Seestors

We live an hour and fifteen minutes away from the my sister. While its not ideal to just hang out whenever or have lunch dates, its a heck of a lot better than the 20 hours away we were in Kansas City.

 Every so often Tice and I will have a sisters night.

 Usually we look on Pinterest, pick out a craft to make, bite off way more than we can chew, and finish our projects in the wee hours of the morning. This was our last project

We made really scary Halloween wreaths with real live witches inside. 

I already told you we work late, so sometimes we get a little silly. 

We ended up Face timing our parents at midnight and they actually answered and saw our masterpieces. 

I love these nights.

Globe Tigers for Life

There is not a lot to do here in Globe. 

We go to the park.

We go to the library.

Sometimes we go to Walmart and play in the toy section.

Well, in the Fall, there is always something to do on a Friday night. 

No, not clubbing, but going to the local high school football games.

The yelling of the crowd, the cheering of the cheerleaders, the grunts of the football players. It makes for an exciting evening.

See...

Go Globe Tigers

San Diego

The reason we went to San Diego was because I was running in my first Spartan race. 

After looking at pictures though, it would seem we went there to go to Sea World and the beach. 

So I guess I will tell you about those "other" things first.

Sea World:

I know, I know. We supported the very organization that captures innocent whales and forces them in tiny aquariums. Then their fins start to curve; which, we all learned from the documentary "Blackfish," is a sign of depression.  The depressed whales are then forced to perform every day for hours on end. Oh and they are also forced to breed, creating more and more captured, depressed whales. Yeah, we went there.  

I'm sort of a sell out and just had to take my kids once. Never again! Well for a little while at least. We had a good time.

That is, till we went to the Shamu show. 

Brilliant Travis decided to sit on the 4th row, which is the splash zone.

Brooklyn is not a fan of getting splashed.

When it was time for Shamu to start splashing, Brooklyn dropped to the ground and started army crawling in attempt to get away from the splash. Well, the very spot she was shooting to escape to was the only spot that Shamu splashed. 

She wasn't very happy.

Shamu then came back and splashed the whole crowd again, so Brooklyn, you can imagine, was just thrilled!

Again, I was a sell out, because as soon as I saw the whale coming, I grabbed the baby and booked it to the dry zone leaving my three year old to the wolves... or whales I guess.

It was fun, but I think the kids favorite part was the jungle gym. So next time we decide we want to go on an awesome adventure, we are going to McDonald's play place.

The beach:

I wasn't there, but I heard it was fun. We went on this trip with our neighbors, the Bruce's. Half of us went to the race that day, and half of us went to the beach. Travis went to the beach with the girls.

Don't let Brooklyn's smile fool you. She was again traumatized, no not by a whale in the ocean, but by the showers at the beach.
 This girl REALLY does not like getting splashed!

The race

Have you heard of the Spartan race? Well it is a mud run with various obstacles. We were supposed to run 12 miles plus the obstacles. It didn't happen. The temp was 105 degrees so the smart race directors decided to cut it down to 5 miles. I was sort of happy because 1) I didn't really train for the race and 2) Our start time wasn't till 2 pm. I know I would have puked! 

The 5 miles we did was pretty fun. I got to jump in a huge mud pool, army crawl under barbed wire in the mud, climb ropes, etc. I think I will want to finish the race for real though in the future.

Brian, Jerika and me

The next day, we decided to head on home, but before that, we stopped in Coronado Island. This is where Trav's dad grew up.

 This is where he went to church many many years ago

Its a neat little place and I'm thinking that maybe we should do a Charles reunion there one day. Hint hint, wink wink?

I love that California is so close to us and that the beach is only 7 hours away. I'm sure there will be many more trips to come!

Field trip

When I was in school, my mom came to most of my field trips. I thought it was cool. I also thought it was cool that when the field trip was over, she took me home early.

 Now that Avery is in school, I find myself wanting to be how my mom was. But its hard, because growing up, I never wanted to be the teacher's pet. Since I'm volunteering for everything and trying to help, I do feel like the teacher's pet, and its an inward battle that I really need to get figured out. Until then, I will just tell you about Avery's first field trip.

We were pumped to go. I drove with some other cool moms.

This is our before picture

We went to the Gila County Fair!

We saw:

Pigs, check

cows, check

lambs, check

rabbits, check

chickens, check

Prize winning artwork, check

Prize winning baking, check

We saw it all and it was pretty awesome

 Avery was so cute and excited to show me her friends, she was a little on the hyper end!

It got really hot

There were a lot of kids

It was time to go

and this is our after picture

I'm glad I was able to go, but dang, I don't know how teacher's do it all day long!

Until next trip Avery

Yoga is awesome

I started a new hobby. 

Yoga. 

Trendy. Yes. 

But I truly am starting to love it. 

I even kind of feel like I'm getting weird. 

Because lets be honest, yoga people are a little weird. 

Nice? Totally. 

Creepy? Sometimes. 

Some of the teachers are just a little out there. 

But I also listen to them and they make me feel like a million bucks. 

I also feel more in tune with my mind and body. 

So yeah, I might be getting a little bit weird, OK. 

Cheryl, my friend invited me to do yoga... on a paddle board... on a lake... at 6 in the morning. Yes please.

So I did it and it was AMAZING!!! 

I told Travis, that to me, doing yoga on a paddle board on a lake is just like going to Chucky Cheese for a kid. It truly made me happy!

It was in the valley, so I made my friend Raquelle go with me. We had to leave at 4:30 am.

I did fall in. But not a big deal. It felt good!

Man that was fun. If you are ever wondering how to entertain me, well, just do paddle board yoga.

