School, Tendonitis and Katy's first beach trip!

 

 

Michael at is desk for Kindergarten. He loved his first day. I asked him who he made friends with and he said (kind of exasperated like it should be obvious) "Everyone!" No surprise there, Michael makes life a party wherever he goes. His teacher is a newbie, this is her first year teaching. She seems really nice and had a bunch of cute things from pinterest that she made for the kids. Crossing my fingers for a great year with a sweet teacher to nurture Michael.

 

Blasted tendonitis. I was reading on my side, supporting my head with my hand and apparently doing that for 2+ hours is not a good idea. It got really stiff and then with all of the lifting and twisting my wrist does it just got worse and worse until turning the steering wheel while driving was hurting. So now I am wearing a brace and it really helps me not torque my wrist all the time and give it a rest. It's not a big deal, just annoying.

 

We took a beach trip yesterday! Katy and I haven't been yet this summer and it was a wonderful day. We had some great friends join us- Katrina, Bob, Riley and Kiersten(4 months old like Katy) and Robin, Mike, Weston, Dallin and Levi. The kids were all SO excited!

 

Mike and Nicole boogie boarding while Jim is holding Diana. I'm with Katy and watching Jake. Jim and I were trading off constantly so we could have time with the different kids. A favorite part of the day for me was when I got to boogie board with Michael. I'd ask him which waves we should take, give him tips and cheer him on as we rode waves together. He is really a tough kid. A few waves totally got him, but he kept going. He is getting pretty good, and we caught some fun waves together, a couple really good ones.

 

On the drive home the kids made up some games and played. This towel was given to us by their Uncle Brandon on a visit from England of the transportation system there. The kids had so much fun with destinations and making up stuff about London.

 

Katy is four months old now. She weighs 12lbs4oz (13th%), and is 25in tall (67th%). She flips over, grabs for stuff and gives lots of love and snuggles to her family. She sleeps and eats like a champ and is doing everything in her power to be chasing after her big sister soon. The dr commented on how strong she is. It won't be long :)

Mike got Kid Knex for his birthday and this will go down in history as one of the best presents we've given a kid.

 

A little video on the blog of the kiddos.

End of Summer

 

Mike and Nicole's soccer season has begun. We did a Chikfila run after since their games were at the same time and Mike was all about refueling after a hot sweaty game. He is absolutely fun to watch he is totally into the game and wants to play offense the whole time. Watching him play defense is agonizing you can tell he is just itching to run after the ball.

 

The kids and I were making an alligator attack Lego scene it was pretty funny to see their creativity. We hide the Legos in my closet to keep them safe from D. We like to joke that she is from the planet Duplon come to destroy their legos.

 

We went to Marbles with Marian&co last week. This is the older girls on tv!

 

Diana gave Katy all of the stuffed fish. Diana carried those fish around for a long time!

 

Taking the fish to the farm area.

 

Jake riding a cow

 

Putting on a play that had butterflies and cats. It was a very short play.

 

Swamp monster Nicole

 

Pirate Kaitlin making Marian walk the plank!

 

Dallin made a Lego tower with the big legos and Jake stayed inside. Everyone walking by would peek in at Jacob.

 



 

The tower got really high Dallin was very dedicated to the construction!

 

We also went together to the pool for a few hours later in the week. The kids swam until they were super wrinkly it was a lot of fun! We love having Marian here. At the pool it was prettymuch empty except for the two lifeguards, us two moms and our 10 kids. We are quite the group wherever we go and we realized we can get group discounts pretty easily :)

 

Mike's second soccer game was yesterday. He played goalie first quarter and was bored out of his mind. When he rotated to offense it was like the sun was shining again he was so happy.

 

 

We had a birthday party for Mike (he is 6 now!) and the kids also got to meet their cousins' dogs! Mike had a soccer cake and they had a great time playing together. Jake played fetch with Dreamer for the whole time, taking a break for cake then back out to throw the ball.

 

I found these pics on my camera. Nicole confessed to taking the camera last night. They went to bed so easily and now I know why.

 

Does NOT look like a sleepy child to me!

 

Then Nicole was up at 6am making her lunch and getting Mike's lunch ready even though he doesn't start until Wednesday which he was a little bummed to discover. Nicole really liked meeting her teacher last Friday and she also has two other ward members in her class as well as some kids she knows from last year and swim team. I feel like it will be a great year of 2nd Grade for her!

 

It seems like when Katy is awake my life is a hurricane so I usually only think to take a picture when she is sleeping. Katy is a doll, she sleeps 8pm-6am without a fuss and adores Diana even though D tends to be kind of loud. Katy is growing and getting stronger I look forward to her joining her active siblings in their adventures!

Zoo, Orchard and other adventures

 

Well the Great Sand Migration continues despite three logs backed with gravel. We might just make the "grass" into a big gravel area. Just kidding, only in AZ could we do that. For now it's a great sandbox.

 

 

I made blueberry scones the other night, trying out recipes to see if having a bunch of blueberry bushes would be worth it. The answer is unequivocally yes.

