Wheels Off......

Yes it's official. Our little girl has gone training wheel free. Saturday evening she was riding her bike with her training wheels on and they were so bent and wobbly that she was completely frustrated with them. Maybe that was a good thing after all. She was complaining to me about the training wheels so I casually said...well maybe we should just take them off. That was all she needed to hear. She said yeah...let's take them off. So Sunday afternoon without my knowledge, Kayla convinced Nathan to take the training wheels off. I was in the house and the next thing I knew Nathan was handing me the training wheels. So outside we went to begin the process.

Nathan was such a great big brother. He really helped Kayla with learning how to ride her bike. After about 4 or 5 attempts on my part to be "helpful", Kayla made it known that she prefered Nathan to help her. So the two of them spent about 40 minutes practicing and practicing. I couldn't believe how fast Kayla got the hang of it. I'm so proud of them both. Nathan is such a sweet kid. He gave her so much encouragement and cheered for her every time she did well. It was a really neat opportunity to see them two of them work so great together. She still prefers Nathan to help her get started. She says that I don't do it right. I can handle that.

San Diego Maritime Museum

We took another day and went to the San Diego Maritime Museum. We actually an advertisement on the TV on day talking about the US Dolphin Submarine. I've always wanted to see a sub, so we thought this was our chance. It was really neat. A lot, lot smaller than I expected. Of course the US Dolphin was a research sub, so maybe that has something to do with it.




This sub is the Russian Foxtrot B-39. It was a lot longer and quite a bit bigger than the Dolphin.


This is Robert inside the US Dolphin. This really is what it looks like. There is nothing on either side of the picture that you're missing, well except the hull. It's only wide enough for one person to walk at a time.

The boys at the periscope inside the Dolphin. I'm not sure what I expected, but it was nice to actually see for ourselves what it's like. It was really interesting. Even the kids thought so.

Kayla's driving this sub....we're all in a lot of trouble. Can you imagine? There was only room enough for one person to squeen themselves into this hole where they steer the sub. Talk about being claustraphobic. Not for me. No thanks....I like land.

Then of course there were lots and lots of other ships to tour. There was the Star on India, Berkeley, Medea, Californian, HMS Surprise, Pilot and the then 2 subs.

Of course we went to Sea World :)

Just when we thought we had all had enough of walking and walking then we headed off to Sea World. We hadn't been there since Kayla was just about 3. She didn't remember it at all, so this trip was really for her. The crowds at Sea World were so much better. We all enjoyed the shows and had a great time. It was a lot of fun trying to get SHAMU to take a picture with the kids. I don't even know how many times we snapped the camera trying to get it just right.

Kyle and Nathan are in the front with Robert and Kayla in the next seat. You can just barely make out Kayla's head in the pink rain poncho.

I don't know if you can see Kyle's face, but it's priceless. Kayla is by far our Roller Coast QUEEN. She loves them all.

Taking advantage of every moment

Yes....we took advantage of every possible moment of Fall Break. The kids got out of school at 12:30 on Friday and we were out of here by 1:30 on our way to Disneyland. We decided to start this time at Disneyland and work our way down to San Diego. We arrived at Disneyland on Friday evening and got a good night sleep so we could hit Disneyland first thing Saturday morning. It was a bit crowded though...we weren't thinking of it being the weekend and then a holiday weekend on top of it. Oh well....we just joined in with everyone else. It really helped that we had been there 2 years ago and learned how the "fast pass" system worked. So this time we were really on top of things. In fact the 2nd day we hit the jackpot. For some reason when we went through the gates at California Adventure the computer system didn't scan our tickets correctly. We didn't know that though until we went to get out first set of fast passes. The dispenser gave us voided tickets and said that our park tickets hadn't been scanned into the system. So we went up to customer service and explained the problem. They were puzzeled why the tickets hadn't scanned, but gave us an all day fast pass card for each of us. So that was 5 all day fast passes. At lunch we left the park and went to get something to eat. When we returned to the park we scanned our park tickets again. Then when we went to get fast passes, we could actually get 10 at a time. JACKPOT. That made it so much fun for the older boys and Robert to ride California Screamin' over and over and over and over again. They rode that thing like 10 times between the 2 days we spent in California Adventure. So Kayla and I spent a lot of time on the Merry go round. That's all I can handle, I'm a wimp. Oh well....



















