Gunnell family reunion

The second weekend of July we had a very fun and entertaining weekend planned for us by Grandpa Gunnell. He invited all of his kids and grand kids to stay at the Arizona Grand Resort Thurs-Sunday. It was so much fun to have everyone there. I know we all had a wonderful time and feel blessed to be part of such a great family. I didn't take nearly as many pictures as I would have liked but we were swimming a lot and I didn't want to ruin my camera so I left it in the room. Here's a few of the pictures I did take.

The view




I didn't get many pictures of them together but Caleb loves his cousin Matthew. He was so excited to see him when we were driving to the resort he said, "Mommy my tummy feels funny I'm so excited!" So cute!


We had dinner at Rustler's Roost one night and it was so fun. Caleb sat at the table with all of the cousins and he loved that. In the restaurant they have a slide the kids loved going down.



Here's a few fun pictures of Jared and our boys and then me and our boys...





Grandma Gunnell passed away just over a year ago. We all went to her grave to enjoy a morning of reminiscing about Grandma and all she did for us. She is an incredible woman that is missed!


and last but not least, Grandpa Gunnell with all of his great grand kids. I think it's impossible to get a great picture of them all together but this was the best I got!


A huge Thank You goes to Grandpa Gunnell for all his hard work in making the weekend a lot of fun and a huge success. Thank you, thank you, thank you!!! We love you!

More 4th of July pictures

Here's the pictures from our 4th of July weekend. Our boys just had a great time. Here's a list of all the fun things we all enjoyed!

1. Tether ball



2. Can't remember the name of this game...but Caleb loved it!


3. Swinging


4. What could be more fun than a pinata?

The crazier the face...the harder you hit it:)



5. Lots of yummy food and treats (some from above pinata:)



6. Playing with Grandma and Grandpa Great!

I just couldn't get Kyson to stop making this cheesy face. Silly kid!


7. Jumping on the trampoline with cousins



8. Blowing bubbles


9. And a quick attempt at a family picture...

Kyson's letter

We just got this letter in the mail...

We are so excited for Kyson to make a wish! I was told we could expect wish granters to come to our house sometime in the next two months to help Kyson decide what his wish will be. I've talked to him a little bit about it and read him a book they sent to help him decide on a wish and he is very excited about it. He keeps asking me to read him that book again:) Some of Kyson's heart friends have been in the process of fulfilling wishes and they are doing things like Disneyland, Disneyworld, and a Disney Cruise. I'm not sure what Kyson will choose but I am sure no matter what it will be an amazing experience for him and all of us. Yay for Kyson!!!

Celebrating the 4th of July

We spent the weekend away from the crazy heat of the valley and it was wonderful! I have many pictures and memories to share but first I wanted to share the festive pictures I took for the 4th of July...

Caleb


Kyson


Anna


Claire


Happy 4th of July!!!

What a week!

This has been such a great week at our house! To start the week off, we found out Monday morning that Kyson no longer had to be on his crazy diet!!! A lot of people have said that I am probably more excited about that than Kyson...maybe it's true! You try feeding a three year old only 10 grams of fat a day! Not easy to do and Kyson is a great eater! I will say he got really excited to have Mac N Cheese again:)

Another great thing happened Monday...KYSON KEPT HIS UNDERWEAR DRY ALL DAY FOR THE FIRST TIME!!! I think I may be just as excited about that as his diet. He hasn't had one accident since Monday so I think it's safe to say he's officially potty trained! It has been tough getting Kyson potty trained and I'm grateful it's overwith. I had tried so many different things with him and you know what finally worked? Giving him a cold shower when he had an accident. Now I know most people with think that's harsh, but Kyson would just sit on the couch and pee and not even bat an eye. He would just sit in it and didn't care that he'd made a mess. Once I gave him a few cold showers to clean him up he didn't like having accidents anymore! That's always the way it is with Kyson though...the things that work for Caleb rarely work for him. His brain is definitely wired differently!

Anyway...back to our fun week:) It has been a great week to be done with Kysons diet because this week both Jared and I celebrate our birthdays! Today is Jared's birthday...
HAPPY BIRTHDAY JARED!!!

and tomorrow just happens to be my birthday:) You know what that means? A lot of free birthday meals!

Monday: Red Robin (it used to be that you got a coupon in your email and you would have a week before your birthday and a week after your birthday to use it. Now it's just the month of your birthday. Bummer since Jared is June and I am July!)

Tuesday: Rubios ($7 off your meal)

Wednesday: No free meals this day. Not because there weren't any options, just decided not to eat out again! Instead we made homemade pizza and put a lot of cheese on it for Kyson:) We also made homemade icecream.

Thursday lunch(today): Firehouse Subs (free sub for both Jared and I...supposed to be the day of your birthday but they graciously let me have mine today since we are leaving town tomorrow) Have you ever been to Firehouse Subs? It was yummy! Highly recommend it!

Thursday dinner: Not sure but maybe Joe's Farm Grill.

Friday: I'm thinking about running to Krispy Kreme doughnuts in the morning to get my free donuts before we leave. We'll see if we have time!

I still have a few freebies I might get next week. I got an email for a free burger from RubyTuesday and something from Jason's Deli.

