Our week in Arizona

We had a marvelous time on our trip down to Az to visit my folks. The kids and I headed down there for a week, and had lots of outings and adventures while we were there. We drove down, stopping through St. George to visit a friend on the way.

While there, we visited Camp Verde - a town about an hour away from my parent's house - my family has a membership to this place called Thousand Trails. It's like a camp community, they are all over, and our family has gone to them since I can remember. The kids had a great time swimming, of course, as well as playing on their playgrounds and in their family centers, playing pool and games.

Jenna loved the pool especially, and squealed with delight each time she would slap the water!

She also enjoyed sitting in the shade after :)
Derek always loves sunbathing. He did have some fun jumping in from the side to Grandma, over and over again - Thanks mom!

Jenna at the park :)

Hailey and Derek setting out on a trek up the driveway from my parent's house. Derek LOVED his walking sticks. My dad has a hiking stick, and so I think that's what spawned his interest. It was cute to see him trying to walk with it. Hailey was so great to take Derek out in search of lizards or chipmunks.

Grandpa took the kids to the fish hatchery

... and to the oldest standing school house in Arizona ( just up the street in Strawberry)

The coolest place we went was to Fossil Creek. It was very nearby my parent's house, but seemed like this hidden oasis in the mountain valley. We got to this place and I couldn't believe how beautiful it was! There were two rope swings off a tree that was on the other side of the creek, Hailey & I had fun launching off of it. The water was COLD!!

This is a flash to a different spot - on the Verde river just down from my parents house. The kids both had fun splashing around.

Here's a better shot of fossil creek - it was SO lovely! We could see all the way to the bottom, and there were fish all over in it. Kinda creepy, but very cool!

Hailey at Fossil Creek. It was such a beautiful day!!

It was really nice to go down and spend time puttering around w/ my folks. It was a nice kick-off to summer :)

Ode to a clean room!

My darling Hailey has SOO many wonderful qualities. She's kind, helpful, smart, fun, silly and so much more. One area she still has room for "improvement" is in her cleaning skills- particularly in her room. Last week I assumed the task of being her room cleaning "helper". AKA - I cracked the whip, and we cleaned Cleaned CLEANED! It took us TWO days. Yes, really - two! After Hailey finally agreeing to remove all of her button, boondoggle, yarn, sticker, rock, coin, bead and other craft projects OUT of her room, and after about 3 bags full of trash, we finished! I had to document this event, because I can reflect back on the good 'ole days of Hailey's room being clean.

I didn't DARE post the before picture - it was OUT OF CONTROL! So - here's Hailey's CLEAN room :) Ahh - so lovely! AND - a place for everything, and everything in it's place!

We rearranged her furniture, which makes her room seem HUGE!
Now, she's got her music niche to groove to her tunes!

Pirates, Carnivals, Cakes & the great outdoors

Well, what happens when I don't post for a while is I combine.. so here goes.

The trampoline is a wonderful fun tool at our house. Every day either Dave or I (or both of us) get coerced into jumping w/ one or both big kids. Our biggest bribe with Derek lately is if he is obedient during the day, Dave will jump with him on the tramp, and play pirates -- swords and all. So - Here we are - ALL enjoying the tramp (I'm sure we exceeded the weight limit, but it was worth it!!)

Here's Hailey - sporting her new summer doo -- braids. We both love the freedom of NOT having to do her hair!!

Me & the bug

My favorite Pirate & his shipmates, Hailey & Derek. Notice Dave's the only one w/ the sword?? Are you wondering about the orange bird?? It's called "Wild crazy orange ducky bird". Hailey got it several years ago & it has a squeaker in the beak, which makes it all the more fun. Derek recruited that recently to be part of the sword fighting action.

NEXT UP: THE CARNIVAL -- okay, not a full on one, but it was Pony Express days out in Eagle Mountain, so we went to the festivities which included treats & games for kids, and a performance from Jason Hewlett - an impersonator/comedian.

Here's Hailey - workin' her magic on a gnarly curve ball -- she knocked down all the pins down! Woohoo! (Derek cheated & only got two)

Here is SAD DEREK, not to be confused with his happy counterpart. He got a prize that was a balloon with a rubber band on it, that you blow up & can bang back & forth. Anyway - his popped about 3 minutes after I blew it up for him (and 30 seconds after Hailey's popped). When he gets sad, he gets this frown, and then the tears start. I could almost hear his heart breaking. It was sad...
Me & Dave, hanging out watching the show - it was fun, we just threw down a blanket on the hill, had some dinner & relaxed.

This video is hillarious to me, because most men I know don't LOVE dancing, whereas most women I know seceretly (or openly) WISH they could be on So you think you can dance. So - this video shows that this whole concept begins at a young age. Here you'll hear music in the background & Cambrie dancing to it -- meanwhile, Derek is trying to get Cambrie to come throw frisbees with him. Derek - Get used to it, it won't change... :)

The kids, enjoying their shaved ice

Yesterday Hailey called me upstairs and this is what I saw.... I think Jenna would LOVE having all these friends in her crib with her... doesn't she look thrilled?!?

My dear friend Natalie had a baby shower, and I volunteered to make the cake for it (WITH HELP!). So I spent Monday making cakes, and with the help of my sweet friend Lora (& her dad), they helped me craft this masterpiece. I LOVED how the fondant looked, and it TASTED SO GOOD! Chocolate w/ chocolate marshmallow filling, and Yellow cake w/ raspberry white chocolate. Divine, simply divine...
This summer a bunch of ladies I live near decided we should get whoever wants to go should get together once a week and hit up different parks for lunch with the kids. This week we went to South Fork, up Provo canyon. It was a total HIT. There was a little stream there for the kids to splash around in, and a great grassy picnic area, trails, trees, sticks, dirt -- you know, the stuff kids eat up!

Here Derek got to hold a REAL inch worm. He thought it was SO cool!

While we were up there, we got to celebrate our friend Julie's birthday - HAPPY BDAY JULIE!!

Derek & his friend Karson, playing on the truck by the water

The kiddos playing in the water

Hailey & my friend Melanie's son Austin ended up getting DRENCHED in FREEZING COLD mountain water, but when you're 10, it doesn't phase you for too long :)

We've had a pretty busy, but great start to summer -- More to come :)