friends since shortly after we first moved to Glenwood, and her girls and our kids have loved each other SO much. We were already missing them after the move, but then we found out they were going to be moving to Nebraska and we knew we had to find a way to see them again before they left. They ended up coming over to the valley to visit some of their family, and they made the trip across town to come spend some time visiting with us. It was so wonderful to get to see them again, even though we were pretty sure it would be the very last time.<br />
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After that visit, life continued on as normal. The kids discovered they know how to play Go Fish well enough to play completely on their own. That was a fun surprise and provided hours of fun.<br />
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We had one day when my car keys accidentally went to work with Ethan, so we had to walk Erik to and from school that day. It's about a mile walk, and May in Phoenix gets pretty warm, so we found some shade on the way home for a popsicle break. It made me glad to have a car to get around in!<br />
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A few weeks before the end of school I started collaborating with Erik's teacher and the PTA from his old school in Glenwood. We arranged to meet them in Tucson for an overnight field trip so we could have one last hurrah with all our friends. Even though it meant having to drive across the valley during both the morning and evening rush hours, it was totally worth it!<br />
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We picked up Sally and her girls who had just flown in from Nebraska, and met everyone else in Tucson for lunch at Chuck E. Cheese, where the kids had a BLAST! Then we loaded up and headed over to the Tucson Children's Museum. This place was a ton of fun, and they had some really neat exhibits.<br />
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After dinner at Golden Corral we headed for our hotel, where we swam in the pool and played games until the kids were ready to crash. The next day we got to visit the miniatures museum. It was really incredible, I could have spent hours and hours in there looking at everything!<br />
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It was so hard to say good bye to everyone and head back home again when we were done. When we moved from Glenwood the kids didn't really get what that Good Bye meant, but by the time we were leaving Tucson they had a better understanding of the implications, so it was much more difficult for us all.<br />
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We got back from Tucson and Erik finished out his last few weeks of Kindergarten. He and his buddy Liam were sad to see each other leave!<br />
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To kick off our summer vacation I found a great deal on a family summer pass to the Arizona Science Center. We spent a whole day playing, learning, and exploring there and had a blast!<br />
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Playing with the power of water. </div>
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Mower's vs. the rest of the kids. Erik and Sharli worked together to beat the other kids in the room on this huge tug-of-war game.<br />
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Erik learned about the power of pulleys by using one to lift his own weight. <br />
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<br />Diedrehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04671795157668266148noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8787031776484479493.post-38830766069710841492017-07-13T13:19:00.000-07:002018-08-28T22:19:05.736-07:00April 2017 April was a really fun month. We were still finishing settling in to our new house, job, school, routines, etc. That didn't stop us from taking some time to explore our new surroundings and enjoy some family time. <br />
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Erik started to make some new friends and settle in to his new class. He went from a school where the entire school had 8 students, to one where there were 25+ just in his class. It was a bit of a shock. He handled it all really well though. <br />
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While Erik was at school the girls and I found ways to fill our days. Playing in water is always a favorite with this bunch. <br />
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Locking herself in the bathroom alone was sure NOT one of Maren's favorite ways to spend her morning. I liked all the snuggles I got after I'd managed to rescue her (with the help of the neighbor across the street). <br />
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One of the older kids' favorite things to do is play Moana. They steal my broom and mop to make a ship's mast and an oar and voyage all over the ocean without ever leaving the recliner.<br />
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We made sure to spend some time together when Ethan was home exploring all the fun new things around us. One of the biggest hits this month was when we took the kids to Dillon's BBQ. They weren't too impressed with the food (it wasn't bad, but not good enough to be worth the price), but they loved that one entire wall of the dining room was a massive shark/sting ray aquarium. They just ate that part of it all up!<br />
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We had to do our usual thing and misuse the statues. Too bad my phone camera just didn't handle the poor lighting real well. <br />
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Another fun adventure we went on was to go to White Tank Mountain Regional Park and do some hiking around. It was a pretty easy hike, and it was fun to get out of the city for a few hours. We knew we were running out of nice weather and wanted to get outside before it was too late. <br />
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The big kids were pretty good about keeping up, as long as stopped at every spot of shade for a rest and a drink. Maren was just happy to be along for the ride. <br />
