What A Tripp!

Then there was one…

It’s been a crazy, busy, fun summer, but now the kids are back in school. Not only has school started, but Miss Ada Jane is in kindergarten!

It’s been a long wait for her and she is so excited and loving it.

It is quite the odd thing to have just one child at home. It’s been 10 years since I’ve only had one, and I almost don’t know what to do with myself. Tyghe is loving it (though he hugs Ada everyday when she gets home - and told her he missed her after the first day). We did splurge a bit and bought a (used) chariot bike trailer. It came with a jogging stroller conversion kit, and also one for cross-country skiing. It’s been fun to use so far, and better exercise than driving the car.

Caemlyn and Zephram are both in 6th grade and Kezia is in 3rd grade. This is the only school year that I will have 4/5 of my kids all in the same school. Even crazier to think that next year I’ll have 2 middle schoolers!

*side note: I was quite disappointed in the current clothing styles for little girls, so in the 2 days before school started, I made Ada’s cute skirt. She had picked out the fabric months ago for “whatever”, but we both loved the way it turned out. You can’t tell in the pics, but it even has pockets that are finished the same as the hem of the skirt. Much cuter than the grunge stuff in stores right now.

train ride

I took the kids for a ride on the Railrunner train from Santa Fe to Albuquerque yesterday. It was a new experience for the kids, and they definitely enjoyed it. Of course, we couldn’t just go to Abq and do nothing. So we hopped on the bus when we got there and went to the BioPark. It was a pretty hot day, so we decided that being at the indoor aquarium and in the shade of the botanical gardens would be preferable to the zoo.



They have a very cool children’s garden.

The butterfly pavilion was open.

Tyghe really liked the miniature trains on display (behind the fence).

Tired kids on the train ride home.

rockets and popsicles

Justin ran a nice Cub Scout Pack meeting on Tuesday. I’m not sure if the kids enjoyed the rockets or popsicles more.

King Arthur’s Quest

The older kids have had quite a busy first week back from vacation. Early Monday morning, Caemlyn, Zephram and Kezia auditioned for a play put on by Missoula Children’s Theater of King Arthur’s Quest. Over 100 children auditioned for about 56 parts. All 3 kids got parts, and I was quite proud of them. They spent all week at rehearsals, and performed last night in the high school’s auditorium. All of the children did a wonderful job and put on a very entertaining performance.
Caemlyn played the part of the Green Squire.


Zephram was the only male Camelotian of the group. Supposedly, he baked 40 loaves of bread that day!


And Kezia was the cutest Mini Black Knight ever.


*I must apologize for the poor quality of the pics. It was quite dark and no flash was allowed. Plus, I screwed up and didn’t change all of the necessary settings on my camera. Oops!
However, don’t they look so cute in their stage make-up?

3 weeks

Yes, that’s how long our recent road trip lasted. We had a great time at all of our stops, and at least I, thoroughly enjoyed our vacation. Due to the 100s of pics I uploaded, I decided to only edit a handful and have already posted them here. If you just want to see the pics, feel free to follow the link and check them out. If you want the details, stay and read on. Sorry they aren’t “together”, but this was the easiest way.

