Siblings in Safford and Silver

While we were in NM, we went over to Safford/Thatcher to visit my sister Carolyn. She was having a BBQ to celebrate the 4th of July, and we never could pass up free food. It was so much fun to spend time with all the family there, eating good food and visiting. Erik had a pretty good time playing with his cousin Wyler, who he met for the first time on this trip. They're only about a month apart, so it was really fun to watch them interact. 

 It was also fun to watch my mom, she was in Grandma heaven with both her grand-babies in one spot.

 While we were all there, with video cameras rolling, Wyler took his first independent steps. It was pretty exciting!

 After a week in Animas, it was time to head north for Stanley and the Mower family waiting for us there. We did make one stop on the way though, in Silver City, to stay with Marquette and Cameron.

 I didn't take many pictures while we were there, but we had a lot of fun for the short time we spent there. We found a tarantula, which Ethan was so excited about. We've yet to see any of those in Mississippi (and I doubt we ever will)!

 Ethan was so excited about this big guy, he really wanted Cameron to come share in the fun...

 Unfortunately, Cameron wasn't so sure he was interested...

 Monday morning we kidnapped Marquette and headed over Emory pass and through the mountains up towards Stanley. The view was spectacular, it's been so long since I've seen something like this!

Independence Day in Animas, New Mexico!

Wow, this had taken me forever to get around to, sorry it's almost August 4th, but you get to listen to me jabber about July 4th. We spent two weeks visiting family in New Mexico and had a marvelous time. We drove all through the night so that Erik would sleep through the bulk of the drive. It worked fairly well...

It got dark as we were in Louisiana, and the sun came up as we were in Western Texas. Funny how as we were headed to Mississippi the first time I thought this was the worst part of the drive, but when the sun came up and I looked around at the scenery, I was so excited! It looked like home! We still had several more hours of driving to do, but I knew we were getting close. I guess it's just in my blood, I can't help loving this place!

Once we got to Animas to visit my family, it was so much fun. Erik was not always sure that he liked being surrounded by new people, but he sure enjoyed all the spoiling and extra attention he got. We were all so glad to be out of the car and surrounded by everyone we love. 24 hours of driving is just no fun.
One of the first things I noticed about NM was the difference in the humidity. It was still hot, but to me it didn't even feel like it because it was so dry. It was so nice to not feel constantly sticky and gross. Erik loved playing outside. Dirt is not something you see much of here in Mississippi, so he was VERY interested in it. At one point he got his hands on a dirt clod and popped it in his mouth to see what it tasted like. Apparently he liked it, because when he saw me coming to take it away he swallowed it. Little stinker.

After he'd drooled mud all down the front of him, we decided to let him play with the garden hose to clean himself off. He loved it! This kid loves water and would've spent all day playing in it if we'd have let him.

After playing outside, Erik was totally worn out, so he snuggled up with Grammy and they napped together for the rest of the afternoon. Doesn't this look so cozy!

Erik isn't the only one who likes to take naps.

We had a really fun 4th of July. We kicked off the morning with a pancake breakfast at the church (yummy!), then enjoyed a day of hanging out playing games and stuff like that. In the evening we went over to Rodeo, NM for their awesome parade (ok, maybe not the most awesome parade ever, but it beat the socks off the Elvis parade we went to). Marquette and Cameron were down for the day and we all had a really fun time.

Dad got to drive the firetruck to represent the Cotton City Fire Department. Kett and Heber went along for the ride, and some how managed to avoid the water balloons we had prepared for them.

As we all know, the only reason people come to things like this is for the candy that's thrown off the floats, right? Erik got to eat his first sucker, and boy oh boy, he thought it was pretty cool stuff!

Another thing we did during the week in Animas, was hit the Lordsburg swimming pool. Erik's been swimming once before this, and he loved it, so we were excited to give it another try. It was actually a fairly cool day, so he didn't get to stay in the water for very long, but he loved every minute of it. 

We made sure Erik (and I) got to spend as much time as possible with his Great Grandpa Darrow and Great  Grandma Sharon. We made several visits over to their house to see them. It was so much fun. 

 Our last day in Animas was especially fun. My cousin Hyrum recently returned from his mission to Dallas Texas, and so we had a big Payne family lunch to celebrate. We all got to hear him speak in church, and then the partying started! It was wild and crazy, with people every where, but it's so so so much fun.

I sure love Southern New Mexico, it was so hard to leave and come back to Mississippi.

LOL

Today I was straightening up the house and made a fun discovery. We've had a box full of random stuff that needed to be thrown away sitting by our door for a few days. Erik finally discovered it this afternoon and, after eating all the junk mail we'd tossed in there, he spread the contents of the box all over the living room. I started cleaning it all up and decided to pop some air bags that were in there from a package we'd received ( you may have seen the kind I'm talking about, it's basically huge bubble wrap) so they'd take up less room in the trash bag. I was afraid Erik would be scared of the noise and was watching really closely for his reaction. This is not what I was expecting!

This and that...

I've been trying to come up with some new adventure to post about, but we've been pretty boring lately. So, instead of anything super fun, I'm just going to give you a glimpse into our daily life. 

Last week Ethan spent a few days helping out at scout camp. They were camping just a few minutes up the road from our house, so when Ethan found out the boys wanted to go fishing, he called and had me bring up his fishing gear. He spent several hours showing the boys the ropes, and Erik and I spent some of that time sitting on the bank hanging out and playing around with our camera. 

 In other news, my garden is managing to limp along. It's all I can do to keep my plants sufficiently watered in this heat, so they're not exactly thriving, but their still alive. Here's last week's harvest: two yellow squash, one cucumber, and one tomato (as well as some parsley, basil, and oregano that we used in various meals throughout the week).

 Today Erik and I have just been catching up on housework. We spent some time folding and putting away the clean laundry...

 Okay so I put it away while Erik pulled it back off the shelves as fast as he could. I think I'm just going to quit folding our clothes because they seem to have a hard time staying folded lately.

 And it's not just Ethan's and my clothes, he gets his own too. Here's Erik's bedroom shelf when he's done with it...

 And just for comparison this is what it looks like when I'm done with it... (note that I gave up folding his clothes as soon as he started pulling up on things, but at least they're sorted into the proper baskets!)

 We also tried finger painting again. We made baby safe paints out of flour, water, and food coloring, and then put them and Erik in the tub so he could just paint wherever he wanted. Naturally the outside of the tub is what he wanted to decorate.

Well, there you have it. There's your sneak peek into the grand adventure of our daily lives. Between our church , Ethan's school work, and Erik, we stay pretty busy most of the time. We are planning a big road trip in a few weeks though, so we should have some fun stuff to post in July.