Tour of the Cotton Gin

Cotton is a way of life in this part of the state.  Year after year of visiting here we always wanted to tour the cotton gin, and after living her for over two years we've talked about it all the time and have never gotten around to it.  We didn't realize how easy it was.  The gin in Pima will do private tours for free all day long that last about 20 or 30 minutes.  It was loud - but they provide the ear plugs!  But it was interesting to learn about how they process cotton from the fields all the way through to packaging to manufacturers.  It's amazing that all that goes into it, it really is.  I'm sure Derek is the only one of the kids who understood all of the tour, but the other kids were fascinated just the same.  And they loved their soft clean cotton at the end of the tour.  Here are some pictures....
 

 

 

 

Tombstone, AZ

It was Helldorado days in Tombstone last weekend, so we took the kids and had a fun day.  There were gun fights in the streets and tons of people around.  We went to a gun fight show and took a trolley ride around town.  Darci liked it all but walked around with her hands over her ears most of the day because it was 'too loud'.  I missed out on a cool underground mine tour, but maybe we'll go back sometime for that one. 

On the way home, we drove through the back roads on the other side of Mt Graham near Bonita and Willcox.  It was a nice drive full of farm fields and the cutest little elementary school ever.

These are the kids journals of their day in Tombstone...

Darci - hers says "I got all 4 trolley tickets. I got all the rings. I love the trolley"

Paige.. "The trolley. I like it because it was fun."

Derek... I think it is legible...

Kevin.. "I love about the part we picked a toy. I love to go on the trolley".

Other fun stuff... carving a pumpkin...

Kevin the fireman.... some firemen visited Kevin's school the other day and he came home and created his very own firemen suit complete with mask, gloves and oxygen tank.  He's been walking around the house and yard putting out fires since then!

Cute school pictures! Kevin in 1st grade

 Derek in 3rd grade

Paige - will be getting re-takes because she was sick

R.I.P. Raptor

Well Derek is not having very good luck with hamsters.  His little hamster Raptor II died the other day.  He noticed he wasn't drinking very much water lately and hoarding his food and then he started losing weight and finally he died.  Derek and Kevin like to stay away for a while at bedtime writing stories and the night Raptor died, Derek wrote the following story....

This next page is him at the pet store looking in the cages.  I thought this was very clever.