Famiy Staycation

For spring break Chad took a few days off of work and we enjoyed a staycation. We let each of the kids pick anything they wanted to do in town. Sophie chose to go to the Desert Museum.

We had fun learning more about the desert and seeing some animals. The kids especially liked climbing through the cave.

When we told Easton he could pick anything he wanted he chose to look at big semi trucks. We called Freightliner and luckily the sales person Mike was super nice about our odd request and showed Easton the trucks.

He even let the kids including Chad climb in and Easton got to blow the horn.

Easton was in heaven and Mike told him to save his money and he would see him when he had his license haha. I mean the truck was only $140,000 no big deal.

Then we headed to Picacho Peak to go camping. They all wanted to go camping and Lydia wanted to go to the Ostrich Farm so we decided to do both. We spent two nights there with our trailer.

Chad took the 3 older kids and climbed up a smaller mountain next to our campsite. The first day they made it about halfway up. But the second day they made it to the top!

William and I hung out at the bottom and waved to them. He wasn't very happy to be left behind but he did like playing with all the rocks.

The kids loved finding little caves on the mountain and insisted Chad take a picture every time.

And here is their view from the top. You can see the orange spec of our tent in the distance.

When they all came back down from the top I had dinner ready and Easton was exhausted.  They all slept great that night!

There was a fun little park with some cool swings the kids loved to play at.

There was also a kids cave trail that we hiked a couple of times. The kids thought the cave was lame apparently they thought it was going to be more exciting.

But they were crazy excited to find a baby cave for William.

We went to the Ostrich Farm and fed all the animals. William loved and hated it at the same time. He would like it until the animal would touch him then he would whine and do it again.

We even did a monster truck tour. Which was so much fun. They taught us a lot about the ranch and the desert. They even taught them snake safety and had a dead rattlesnake for everyone to touch. Sophie and Easton would not dare touch it but Lydia happily did and William pretty much wanted to hold the thing. We are in trouble with that kid.

 

They took us Ostrich Fishing where we hooked oranges to the poles and fed them.

Feed the birds is always fun. William wanted to touch them so bad but was terrified if they touched him.

And their favorite part of all was petting the sting rays!

 

It took awhile to convince them all to leave they wanted to pet them all day.

We had so much fun on our vacation and can't wait to go camping again!

Family Fun

 We have enjoyed our new fire pit area several times now. It may be dangerous we have eaten far too many smores the last month. One night we cooked dinner over the fire.

William thoroughly his smores and was quite the happy mess.

I have started another coding job from home and William is quite the destroyer....um I mean helper.

We also took the kids shooting with their bows.

They have all gotten pretty good. Lydia is quite the natural at it and sticks the target a majority of the time. She is so fun to watch because she mimics Chad and I. She will stare at the target for awhile and then raise her bow and fire hitting the target. Sophie is getting better as well but my little perfectionist gets frustrated that Lydia hits the target more often then her. But her technique has improved. And Easton does well at loading and shooting the arrow even if it just goes a few feet.

Our ward had a rodeo a few days ago.

It was so fun to watch all the games and mutton busting. Lydia signed up to ride a sheep but got a little nervous after watching some kids go.

They were all excited to ride a horse!

 They all rode a mechanical bull too. Which they all thought was pretty cool. Easton had a brave face for the first while but then panicked when it was time to fall off. But he stayed on almost a whole minute. The girls went on a zip line and had a blast.

William loved to see all of the animals and they even had a little petting zoo. There was a baby calf and it was feeding time so William jumped right in to help.

It was such a fun night and all the kids want to go to a rodeo again!

January and February Catch Up

Life has been crazy around here purchasing and moving into a new home and fixing up and getting our old home ready to rent. So to catch up on the last two months....

Between moving and working on the house we have taken the kiddos hiking...

Played at the park several times...

 

The boys always love to go pick up the girls from school and play on the playground. William loves the bikes and goes down all the slides by himself.

We have also enjoyed going to the library almost every week with Aunt Sarah, Jackson, and Gavin.

We had a fun quadruple date with some friends and went rock climbing!

We had a lot of fun climbing and repelling. We only had one incident where my not so coordinated self got my braid tangled in the rope and almost had to have it cut off while dangling 30 feet in the air on the mountain. But it ended up our lead instructor didn't have his pocket knife in his pocket. But he repelled down and saved me by doing a fancy knot and having me stand in it while pulling my braid out. A little singed hair but I was free! And ever so grateful to get down. And yes I did go again. And my husband excitedly practiced "saving me" since he missed out on all the excitement.

Then Chad's parents were so kind and let us move in with them for a couple of weeks so we could get the house painted and ready to rent and get everything packed and ready to move into our new home! Why we thought we could get the house completely packed and painted while living in it with four kids is beyond me!

 It was sad to leave our first home that we brought all of our babies home to. But we were excited to move into a home that better fit our family and gave us some space to enjoy!

 

My parent's rented a trailer for our move which made it go much faster. And we are excited to be moved in and settled. We are in love with our yard and the kids love to hangout outside and ride bikes and scooters all day.

Chad and the kids also built a fun fire pit area with materials that were left by the previous owner!

The boys were serious helpers. Easton insisted he needed his tools to help Dad.

Sophie also had a couple of plays for school last month. First was the second grade musical.

It was a baseball musical and a cute little play. She did a great job singing all of the songs.

Sophie also wrote a story at the beginning of the year for school which was chosen by Empire High school to turn into a play! It is called the Page to Stage Program and the teacher picks a story from an elementary student for each of his students who then have to create a play. Then the class votes for their favorites to perform on stage. Sophie's story and 8 others were chosen.

 

We got to go see the play for free and they had the young authors stand to be recognized.  She was so funny because she couldn't remember what her story was about. In her words "I wrote it at like the beginning of the year. I don't remember!" So it was a surprise for all of us.

Her play was called Blue Sparkle which is a planet of unicorns, dolphins, and rainbows. Haha totally Sophie. A Rock flies by and sees everyone so happy and he is sad and wants to make everyone sad like him and so he freezes the planet. Eventually the Dolphin invites the rock to be their friend instead and be happy with them and the planet is saved.

The high school students did a good job and it was hilarious watching all the plays inspired by young minds.