Derek's 1st Piano Recital

Derek had his very first piano recital tonight.  I was SO proud of him.  He didn't hit one wrong key!  The hesitation in the beginning is because one of the keys on the piano was sticking for some of the kids and he wasn't quite sure what to do about that, but he figured it out and played it perfectly!  He still doesn't know if this is something he wants to pursue for a long time, but he had several friends there that played well so hopefully he will be encouraged to keep it up for a while, he's only been taking lessons since around April.

School has started!!

This last Wednesday, the kids started back to school, so it's just been Mommy, Daddy and Darci at home during the day.  They seem to all have really good teachers and are happy to be back playing with all their friends.  Derek is in 3rd grade, and Kevin and Paige are in 1st grade.

 

We went to Mesa for a week right before school started back and stayed in a hotel while I recovered from surgery.  The kids got to swim everyday, watch lots of Shark Week and have YUMMY breakfast every morning. 

This is a view of the Gilbert Mormon Temple from our hotel that should be done pretty soon.  It's going to be beautiful!

 

Here is an update for Grandpa on his artichokes.  This is after the old growth has been cut back and the new growth is growing in.  Hopefully they will keep growing and you will still get some artichokes from them when you get home.  And you can have them all to yourself!!

If you look closely you can see 1 orange pumpkin starting to grow!  There is also another small green one hidden under the leaves.  With grandpa not here we had to take advantage of the space and try some pumpkins!

Discovery Park and playing in the mud

Early ballots are mailed out and at least I know I will get 1 vote!!  Just another few weeks and we'll have the primary results...

I acquired a list of early ballot voters in Thatcher - about 1100 names - and called them all last week.  The kids got to spend some extra time watching the olympics while I was on the phone.  I thought I would never get to the bottom of that list!!

We were bored so we went out to discover park to have a walk around and ride the spaceship ride (with the door open and not moving because the kids were scared).  

Tad took Derek down to the river to explore on Grandpa's 4-wheeler.  Derek even learned to drive it a bit.

A beautiful harvest...

For Grandpa and Nana - this is as big as we could let the zucchini get because it started to get covered with yucky bugs.

We've had at least 1 good rainstorm and the kids couldn't wait to go outside and play in the mud!!