Spring Break In Arizona!

This year we were very excited to have the opportunity to spend our spring break in Mesa, Arizona. Some of Chis' extended family lives down there. It was a LONG drive, but the kids did well. We had such a wonderful time while we were down there. I didn't take many pictures. I am pretty awful about remembering to get the camera out. After spending a beautiful week in 70 degree sunshine, coming back to snow and wind in Idaho was pretty depressing! But we were happy for the much needed family vacation!Getting out of the car for a couple minutes.Stopping at the Glenn Canyon Museum in Page, Arizona. A trip to Arizona just isn't complete without this stop.At the Phoenix Zoo. Addison and Ethan decided to take over and map out our tour through the zoo. Playing at a splash park at the zoo. It was perfect relief from the heat of the day.

The whole trip was fabulous, and we had such a great time catching up with family members we don't get to see very often. Chris' grandparents were such a delight to stay with. The kids are anxiously awaiting our next trip back to Arizona!

First Day of School!!

Ryan and Jonathan started the 2nd grade this year! They, of course, have been SO excited all summer long for school to get back in. Ryan and Jonathan are excellent students. They LOVE to learn. The questions they ask and the concepts they comprehend generally blow me away! I love their curious minds.

The whole family had to help come see Ryan and Jonathan off. All the children were excited for Ryan and Jonathan's big day. Especially Sarah, who had to wait another week to officially start Kindergarten.

Sarah's BIG FIRST DAY OF KINDERGARTEN!!!! Sarah has basically been waiting for this day since the first day she saw Ryan and Jonathan walk through those same doors at the end of the kindergarten hall! Sarah had no problem going into her classroom. She quickly led the way right to her classroom, walked right in, and didn't hesitate to start unloading her school supplies from her book bag. She never even looked back. I was so happy that she finally got to have her dream of being in school finally come true! I will admit that I had a couple tears in my eyes, but they were just from seeing the pure joy and fulfillment she was exuding that morning. Sarah was a walking ball of confident sunshine all day! Sarah is very sharp. I know she will do very well in school.

Back In The ER With Ethan

Ethan has proven to be our most accident prone and daring child. Two characteristics that do not go very well together. Ethan generally has a bruise of some kind, a black eye, or a small wound on his head due to his clumsy and fun-loving adventurous personality. A lot of times, there are multiple bruises all in different stages of the healing process. Well, today was another shining day for Ethan! While trying to climb the stair rail outside our front porch, Ethan lost his grip and fell, landing on our front step. There was a pretty deep laceration right above his eyebrow.

Ethan is waiting patiently for the topical anesthesia to set in.

Five stitches later, and Ethan was ready to get right back to playing again! He really did a fantastic job through his treatment. The doctor opted to just use local and topical anesthetic. Ethan sat quietly the whole time and didn't move an inch. The nurse and the doctor were amazed that he was so cooperative -- Chris and I were pretty impressed too!

We love our little Ethan. He certainly keeps us on our toes! In just two and a half short years, we have already had quite an adventure with Ethan, and we are sure there will be many more!

Sawtooth Relay

Back in January, my sister Debbi asked if I would be on a relay team with her in June. The relay was a 60 mile relay with 6 runners each running about 10 miles each. I excitedly said yes.... and then about wet my pants when I realized what I was going to have to start training for! BUT BOY, AM I GLAD DEBBI ASKED!!!!!We ran the Sawtooth Relay, which took up and then back down the mountain pass that runs from Stanly to Ketchum (the Sun Valley area). It was a BEAUTIFUL run! We each would be running 2 legs for a total of 12 legs. Each runner would run one leg heading up the pass, and then another leg heading down the other side of the pass. Each runner would end up running about 10 miles. Here we all are at the starting line the night before the race.Our start time was at 4:30 in the morning. We had to check in at 3:45 in the morning. So, after a fun night at the hotel with about 2 hours of sleep the night before, we were ready to send our first runner, Jill, out at 4:30 in the morning. We were running on the road with traffic, so head lamps and reflective vests were required until the sun came up. Our team name was "6 Sweaty Chicks" (thanks to Debbi and her fun creativity), so Deb and I made some t-shirts for our team. We had a whole outfit goin on, which looked awesome! We had so much fun and looked GOOD!!Modeling the whole outfit.I was the third runner out. Here I am waiting for Debbi to come into the exchange site at about 6:30 in the morning.Making our exchange. Here we are about to the top of the summit almost 30 miles into the relay. We were all acting like we were totally awesome up here at the top, but really the person who was doing the bulk of the work and carrying our team's booty up the steepest 5.8 miles of the pass was Linda -- who was still making her way up to where we were. Linda did an amazing job, and I am completely inspired by her amazing climb up that pass!

Here we are getting ready to send Debbi out on her second time out. We had such a good time!

Debbi coming in from her second run and making the exchange for me to head back out again for my second time out.
Just finishing with my second run.

At the finish line with the whole team. I have never run a relay before, but after running this one, I would run any relay anyone asked me to run. There was such a fun environment that is different from just running a quick individual race. It was SO much fun, and we had such a fun group of women who all did an AWESOME job. We finished much earlier than we all expected, and laughed all along the way. This relay was definately worth the training, and now I plan on keeping up on all the training time I put in and keep on having more racing fun!

GNO While The Boys Are MIA!

This last weekend, all the boys were out camping in the Horton and Dance families, so Miriam and I took complete advantage of the GIRL opportunity! We got the girls dressed up to the hilt (you can't really see it because of the glasses, but the girls even had make-up on). It was a dream come true for all of them. They were all anxiously awaiting the time the boys would all be heading out so they could "Diva It Up"!Since the boys were all going to be out doing total "Boy Stuff", Miriam and I wanted to give the girls a complete "Girls Night" filled with stuff they don't really ever get to do otherwise. My sisters and I always love getting together at Red Lobster for appetizers where we talk and laugh to our hearts content. Miriam and I thought we would get the tradition started early with our girls. We all met at Red Lobster for some drinks and appetizers. The girls were the center of attention everywhere we went. They were playing the part PERFECTLY! They had such a great time!The girls even got a couple of whistles as we were walking into Red Lobster. It was cute to see their embarrassed reaction. Waiting for our table....

After some smoothies, appetizers, and some delicious chocolate cake, the girls had been partied out! I thoroughly LOVE my girls. So much fun! We all had so much fun, we are already making plans for the next time around!

Sarah's Birthday!!! #5!

Happy Birthday Sarah!!!
May 6 was Sarah's 5th birthday. She has been counting down the days until this birthday for about the last.... year! ;)
Sarah is THRILLED to be able to join the boys at school this fall! She asks everyday when she will finally be going to school. (Something tells me this is going to be a LONG summer...)

Sarah chose to head to Craigo's for our family dinner. (A great pizza buffet. She chose this same place last year too.) The kids LOVE Craigo's.Sarah is always so full of joy. She amazes us every day with her bight mind and her helpful attitude. We ABSOLUTELY love having her in our family!

Anything pink and princess is the center of Sarah's adoration. And she has wanted a scooter for months so she can keep up with the boys. A pink scooter with princesses all over it? Sarah was pleased as punch!

We love you Sarah!!!