Hike in Kachina

We found a new trail near our house that's pretty nice. There's trails all over, we've just had a difficult time finding them. Sara and Aubri were having fun finding lots of agates on the trail. They're now trying to figure out how to clean and polish them. The boys and I just had fun finding things to throw in water and hills and mountains to climb.

They also put in a nice, big, new park about a mile from our house. Both of these things make it a little easier to live out of town with younger kids. The park is encouraging because it helps us to realize we're not the only family with young kids in our area. It's nice to discover little pieces the hidden beauty of our new location.

Fall 2010 Update

Micah usually ends up in our bed in the middle of the nights sandwiched in between Zac and me. Lately, Aubri has been making her way into our room around 3:00 as well. So, we set up a cot at the end of the bed. Here is a picture of her and Micah snuggling together the morning all smiles.

Gymnastics pictures of the kids. A perk of working at the preschool is that they get free gymnastics classes which would add up to 150 to 200 dollars a month if I wasn’t teaching there. The kids beg to be in class more.

Some kids at my preschool. We had pet day so Lizzy got to come to school with us which was a real treat for everyone, including older gymnastic students who aren’t in my class. They asked if I could bring her every Friday. As you can imagine, Lizzy received lots of walks and attention.

Gavin has really been into drawing lately. He went through a coloring phase when he was younger and now has entered the drawing phase. He will come home from school with ten pages of drawings. He does this at home along with building lego creations.

Aubriella has become such an eager learner. I ordered these K books before school started and I think she did thirteen pages in one sitting! Whoa! Here is she is doing some of her work. She is always very busy, creative, and focused. Very much like her daddy in that way. I love it.

Garage Sale! There was a sale in our neighborhood that Aubri and I went to. They didn’t seem to have anything for kids. The girl said I could fill up two bags of clothes for $5.00! It was great. Lots of cute brand-name clothes in almost new condition. Aubri was so sweet and helped me fill up my bags as we both picked through the clothes. At the end of the sale, the girl selling the stuff said Aubri could have this cute antique looking tea set for free because she was “just so cute.” Bonus! I need to start taking her to all sales with me. This picture is us enjoying a tea party on our deck with her new tea set. Gavin ended up joining in being the servant and bringing us more tea. The little sugar dish seem to have a “poopie” smell to it. Yuck! We used everything but that. Who wants stinky sugar at a fancy tea party?

Back to the Midwest

First of all, I apologize to those that check our blog regularly. There's plenty for us to blog about, but it seems like there's little time to actually do it. I think we're beginning to get used to our new schedule, but it's a busier way of life than we've been used to. Part of it has to do with the older two kids in school with no bus system. They have to be dropped off every morning at 8:30, then Aubri gets picked up at 12:30 and Gavin at 3:30. Then add Sara's M-W-F work schedule to the mix and it gets a little more complicated. The kids have gymnastics Monday nights and Gavin has soccer Tuesdays and Thursdays. We could really benefit from living closer to town with all the running around, but we currently live 7 miles out of town. Next year Aubri will do full days at school and hopefully we can find an affordable place to live in town to make the craziness a little more sane.

All that to say that things are all going well, just busy. The kids still love school, and we still like their school too. The kids are excelling in their sports and loving every minute of it! Sara's enjoying her job, and I'm enjoying mine as well. It's starting to get chillier around here and you can tell winter is around the corner. You'd think we'd be able to avoid snow being this far south, but it sounds like we get dumped on pretty good here. It'll be somewhat similar to Colorado, where it snows pretty hard, then it melts and is beautiful for a few weeks before it snows again.

Tomorrow, after church, Gavin and I are flying to Sioux Falls, SD to go to my Grandpa Sid's funeral this Tuesday. We'll be staying with my brother, James, and his family while we're there. Grandpa passed away this week after battling cancer. We got to see him and Grandma Dorothy this past spring as they drove through Colorado on their way back to South Dakota from Arizona. He was starting to notice something wrong then, although they didn't know it was cancer yet. It's sort of strange timing, since Grandma and Grandpa always spent their winters in Arizona, and now that Grandpa is gone I'm guessing Grandma won't make the trip down here alone. They usually stay in Mesa, which is blazing hot right about now. I think we'll visit the more southern areas of Arizona once it starts turning into winter around here. It would have been fun to visit them in the Arizona winters.