Visitors

Erik's parents came for a visit from Georgia and it was really great. We did a lot of driving around and showing them a bit of the Arizona scenery. We loved having them around and the kids, especially Preston, were so upset when they had to leave but they're already making plans for the next visit from Grandma and Grandpa Witbeck.

Here are a few pictures of their visit.

Getting ready to swim at the hotel in Tuscon.


And Preston was the only one who would get in.


Poolside conversation.


San Xavier Mission in Tuscon.


Seeing the sights in Tombstone.


Time spent at the park. This toy doesn't look like much but it was spinning really fast. I got sick just looking at the kids spinning around on it.


Climbing up the spider web.


Just because she's cute.

I'm just realizing that we didn't take very many pictures while they were here. But we really did have a great time with them here. Some projects that Erik wanted to do got done with some help from Terry and the kids got a lot of special attention from Valeni. And I got to take some naps during the day. :) It was so sad to see Preston just heartbroken when they had to go. But he calmed down after we made a list of activities to do on their next visit. Who knows when that will be (Christmas? :) but we have the activities planned.

Camping

Our ward had a campout in August and at first I was kind of skeptical about it. I mean we live in Arizona. Hotness is everywhere in my mind and can't be escaped. But Erik talked me into it and I was assured that it wouldn't be too hot and that I would love it. So we got our gear ready but we couldn't leave until Erik got done with work at 4:30. We left at about 5 pm.

We had directions. They were very precise directions. Turn left on such-and-such road and go 9.2 miles then turn right on such-and-such road and go 5.8 miles. You get the picture. It was spot on...until we reached the lake. Now imagine it's 7:30 at night, dark, you're driving around a lake with a ton o' campsites, kids hungry and Jurassic Park just got done and they've been sitting nicely for 2.5 hours so they're starting to not sit nicely, and the directions turn into this:

At the fork go about 2 miles. Look for a radio tower and turn right. We camp at the end near the lake.

That sounds okay but when it's dark outside you can't see the one thing you're looking for: THE RADIO TOWER! We're in a highly forested area where the dumb radio tower looks like a dang tree. We got lost for an hour. We went down all these different roads hoping to see someone that we know. But like I said, it's dark so all we see are tents and campfires. We finally decide to retrace our steps and drive very slowly until we see the elusive radio tower. We find it. Finally. It also happened to be right by the first road we went down when we got there. Like directions said, about 2 miles down the road. The directions failed to mention that we had to go another 3 miles down the road to get to the campsites so we had turned around the first time. Wonderful.

At this point I don't care where the ward is. We found a spot and we said we're done. We pull up and start setting up camp by the light of our headlights. What was funny was 2 other families from the ward saw us from our headlights and camped right next to us because they couldn't find where to go either. So we had our own little campout.

But I have to say that the icing on the cake to this little journey was our neighbors. They were so awesome. You know how great it is to have neighbors getting drunk, playing the weirdest music you have ever heard as loud as possible until 5 am, and swearing up a storm. I kept thinking that they have to pass out eventually but no such luck. I guess I didn't mind the Five For Fighting song they played over and over but I could've done without the weird chanting and hillbilly stuff. But lucky me I got about an hour of sleep before the kids woke up at 6. Don't you love when you can sleep in one day? So do I. I wish I could. :)

We found others from our ward who happened to be just across the road from us. We feel that the spirit guided us there the night before so we could eat the delicious pancake, egg, and bacon breakfast. We spent some time talking then we walked down to the lake to catch some crawdads and get dirty. All were accomplished.

We really did have fun and it was an experience that I think I'll always remember. Here are some pictures of our journey.

The boys really like the picture so I had to throw it in.

Making friends in the morning.


The lake.


Man on a mission.


One of the crawdads they were after. They are so gross.


Dirty, tired, and hungry. I'd call this a successful camping trip.

I Love....

...when Makayla "helps"me fold laundry.

Hard Knocks

Bryce has had a rough first month of school. He got sick after the second day and missed the rest of the week. He got some skin infection on his head that required antibiotics which didn't go well with the throwing up he was already doing. And we won't go into the behavior plan implemented by his teacher because he "likes to make funny noises" (his words, not the teachers').

Then this.....

I have found that when the caller ID tells me the school is calling in the middle of the day, it's never for a good reason. Apparently Bryce slipped and fell on his way to the bathroom. And at some point he forgot to use his arms to break his fall. He decided his head was a better option.

Fortunately he forgot about it not long after we got home and was back to his old self in no time.