We began our trip a day later than originally planned (due to me being extremely sick), so missed out on camping at Mesa Verde National Park. At least it’s only about 5 hours away, so we’ll plan another trip there.
We first made our drive up to Moab, Utah and spent a couple of days visiting Arches National Park. We did a lot of hiking, and saw some amazing sites. We stayed at a dive motel in Moab, but it served our needs and even had a pool that we were able to cool off in.
From Moab, we headed further north to BYU, in Provo, UT. The same day that we finished hiking in Arches, we decided (after some creamery ice cream) to drag the kids up the mountain to the “Y”. Beautiful view, especially at sunset. We took the kids to see all of the sites that we “miss” - Los Hermanos, the duck pond, our first apartment, campus (including a visit to any professors that were available in the ECEn dept.), Brick Oven pizza, etc. We were even able to pick up Justin’s nephew Garrett and take him out to breakfast one morning. On our way out of Provo, we stopped for lunch at Bridal Veil Falls on our way to my family’s reunion in Heber City.
We had an enjoyable few days with my family, playing on a huge waterslide, launching off homemade rockets, tie dying t-shirts, visiting church history sites in SLC and running in the Hobbler Half. OK, so only I ran the half marathon, but Caemlyn, her cousin Sara, my sister Andrea, my brother Micah and my Dad all ran the 5K. Way to go! It was nice for me to be able to visit with a former roommate while we were in SLC. More info and pics on my mom’s blog.
After this reunion, we headed further north to visit Justin’s grandma Marge in Federal Way, WA. It was a quick visit before heading down to go through the Portland temple with Justin’s niece Chelsey. This was the beginning of the Tripp family reunion in Seaside, OR. Not much sun was seen during our stay, but we had fun anyway. A visit to the Tillamook cheese factory (can’t forget the ice cream!), playing in the ocean and flying the kite (it was SO windy), riding a bike surrey, the carousel, bumper cars, train ride, trying on all the crazy hats in the hat store, a sand dash and treasure hunt (I missed doing the 5K/10K on the beach, but was tired from the previous week’s half marathon), and even a bridal shower for Chelsey and Owen.
When the reunion ended, we dropped Justin off at the Portland airport so he could come home and get some work done. I drove the kids down to my parents’ house in Yuba City, CA for a visit. We enjoyed swimming every day, a visit to Funderland with cousins, visiting with “old” friends, visiting my grandma and grandpa Hawley and just relaxing. Again, more pics on my mom’s blog. I think she got more pics than I did - I was being lazy.
At the end of the week, Justin flew out to CA and did the long drive home with us. We even stopped for lunch in Holbrook, AZ on the second day and got some fun pics of the kids in a pretend jail.
With all of the driving we did, I really have no complaints. The car ran well, and the kids were mostly well behaved. Even the drive I did by myself was uneventful. Thank goodness!
Thanks to our families for planning such wonderful, enjoyable reunions and providing the opportunity for us to spend time together. We love you!

Happy, Happy, Happy Birthdays!!!

Yes, my baby turned 3 last week. Tyghe is such a cute, fun, little guy. And most importantly, he still (most of the time) loves his mommy lots.

And, my first born turned 11. Caemlyn is such a beautiful girl, and fun to be with. Definitely my most adventurous child.

Then just yesterday, Zeph turned 10. According to Caemlyn, he’s too smart to be her brother. But, I’m more in awe of his amazing faith and knowledge of the gospel. He has grown up so much over the last few months.

In between the birthday parties, we decided to venture out on our first campout of the year. Just a quick over-nighter up the mountain at Camp May. I still forget how cold it gets at night when you’re that high.

more holes

Well, not too many more holes, but one with a lot of pics. hee hee
After one of the swim meets we went to in May, we hit the Children’s Museum in Albuquerque. The kids, as usual, had a great time.

Now that I’ve filled in most of the holes, bonus points for anyone that can “see” the one hole I haven’t mentioned.

holes

I’ve been a bad blogger, so this is my attempt to fill in some of the holes I’ve left over the last few months. Since there are so many pictures, I will break this up in to a couple of posts.

Here we go:
In the spring, Caemlyn and Zephram took a break from swim team and played soccer. Both did very well and had a great time.

In May, Caemlyn had a couple of band concerts. It was pretty neat listening to all of the bands in the school district play together.

Before Memorial Day, school ended for the year. I got to help out at the 5th/6th grade field day and delivered my traditional chicken/cashew/green chile pizzas to the kids’ teachers on the last day of school. I’m so proud of my children, their hard work and success in school. I’m also thankful for the wonderful teachers they have had to help them along the way.

With soccer over, Caemlyn decided she needed to get back in the pool and is currently swimming part of the long course season. She even got in a swim meet, along with Justin.

10 inches

Ada has been growing her hair long for quite some time. She had grown tired of it though, and a few days after her dance recital, she had 10 inches cut off and donated it to Locks of Love. She was excited about being able to give her hair for another little girl that didn’t have any. I think she was even more excited about her new hairdo though! I love it.
before/after

ready to mail off her ponytail

Beautiful Ballerinas

Kezia and Ada have finished another year of dance. Both performed beautifully in their recital, A Garden Festival. Ada’s class was the dawn and Kezia’s was the blue sky. Can you believe that this was Kezia’s FIFTH dance recital?


Ada’s class even got the privilege of being photographed for the advertising posters.