What A Tripp!

Cali

After trek, I got to fly back to CA to spend some time there with my kids and parents. The kids had such a great time swimming in Grandma and Grandpa’s pool – nearly every day. One of the highlights of our visit was a camping trip to Yosemite with all of the older cousins. What beauty! We’ll have to go back and take Justin. This one is much better explained in pictures.

The kids also had fun playing with lots of their cousins. Tyghe and Asher had no trouble finding things to do together.

I’m glad we also got to visit with my grandparents.

I even got a girls’ night out with my mom and sisters…which never happens. We went out to eat and then to see “Oliver” at the Music Circus in Sac. (stole the pic from my mom)

Thanks to my mom & dad for such a great time!

Trek

As mentioned in my last post, Justin and I had the opportunity to go on Trek with the youth in our Stake. We got to serve as a Ma and Pa and work directly with some amazing youth. We rode buses all night to be able to spend 3 days pulling handcarts in the Rocky Ridge, and Martin’s Cove area of Wyoming. I won’t bore you with the details of this adventure, but will just share a few of the high (and low) lights.
The Good: amazing youth that set a great example of hard work, never complained and were a lot of fun to be with. square dancing. great food – that I didn’t have to cook.
The not so good: too much muddy water and hence the AWFUL mosquitoes. (Did you know that mosquitoes prefer O+ blood?)

We visited and trekked near the Willie Center, at Martin’s Cove and even crossed the Sweetwater River. We also took a side trip to Independence Rock. I didn’t have a camera with me, but did pull out my cell phone for a pic on top of the rock. The view was amazing.

We had changed into our trek t-shirts, but this gives you an idea of what we wore. I made my skirts, apron and bonnet – and they were so cute.

I’m glad that we had the opportunity to do this and that it was such a positive experience.

Fire

Just a few days after we returned from our quick trip to CA, a fire broke out in the mountains behind where we live. It began around 1pm on Sunday afternoon, June 26th…



very dry conditions and lots of wind sent it quickly towards town

and by Monday morning, it had burned 44,000 acres.
With all of that smoke, this was our sunrise.

Caemlyn and I took a bike ride that morning to get a better view of the smoke just beyond the National Lab and Bandelier National Monument.

We took some time Sunday evening to pack up some clothing and a few things of importance, as the town called for a voluntary evacuation. At noon on Monday, the “officials” proclaimed it wouldn’t harm town and we would be fine. The smoke quickly filled the air though, and by 2pm the fire had reached the ski hill (just above our home) and they issued a mandatory evacuation. We packed up the car with what we could and headed out of town, not knowing if we’d ever see our home again.
We decided we wanted to get further from the smoky air, so we headed to Albuquerque. Not wanting to spend money on a hotel, we were very blessed to have some wonderful friends make room in their home for us to stay. They have 4 children close in age to ours, and the kids had a great time playing together. We also headed out during the day to spend time with friends from home at Explora! (children’s museum) and a great swimming pool. After 3 nights and no end in sight, we decided to head to CA to take the kids to my parents’. We would have love to just enjoy our evacucation, but our commitment to go on Trek with the youth in our Stake made the situation much more complicated. My mom was supposed to fly out and stay with the kids on Sunday the 3rd, but not knowing if there would be a home for the kids to stay in led us to take the kids to her instead.
Our drive went smoothly, until we pulled into my parents’ town with a flat tire. We got lucky and got it fixed rather quickly, but found our travels had put our credit card company on alert and they decided to put a fraud block on our cards, making it difficult to pay for repairs and other necessary items that we needed, but didn’t bring with us. After a couple of chats with the cc company, we were back in business.
Justin and I flew back to NM on Sunday, July 3rd and were lucky to be able to go home for a few hours before leaving on Trek. The evac order was lifted that morning at 8am as the town was deemed no longer in serious danger. Yay! We returned to extremely smoky skies, and I was glad the kids weren’t here, and knew they were safe and having a great time with Grandma and Grandpa.
I’m so thankful for everyone that helped us and prayed for us during this ordeal. I’m especially grateful to the firefighters and emergency personnel that worked so hard to keep our town (and the lab!) safe.

Happy 90th Great-Grandpa Tripp!