Labor day

I kind of feel like every time we have the opportunity to leave Globe, we do. Bless your heart Globe, but there just isn't much to do. Four day weekend? Yes. Stay in Globe? No thanks.

We went to the mountains and stayed in a place called Show Low. We stayed in a cabin with two other families. The Richards and the Stoddards.

It was super chill and basically we ate lots of junk and played games. We actually had injuries due to the games. And when I say games I mean cards. We got injured from playing cards. You heard me correctly. You just had to be there. It was a really fun crowd!

Oh and we also found a lake of course

Good times

Preschool

Brooklyn is starting preschool! What? Isn't she still a baby? Man, they grow up fast!!!

I love that she has a girl named Gladys in her class, that is my grandma's name! Love it.

Her bestie Jocy, is in her class

 If you can't tell, they have a love/hate relationship!

And here are Brooklyn's yearly interview quesions

1. Name and Age? Brooklyn age 3

2. Grade Level? preschool

3. My school? Arizona

4. Teacher's name? Ms. Rachael

5. Best Friend? Jocy

6. Favorite Color? Purple

7. When I grow up, I want to be? Butterfly

8. Favorite snack? Salad

9. Favorite cereal? Lucky Charms

10. Favorite book? The seed book

11. Favorite holiday? Christmas

12. Favorite food? Mac and Cheese

13. Least favorite food? Salad

14. Favorite game? Rock paper scissors

15. Favorite Summer memory? Go to Utah

16. Three words that describe Brooklyn? Mae Mae

Kindergarten

This girl has been waiting forever to start Kindergarten. She will be 6 in October, so we got almost an extra year with her at home, so she was extra ready to start!

It is so weird that she is gone for the full day. We miss her so much! 

She didn't even look back when she walked into her classroom. She is such an independent girl! 

We love her so much!!!

1. Name and Age? Avery age 5

2. Grade Level? Kindergarten

3. My school? Copper Rim

4. Teacher's name? Ms. Leckey

5. Best Friend? Auriya

6. Favorite Color? Light green, not too light, like in the middle

7. When I grow up, I want to be? An artist

8. Favorite snack? Fruit snacks

9. Favorite cereal? Lucky Charms

10. Favorite book? Bob books

11. Favorite holiday? Easter

12. Favorite food? Mac and Cheese

13. Least favorite food? Chicken

14. Favorite game? Don't break the ice

15. Favorite Summer memory? Go to Utah and swimming

16. Three words that describe Avery? Gracie, Nice, Happy

3 months of life

The biggest accomplishment for 3 months would have to be that she learned how to roll over!  She would start on her back and start teeter-tottering on her side, but she just couldn't flop over on her belly because her arm always got in the way. I think she was really relieved when she finally figured it out. Now she doesn't ever stay on her back, she is a rolling freak!

Probably our favorite thing about her at 3 months is that she giggles a lot now. 

She thinks her sisters are the coolest things.

She still sleeps in our bed... oops! 

She is the queen of spitting up. I don't even know how she is getting so chubby, because she spits up every meal without fail! And its usually on me! We have to clean her neck up a lot, because there are lots of rolls for her spit up to get into.

She is starting to discover her voice. I love her little noises and squeaks. 

I'm just gonna say it. She likes to toot. Her favorite time to toot is early in the morning, and they sound like man toots! Good girl!

So far she has been best bottle drinker and binkie sucker. Its nice to be able to feed her from a bottle every so often and her dad likes it because he gets to feed her!

She is starting to figure out her hands and starting to grab things (especially my hair)!

She is the squishiest little cabbage patch doll and we love to snuggle her so much!!!

Sedona

Sheez, Summer was really great. This is my 4th post about it. After our getaway in Utah, we still weren't ready to go back to Globe, so why not have another vacation? And why not be with the same people we were with for the past month? 

We drove to Sedona, Arizona, home of one John McCain.

I had never been there. But I'm sure glad we went. It was pretty cool. 

Just look

We pretty much did a hike a day, I might be turning granola.

Hike 1

Sadie was 8 months preggo

Travis was really feeling it and he got really ambitious. And then Avery must have felt it, because they ditched us. 

 But then Tice and I kind of caught the ambition bug and tried to follow them up. But then we got distracted by the mountain wall

So we climbed down (ADHD much?)

When we got down, we looked up, and this is what we saw

 Travis and Avery

 Jon, Jack, Brayden, Trav and Avery

They were pretty ambitious

So was she

Hike 2

 You know you live in a small town when you have to pry your kids off a rock because they think it is the most fun thing they have  seen

 This hike wasn't quite as technical, so we all stayed together

 Oh wait, we didn't because Travis's hiking ambitions rubbed off on my dad as well, and they somehow found the top of this rock!

Oh and again, she worked hard as well

Hike 3

 This one wasn't as vertical, more horizontal, and I think the kids were officially over hiking!

But not her, she could have gone on at least 3 more hikes. 

#trooper

We also went to the coolest river

 There is nothing as refreshing as jumping into a river and there is nothing worse than stubbing your toe on a rock in that river. Doh!

The next day, we went back to the river and played on the shallow part where we could slide down the slippery rocks to the water fall. Pretty amazing!!!

Although, the day after that, our bums were rubbed raw. Totally worth it though

But not one complaint from her

The place we stayed at was really nice. They had lots of activities at the pool.

These boys came home with lots of medals!

Oh yeah, and I just had to put this picture in as well. Ya know, it was just the sports trivia challenge and well, yeah I BEAT MY HUSBAND!!!! BOO YEAH!

What a fun place to visit! Its only 2 1/2 hours from Globe, so Sedona, you will definitely see us again!

Thanks Mom and Dad for getting us such an awesome timeshare.