On Monday we left Disneyland around 3:00 in the afternoon and went to get something to eat and then we headed to Oceanside where our condo was. About 1/2 way to Oceanside I turned around to check on the kidos and this is what I found. Robert and I laughed and laughed. The boys were zonked out and Kayla was just bright eyed watching Little Mermaid. She didn't sleep at all. I guess we can see who is the strongest in our family.

I couldn't resist. I had to take pictures of them.

Anyone got a name?

This cute little kitty mysteriously showed up on our back patio doorstep Wednesday morning. It was a really nice morning so we decided to open the patio door and go outside for a little bit just before school. We had Grandma & Grandpa Branch visiting us and they called me from inside to show me this little cat that was in our yard. It's a sweet cat and very calm. It's apparently been somebody's pet because it's very comfortable around people and likes to be petted.



So we didn't think much of it. We all came back inside and got ready for school and when the day wore on, the cat was gone. Okay, no problem, just a little visit from a cute cat.



Well then Thursday morning the same thing happened. Kind of weird I thought, just about the same time Wednesday morning that this cat showed up, it showed up again on Thursday morning. I thought....okay, cute, what a coincidence? Right? Yeah so I thought.

The cat is very thin and we all felt really bad for the cat. I really thought though that the cat would just disappear and we'd never see it again. But to my surprise it just kept showing up every morning like clockwork. Right around 7:30 a.m. Okay, so we tried to call Animal Control to see if we could get someone to come get it, but of course it's closed until Tuesday for some reason. Do I consider this a sign...I mean really....closed until Tuesday....what happened to Monday?

Oh well....so off to Walmart we went to get the cheapest cat food possible. We fed it yesterday....I know...I know....if you want the cat to stick around, just feed it. Well it was starving. It ate like it hadn't been feed in a month. Poor thing. Anyway so we fed it and sure enough it hung around all day yesterday. Now the kids are getting attached to it and Robert and I aren't sure what we're going to do. It really is starting to grow on all of us. It's just so sweet and mellow. I mean we've lived here 16 years and never, ever had something like this happen before. I think the kids are possibly heading for a pet. What do you think? I'm just not sure we want to take on the possiblity of this being a girl cat and having to have it fixed to keep from having more kitties. I'm fine with it just being a stray and it and come and go when it pleases and when it disappers again we'll just deal with the loss, but the vet bills.....I'm just not sure we want that. Any suggestions?

Take me out to the BALLGAME

Several weeks ago our good friends the Quiorz's invited us to go to a Diamondback Game at Chase Field. We've never actually gone to a game before so we thought it would be a lot of fun to go with friends. The Quiroz's have a son who is just one year younger than Kyle and then a girl who is the same age as Nathan. They are in our ward as well. Anyway, we knew the kids would have so much fun at the game just hanging out. Well, the night before the game Stephanie Quiroz called me and told me that her husband wasn't sure he was going to make it back in town from a business trip in time to go to the game. Then her oldest son (Nick who is 19) found out that he had a last minute baseball game for college that he had to play for. So Stephanie had 3 extra tickets for the game. So she decided to invited our other good friends the Curtis family to go. So Phillip took his two boys and went to the game with us. We were quite a group.

It was so much fun for everyone. No foul balls were caught, but a lot of great memories were made with really good friends. The boys went to the batting cage and had lots of fun practice hitting. At the end of the ballgame there was also a fireworks show that was really neat. The kids just loved it. All in all everyone had a wonderful time. We've got to go back and do it again real soon.

THE GANG: Phillip C. , Dallin C, Nathan, Kayla, Sis. Q., Sarah Q., Robert, Jill, Ryland C., Kyle and Christian Q.

Kyle & Christian Quiroz

Nathan & Ryland Curtis

It has only taken me a couple of hours to finally figure out how to put this here on the blog. I think I should get a gold star for that one.

I saw this on the Larimore's blog and I knew it was for me. I really needed to hear it. It seems like lately there's a lot of things that are keeping my attention away from where it should be. Thanks Christi for posting this.

My new Moto: "Never let a problem to be solved become more important than a person to be loved".





I need to blow these up all over the house just because they make me smile.

This is only a test

NO we did not get a dog. We did however have a dog for a night last week. Our good friends the Quiroz's had a problem at their house and called last sunday evening and needed "Honey" the dog out of the house immediately. They didn't expect her to be at our house so long, but by the time the crisis was over it was 10:00 p.m. The kids wanted to be able to say goodbye to Honey but since they were in bed like good little children, I asked Stephanie if Honey could please have a sleepover. She gratefully agreed and the kids were pleasently surprised the next morning when Honey and her kennel were still here.