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You can see that Sharli made sure she was approriately attired for desert hiking. Every desert explorer needs a pink tutu. It was fun to watch the reactions of the other hikers on the trail when they'd pass her. <br />
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The trail we chose is supposed to have a waterfall at the end, although we were there at the wrong time of year to actually see the water falling. There was just a small pool of water left at the bottom. We'll have to go back when it's actually running. <br />
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There may not have been water, but there were plenty of rocks to climb. The kids had a blast!<br />
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While we go to go do lots of fun things, our plans didn't always work out. We had to miss a fun sidewalk art festival due to a nasty tummy bug, so we stayed home and made our own art work instead. <br />
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This month marked a big milestone for us. We had our first lost tooth this month. Erik handled it like a pro and couldn't wait to get to the dollar store to spend his dollar the tooth fairy left him.<br />
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Also this month we got to celebrate Easter! Erik was the first one to wake up, and it was all he could do to keep his fingers out of the Easter baskets until his sisters woke up. <br />
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After church that afternoon we headed over to Gilbert to have dinner and an egg hunt with Nate and Kate and their crew. It was a ton of fun! It's nice to be near enough to cousins to get to see them regularly. <br />
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Diedrehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04671795157668266148noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8787031776484479493.post-14154454723799077582017-04-20T20:42:00.001-07:002018-08-28T22:56:45.606-07:00March 2017 Oh boy was this month crazy! As I mentioned in my last post, Ethan got a new job as a Research Biologist with the Arizona Game and Fish, so we packed up and left Glenwood for El Mirage, AZ. The first week and a half was mostly spent cleaning and packing, but I did take a break to go enjoy one last get together with some friends. Sally had put together a going away party for me and it was so nice to have a chance to see everyone one last time. Also during the first part of the month Ethan's Grandma Clements passed away. We agonized over whether to try to get to Idaho for the funeral, but since it ended up being scheduled for the day after our move there was just no way to make it work. <br />
Our good friend Tyler let us use his stock trailer and truck to move in, so we spent several days loading and doing the final packing.<br />
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The morning of March 10th we woke up, ate our last meal in our house, and started ironing out the final details before we left. Our neighbors, Pam and Loralee, came and helped us finish the loading and cleaning. Pam made sure to snap a picture of us on the front porch that Ethan built before we got in the cars and headed out. It was so hard to say good-bye! We loved Glenwood so much! I think it may be the place we have been the most happy in our entire marriage. We have so many good friends and happy memories there that we will forever cherish! <br />
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Our trip over to AZ was uneventful. My mom came along to help me drive (I'm not yet a city driver, but I'm working on it) and Dad met us here to help unload and get settled. It was fun to have them along for the ride on this adventure. Our new house is beautiful, by far the nicest house we've ever had. There is a small yard in back where the kids have space to play, and it even has a small garden already growing for me! The kids discovered they could climb the tree in the back, but between Sharli falling out of the tree, and several branches getting ripped right off we had to put a stop to the climbing. <br />
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The kids' favorite thing about our new neighborhood is the park just around the corner. They love it and beg to go there every day. <br />
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Other things we have enjoyed about living in "the Valley":<br />
All the citrus! A member of our new ward had a lemon tree that was loaded with fruit, so we went and picked a few bags full and enjoyed yummy lemonade and other treats for a few weeks. We also have a Calamansi lime tree in our front yard and got to try those for the first time. <br />
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IKEA!!! It is fun to live close enough that we can get to Ikea in under an hour. We went there our first weekend after we moved in and found several things that helped to make our new home more convenient and cozy. <br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Trying out all the beds. :)</td></tr>
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March 27th was Erik's first day at his new school. He was nervous but very excited to make new friends. Adjusting to a full day, five days a week schedule has been hard on him, but he is loving it. As far as new friends, I know he's been successful in that department as well because there are two kids in his class that will not let him leave at the end of the day without big bear hugs, and several other kids often jump in on the action once the first two get the hugs started. It's so cute and makes me so happy to see him finding new friends.<br />
