A new school year

We started our new school year 2 weeks ago.  So far, I am loving 5th, 2nd and Kindergarten.  I am always amazed what little breaks do for our kids.  Alison came back with a whole new view of school; she's been working more diligent on note taking and been really interested in learning more.  Bonus of 5th grade is that it's starting to build her foundation of independent work.

 Alison poses have turned into gymnastic moves.

Eli can read his own lessons now, which is huge!

One night at dinner, Eli asked me out of the blue, "Momma, why don't you go to work like daddy?"  I told him that I do work; just because I don't leave the house for work, doesn't mean I'm not a teacher.  Just like he still goes to school, even though he doesn't leave the house.  Then I joked that maybe I should get dressed up, drive around the block and "go to work".  Eli got so excited.  "Would you momma?  I'll wear a uniform too!  I have just the thing to wear!" 

So the next day, while the kids were cleaning up the breakfast dishes, I got dressed, slipped outside and rang the doorbell.  When Alison finally answered the door, I said, "Welcome to Windsor Academy.  School is in session!"  Eli ran upstairs and got uniforms for them all to wear...it was hilarious.

Colin still sits in the school room happily while we work.  He writes in his notebook and participates in history and science.  His main work is at reading time. 

Poppy's visit

Rick came to visit for a long weekend, in between meetings in LA and Phoenix.  I wish I could say we did exciting things, but we basically hung out at the house and got a few burritos.  It's been at least a year and half since we've seen Rick and the kids refused to leave his side.  Seriously, I felt a little bad for how much they smothered him. 

We spent most evenings outside, playing soccer and grilling dinner.

S'mores are a staple now.

We are blessed with very engaging grandparents.  I am confident Rick had lots of work to do to prepare for his meetings, but he never turned down an opportunity to play.

 

Colin especially felt bonded to Poppy and followed him around the house.  He would literally wait outside the bathroom door for him.  They got to hang out together while I took Alison and Eli to piano and Ben had a work emergency.  My favorite part of Rick's visit was hearing about their time together when we returned.  A telemarketer called Rick's phone and he gave the phone to Colin.  He said Colin just talked and talked and talked and eventually the salesperson just broke up laughing and said he was the cutest little boy.  Sales death by cuteness...I love it.

I found this gem on my phone.

If you need us

 We'll be here:

We've talked about making an outdoor space since we moved in, but you know, summers and deployment made that impossible...until now!  Literally the first day that was under 100, we were outside all.day.long working together to built this.  Ben gets a large majority of the credit for moving cinder blocks 8,000 times.  We lucked out that everything was on clearance for "end of summer" which makes no sense to me as this is the time when Yumans can actually be outside.  No matter the price or sweat, it was worth it.  We've spent every evening out there, looking at stars and eating marshmallows and just enjoying the fresh air together.

I did get some very strange looks when I tried to buy firewood...evenings are still in the 80's but it feels wonderful to us!  The first night we were out there, Alison made up a little game for us to play.  You had to roll dice and answer a question to go with the number.  Eli got "What is your best day ever?" and he said, "Right now!"

We've been so preoccupied that I haven't even posted about starting school and soccer.  Here's a short glimpse of the reading work we did this week.

Flagstaff fun

My goal for the trip was to be outside as much as possible and one thing I love about Flagstaff is it's abundance of activities to do just that.  We started the day at the park.

We played tag and had a race; Colin wanted to prove to the family that he is indeed the fastest.  Then we were climbing on a firetruck structure and Colin got pretty high.  We asked if he needed help down and he said in a very serious tone, "No.  I got myself into this mess, I can get myself out of it."  A theme of this trip was Colin saying the most hilarious things.

Then we went to Lava River Cave.

We had to climb down into the cave through these big boulders.  It was about 30° colder in the cave and the kids hands quickly got very cold as they braced themselves on the rock.  If I was writing a travel blog, I would definitely want to share to other parents to take gloves.  We just stopped every once in awhile and warmed our hands in our pockets and they were fine.

This time, it was Eli who didn't want to stop exploring and would have walked that cave for many more hours.  We saw a group of kids (maybe a field trip or camp) leaving as we were just getting in the cave and then we were all alone in there.  It made it nice to be able to just take our time, but also a little creepy.  We stopped here, all held hands and turned off our lights.  Ben made a good point that it's very rare in your life to experience total darkness.  It's amazing how disorienting and frightening darkness is.

It wasn't until I was watching them climb out of the cave that I thought, "This is crazy."

Then we went to dinner at a local brewery.  Any time Colin puts his face next to Ben's it just amazes me how much they look the same.

