Epic Idaho Adventure- Final Take

I know I've been blogging about our trip for way too long and I just need to wrap it up. Especially since school started this week. Holy Hannah, where does the time go? I have no idea where the summer went, but it was here and now it is gone.

Before we left for Idaho we made a list of the things we wanted to do while we were in Rexburg. The only thing that Gracie wanted to do was go to Porter's. My little crafter has been missing this store and she was over the moon to get to go back. So Michelle, Gracie, Colby, Leelee and I went to Porter's on Thursday while the boys went shooting with Grandpa Archibald. It must be noted that Colby was completely distraught at this decision. He begged and cried and begged and cried to be able to go and shoot some guns, but we just decided he was a little too young to go.

Gracie at her happy place.

That night we had dinner with Uncle Eric and Aunt Lynne's family (she's the one who set me and Kris up on the blind date that started it all...) She likes to check in with us and revel in her success. :)

The next day we went to IHOP and the Tautphaus Park Zoo with Grandpa and Grandma Grover. That zoo is just about perfect, just the right size and nice and shady.

Matthew and Gracie and the lion.

Colby loved the lion fountain.

Is this picture not the cutest thing ever? I love it.

Someday all of my children will look good in the same photo. Maybe.

 Owen and the tiger.

We don't get to see these bad boys at the Phoenix Zoo.

Colby feels right at home with the monkeys.

The kids each got to pet this turtle, the lady explained that turtles can feel touch down the middle of their shell where it is attached.

One big happy family.

We were glad to get to spend some time with Grandpa and Grandma Grover!

That afternoon Matthew got to go hang out with his best friend and the rest of us went to Smith Park (on the list) and then the Flood Museum (also on our list).

We love that little museum with all it's antiques, scavenger hunts for the kids, the old grainy flood movie, and the children's room. What more could you want in a museum, really?

I was looking at these old dresses thinking, "I would totally wear those."

In the tree house of the children's room.

That night the kids got to sleep over at Michelle's, they had been wanting to since we got to Rexburg and it just didn't work out until the last night. They had a blast!

We went to the splash park with Michelle and Mia (and Dan for a little bit) on Saturday.

And rode the merry-go-round one last time...

Oh Mia! We miss you. For some reason Colby and Mia just get along really well. She tempers him in just the right way. He honestly does not get along with anyone else better. It was so hard to say goodbye to these two. We just wish we didn't have to leave them behind.

 We went to visit Grandma and Grandpa Walz before we packed up the car. They've been living in an assisted living home and we know their time may be short. We had visited them several times during our stay but knowing this was our last visit was pretty emotional. We miss her and Grandpa when they aren't down here in Arizona. We love them so.

As you can see once again, some good faces in one picture, some in the other. And grumpy Owen in both. Sigh.

Whew! This post turned out to be gigantic but I didn't want to drag it out any longer. Our trip to Idaho was a great success! We were so stinkin' exhausted with everything going on and all the people we were visiting. We didn't even see any of our old friends and some of our family (sorry Owens'!) We miss everyone and everything about Idaho (ok, so maybe not those looooong winters)! The kids talk about it all the time and it will always hold a special place in our hearts. So many wonderful memories.

Luckily, we can always come back for more visits!



Walking Warriors

A couple of weeks ago when it was Dr. Seuss' birthday, which is like the biggest "school" holiday of the year, my children's school held a book parade. I was trying to ignore it, but of course my kids think they need to participate in every single school activity/event that comes around. I hmmed and hawed when they would bring it up and you know Gracie, the blatant hint dropper, would say things like, "Gee, I sure wish we had a wagon..." Because that was one of the suggestions for what to make your float on. The only help I gave them was recommending they use the stroller as the base for their float (it was all we had to work with) and they just ran with it. I think they chose the Warriors (a book about cats living in the wild) because they knew they could pretty easily throw something together.  They gathered up all their stuffed cats, tied them to the stroller, cut out and taped some grass, made some posters and some cat ears and viola! they had themselves a float. They were all so excited to get to participate and I was so proud of them for working together and having such a great time with each other. And all I had to do was buy the posterboard and the headbands! 

A little side note- There was this great float for the book "Matched". See the girl in the green dress under the umbrella in the background of this photo? I didn't even notice it until they were almost done with the parade and when I saw it I thought it was awesome, she had her arms up and in the pose the whole time (search the book online if you have no idea what I'm talking about). Then we got to the end and they started taking apart their float before I could get a picture and I was a little bummed, but when I went through the pictures later there it was in the background.

The 12 Days of Christmas- Day 3

On the 3rd day of Christmasy blog posts I give you "The Nutcracker"

For many years my sister Aliece has been involved with Ballet Etudes Nutcracker and it was always tradition to go and see it or be involved with it one way or another. After we moved to Idaho that sort of fell by the wayside. Now that we are back in Arizona and now that Aliece has passed the performing torch to her daughter, Audrey, we decided we better go and see it again.  So Kindra (my sister-in-law) and I decided we should take our girls and have a little girls night fun. The performance was lovely as always and aside from sitting in the squeakiest chair known to man and having to pay full price for my 4 month old baby we had a wonderful time. Darn it all if I didn't get a picture of all of the girls together! After the show we had fun getting frozen yogurt with Audrey and Aliece. This may have to be a new tradition!

New Beginnings (again)

This year the first day of school was perhaps even harder than last year. New schools (again) for everyone.  More nervousness, trepidation, and excitement. All from me.

Ha! Not all from me, but most of it.

Matthew started Jr. high at a school where he hardly knows a soul. I can't believe I have a 7th grader! He seems even more grown up now than during the summer.