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So many changes for our little family in one month, but we know this is where we're supposed to be and we're excited for a whole new set of adventures. Diedrehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04671795157668266148noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8787031776484479493.post-86727711954819666572017-04-08T17:18:00.002-07:002017-04-08T17:18:31.648-07:00January & February OR Getting Ready To Move The first few months of 2017 ended up being something of a busy time for us, but not in a way that lent itself to lots of pictures or interesting blog posts.<br />
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JANUARY:<br />
We had a fair amount of rain (and even some snow) in late December and Early January. The creek by our house ran really big (probably the biggest we'd seen it in our nearly 3 years living in Glenwood) and washed out a lot of the anti-flood measures that had been put in. Don't worry, we weren't in any danger, but there were lots of repairs to be made to the creek bed itself, as well as to the large banks of dirt along the creek bed to prevent flooding. For several weeks we had 3-4 large bulldozers working near our house and the surrounding town. The highway department parked their machines by our house during nights and weekends so Erik got plenty of chances to watch them at work. I was SO tired of the noise and the house shaking with their movement, but the kids would have loved to have them there always. <br />
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In many ways January was fairly uneventful for us. We mostly went on with our normal lives, doing things like playing dress-ups...<br />
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...cooking dinner with my little helpers...<br />
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...and enjoying the great outdoors. <br />
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One BIG thing that happened this month was that Ethan got offered a new job with the AZ Game and Fish. We made a trip over to Phoenix and started the process of finding a house to rent and getting arrangements made to move our family.<br />
FEBRUARY:<br />
With the weather warming up we tried to make sure we squeezed every moment of enjoyment out of our remaining time in Glenwood. We went for walks to some of our favorite places and visited all our favorite people. It was harder than we thought getting all the moving arrangements made, so it was nice to forget that stress and just enjoy time together. <br />
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Our big event for the month of February was Sharli's 3rd birthday. Our friends Sally, Jubilee, and Bianca came, as well as Carolyn and her kids. Sharli told me she wanted her birthday to be PINK!!! So, I made a big batch of pink glittery playdough for the kids to play with as we waited for all our guests to arrive. Some of the boys weren't too sure about all that pink, but most everyone enjoyed it. When the play dough started to lose its magic, I sent the kids outside to play in a swimming pool filled with pink rice and other fun pink things. I had no idea how captivating 40 lbs of rice could be!<br />
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We had a "hundred layer" birthday cake (Sharli wanted a hundred layers, but I only managed 4. She was bitterly dissapointed), berries, Jello, and chips to keep the fun fueled. <br />
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That night Ethan got home from a work trip, bringing with him Sharli's birthday present; a pink unicorn stick horse. It was love at first sight. <br />
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After the birthday party, the packing and cleaning got going full swing. The kids found ways to keep themselves busy, while I got stuff done. Maren mostly just followed me around like a little puppy dog. Good thing she's cute! </div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Erik built this camera out of Duplos</td></tr>
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These first two months this year were busy and stressful, but filled with happy memories as well. Diedrehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04671795157668266148noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8787031776484479493.post-63507901452794186712017-03-21T09:50:00.001-07:002017-03-21T09:53:51.383-07:00December 2016This month started out just like any other month. We were busy with all the normal things, like playing with friends, school, housework, and playing dress-ups. <br />
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We had some friends over to decorate gingerbread cookies. It was so much fun, we love hanging out with our Haught friends. <br />
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Erik decided to mix things up a little for us, lest things be too normal. His asthma flared
up and he got to spend two nights in the hospital trying to get it under
control. Poor kid, it was definitely not fun, but he was a trooper! <br />
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After we got Erik home life returned to normal again, or at least as much as it ever is this close to Christmas. Erik and Sharli got on a kick making "shops" in the play room. They love having someone come buy their stuff from them. <br />
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December 23 brought Maren's first birthday. We didn't do anything too big for it, but I did make her a pumpkin cheesecake to celebrate. We all thought it was pretty yummy!<br />
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On Christmas Eve Erik got to participate in the Glenwood community Christmas Pageant. He was Joseph, and did a great job. It's amazing to see how much he's grown and changed in the last few years. The first year he was in the program he was so scared and shy he was barely able to take part. This year he had lines to deliver (and he remembered them all) and stage directions to follow, and he did great! <br />
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Christmas morning we woke up to a light layer of snow on the ground. The kids were THRILLED! They had been sure that Christmas couldn't come without snow, and they weren't disappointed. Snow makes everything look so pretty!<br />