Apparently I tell the kids to "soak it up" a little too much, because I heard each of them say it during this trip.  We soaked up being cold in a cave, splashing in a river and wearing pants at the park.  Before heading home the next day, we found a trail to hike and stopped halfway through to soak up the mountains.  Honestly, Ben and I had a hard time leaving and we were stalling.  The boys started playing with the logs and sticks and could have stayed in that spot all day.  I love that about boys.

We drove through a crazy thunderstorm on the way home.  Seeing rain hit the desert (I wonder how many times I've accidentally typed dessert) is a unique site.  I wish I could say it cooled things off, but we came home to a very hot house and several more days of temps around 110°.

Sedona hiking

We took our second annual, September "escape the inferno" trip to Flagstaff last week.

It was blissful.

We hit up Donut Coral on the way out of Yuma.  It's on the other side of town, so we've only been once, but they have fresh croissants!

Colin only wanted carrots for breakfast.  True story.  He ate half the bag.

Ben planned a perfect hike for us in Sedona along the way.  It was my favorite.

West Fork trail:

The trail was lined with apple trees and different berry bushes and we saw all kinds of different insects.  We saw a ton of these caterpillars that really freaked the kids out.

 

 

We hiked a little over 3 miles and Colin wanted to keep going.  He was fearless jumping from rock to rock through the river; we started calling him our little ninja.

 So every trip has it's not so glamorous parts.  This one involved a little boy who refused to use the bathroom while traveling, which made him not so excited to be hiking at moments.  I can't really blame him, he was a whole lot tougher than I would be if I hadn't used the restroom all day.  We got in the car to finish the drive to Flagstaff and Colin asked Eli if he had a fun time.  He responded with a short "no"...although, I assure you he did have lots of moments of fun and where he said he was having a great time.  Colin answered him, "Oh, I understand.  I was scared a little too, but it's okay to be scared sometimes.  I sure did think that giant rock was going to fall on our head, but it didn't!"

One of the best decisions Ben and I ever made was to set up a system to make these little trips happen.  For some reason, they are just what refreshes us and I am so thankful for them.

From the mouth of Colin

Colin does not stop talking and if you stop long enough to really listen, he says the most hilarious things.  This afternoon, Ben and I were sitting in the living room, getting some flashlights ready for our upcoming cave exploring trip and Colin was sitting in the red chair playing a game.  Ben pointed out that he just sits there and talks, even if no one is in the room.  So we stopped to listen and tried very hard not to laugh.

"Eli is the best thinker, but I am the fastest runner in the house.  Me and daddy are the best fixers...we can fix anything.  Mommy is the best maker.  She makes the best GIANT grilled cheese sandwiches.  Oh, I just wanted to kiss my sandwich.  I bet mommy wanted to kiss her salad.  Alison is the best at projects.  She can make any bracelet in the world."



Also, we had the best homecoming from our Kansas trip.  The kids missed Maya so much while we were gone and Ben said that she would just walk around the house whining.  8 days is very long time in their little life.  AND Ben had deep cleaned the house, had the pantry fully stoked, the laundry all done and flowers on the table.  I felt very loved and it felt amazing to be home.




P.S. Naming our school has not been successful so far.  When we were visiting my parent's church, a lady asked Eli where he goes to school and being the very literally person that he is, said, "I don't go to school."  Face palm.

Highlights from our Kansas trip

 Well, for starters, I barely saw my boys because grandpa was so busy playing with them.

They had so much on their to-do list that this is what bed time was like:

I would say it was time to get ready for bed and 3 hours later they might be starting to fall asleep.  The time change worked in my favor this trip ;)

I'm super bummed I didn't get a picture with Nana and Grandaddy, but we did go to Kansas City for dinner one night and it was great to see them!

I got to go on several runs and soak up lush green views.

Alison spent a little too much time in my old bedroom, soaking up as much Disney channel as she could.  She was usually stretching while watching and had the time of her life...I can't blame her though, I watched equally as much Hallmark Channel movies.

 While Grandma and Grandpa took the kids swimming, I went shopping with Lydia!  We realized that we were wearing the same sunglasses...even states away, we still are choosing the same styles.

We had planned on spending many days out at the farm, but the storm washed out the road and made it impossible to go back.  Grandma had prepared stuff for a bonfire and roasting hotdogs and marshmallows, so plan B was a little grill in the backyard.  It was still a lot of fun.  I mean, you really can't go wrong with roasted marshmallows in our opinion.

 Eli turned into grumpster when we put on our eclipse t-shirts.  My dad was trying to get him to cheer up:

I think this is payback for all the fits I threw over socks when I was a kid.

Colin helping grandpa cook dinner:

It was a great trip and I'm so thankful we were able to go!