Justin’s grandfather turned 90 in June, and we got to take a quick trip to Cali to celebrate.  We don’t get to see Grandpa Tripp very often, so this was a nice opportunity to see him and spend some time with him. Had to take our traditional 4 generation photo.

Justin and all of the kids with Grandpa and Great-Grandpa.

Grandma Tripp was there too, but I don’t seem to have any pics with her.
Justin’s Aunt and Uncle (that we met for the first time) put on a great little party. They also invited us to their home for dinner, where we got to see their menagerie of large game animals that they hunt. Quite an impressive collection, as was his story of how he got the 10 foot square grizzly in Alaska.
It was nice to spend time with family we don’t often get to see, and even meet some new family members.
Since we were there on Zephram’s birthday, we decided to head to the Superior Ice Cream company to celebrate. Zeph loved that everyone in the restaurant sang to him with they brought this giant sundae.

That was some *tasty* ice cream!

4, 12, 11, 36

Sounds like too long of a lock combination, but it’s just the ages from our recent slew of birthdays. On Flag Day, Caemlyn turned 12, and Tyghe turned 4. I can’t believe I’ve got a child old enough to go to Young Womens/Mutual. She is so excited though, and even got to attend girls’ camp last week. At least her age hasn’t kept her from being her crazy self. She had 7 friend over for a water party/slumber party and had a ton of fun. Luckily for me, she didn’t almost all of the planning. I didn’t have to do much at all. Of course, I didn’t get many pics either.

About an hour after Caemlyn’s friends left, 5 of Tyghe’s friends showed up for a superhero party. I made the most awesome capes for all of the boys.

And doesn’t a superhero need a phone booth for changing in?

Caemlyn helped by drawing a superhero for the boys to pin their emblems on.

Had to have a Super “T” cake.

And the super awesome car “caddy”/track I made for him.

Pretty sure he had an awesome birthday – and I can’t believe my BABY is 4 years old!

Since we were headed out of town (another blog post) we celebrated Zeph’s birthday a little early. He didn’t get a party (only do them at 4, 8, 12, 16), but we did have lemon lush (instead of more cake) and he got to open his gifts.

And and Pack meeting on the 14th, Zephram earned his Arrow of Light, a special patch for earning ALL of the webelos activity pins and did his crossover into Boy Scouts. Crazy!

And yes, there is a 36 in that combination, cause we celebrated my birthday as well. No pics of me, but I do have one of my super tasty lemon swirled cheesecake. SO good.

Running – the Good and the Bad

Running can be such a beautiful thing. Last week I went on a trail run along the ridge over Los Alamos. I was greeted with spectacular views of the Valles Caldera and then later with an awesome view of where we live.

Except for the smoky haze from the AZ wildfires, it was a beautiful day.

Last week at church, Tyghe and another little boy were running in their classroom. The other boy ran into Tyghe, knocking him into the corner of the cinderblock wall. The resulting scene was his primary teacher holding him in his arms with paper towels on his head and blood all over his sleeve. I ran upstairs to get Justin and our Bishop (a surgeon) ended up coming down a couple of minutes later (when he finished teaching his lesson) to check on things. He was given a priesthood blessing in the boys bathroom and then the bishop drove Justin and Tyghe to the ER, where he taped and glued his head up.

The tape is now gone and Tyghe only has a red line down his forehead. I don’t think the resulting scar will be bad at all.

Kinder Star

On the last day of school, Ada’s class had a Kindergarten Star Celebration. The kids shared with their parents all about their accomplishments for the year. They sang, they danced, they read stories and they earned awards. Ada has done excellent in school and “she just shines” (quote from her teacher). She also towers above most of the other kids. lol

She really has changed quite a bit. She can now read chapter books (and the Old Testament) and even learned to ride a 2-wheeler during the last week of school. Way to go Ada Jane!

After school got out, we spent the afternoon at our friends’ house. Caemlyn and Ada are both good friends with sisters, so it makes things kinda convenient. They had a sprinkler, water balloons and food. Kept everyone entertained for several hours. Thank goodness the weather cooperated – even though it was windy, it was warm enough to keep the kids outside.