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We did all the normal Christmas morning stuff, and the kids just ate it all up. There was some disappointment over Santa not bringing exactly what they had asked for, but they soon got over it. <br />
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After breakfast and presents, we bundled up to go enjoy the snow before it melted away. It was so much fun to watch the kids play. <br />
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With the all the rain and snow we'd had that week, the creek was coming down from having flooded the highest we'd seen it for the whole time we had lived there. We had to walk over and see what was going on with that. The amounts of soil that had been washed away in the last week was mind boggling. <br />
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The day after Christmas we loaded the kids in the car and headed over to Safford for a surprise. We took them to lunch, the we went to the movie theater for our kids to enjoy their first ever movie theater experience. We watched Disney's Moana, and the kids loved it. To the see the awe on their faces when they realized that the wall they were looking at turned into a giant movie screen was so much fun. After the show we took them for donuts and did some shopping. It was a wonderful day together as a family, and we had so much fun!<br />
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2016 was a great year for our family. Here's hoping 2017 will be just as amazing!Diedrehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04671795157668266148noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8787031776484479493.post-5833229415391662032017-03-14T15:45:00.001-07:002017-03-14T15:45:16.521-07:00November 2016November is always fun. It's Thanksgiving time, what could be better than that?<br />
Erik's school participated in a Veteran's Day program at the local Senior Center. The kids were really cute and had a fun time. Mrs. Nelson always does such a good job managing such a wide range of ages and abilities. <br />
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Maren keeps getting more and more involved in the daily happenings around here. She is less and less interested in being snuggled by enthusiastic older siblings. <br />
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She also decided to adopt a favorite blanket, which she tries to take with her everywhere she goes. She's still not real steady on her feet when it comes to walking, but she still tries her hardest to bring her blankie with her. <br />
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The Senior Center hosts a Christmas Bazaar every November, and while there are lots of fun vendors (including Ethan with his hand-forged ironwork), the highlight for our kids is SANTA! He arrives on the firetruck and comes rolling in with lights and sirens going. I'm not sure if Erik was more excited about the truck or Santa. <br />
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There is a photographer there to take pictures of the kids with Santa. Of course, you have to get the kids to cooperate, which can be a bit tricky.<br />
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As part of a school project Erik and his classmates made pumpkin pie. And I don't mean just one pie. Each kid got to bring home a whole pie to share with their family. YUM!<br />
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We spent Thanksgiving with the Richins family in the Chiricahua mountains. We ate tons of food, played board/card games, and had lots of fun. I love that my kids get to create these memories with their cousins!<br />
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Maren was determined to show off her newly gained walking skills, and she had plenty of adoring admirers to cheer her on. <br />
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The day after Thanksgiving we headed over to Gilbert, AZ to go spend a few days with Nate and Kate. We had more great fun, more great food, and more time with more of our favorite people. They took us to visit the Phoenix Children's Museum, which was AMAZING! I'll share pictures over on the Playing to Learn blog in the next few days and I'll add a link here. Diedrehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04671795157668266148noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8787031776484479493.post-30716918527354515402017-03-14T15:02:00.002-07:002017-03-15T13:25:17.022-07:00October 2016 The kids and I kicked off the month of October with a visit to Marquette and Cameron's house. Ethan had to be gone for work for almost 2 weeks, and I just couldn't face being cooped up with three kids all by myself for that long so we hopped in the car. We had so much fun seeing their new home and spending time with family!<br />
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One of they days we were there the wash behind the house ran a little and the kids knew just what to do with that water!<br />
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On our way back home, we stopped to hike around in 5 Mile Draw, just north of Snowflake, AZ. It's a pretty, narrow little canyon with petroglyphs all over the canyon walls. It was a fun little hike <br />
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After Ethan got home from his work trip, we decided it was time to go on another family adventure. We loaded our crew into the car and drove around the mountain to the Gila Cliff Dwellings. I have lived within a few hours drive of here for most of my life, but had never been there until now. It was a pretty warm day for October, and perfect for being outside in. <br />
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The thing the kids were looking forward to most this month (of course) was Halloween. Sharli wanted to be Princess Sofia the First, so we started shopping around for tiaras and materials to make her skirt and amulet. She was THRILLED!<br />
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Maren was going to be Sofia's cute little sidekick Clover the bunny, but I ran out of time. Instead I threw together a little red cape for her at the last minute and she got to be Little Red Riding Hood. Surprisingly she didn't seem to mind wearing the cape and hood. <br />
