What A Tripp!

Horses

Ada and Tyghe had the opportunity this morning to go to the stables on a little field trip.  They learned a bit about the horses and how to care for them.  Ada took a turn brushing one of the horses.  They both got to feed a few of the horses treats, along with feeding alfalfa to some nearby goats.


We all even got a chance to ride a couple of the horses. Tyghe was up first and while excited, was too scared to ride on his own, so I got to go for a ride with him.

Then he got brave and finished the ride by himself, and even went back later for a second ride.

Ada was a little nervous on her turn, but did a great job. She even got to trot for a bit, and also went back for a second ride.

Thanks to the Grahams for sharing their horses and providing this opportunity for the preschool kids in our ward. Thanks also to Juli for arranging for us to do this each year. The kids love it!

Growing Up

Lots of growing up going on at our house lately.  My beautiful Kezia turned 7.  Kez is such a smart girl, and usually very easy to be around.
She requested, yet another, castle cake.  We went all chocolate this time though (thanks to Sarah & Micah for the inspiration!).  Not too bad.

Since her birthday was on Labor Day, and everyone was home, we took the family to miniature golf in Santa Fe. Pretty sure it was a first for all of the kids, and they seemed to have fun.



There was also an arcade that the kids had a good time wasting money in. Such excitement over silly little tickets. lol

Kezia also got to take birthday treats to school the following day. I was a busy bee that morning, but brought these to her class (along with a package of wet wipes for cleaning up the mess). They were so yummy.

Do you see a theme here? Kezia *loves* chocolate - she’s definitely mine! lol

Now that Caemlyn is in 5th grade, she has the opportunity to start band. She went to the try an instrument night, and decided to go ahead and play the flute. Mom, you’ll be happy to know they checked mine out and said it’s just fine! She’ll be playing the same one I used at the same age.

Since soccer sign-ups are ridiculously early here, we missed the deadline for getting Zephram in for the fall season. No big deal though … he gave swimming a try and made the team. He’ll be swimming for the short course season (and hopefully making a lot of improvement) and then will go back to soccer (along with Caemlyn) in the spring.

I’ve been super busy with my calling in Primary, but the rest of the family didn’t want to miss out on the picking season at the Salman Raspberry Ranch. So, Justin took all of the kids to pick raspberries in La Cueva yesterday. I’m told they had a lot of fun, and that Ada had a great time taking *tons* of pics. None of them picking berries, but I think she snapped a shot of every single flower in the gardens. We now have loads of berries in the freezer and a few jars of Raspberry freezer jam. The remaining raspberries will become a pie tomorrow along with the peaches we got from Colorado last week. Yum!

They also had a picnic, and Ada didn’t miss out on her chance to record that as well.

And, I’m finally getting my “dream” laundry room. The sunroom is nearing completion of this amazing transformation, and I’m thrilled. Here are a few progress shots. Hoping to have a mostly complete pic by the end of the week. Who knows when the flooring will be done and the room “finished”, but it’ll be done enough to keep me happy for a good while.
First, old demolition pics of the strange “wall” we took out…at the same time we removed the 120 gallon water tank.

The part of the wall at the end was completely replaced during our Master Bath remodel. New stucco, a glass block window, and a coat of paint that I wasn’t happy with. (This is where my washer/dryer now reside). This pic is during prep for leveling cement for the floor and with the electrical down for painting.

And, the beautiful new coat of paint. Perfect color for that room.

In the final pics there will be my washer/dryer on a platform at the far end, a 10 foot counter top over newly finished cabinets and our big freezer at the near end. Should hold most of our food storage and a few other things. My treadmill will also have a new place in the room. I’m so excited!

Back in school

The kids are once again back in school.  You know they were excited ’cause they were all up well before they needed to be.

Caemlyn’s in 5th grade, Zephram is in 4th and Kezia is in 2nd. Poor Ada is still at home with me since she has a fall birthday and can’t start kindergarten until next year. At least Tyghe still has someone to play with him for another year.

2 minutes

The Los Alamos Triathlon was yesterday.  I wasn’t able to train near as much as I did last year, but I think I’m in better overall shape.  Even with a much longer bike/swim transition, I finished 2 minutes faster than last year, and in the top 10 in my age group. Not too bad.
And even though I hate pics of myself, Justin did take one that’s not completely awful as I was running in to the finish line.

Justin also did the swim portion of the tri. And, for the 3rd year in a row, he had the fasted swim time. Way to go honey! His team came in 2nd place.

Caught up?

While we were away on vacation, there was a huge hailstorm at home.  We’re thankful for our friends that were looking out for us and made sure all of our broken skylights and windows were covered with tarps and kept us posted on what was going on here.
Aside from the hailstorm, we’ve had quite a bit of rain this summer. One evening we were treated to a double rainbow right out our front door.

We no longer have baby chicks, as when we returned they looked much more like full grown chickens. Our rooster, Angel, had started crowing at 5:30am though, so he is no longer with us. While we had planned on eating him for dinner, he was still kinda scrawny, so he now resides with other chickens out at the stables, where he won’t bother anyone with his early morning calls.

Before we left on vacation, Caemlyn and Zephram did a splash n dash (200yd swim/3K run) with me. Caemlyn did them last year, but this was Zephram’s first time. Caemlyn went off on her own, but I waited for Zeph after I got out of the pool and pulled him along on the run. He’s not fast, but he did it! After vacation, the 3 of us did 2 more splash n dashes. The last one, Zeph had to do all on his own so I could do the longer course (400yd swim/5K run) in preparation for the upcoming triathlon. He has a hard time pushing himself, so after I was done and tired of waiting, I ran back a ways and pulled him in to the finish. We didn’t take pics at any of these, but the sponsors of the event got at least one pic of Caemlyn.
Caemlyn runs

Our annual camping trip to Camp May was successful. One of these years we’ll remember how cold it still gets at night that high up in the mountains and bring wool socks and extra blankets for the kids. True to tradition, I also ran home. 2000 foot drop in elevation over about 4 miles is brutal.