F-I-V-E

Not only did Bryce turn five the first week of school but he got sick that first week of school and missed 3 days. He couldn't have a classroom party when we had planned (although we had one later) and he was just bummed out about the whole week. So we invited some family and friends over and had a really fun birthday party.

Here is Bryce totally engrossed in Erik working on the birthday cake. He was really excited about it.

This is the finished product. I don't know why I decide at the last minute to do something I've never done before. It just hit me one night that it might be cool to do a fondant birthday cake. I had no idea of how to do it but I looked up a recipe for marshmallow fondant and watched a YouTube video so I felt fairly competent that I could do this.

It was really easy to make and really hard to get just right to get on the cake. We finally got it on the cake and since I lack any ability to draw or be artistic in any way, I enlisted Erik to create the Batman symbol. I think it turned out pretty cool and Bryce thought it was "the coolest cake EVER!" so that makes it all worth it.

Getting ready to blow out the candles.

We had some good food and some great family and friends that came to celebrate Bryce's big birthday. I think it made his crummy week a little bit better. Happy Birthday Bryce! You are such a sweet, trouble making, sharing, kind , mischievous boy. I am so grateful that you are a part of this family! You make sure every day is eventful and fun! I love you!

First Day

Well, it happened. 2/3 of my children are gone to school ALL DAY. They woke up for the first day happy and excited and I even got Bryce to eat breakfast (which is huge!). They carefully picked out their clothes and packed their bags. We walked to school which was a big mistake since it was 90 degrees at 7:30 in the morning.

We arrived. I walked them to their teachers and walked away. Hoping that the unknown staff at this school takes care of these little boys that I love so much. That the other little precious children at this school don't make me hate them by being mean to my boys. That they have fun.



So now that the boys are gone all day, it's just us girls hangin out. It's eerily quiet in the house. Makayla and I kind of look at each other like "Now what?". I've been thinkin about potty training her. I'll get around to it soon. Maybe. Probably. Fine I'll do it. Ugh. I hate potty training!

The next morning:

Me: Boys, time to get up.
Bryce: (rubbing eyes and saying groggily) For what?
Me: Ummmmm, school? (said in a question more because I'm trying to understand the confusion in his voice)
Bryce: AGAIN?! (complete shock on his face)
Me: Oh buddy. This is for probably the next couple decades of your life.
Bryce: (mostly just looking at me like I'm speaking French)
Me: Yes Bryce. Every day.
Bryce: (shoulders slumped) This is just so early.
Me: (sigh) Tell me about it.

Vacation Bug

We recently went to Oregon to visit the Bell side of the family. Almost all of my family has moved away from Oregon and everyone was making the effort to get there so we just had to go. I was SO excited! I get to see my family and leave the 115 degree heat and stay for 3 days at a beach house and wear jeans without sweating.

SO excited!

I should know to expect the unexpected. Our awesome vacation was put on hold while the little miss was visited by the vacation bug. You know. Where you plan a getaway and look forward to it for MONTHS and someone gets sick? The throwing up with diarrhea sick?

Yeah. That.

My poor girl was sick for almost the entire time we were there. She so happily passed it to me for a couple days. Sharing the wealth I guess.

She spent 98% of the trip in her pajamas snuggled up to me and watching some movie...preferably a princess movie.


But as with most bugs, the vacation bug left Makayla....the day we got home. Gotta love vacation!

Jam

Erik and I felt very "special" and domestic as we made our first batch of jam ever. And to make it from something growing in our very own backyard was pretty cool too. Well, maybe not cool but at least neat. :)

These are figs. We pluck them from a tree in our backyard. Personally, I'm not a fan of figs straight from the tree so I was crossing my fingers the jam would be better.


This is our equipment we scurried around Wal-Mart to find.


It looks gross. Probably tastes gross at this point too but I didn't try it.


Erik stirred and stirred the concoction. It seemed to take forever!


We followed directions faithfully and hoped that it all sealed.

It looks good and tastes better. Although we sweeten our jam with apple juice instead of sugar so it really tastes like fig/apple jam. Maybe that's why I like it. Oh well. I have to eat it since we're overflowing in jam at this point.

Soccer

We got Preston signed up for soccer and he's been having a lot of fun playing. He has some trouble remembering where he's supposed to be and is content to just run wherever the ball is and steal it from his own team members. But I've found this to be a the common denominator with the 6 and 7 year olds so I don't worry about it.

Here's some pictures from his latest game.

He likes being goalie and he's pretty good at it.






His first injury. Preston walked away with a couple skinned knees but the other boy didn't fare so well. Maybe the boys should wear a cup.


Just hangin out with a buddy.

Oh yeah. Did I mention Erik got roped into being the coach?