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And somehow I didn't manage to get a picture of just Erik in his costume. He was a pirate, complete with awesome hat and sword. He was pretty excited about it all!<br />We had a wonderful Halloween this year. The Saturday before Halloween the community had a Trunk-or-Treat, and it was so much fun. There was a great turn out and everyone was so excited to see all the kids out having fun. They all had a marvelous time. On Halloween night (monday), we took the kids trick-or-treating. We had only intended to go to a couple of houses, but each person sent us on to someone else so we kept going for several hours. We met up with Sally and her girls along the way and it was so PERFECT watching the kids, holding hands with their best friends, skipping through the leaves from house to house. It was such a wonderful happy night for our family, I have a hard time imagining a better one. <br />
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Also this month, the children napped in weird ways and weird spaces. So basically it was a normal month. :)<br />
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Maren learned a new skill this month; closing doors. The problem though is she can only close them when she is inside the room pushing on the door, so she tend to lock herself in to places she doesn't want to be. It's almost become like some weird game; did Maren close herself in behind door number one or door number two? <br />
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She has also started working on pulling up to standing, and is even thinking about taking a step or two here or there. <br />
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<br />Diedrehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04671795157668266148noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8787031776484479493.post-42031556780495763782017-03-14T14:18:00.001-07:002017-03-14T14:18:25.560-07:00September 2016<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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September was a fun month at our house. Maren was really starting to get around well and was working hard to be part of everything that was going on. She was becoming an expert at crawling and sitting, and was SO much happier with life because of it. She started heading to the playroom to hang out with the big kids. Not sure that they loved it, but I loved watching them together. <br />
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Being able to sit well on her own also made grocery trips SO much easier. No more lugging a big car seat into the store for us!<br />
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September is also county fair time. We went to both the Grant and Catron county fairs, and the kids had a blast!<br />
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This time of year is gorgeous in Glenwood, and we tried to squeeze every last drop of fun out of it we could. <br />
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We also went for a drive up the mountain to Mogollon, but since <a href="http://mississippimowers.blogspot.com/2016/10/mogollon-nm.html" target="_blank">I already told you about all that</a> I won't bore you with the details here. Diedrehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04671795157668266148noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8787031776484479493.post-45462601474109543082016-10-31T12:52:00.003-07:002016-10-31T12:52:50.626-07:00Mogollon, NMSeptember is a great time of year around here. It's starting to cool off a bit, but it's still plenty warm enough to be out and about without having to pack sweaters. We decided to take advantage of a beautiful Saturday and head up the mountain to the tiny "ghost" town of Mogollon. It's a gorgeous drive with views across the valley, so just getting there is fun. Once you're there the cute little town is fun to check out. There's a museum, an art gallery, a tiny restaurant, and one or two other tiny businesses. There's a stream that runs right down the only road in town, and the whole thing is really quite picturesque. <br />
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There were tons of great fall wildflowers blooming when we got there, and the kids loved it!<br />
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They also really enjoyed throwing rocks in the creek, but then that's always their favorite thing to do no matter where we go. <br />
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The cemetery at Mogollon is fascinating, with lots of interesting old graves. Someone has taken the time to document each grave and everything that is known about the people buried there. All the information is in binders in a little building where you can go and look through it all in comfort. <br />
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After wandering through the town we got back in the car and drove up the road a little ways into the forest. There are ruins of old building all over the place, and we stopped to poke around some of them. We stopped to snap a picture of the kids, but then that turned into a full on photo-shoot. The kids were having way too much fun picking where to sit and how to pose for the camera. <br />
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It really bothered Erik that we had no way to get us all in the picture, so we handed him the camera and let him snap a few of Ethan and I. It's fun to have a kid old enough to do that!<br />
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Erik's "cool guy" pose. <br />
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Maren didn't really care about all the neat stuff around us. She just wanted to get down and play in the dirt. This girl LOVES to be outside!<br />
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Diedrehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04671795157668266148noreply@blogger.com0