Our local rodeo was this past weekend. Caemlyn, staying true to her adventurous spirit, won a t-shirt for chasing down a calf and pulling a ribbon off the tail. Zeph and Kez also tried (along with lots of other kids), but weren’t successful.

Now I think I’ve got us pretty much caught up. Just in time too since school starts back up on Monday.

Kauai

While the kids had their extended stay at Grandma & Grandpa’s, Justin and I took a wonderful vacation to Hawaii.  We stayed on the island of Kauai, and it was beautiful, amazing and so much fun.  There was so much to see and do.  I took a ton of pics, but just chose a “few” of my favorites to share.

The view from our hotel room

Waimea Canyon and falls


Amazing view of the azure ocean

We went ocean kayaking - 17 miles along the Na Pali Coast


Zipline adventure

Boogie boarding


So many waterfalls and amazing scenery

4th of July

The kids got to take an extended vacation at Grandma & Grandpa Stubz this year.  While we were there, we got to celebrate Independence Day together.
The day started off with a childrens’ parade downtown…

with lots of cousins..

There was lots of swimming and jumping on the trampoline, and the day ended with a great fireworks show in the street. (Thanks Grandpa and Uncle Jared!)


There were even sparklers at the end! We don’t get to do fireworks like this here in the desert, so it’s fun for the kids.

Happy Birthday 9.0

Zephram is now 9 years old.  He had his birthday way back in June, but life has been crazy.  Zeph is my smartie pants, but I’m grateful that he doesn’t just do well in academics, but has an amazing grasp of the scriptures and gospel as well.  And, he still believes his mom can do anything.

The beginning and the end.

Today is a big day in our family.  June 14th (also known and Flag Day) is the day our first and last children were born.
SO…
Happy Birthday Caemlyn! You have brought joy, creativity and excitement to our family for the last 10 years. My big helper that will still hug me and call me “mommy”. An adventurous spirit willing to try just about anything. Such a beautiful girl. I love you!

AND…
Happy Birthday Tyghe! All boy, loving cars, getting dirty and climbing on anything. (Praying he doesn’t cause serious damage with his many falls.) Yet, he still loves his mommy more than anyone (with daddy being a very close second) and gives the best hugs and kisses. He’s in a big boy bed and is pretty good about staying in when put to bed at night. He loves to chase after the chickens, calling “birdie, birdie, hold you”, and has no fear in grabbing them and picking them up. He melts my heart.

And in other recent news…
On Memorial Day, we decided to get a few pets and added 6 baby chicks to our family. The kids are so good about taking care of them. Caemlyn likes to have them roost on her arm, and has many scratches to show for it. Now Justin and I are trying to get their coop built and ready so they have a place to live as they outgrow the box they’re in. They’re fun to watch “play” with.

This past week, Zephram got to attend cub scout day camp for the first time. I went as his den leader (Justin worked from home and watched the rest of the kids), and was worn out and glad when it was done. Glad that Zephram had a great time though and got to learn lots of new things. Pretty sure shooting a pellet gun and archery were his favorites. I had fun doing those too.

more pics

Caemlyn and Justin both swam in swim meets the last 2 weekends. It’s long course season, which seems so far for a little girl to swim, but she does well and is making steady improvement with her times. Justin has also qualified for state in most freestyle events and even qualified in the 50m butterfly yesterday. Since these aren’t masters swim meets, we have to joke about him being the old guy swimming against teenagers. Pretty impressive that he continues to do so well.

We’ve be so busy since school got out that there hasn’t been much free time to play with friends or relax much. Of course, looking at the calendar, the rest of June isn’t much better. Thank goodness July is vacation time!

“K, fine, fine, whatever …”

Tonight Tyghe got in trouble for hurting Ada and was told to tell her sorry and give her a hug. He said “sorry” without any problem, but refused to give her a hug. When Justin started counting, Tyghe responded with “K, fine, fine, whatever …” then proceeded to give Ada a hug. Certainly had ME cracking up to hear this little boy (not yet 2) saying such a thing. He often makes it apparent that he has older siblings. Such a cutie.

We’ve been busy over the last couple weeks as we wind down to the end of the school year. Kezia and Ada had their spring dance recital, and did very well.
My beautiful ballerinas.

The theme for their recital was games & puzzles. Ada’s class was gumdrops from Candyland.
*sorry the sound isn’t working - trying to get that fixed
Download Link
Kezia’s class was called “jolly jumpers”.
Download Link

The same weekend as the dance recital, Justin and Caemlyn both had a swim meet. Luckily it was here in town and just kept us super busy. Caemlyn has recently switched swim teams and is already showing great improvement. The best pics I got of her were during her 100 IM butterfly and backstroke.

They like to save all of the field trips for the end of the school year here, so there have been an abundance. The 3rd graders alone (Zeph) went on 4 field trips! I got to take Tyghe with me and chaperone their trip to Bandelier National Monument. It was a beautiful day and we had a good time.

(The pic of Tyghe was also taken on this field trip. Not bad pics considering they were taken with my new camera phone.)

Both Kez and Ada have also finished another round of swim lessons, both making great improvements. Zeph has also finished yet another season of soccer.
Being a holiday weekend, we considered going camping. However it has rained almost non-stop since Thursday. We did have a camp-in on Friday night though and even set-up the tent for the kids to sleep in in the sunroom. Any excuse to make s’mores.
Many more updates to come as we make it through this final (very busy) week of school.