 

Going strong! We LOVE skyping my parents in the Philippines and hearing about their adventures and service. I feel so blessed to hear from them!

 

For family night we talked about how we can be "master builders" (Lego Movie theme with a twist) and build people's self esteem up instead of being wreckers. They drew pictures of themselves in a situation being a master builder and then we had chocolate-dipped strawberries for dessert. FHE is the best!

 

The kids found several frogs after the big rains we've been having. I told them I would take pictures of each different species and then they could let the poor things go. We've had several "croak" after being played with too much so I hope camera documentation will satisfy them!

 

Katy is four months old! She lights up whenever she gets to be around people, she especially adores Diana.
 

 

That can get a little tricky since Diana is still figuring out how to be gentle. I'd say she's got it 80% perfect, but it's that rogue 20% of the time that keeps me very busy.

 

Jim took off Thursday and after breakfast we decided on a whim to go to the zoo. We haven't been since Jake was a newborn and we went with Dad. So that's over 3 years. I guess it's because it is a little far (1hr15min) of a drive. But with older kids we realized how much they LOVE the zoo. Ostriches and giraffes right as you walk in!

There were lots of statues and rocks along the way that the kid wanted to climb and explore.

 

This zoo has a LOT of walking. Phx, San Diego and Chicago's Lincoln Park Zoos have nothing on this one. It's 1.4 miles from one end to the other if you don't go in all of the big loops to see the different animals- there is a North America end that they say takes 2-3 hours and an Africa end that takes 2-3 hours. We did both it was crazy. And walked the entire time. It was a great workout and we left the house at 9 and got home at 5. A full day of family fun. Sometimes when I work so hard every day to do all those little things we do, I forget how much FUN the family is. Going to the zoo was a great way to enjoy the family.

 

Kids pointing out the Chimpanzees. Diana was pretty amazed to see them up close. The weather was in the 70s so the animals were pretty active it was awesome!

 

That is a statue don't worry.

 

Nicole really wanted to get a flamingo feather.

 

Jake and the chimp. The kids would just love to have a monkey for a pet.

 

Yep.

 

The huge gorilla! There were several other gorillas with their babies. Two of the little babies were playing right in front of us and I seriously had flashbacks to just a year or two ago with Mike and Jake.

Michael was our trail guide. He held on to that map for pretty much the whole time. He was fascinated with it and even when we got home I showed him the trail we took and he loved it! I will admit that we took a wrong turn at one point, turned around and took another wrong turn and then had to go back the way we came in the very beginning realizing that we hadn't taken a wrong turn in the first place! You try not being distracted with 5 kids on the loose! :)

 

They have a Sonoran Desert area which is fun since it reminds us of AZ. These desert box turtles are what Jim wanted us to have in the backyard when we thought we'd be living in AZ.

 

Jake really wanted to show you this frog in the background that is really hard to see. This was a grizzly bear exhibit but all Jake was interested in was the frog. I like how he wore his cougar shirt to the zoo. Unfortunately the cougars were gone for a few weeks so I promised Jake we'd be back. We ended up getting a family membership since even going once is so expensive now with our big family.

 

Grizzly.

 

Diana focused on looking at animals. She is a total firecracker. She was EVERYWHERE!

 

The otters were seriously playful and fun and they followed Nicole as she tried taking pictures of them. They were totally showing off. It seemed unbelievable but they were loving every second of it, just swimming in a circle where the kids were and nowhere else.

 

 

Can't catch me! Notice the double bruise/healing scar. This girl is all systems GO and seems to get into plenty of scrapes. She is a tough cookie though because she doesn't want to stop playing.

 

Nicole made some growling and roaring sounds when we got to the black bears. This one was laying down but he got up and walked straight to Nicole, sniffing the air, and climbing up on the rock as close as he could to take a look at her. Nicole stopped making her sounds and I think was a bit nervous seeing that big bear come straight to her! Jim and I were hoping the zoo calculated how far a bear could and could not jump.

 

There are some awesome play places for the kids. I think we'll be going back just for the playgrounds and water areas!

 

This is a garden themed playground. Made me think of Bugs Life.

The boys "caught" in the spider web!

 

Jake attacking the praying mantis.

 

Everyone on the praying mantis. They love these bugs when we find them in the backyard.

 

Katy was an angel and was in the carseat almost the whole time. We forgot our double stroller but figured out how to use the buckles on a rental to keep her carseat sitting up so she could see what was going on. Angel baby Katy!

 

Another play area, the kids going up to the tree house lookout.

 

Alligators!

 

I told the kids to pose. Love their reactions.

 

After that long long day and all that walking uphill, downhill, switchbacks...we were all SO tired!! So we stopped on the way back at Millstone Creek Orchards for their amazing apple cider slushies. There are tire swings and just open space to relax at the orchards. We didn't pick anything just had the slushies. I look forward to going back and picking some apples or peaches. They have other berries and stuff too.

 

We'd only been here once before but it was just as good as I remembered and the perfect way to end the day.