4th of July!

Our Fourth consisted of:

Relaxing in our own made up oasis.

Ellie posing in every picture and changing into 4 different swimsuits in 1 hour.

Me looking more and more unattractive as the day progressed. First, there was me "trying" to be helpful all while wanting to swear over the blazing heat and the heavy camping chairs (they are unexpectedly heavier in 116 degrees). Second, forgetting to button up my pants (although, Chris says it's more of a turn on). And third, me in a bikini without any mumu type covering. It's quite a sight.

The funnest part of our 4th was trying to convince Taylor that she wasn't going to die if we waited until AFTER dinner to go get Krispy Kreme donuts!!! She didn't believe us, but surprisingly she survived.

We decided to skip going to any fireworks and be happy with the one's we could see from our house. Turned out to be a good call since none of our kids seemed to care. And when we did start seeing some fireworks, Peyton ended up being terrified!

It was funny/sad.

Oh, and we had a BBQ like everyone else in America!

wii! the wii is fun!

Chris bought us a wii on a whim yesterday! We wanted to get it last year for Christmas, but couldn't find it anywhere. I know most of you know this already, but, HOLY CRAP! It is SO fun! There are so many games out there that look like so much fun! I love that there are tons of games rated E for everyone!

I really really really want this one next:

What other ones are totally worth getting?

It's great to have great neighbors!

Last weekend we had a bbq with some neighbors at our good friends house next door.They bought an awesome waterslide from Costco (you may have seen it on display).
We had tons of fun and yummy food!

I'm so glad we have somewhere fun to go this summer to cool off that doesn't involve loading up in the car!

*These same great neighbors and the ones next to them surprised us and mowed our lawn, weed eated and trimmed our bushes yesterday! They are the best!*

Fun in the sun.

Trampolines are so much more fun when you add water!

I remember as a kid adding soap to it as well.

Shhh, our little secret.

the new swing.

While Chris was working on enclosing our chicken coop,

Preston made himself a swing.

Great idea, but not quite the right location.

"Wook mom! A airpwain!"

(those are Preston's shorts he's wearing, silly kid)

We've had our eye on a particular branch in our pine tree for a few years now.

Kid tested.

Mother approved.

Not quite professionals.

Tonight we made Halloween cookies,

cuz that's what you do the day after Halloween,right?

Not too bad, huh?

Taylor was very proud of her pumpkin.

Luckily I got side-tracked only once.

Now it's 6:16 and I'm wondering who's going to clean this mess up, not to mention who's going to make us all dinner?

Remember this?

Junior High Taco Salad.

Did you know you can buy 4 big taco shell bowls at

FOOD CITY for only $1.69?

And let me tell you, they are delicious!

And authentic.

They were

a huge

hit

at our house!!!




But I'm pretty sure I made them even better
than the ones from school!



2nd favorite lunch item: The Salad Bar

3rd favorite lunch item: Bagel and Cream Cheese



What was your favorite lunch item in
Junior High?

Pinetop- Saturday and Sunday

Beautiful Sunrise area.

On Saturday we drove 30 minutes away to go quad riding.
(The neighborhood we were staying at doesn't allow it there.)
So we get there and start riding and a Forrest Ranger comes and tells us that

it is Arizona law that children under 16 require a helmet.

We had no idea it was the law.

(Guess it's time to invest in some now)

We were just always really careful when giving our kids rides and let the older kids

ride only in 2nd gear near us.

So that was a bummer.

Luckily there was a horse near by and the kids had fun petting it

while us adults took turns riding.

Taylor and Sydney


Preston and Peyton waiting for dad or mom to come give them a ride.



Preston driving before we got stopped by the Forrest Ranger.
He's such a good little driver.


Chris and I went for a ride and got back just before it started to rain!
Thank goodness!
It hurts when it hits your face!


Ellie and Taylor staying warm in the truck.

Blake and I getting cozy out of the cold rain.

After we got the quads all loaded up it stopped raining!

So Murphy's Law.

So Chris pulled out his trustly metal detector and unfortunately didn't find a whole lot.

Right outside of Mama Bears and Honey Bear Antiques.

We had a good time checking out all the fun antiques.

Then we went to an old fashion Car Show.

It was so fun to see all the different old cars.

They were driving all around Pinetop when not sitting at the Car Show.

We got some fun pictures that I will post later....maybe.

Sunday we woke up and slowly cleaned up and tried to soak up the last tiny bit of relaxing.

Then we headed home around 2pm.

The ride was okay until we hit Payson then the screaming started.

That was enough for me to send Chris to get fixed!

Now that we aren't in the car anymore I think I've changed my mind :)

Pinetop- Thursday and Friday

Thursday night we got into Pinetop at around 8:00.

We were all starving so we picked up some semi-yummy

pizza from Little Ceasar's and devoured it in minutes .

Afterwards the kids got in their jammies and played on the steeeep stairs.

This is the HUGE cabin we woke up to.
It has 7 bedrooms!
We were living the high life for sure!


We spent most of Friday riding around on the Polaris.



And some went fishing.
(I really wish I sent the camera with Chris)

More to come tomorrow.

It's Monday and not my turn to babysit!!!

(I do a babysitting swap on Mondays from 9-12 with my sister-in-laws)

I gotta go drop my kids off and come home and clean up from our trip- interruption free!

Irrigation fun!

We don't have a pool so we make do with what we've got and play in the irrigation every 2 weeks. The kids have a blast playing in it. Don't worry, we go swimming in a real pool too. Here they are in our front yard cooling off. Everyone was having fun until Ellie announced, "Haha, I peed!" Then they just moved to the other side of the yard.