Ringing in a New Year

My goodness!  It has been forever since I posted last! (nearly three years)  I was looking through my old blog posts and really miss not having all of our family adventures documented on here for reminiscing later on.  We had a lovely Christmas with almost the whole family together.  We were just missing Andy, Mary, Atigun, & Soren.

We had a great visit with Grandma and Grandpa from Arizona and Uncle Eric from San Diego.  Grandma and Grandpa headed home to Arizona before New Year's, but Uncle Eric stayed.  Aunt Katie came over and we had a Wii Dance Party night!  To make it more fun, I bought everyone glow in the dark necklaces to wear.

The pictures didn't come out, but we had a lot of fun.  We also had saved some sparklers from 4th of July, so we lit those too.  I need to learn how to properly use my new camera.  Hopefully I'll be able to take better pictures soon.

We all made it to midnight and toasted to 2014 with some Martinelli's Sparkling Apple Cider.  I'm looking forward to the adventures that we will be having this year!

Spring Break 2011

We had a wonderful spring break. We kicked it off by visiting Zion National Park - one of our favorites. It was cold, but we practically had the park to ourselves. We had a lot of fun. We went to Flagstaff from there and caught up with a lot of friends and family. We almost were snowed in when a spring snow storm hit. The interstate closed down for a little bit, but we were able to get out and head to Phoenix.

Once we got to Phoenix, we went to a spring training game at the D-backs new stadium. We had a blast and were so happy to finally see the sun for the first time in months! You can tell by their huge smiles that the boys loved every minute.

While we were in Phoenix, we went to a railroad park. The boys - particularly Austin - loved it. We watched a huge model railroad display, rode on a miniature train (Preston and Jackson rode in the "jail" car) and played on the playground equipment. It was a beautiful, warm day and we made the best of it!

From Phoenix, we headed to Parker to visit Gordon's parents. We had a fun visit and had to head for home too quickly. It was a whirlwind vacation, but we enjoyed every minute of it!

Father's Day and Fishing

For Father's Day this year, Gordon wanted to go on a hike. We went into the Pioneer Mountains outside of Sun Valley and enjoyed a picturesque hike. We hiked a short ways to this waterfall. It was beautiful and the boys thought it was the coolest thing! I guess it's a good trail to spot mountain goats on, but we didn't get to see any this day. We almost didn't get to hike at all because it started to rain and hail right when we arrived at the trailhead. We waited it out in the car for a little while and were happy when it passed over quickly. We definitely want to do this hike again!


We went fishing at a place called Gaver's Lagoon and also Silver Creek Preserve. It's not a long drive from where we live and it's one of the best places to fish in the country! The boys had a great time and they had good luch fishing too!

T-Ball and Graduations

Preston was sooo excited to play T-ball this year. He loved every minute of it. It was a lot of fun to watch too. The kids would get bored in the out field and start to play in the dirt instead of paying attention to the game and about four or five kids would tackle each other trying to get to the ball. Preston had a great season and we're looking forward to next year!

Austin couldn't stand to just sit in the stands, he had to sit with his big brother and feel like he was a part of the action!

Preston also had his Kindergarten graduation. It was such a sweet ceremony! The kids sang several songs and then each one walked across the stage to receive their diploma. I taught kindergarten, so it was hard to not get too emotional about Preston graduating because I had to get up on stage and announce the students in my class right after he went. Preston's teacher was Mrs. Ahrens and she was amazing! She was so creative and had so much energy! Preston loved her and loved every minute of Kindergarten. I loved that his classroom was right across from mine. If he accomplished something special or made something cool, he would dash across the hall and show me. Gordon took this picture of Preston with Mrs. Ahrens on his cell phone, so it's a bit blurry.

This is a picture of me with my class. They were such a sweet group of kids! Kindergarten was definitely an adventure after teaching at the secondary level for four years. I was exhausted when I got home everyday and I only taught for half the day! It was fun though!

Jackson graduated from preschool. We didn't know that they were doing a graduation ceremony, his teachers told us it was a carnival. Gordon took Jackson to it, but didn't have a camera, so he got this picture with his cell phone. Jackson had a great year and just blossomed! His teachers loved him and always commented on what a great boy he is. He was very excited to get his diploma. He told Gordon, "look my teachers gave me a message!" Yes, this is the last week of May and he's wearing his parka. It was freezing the last week of school! It felt so silly wishing my students a happy summer when they were walking off wearing their winter jackets!

Spring Break - Trip to Arizona

For spring break this year we went to Parker to see Gordon's parents. Sheryl had just had a pacemaker put in and we were amazed at how well she was doing! Our first full day there we went on a picnic to Aha Kaav nature preserve along the Colorado River. It is a great park with a playground, covered picnic area, trails, and a beach along the backwaters of the river. The boys had fun playing and cooling off in the water.

We took a daytrip to the new spring training complex in Goodyear. We watched the Reds and the Brewers play. It was a lot of fun and the boys were able to get some autographs. We drank a lot of lemonade and enjoyed some ice cream to help us stay cool. It was pushing 90 the day we were there!

Preston and Jackson had fun playing in the kids area at the ballpark. They had these inflatable batting cages and a mini-field for them. They ended up playing a game with Thom Brennaman, the D-backs old announcer who now announces for the Reds. It was really fun!

This is the view from our hotel room and Austin enjoying the morning on the balcony.

On our last full-day in Parker we went fishing along banks of the Colorado River, just down from Gordon's parents house. We didn't have any luck catching fish, but we did make a little friend!