Wednesday, August 17, 2011

On our way!

We left for our long summer vacation in the middle of July. Our first stop at a gas station was memorable! We saw a man leading a dog around, but the dog was not ordinary. There was a cat standing on top of the dog with a rat standing on top of the cat! CRAZY!! The picture was taken with a cell phone so it isn't very good, but you can see the cat on top of the dog. The white thing around the neck of the cat is the rat, which was sliding off while I took the picture.


We stopped a big rest stop to change out of pj's and use the restroom. There was a playground to try out and stretch the kids legs.


After a night in Flagstaff, we head to the GRAND CANYON! Here is our fist look!

























Notice that Brad is holding the girls hands...they were really close to the edge!

Waiting for the shuttle to take us back to the visitor center after we did a hike.


Brad and Annie on the shuttle.

Can you see the Colorado River?

After the Grand Canyon we made our way through parts of the Navajo Reservation to St. George. We stopped at a huge bridge that was built over the river.The view down from the bridge.





The girls looking way down.

BANG! It's July

Brad turned 40 this July! His birthday wasn't till the middle of the month. Knowing we wouldn't all be together to celebrate, we a had mini birthday celebration at the beginning of the month.






The younger 4 kids and I celebrated the 4th of July with some friends. Brad and Nelson were off sweating at scout camp.








The beginning of summer

Nelson became a teenager on June 18th!










We celebrated Father's Day with lots of homemade cards from the kids.


Even Grandpa got some homemade gifts.





Grandma's birthday was the day before Nelson's so she got presents too!


My attempt at a Mavericks logo cake. (please do not look too closely!)







We went to a puppet show and foam party place. Can you find Kambree in all these bubbles?

Annie made her way out!!

Luke




We planted a garden this year and it did really well! We enjoyed zucchini, squash, tomatoes, beets, and cucumbers.








Tuesday, August 16, 2011

May Flowers

The month of May started out with a visit from my sister, Rebecca, and her family. I did take some pictures, but unfortunately the month of May also had computer problems which included having all the pictures on my computer wiped out. We did have a lot of fun even if there are no pictures to prove it! We celebrated Mother's Day, ate BBQ, visited the zoo, saw Nelson join the National Junior Honor Society (lost those pictures too), ate at Jason's Deli, and did lots of visiting. Thank you Rebecca, Glenn, Harrison, and Sully for coming all the way here to see us!



Luke did Joy School this year. There were 3 kids in his group and they had a great and fun year! In the middle of May we did a graduation for them. They did a graduation march and performed a few songs that they had learned. Then we had some fun graduation treats.















Nelson had an end of the year band concert. They sounded great!





Kambree did great this year. She got some awards at her 3rd grade ceremony including citizenship and AB honor roll.




Macey graduated from Elementary school this year. We all went out to Jason's Deli for dinner before her ceremony.


Her fifth grade class.

Getting her certificate from the principle.

Beautiful girl!



Annie getting her awards.


Annie's teacher had a baby two weeks before school ended. They had a sub that was wonderful and helped the kids make the cutest poster with all the kids holding letters that spelled out the baby's name.



Annie and her teacher, Mrs. Pope.



Macey and Mrs. Jones



Kambree and Mrs. Hopson.

Luke's graduation