Saturday, January 25, 2014

Darci Sahara is 5!!!

I remember when Darci was a baby and some of my friends had all their kids in school and I would think that day sounded so far away... I can't believe it is almost here.  She is 5 now and will start Kindergarten this August.  I don't know what I'll do without my little helper during the day.  She is so sweet and so silly!








Wednesday, January 15, 2014

Go Gymdevils!!

Paige has been going to gymnastics now for a few months and she loves it!  She can hardly walk without doing a cartwheel!  This past weekend, we were in Mesa, so we decided to take everyone to the ASU gymdevils gymnastics meet.  She loved it!  It really was a lot of fun!  After the meet, the girls sit at a table so you can get their autographs.  I think we will have to do this more often!



We brought a bunch of cousins with us too.. The boys sat off by themselves... moving seats every now and then.  I'm sure they thought they were 'too cool' to be at a girls gymnastics meet!


And of course Sparky was the highlight of the night for some of us.. especially little cousin Peyton!




My camera is terrible, I didn't get any good shots of any of the gymnasts...


ASU came in 2nd place:(




And of course the girls have their autographed posters hanging in their room!

First trip of the new year - Flagstaff

I cannot believe it is already 2014... Why does time seem to go faster with each year that passes? The older I get the scarier that fact is!

We took a last minute getaway to Flagstaff before the kids had to go back to school.  We booked our hotel about a month earlier, so we were just taking a gamble that we would have some snow up there... Unfortunately, it didnt snow on us. But, there was still some melted snow in the sides of the roads and in the parks and around.  Plenty of snow for me anyway!

First stop was a bathroom break at the Roosevelt Lake visitors center.



Mormon Lake - frozen... on our way back there were even some people out there ice skating!  How crazy is that!

We got to Flagstaff early enough that we were able to go to their Aquaplex indoor swimming pool (I so wish Thatcher had one of these!).  Somehow I forgot to pack Kevin's swim shorts, but we got very lucky that Walmart had 1 pair of girls shorts that he was able to use - not one bathing suit in the store... We told him they were boy shorts and we were good to go!




Everyone was so worn out that night.  Darci and I crashed right away.  I think the other kids stayed up watching a football game with Tad for a while.  We were expecting our Travelodge hotel to be ghetto... it was only $28 bucks a night!  But, it turned out to be a really decent hotel.  Lots of room, a fridge, microwave, flat screen TV and a decent little breakfast..  We would definitely stay there again!


On Friday, we went 'tubing' at a place called Elk Ridge just outside of Williams about 40 minutes away.  It's an older ski area with an area where you can just play in the snow (not enough snow there to ski) and another spot you can tube down their 'slides'.  The drawback was the cost, kind of pricey at $40 for the kids and Tad (didn't want to pay an extra $10 for me!) and you have to drag your tube back up to the top.  Most of the kids were done after 4 or 5 times, I think Derek went 6 or 7 before he got worn out.  Darci only went down with Tad once and then she was done.  It 'tickled her tummy' too much!

 Love this one - proof that they do love eachother!






We also spent that day exploring the shops at Williams and driving around Snowbowl.  There were tons of skiers at Snowbowl!  And they all make it look SO easy!

On Saturday, we drove through Sunset Crater national park.  It is  pretty drive, and I'm sure a good place to hike around, but we didn't have time for any thing other than the small crater loop.  It was amazing how much lava rock is up there!





20 miles up the road past the volcano is the Wupatki indian ruins.  That was really neat.  There is one that you are able to wander around and climb and walk around and then a larger site where you have to stay on the outside.  The downfall here was the wind which I swear was blowing 50mph!  Paige and Kevin were able to get their junior ranger badges too!
 The first ruins...
 




 The second ruins...





We also stopped off and saw the Lumberjack at NAU and walked around downtown Flagstaff.


Saturday night we hung out with some friends that Tad has known for a while and went to school with.  They have kids all around the same age, so of course our kids had a blast.  And we had delicious food and great company!