What a great dog. She never barked not once. Even when we took her outside and the neighbors dog was barking. She perked up her ears, but not a peep. I think now we'll be on the dog sitting list for them whenever they go out of town.

Honey is usually quite a bit puffier. She is a Bichon Frise and is usually very cute....kind of like this...



But as you can see in the first picture, she didn't have that much hair. She had just recently been to the dog groomer and ended up being clipped a little too SHORT! She looks better in the picture than in person. She actually looked naked in person. Poor thing. Oh well, the kids loved her and had a lot of fun with her.

1 Day down....179 more to go

Yes, that special time of the year is here again. The first day of school. And yes, again, I managed to let Kyle head off to school without his first day picture. I'll get him eventually...ha ha ha. It just seems that trying to get Kyle out the door is such a rush...especially this year because we're carpooling with a friend. So only 1 trip to the Junior High School seems pretty nice.

It's always so good to get the 1st day butterflies behind them also. There were a few tears the 1st day for Kayla and Nathan. Today went much, much better. It's just getting past the 1st day with a new teacher and see who's going to be in your class. They both have great teachers this year and we're excited to see what this year brings for them. Kyle really likes his Social Studies teacher and his Math teacher (so far, there hasn't been any homework yet). Kyle loves being an 8th grader as well. Being the top dog at the school is fun. Wait until next year when he once again returns to the bottom of the food chain as a freshman in high school. I can't be that old yet, right?

Sweet Reunion

What a great day yesterday was for Kyle and his best friend Brent. This first picture is of the two of them at the end of 6th grade. They met in Kindergarten and instantly became great friends. They managed to be in the same class each year until their 5th & 6th grade years. Then at the end of 6th grade, Brent's family went through a divorce and over the summer of that year we thought that Brent had moved to Iowa.

Then last week, Kyle asked me if I could call Brent's older sister to see if he could have Brent's phone number. So I called and she returned my call and told us that Brent had not moved to Iowa, but in fact was living only about 15 to 20 minutes from us.

HAPPY DAY ! ! ! HAPPY DAY !!!!

So the two of them set off to texting each other for a straight two days at least. All I heard was beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep....you get the point. Just one text message after another comming into Kyle's phone. They were so excited to reconnect with each other. It was such a great feeling to see these two best friends just pick right up where things had left off.

Scouts....need I say more.....

Well kyle has had a busy summer with scouts. Right after school got out for the summer he went to Boys Camp up near Flagstaff. They had a wonderful time and got to do lots of fun things and yes....even finish up a merit badge or two or three !!! YIPEEE. That was a five day camp. Then last weekend the boys headed off again to Blue Ridge Reservoir. It looks like a beautiful place. Let's face it though....anywhere right now that's under 90 degrees is beautiful. Although I think you can see in the pictures that it is a pretty place.

The boys were working on their canoeing merit badge. Kyle already had his, so he was able to help demonstrate many things. I think the boys stayed in the water for the best part of the 2 days they were there.

I forgot to mention that when the boys got to Blue Ridge Reservoir they then had to take their camping stuff by canoe a couple of miles up the river to where they were going to camp for 2 days. So we had to try to make things they were taking as waterproof as possible. I just knew that there were going to be wet sleeping bags and food and clothes, but to my happy suprise none of the boys tipped their canoes over. Not a single one. They had 8 canoes with two people in each canoe. That's really good.

I really do appreciate these leaders who take these crazy boys out to do these things with them. I'm grateful that I don't have to go as a mother and witness the things they do. Some things are just better not seen.









Notice all the boys hovering around like there's going to be something good to eat?



Yes those really are crawdads. YUCK !!!! Another reason I'm glad I don't have to go on these adventures. Kyle thought they were wonderful though. He thought they tasted just like Lobster (that's funny.....he's never had lobster.)




Although as good as those Crawdads were, Kyle was especially grateful that Bro. C stopped in Payson on the way home and fed them all breakfast at Denny's. You would have thought that was the first meal kyle had eaten in 2 years, not just 2 days. He just kept telling us about Denny's and how good the breakfast was.....two huge pancakes, bacon, sausage and a huge plate of hash browns. We actaully heard more about Denny's than the campout at first.