I am really looking forward to leaving this crazy hot place tomorrow. We are going up and spending time with my family. We usually go camping but the forest is closed where we usually go so we will just hang out. It'll be nice anyway and I'm sure my boys will love the freedom to play outside. I know I will enjoy it!

Canyon Lake Trip

The first two weeks of May Jared had a break from school. We kept ourselves so busy doing a lot of fun things the entire two weeks! We went to my brother's graduation, to Havasupai, to a few HopeKids events (Kung Fu Panda 2 movie, Jumpstreet, and the youth broadway musical Annie), had friends over for swimming and dinner, and went to Canyon lake with my family. Oh, and we even snuck in a date (dinner and games with friends) together and a trip to the temple one morning! Whew! We were busy.

Here's a few pictures of Jason's graduation. Way to go Mr. Salutatorian!!!


Our trip to the lake was super fun. We all split the cost of renting 2 jet skies for the day. Jared also spent most the day fishing. We were getting a good laugh about how much fun he was having. He mostly just caught little fish but he was ecstatic for every single one of them! Every few minutes I'd hear, "Andrea, grab your camera! which meant he wanted a picture of another fish:)

Here's the big catfish he caught...

Our boys were really excited when Jared would catch a fish. Caleb only wanted to be excited from a distance. We finally got him to touch a fish when we put it in a frisbee and it stopped squirming.

Ha, and then we asked Kyson if he wanted to see the fish. He comes running out and just reaches down and grabs it.




For lunch we had a very yummy watermelon. As you can see Caleb enjoyed it very much!


Of course we all had a great time riding the jet skies!



After two weeks of fun filled times together as a family Jared is now back in school. I am grateful to finally be settling into more a routine. Our lives have been so hectic since the beginning of April and I'm grateful for relaxing days at home with my two boys, spending time together. We go swimming a lot, but they both love it so I don't mind! We have a few fun family events coming up on the 4th of July weekend and the next weekend that we are all looking forward to.

Havasupai

Back in about February Jared called me one day and said some of his friends from school were planning a trip to Havasupai and wondered if I wanted to go. Uh...yeah!!! He called that day and made reservations for us. At that time it was going to be about three months after Kyson's surgery and we thought that would work out great. Well, Kyson's surgery got postponed twice and instead of our original date of March 7th it ended up being April 7th. Then instead of the planned 7-10 day stay at the hospital it turned into 5 1/2 weeks. Kyson got out of the hospital May 11th with a chest tube so I just didn't think it was safe for me to go. Gratefully the chest tube didn't last long and he was doing great. I still wouldn't have gone but my sister Natalie and her husband Dallas were willing to watch our boys for us. Natalie is a PA (what Jared is in school for:) and I knew I could trust her with all of Kyson's high maintenance needs! Between needing meds four times a day, a crazy low fat diet, and ending up with an ear infection he was A LOT of work to watch. Thank you so very much Natalie and Dallas! I must say that I don't think anyone has a better support system than Jared and I have. We have had SO MANY people praying for us, serving us, bringing us dinners, watching our boys...it's humbling. We are truly blessed.

Anyway, back to Havasupai. It was incredible! We left around midnight Sunday to be at the trail head by 4:30 AM. Here we are ready to begin!

Our group


It's a good 12 mile hike especially carrying close to 40 pounds on your back! By the time you get to the campground all you want to do is find the closest campsite and shed that backpack! That's exactly what we did and went and put our sore feet in the water! After soaking our feet for a bit we found a good place to camp and moved all of our stuff...or in my case let my amazing husband haul both of our backpacks to the new spot:)

Once we rested for a bit we went and set up camp. Jared and I decided it wasn't worth the weight to bring a tent so we slept under the stars. I was a little worried about all of the lizards that were EVERYWHERE but gratefully we didn't have any crawl in bed with us!


Here's some pictures of the falls.
This is the first one you come to. I'm not sure if they call it Navajo Falls or not. The old Navajo falls completely washed out in a recent flood and further upstream this waterfall was created.

A little farther down is Havasu Falls. This picture just doesn't do justice to how truly beautiful it is.

About another mile down is Mooney Falls. It's HUGE!


The second day we were there we decided to hike down to Beaver Falls. We didn't quite make it there but along the way I took so many pictures because it is the most beautiful place I have ever been.









Our group minus me...we had to carry our shoes because we kept getting in and out of the water.






The next day we woke up at 4am to pack up and hike out. We wanted to get to the switchbacks before it was too hot. I didn't take very many pictures on the hike down but I took a lot on the way out since I sent my backpack on a horse:)

This is the beginning of the hike out. Just beautiful!

Once you get to this sign you have hiked about four miles and have another eight to go:)


There are two things that are just amazing about the scenery at Havasupai...the color of the water, it's so blue it's hard to believe, and the color of the rock. It is a very neat redish color.


We hiked out super fast. I think we may have hiked out faster than we hiked in. We were on a mission and took very few breaks. When we did stop we didn't rest for more than a couple minutes. The longest break we took was right before the switchbacks.


We didn't even stay there long because we wanted to get the last and hardest part of the hike over with! As we were making our way up the switchbacks along came this hero of mine:)

See that backpack with the blue sleeping bag on it? Yep that's mine stuffed with all of mine and Jared's heavy stuff! Thank you horse!

Gotta love the switchbacks...


And here we are at the top (yes I say we because I was there, just taking the picture and not in the picture:) Havasupai complete!