Gracie's a 5th grader. It was a rough first few weeks, being the only new girl in her grade. Tears were shed, discussions were held about going back to the old school but she stuck it out. She's settling in nicely now. Just got elected class representative for student council. Settling in quite nicely it would seem.

Owen's a big ol' second grader now. Owen's a cool cat, makes lots of friends wherever he goes and charms the pants off his teachers. No worries here.

My little Rexy started kindergarten this year, my first full day-er to date. It was hard on me but he was so excited and he loves school. It helps that he has two siblings at the school with him.  It's so fun to see the excitement of learning through his eyes.

Poor little Colby, once he saw all the big kids go off to school he suddenly decided he wanted to go too. He didn't want to leave after we took them all to their classes. Poor kid, nobody tell him he's got three years to go...

As I said, he was pretty sad he doesn't get to go...

This was the only picture I took of Leelee on the first day of school. At this point in her life she was still sleeping most of the time. :)

Double Digits!!!

My little girl isn't so little anymore, well she hasn't been for quite some time but at least her age is starting to catch up to her. She'll probably still get mistaken for a teenager but at least now that she's in the double digits it will hopefully not seem so shocking, at least for me. 

Dad got her a special pink coconut covered donut. She loves coconut.

This year for her birthday Gracie said she wanted a shopping spree. So all she got for her birthday was money and she and I (and the baby, of course) spent the day shopping. We stopped by Dad's work and then went to Ikea, the mall and Target. She cracked me up with how frugal she was. Ikea was pretty much a waste of time because she didn't want to buy anything there without seeing what all her options at the mall were. She spent a ridiculously large amount of time at the rock store as she carefully chose a few select rocks. She bought a geode which was cool because she came home and got to break it open to see what was inside. 

 After about four hours of shopping she had spent a whopping $11, she eventually spent more over the next week or so.

A few facts about Gracie:

She wears a size 11 shoe in womens. Yes, you read that right- size 11. Bigger than me, we barely got to enjoy the sharing shoe phase and she's 10 for crying out loud. Oh please do not let this girl be taller than six feet, but her big feet have me concerned.  I should note that it does not seem to bother her one bit at all and unfortunately she has been blessed with no coordination.

I have never had to deal with friend drama with her at all. She is a good friend and she gets along well with others and doesn't seem to ever get caught up in any nonsense.

She hates (HATES, I tell you!) to do chores. You see, she is a child who likes to have fun. She likes to craft and write and play and daydream and do fun things! And chores are so not fun! Oh, and she also always leaves her dirty clothes in the bathroom. But, I might add, she has been keeping her room in super neat condition (mostly) since we moved into our house, nothing like this.

She's an awesome big sister. Since she likes to have fun she is always coming up with new games to play with her little brothers. She was my savior this summer while I was suffering through my pregnancy. She kept those boys entertained for hours each day playing school and doing other fun activities.

She's super smart. She scored 100 on the state standardized test in the language/reading section and only missed 3 points overall. (But I'm not bragging or anything :)

She practices her instruments faithfully, without ever being asked to do it. Last year it was the violin, this year it's the clarinet (sorry Em!) since she wanted to join the band.

She gets hot very easily, hence the flushed cheek look she sports in so many pictures. The only one of my kids to suffer from this. Weird.

Happy 10th Gracie, my dear, you are a supremely wonderful, fantastically amazing daughter! We're so lucky you're ours!

Last Day of School

The kids had their last day of school on May 26th. Which I was so grateful for because by this point I was just flat out exhausted from all the end of the school year festivities (it didn't help being 7 1/2 months pregnant). 

Here's a pic of them on the first day of school.

And here they are on the last day (just to see how much they've changed). Funny, Matthew's wearing the same shirt. I think Colby's changed the most!

Matthew graduated from elementary school.  Which to him was kind of weird since he took a step backward when we moved here, he'd already been to middle school last year and had to go back to elementary school.  Poor Matthew.  But, onward and upward to junior high.  Eeek! Do I really have a 7th grader?!?

Way to go Matthew! It was a difficult year as far as moving and adjustment and change but he survived and his grades were awesome! 

He had an excellent teacher, Mr. Monette.  He did a lot to help him survive the year.  He is a teacher who goes the extra mile and really cares about his students.  I'm so glad Matthew had him for a teacher this year.

Rex and Colby had a blast at the end of the year splash party for preschool.  They played, played and played some more in the water with all their school buddies and cousins.

What a crazy year!  It was just a relief knowing that we had all survived.  I'm so proud of the kids for being so strong and doing so well in school in spite of all the changes and upheaval in their lives.

More End of the Year Stuff

For moms the end of the school year is crazy and the more kids you have the worse it gets.  Projects, concerts, reports, field trips, school activites, awards ceremonies, graduations and a larger influx of crap coming home from school. Seriously, I just wish the teachers would throw half of that stuff away rather than leaving it for me to deal with.  Do I really want the last 10 pages of whatever workbook? No, I do not, but they send it home and I suffer guilt about throwing it away rather than having my child finish it up or play school with it or whatever.  I just wish I didn't even have to see it.  Anyway, on we go...

Matthew's castle project

 Gracie's peregrine falcon report.  They had to do written and oral parts.  I think she knows everything a person could ever want to know about that bird.

 Owen received the Falcon Citizenship Award.  They selected two people from each class who exhibited excellent qualities.  We were so proud of him for earning this.  He was surprised to see me and the boys in the gym at the assembly because he had no idea so it was pretty fun to see his face.

 I think these two felt a little neglected the last few weeks of school and they wanted me to take their pic in the Walmart arcade.