6th Grade Graduation

I can’t believe my 2 oldest are now done with elementary school. They’ve done a great job, and I know they will do well in middle school. *keeping my fingers crossed*
The school put on a very nice graduation ceremony for the kids, to recognize all they have done this year. The principal did a very nice job talking about how wonderful these kids are. The PE teacher also put together a slide show of pictures from this year, and even some from all of their time at Mountain. The PTA gave the girls a rose and the boys a giant candy bar. They even provided cake and punch. It was a very nice evening, with the kids dancing at the end. I wish my pics came out better, but these will have to do.

Of course, this is more indicative of their relationship (we couldn’t get Zeph’s friend to stay away). Even though they are in the same grade, Caemlyn knows how to keep Zeph in line.

The week before school got out, Caemlyn and Zephram invited a bunch of their friends over for a party. Pizza, movie (borrowed a projector and used the wall as a screen), ice cream and a whipped cream fight outside. We would have done the whole thing outside had the weather been more cooperative. I don’t think anyone heard/watched much of the movie, but I’m pretty sure they all had fun.

Spring Soccer & Sod

Zephram played another season of soccer, and I’ve been quite impressed with his continued improvement. I’m glad that he enjoys it and continues to want to play.

Caemlyn also took a break from swimming to play. It was so nice having them on the same team – with practices at the neighborhood park.

The weekend after soccer season ended, Justin and Kezia went to Abq for a swim meet. While the rest of the kids and I stayed home to get our gardens started, we decided to get some new grass for the front yard. With such a dry winter, the area we seeded last year died and couldn’t be resurrected. The high school football field is getting turf, so they sold off the grass. By the time we got there, the pre-loaded flats were gone. The kids and rolled and loaded just enough sod. Caemlyn and I even got the trailer hooked up so week could get the stuff home. The tires were iffy, but we did make it home and even tilled the area and laid half the sod. At that point I called it quits and let Justin lay the last of it. It was super hard work, but it looks so nice! We think it’s kinda funny that part of the football field is now in our yard. lol

Field Trips

For some reason, the kids’ school likes to have all of their field trips during the last month of school. Luckily, I got to go with the kids on most of them. I went with Kezia on a walking field trip to PEEC, our local environmental education center. Tyghe came too, and it snowed on us!
I went with Caemlyn’s class (no Tyghe) to Mr. Orr’s farm.

Mr. Orr is a teacher at their school that has a farm/property down in the valley. He’s about a mile from a large number of petroglyph’s that the kids got to see. His property is right on the Rio Grande, he has bees, horses and quite a few berry bushes. The kids get to follow the water through the irrigation ditches and look for “stuff” in the pond. Mr. Orr even provided everyone with small jars of homemade jam.
The week after Caemlyn went to Mr. Orr’s farm, Zephram’s class went. This time I took Tyghe.

The next day, I got to go with all of the 6th graders to the high ropes course at Santa Fe Community College. I spent the day with Caemlyn’s group. I was impressed with how much courage these kids had to climb on cables that were 15-20 feet off the ground, while belayed only by their classmates.

The other “event” Caemlyn’s group got to do is called the leap of faith. This pole is also 15-20 feet high, but has a disk on the top that wobbles and spins. After standing up (most of the kids couldn’t – and I will attest that it was very physically difficult), they had to jump off and try and hit a rope that was too far away for them to reach.

Caemlyn did awesome! But, so did her mom…who even hit the rope! And yes, the kids (10 of them) belayed for me as well.

Zephram did an event similar to the leap of faith, but with a partner and a much bigger platform that didn’t move. He also climbed this rather high wall.

He didn’t think he’d make it higher than the ladder, but with lots of encouragement, he and his friend made it all the way to the top.

Way to go Zeph!

While Caemlyn & Zephram were at the ropes course, Kezia was at Bandelier. We’ve been a number of times, so I didn’t feel too bad missing it. The ropes course was much more exciting. I just feel bad I don’t have any pictures.

The last field trip was with the kindergarteners to Ghost Ranch. Ada had a great time making tin art, sand/glue art and learning about the dinosaur fossils they have found there.

I was glad I could ride with other parents and not have to ride the bus – on any of the field trips.

I also went and helped out with the 5th/6th grade district field day. Tyghe came and helped me run flag tag – and we were SO ready to go home at the end. It was exhausting.