Our trip to Show Low

The first weekend of July we headed up to the mountains to enjoy some cooler weather for a while. Jared had to stay behind because he had his first midterms the next week and needed all of that time to study. We drove up Friday and headed straight out to where my family was camping for the weekend. Here are some pictures of our fun times camping!


My sweet cousin Carter. (yes, he's my cousin even though he's six days younger than Kyson:)

Kyson LOVED going on a ride on the motorcycle with Great Uncle Blaine!

We found a horney toad and I was impressed that Caleb was willing to hold it! He usually has a phobia of all crawly things. Isn't he such a cute camper?

Our camping trip of course wasn't uneventful. The first night as I was getting Kyson ready for bed, he fell out of the camp trailer and split open his head. There was blood everywhere and I panicked! I ran him over to camp and my sister Natalie (almost a PA...in about one month! Yay Natalie:) and my Aunt Janet (a nurse) came running to help me. At first we thought we were going to have to make a trip to the emergency room but it stopped bleeding pretty quickly so we decided to super glue it. It was all very tramatic for Kyson (and ME!) but it all turned out ok.

Another thing we did at camp was celebrate all of the July birthdays in the family. Caleb's isn't until the end of July but he sure didn't mind getting a few presents early! He loved the soccer ball and K'nex blocks he got. Ever since then, he's been asking me when his birthday is. I can't believe he's going to be 4 next Monday!

Camping was fun but between Kyson spliting open his head and then a couple nights later getting a stomach bug and throwing up all night...I was ready to be in a place with running water (hot shower!), clean clothes, clean blankets, and a nice warm bed. Thankfully my parents house has all of that because we stayed with them the entire next week. It worked out well because Jared had time to study and he did well of his first tests!
While at my parents house my boys loved playing outside. They especially enjoyed jumping on the trampolene!


I don't really know why but this picture melts my heart. He just looks so big and grown up.


The last weekend we were in Show Low Jared drove up to join me after his midterms were over. He went with me to my High School ten year reunion! I had a great time and loved seeing many people I hadn't seen in years. This first picture is with my first college roomates at EAC. We had a LOT of fun together and have some crazy memories!

This next picture includes a lot of my friends from high school. Believe it or not there are several that weren't able to make it that night. I had so many amazing and wonderful friends.

Sunday about four we began our journey home...and what a journey it turned out to be! We got almost to Payson, only to be told there was a big mudslide and we wouldn't be able to get through for about four hours. Jared turned around and we drove all the way back to my parents and went through Globe. A usual three hour trip took us six. Gratefully we all made it safely home even though it was really long!
Overall it was a fun trip and most of all we enjoyed the great weather. It has been hard to be back here in the heat where it's almost too hot to even go swimming! We are surviving it though and have found things to do to stay busy and have fun indoors!

First day of school

June 14th was Jared's first day of school. Here he is just before he left...


And because he looks so handsome I thought I'd include another one:)


Today is Jared's birthday so I also want to say Happy Birthday!!! I am so proud of him. He's worked so hard to get to this point. Getting in to PA school is such a huge step for him and our family. He is such a wonderful husband and father. I'm so blessed and I want him to know how much I appreciate him and all of his hard work.

Our last day in CA!

Wow! It has taken me forever to finish posting about our trip to California. Life has been kind of crazy for us the past month. We left for California on June 1st and ever since that day we have been going non-stop! Thankfully this is my last post about California and then I can post about some of the other things we've been up to:)

Aquarium of the Pacific

Friday was our last day in California and we decided to go to the aquarium. It was actually a lot of fun even though we were all so exhausted from our day in Disneyland. As soon as we walked in our boys ran and laid down right in front of one of the aquariums and just oohed and aahed. They loved it!




When you go outside they have some animals that you can touch with your fingers. Kyson that thought was very cool!

He just loved it!

Our boys were so animated about seeing the sharks. Kyson just kept saying over and over, "I see S-H-A-R-K!!! The way he pronounces it is the best.


All of the sudden we saw a porcupine running around and a worker had to come get it and put it back in it's cage. I thought the worker was going to get hurt as she tried to get it out of the gate but she made it:)

Kyson couldn't get enough of touching the animals...

And this is a typical picture of Caleb scared and unwilling to reach into the water to touch the animals and I swear Kyson would have gone swimming with them if we had let him!

One of the few pictures we got of Natalie and Dallas even though they were with us the whole time!

We were just exhausted by the end of the day! We had totally worn ourselves and our kids out having so much fun.

After the aquarium we ate dinner and then began the LONG drive home. It took forever! It was a great trip though and I'm so glad we got to go because who knows how long it will be before we can go again.

CA trip, day 3, DISNEYLAND!!!

Disneyland. What can I say? I'm mostly going to let the pictures do the talking here. It was such a great day. I think we really were some of the Happiest People on Earth that day:)

Seeing some of our Disney friends...
Woody!


Tiger


Eeyore!


Kyson just couldn't get enough. He loved how soft and fluffy he was and just wanted to keep hugging him:)


Riding the rides
There is a buzz lightyear ride where you shoot at targets and earn points. Our boys LOVED this ride. Kyson has been flying around our house saying, "Buzz lightyear to the rescue!" ever since we got back. Unfortunately we didn't get any pictures of this ride.







As we were getting ready to leave the fireworks began. We stopped and watched them for a while and I just stood there thinking about what an amazing day it had been. What a celebration!



Whoohoo...PA school here we come!


I also want to say a HUGE thank you to Natalie and Dallas and Steph and Matthew for joining us that day. It just wouldn't have been the same without you:)

Day 1 and 2 in California

Our trip to California turned out to be so much fun and very memorable. I think it was always be remembered as the trip when we found out Jared was getting into PA school and all the miracles that surrounded that. Our first day we didn't get there until about 1:00 so we just spent the afternoon at the beach. It was so funny to watch my kids. Caleb wanting NOTHING to do with the waves coming in so he wouldn't go near the water. If we tried to take him out to the water he would scream bloody murder. We tried getting him to just stand in the water but he would run like crazy for the beach. Oh well, at least Kyson seemed to enjoy it and they both loved playing in the sand.


Kyson enjoying the ocean

Poor Caleb just couldn't face his fear of the waves...

This was his preferred location:)

At least he enjoyed throwing the frisbee around!



That evening we had dinner at the Crab Shack. It was really good, but quite expensive. We all shared our meal so we got to try quite a few different things. It was a new experience for me because I had never eaten crab before. It's really good, but a lot of work to eat!!! That night we were able to stay in a motel right on the beach called the Bahia. It was fun being so close to the beach. The next morning rented bikes and a bike trailer for the boys and rode around all day. It was a lot of fun and I highly recommend doing it! It wasn't very expensive for a day of fun!

The bike shop didn't open until ten so we walked around our motel a little while and took a few pictures...



We stopped and had lunch at a park and then loaded up to ride some more!



We parked the bikes for a little while and played at the beach again.

Jared and Dallas dug really deep holes...

Our boys loved it!


Anytime anyone would build a sand castle Kyson would run and knock it over. I decided to build a bunch in a cicle and sat him right in the middle!

Oops...got a mouthful:)

And the best sand castle of the day award goes to......Jared!

By the end of the day we had all had so much fun we all needed this: