Summer's last hurrah

We are officially into the last week of our summer vacation. I go back to work for a staff meeting/training on Monday, and the kids start school on Thursday. Where did this summer go? I started out feeling like I had a lot to do, but could certainly get it all done in the 2 months we had off... HA! Now I'm wondering what happened to all the "time" that I had. I'm probably trying to get too much done before school starts, but being new at this school nurse thing, I'm afraid if I don't get a head start I'll fall behind - especially since I've got close to 200 hearing and vision screenings to do in the first month!


We've spent the last few weeks playing at the pool, going to movies (one of the theaters here in town offered a free movie each week), and just hanging out with each other. As these last few weeks have passed, I'm all of a sudden aware that I'm having a hard time with Grace starting Kindergarten. I was so thrilled when we had her tested and found out that she could start K this year - since her birthday is in October, she technically shouldn't be starting school until next year because the cutoff for turning 5 is August 31 - and I'm still thrilled, don't get me wrong, but that really means that my baby is growing up! All I can think is how quickly these first (almost) 5 years have gone, and now that she's in school we'll be busier, time will go faster, and the next thing I know she'll be off to college! Maybe now I know why the Duggar family has 18 kids...they've always got a little one around, and by the time they don't they'll be too old to care!!!


Here's some pictures of our fun day on Monday.

Our make-shift water slide

Got Milk?

We also had a tea party. Grace requested that we have pink lemonade and grapes. She was going to use her princess tea set, when I remembered that we had this one. If you can't tell by the fabulous "retro" colors, it used to be mine...

Tristan makin' a "cake" for the party

I was also treated to a "dance" by the kids. Thankfully, Tristan's was more of a break dance rather than a ballet dance!















Monday night a friend called and said that she had found a Vacation Bible School that accepted 3 year olds, so for the last two days they have gone to VBS and I have been able to go to work for a few hours and clean up and organize my office - without the help of little hands. They really seem to be enjoying it, and it's helping us to get into a routine so we won't be zombies when school starts next week!

Check Up

The kids went to the dentist yesterday for their 6 month check-up. Both of them came out with their renewal membership to the "No Cavity Club", and Grace was finally able to tell the dentist that she no longer sucks her thumb. Hooray!!

I didn't get a picture of Grace as she was already done when they called me back

This is a pediatric dentist, so they've got lots of stuff to play with while you wait, and after you've seen the dentist you get to choose stickers and a treasure from the treasure chest (every mother's favorite - junk toys). They also have these funky flavors of toothpaste - Grace chose watermelon and said it didn't taste very good, so next time she said she'd tell them she wanted chocolate if they had it... Anyhow, we came out of the dentist's office with both of the kids in agreement that they'd like to go to the dentist every day. Are my kids wierd or what?!

After doing such a wonderful job at the dentist, I gave in to their ever hounding requests to go to McDonald's (whenever we say we're going out to eat, Grace always asks if she can choose the restaurant). I don't think it's the food so much as the ability to run free around a restaurant and play...





If you're too big to slide down the little slide, just jump!

A well deserved drink of lemonade after a hard day of play!

Chiricahua National Monument

David has worked every weekend (at leat one day of it) for the last month or month and a half, and we were all going a bit stir crazy. Since we had a four day weekend, and my husband was indeed home all 4 days, we took a little trip east for a hike.

The Land of Standing Up Rocks - as called by the Chiricahua Apache

The origins of these rocks began when the Turkey Creek Volcano erupted 27 million years ago and spread ash over 1200 square miles. The cooling of the ash and subsequent plate shifting created joints and cracks in these rocks. As further weathering and erosion by ice and water occurred, it washed away the weaker material and left what you see in these pictures. It is amazing what God can do! Some of these rocks don't even look as though they should still be standing. My favorite are the "little" rocks that sit atop the large ones as though someone just tossed it up there.

This is one David took looking up. Doesn't quite look like we should've walked under these rocks!

We hiked about 2 miles round trip, and changed about 550 feet in elevation. It was a beautiful day - pretty warm, but we had a wonderful breeze to cool us, and it didn't rain a drop! With it being monsoon season again, that's always a worry... We saw dozens (many dozens, and the kids had to stop and look at each one) of lizards, and even saw a brown bear climbing on the rock as we were driving to where we were going to go for our hike. Unfortunately, we were too slow with the camera, and all we got was a picture of the brush that he ran into. It was a wonderful outing, and was just nice to be able to do something as a family again.

One of the many lizards we saw on our adventure.

In the "Grotto"

A young boy's dream - all the rocks you care to climb!

Girls aren't too bad at climbing either...

Okay, I'll stop with the pictures! It was just an amazing sight - everywhere you turned it was something different and more beautiful... My son kept asking what I was taking pictures of - he couldn't understand why I kept taking pictures of rocks. I mean, afterall, we have rocks all over the place!

One last photo - for my daddy... this one is called the Sea Captain.

Our Independence Day

We headed out to Veteran's Memorial Park this evening at about 6:00 PM, after a wonderful supper of hot wings, cheddar bratwurst, and parmesan potatoes (we had ribs last night). Doesn't all that sound like wonderful holiday celebration food?! I think the scale will disagree... The kids ran around and played on the playground, and then we sat and enjoyed some apple praline pie and fireworks.

Enjoying a sno-coneMy monkey boy

Soccer with Daddy
Happy Birthday America!

We hope you all had a great day!