Colin learns to ride a bike!

My dad has now taught all of our kids to ride a bike; Colin being the youngest and fastest to learn.  I'm pretty sure he picked it up in less than 5 minutes.  He was also the quickest to get very confident and was standing up and riding one handed by the end of the session.

The Grand Canyon!

We met my parents in Flagstaff on Wednesday night and started our adventure with dinner at Wildflower Cafe.

Thursday morning, we drove up to the Grand Canyon.  This has been on my dad's "bucket list" for a long time and it was amazing to be there to experience it with him.  I should have switched places with Ben so he could capture his face, but this is my reaction to my dad's reaction:

I don't think I've ever seen him smile so big.

 

You really can't put into words what it's like to see the Grand Canyon.  It's an experience that no picture can capture.

 

  We asked a gentleman to take our picture and he left us a picture of his finger so we never forget his kindness :)  Maybe we should just note that my daughter is almost as tall as me at age 10.

We had lunch at a lodge in Grand Canyon city (if I were writing a travel blog, I would recommend bringing a picnic lunch in instead) and then Ben, dad and I went on a hike down into the canyon.

 We were passed by a line of mules and saw a handful of other people, all who said hello...I love how friendly people are up there!

The hike was incredible.  We thought we would go much further than we did, but time and distance seemed greater in the canyon.  3.5 miles, 1,000 feet in elevation, a narrow and steep path and views that I will never forget.  How we felt when we got back up to the top:

My mom kept the kids entertained at the rim.  They went in a couple of gift shops, got a snack and soaked up some views.

When we met up with them, grandpa was ready for some sherbet.

Friday, we went to our favorite park and walked around downtown Flagstaff.

We stopped in Sedona for lunch and an outlet mall outside of Pheonix before heading home.  It was a very packed few days, but a trip of a lifetime.

Falloween

We had our second annual "Falloween" party.  This year I only have 3 pictures instead of 2 posts, so clearly it was much more laid back.  We had chili, cornbread and apple cider for dinner and played a "who can guess the right number of candy corn" game.  The kids were happy just running around in their costumes and then Ben and Brian took the crew around the block for some candy.

When the kids got back, they got to work trading their candy.

I learned my lesson from last year and bought 3 giant boxes of fruit snacks to hand out.  It still wasn't enough and Alison had a sign all ready to go to put up on the door to let people know we were out of candy.  I have never seen so many trick-or-treaters.

My favorite part of the night:

Katie (a lady from our church) and her almost 2 year old came over for the party.  Liam's take on Halloween had me cracking up.  He could see that I was handing out food to people who rang my doorbell and he could see that all the kids were putting food in piles all over the floor, so he opened our pantry and started putting boxes of cereal in the bowl of hand-out candy and then distributed cashews and crackers to each of the kids.  It was hilarious.

San Diego Zoo

We are so very spoiled; I am well aware. 

The zoo lets kids in for free during October and offers a military discount, so instead of $200, I only spent $40 for all of us to spend the day at an incredible zoo. It was a deal that I just couldn't pass up, so I squeezed it into our only free day in October.

It actually worked really well.  The kids did school work in the car and we were able to go on a day when the park was not crowded.

The lynx was a favorite:

We ate lunch next to the elephants.

Being at the zoo is sometimes a funny thing to me.  Some times I just sit back and kind of laugh at the phenomenon...all these people are walking around, looking at polar bears and lions and elephants and zebras and penguins and completely not phased by it.  Everyone acts like it's completely normal to be standing feet away from a tiger or have monkeys swinging right above you.  

Well, I for one, was thankful to be able to see such incredible animals up close.  It fits in perfectly to our science right now and I love that the kids get experiences like this.

It is such a big zoo, that even after two visits, I've yet to see the whole park.

The kids requested ending the day at the petting zoo.  I could pass on petting sheep and goats, but they loved it.

The only downside is that we picked a day that was 98° and even with Yuma blood, we were hot.  A lemonade slurpee helped, but we didn't stay as long as I planned because it was just getting too much.

Colin's new thing is to try and stand as tall as possible to look bigger in pictures.

We were "forced" to cool off at the beach before heading home.  Apparently people don't work when it's hot in San Diego and the beach was packed!

Even after walking around the zoo for hours, they still had energy to run on the beach.  I didn't plan on an afternoon at the beach, so it made for an interesting ride home.  The cold water just felt so good and the ocean is always worth it.

First soccer game

The boys are playing upwards soccer this year AND they get to play with the White's!  Eli and Jon are on the Wolfpacks team and Colin and Tolson are on the Cheetahs.

They all played great!  It was fun seeing them really get into the game.  I hope to get some videos soon, because watching Colin out on the field is something you don't want to miss.  Little squirt runs with his elbows out to keep his shirt up and is so fierce that he's exhausted by the end of the game.

This and that

I got to go on a girls trip to San Diego!  Fashion Valley was a little slice of paradise.  My face looks funny in the picture because for some reason Gwen was pushing me like "Get to the front of the picture!" and it was cracking me up.  I love that life can entail trips to ocean air...added bonus, I actually bought 2 pairs of jeans...except I wouldn't really call them jeans because apparently they don't make normal pants anymore.  Thankfully I live in the dessert and am used to rocking cropped pants.

 While I was shopping, Ben was holding down the fort.  He made the kids run a mile with him, took them to a movie and even hosted some friends for dinner.  While everyone was playing outside, Maya ran full speed into the glass door and gave herself a black eye (how the door didn't shatter, I'll never know).  Our friend that was over, is an EMT and looked her over to make sure everything is okay.  He gave her the all clear but apparently it was bad enough to make Ben and an EMT worry and that says a lot in my books.  If Maya were a cat, she would only have 7 lives left.

Our house has joined forces to get Colin to read.  Eli asked one day if he could do his lesson.  It was perhaps the sweetest thing I've ever heard.  He even held his little finger to help him follow along reading the words.

Ben worked with him while I took Alison and Eli to piano lessons.  This is the text I received:

Ha!  This will forever make me laugh.

He actually is doing very well for a 5 year old boy, it just takes 10 times more work than I ever imagined.  Reading time required a camp site one day.

 Eli asked if he could paint the sky.  It made me laugh because the sky is pretty much always clear blue here, but I loved seeing him out there being creative.  He ended up painting a rainbow.

He is constantly amazing us with his creations.  His new thing is, looking online at Lego sets and then recreating them with what he has.  BUT it's not just the same concept, he will replicate every detail of the picture. 

P.S. yes, we do grammar lessons in school.  I just didn't want to correct him on the video.

I am so excited to see how this gift is used in his life.

Speaking of gifts, Alison's love for gymnastics has not wavered.  She has continued to teach herself tricks and proven to be dedicated at something she loves.

She will snatch my phone and take videos of herself so she can see what her trick looks like.
 I tried to convince her to be a home gymnast, but Ben thought it might be smart to get her safe training...so, Alison's life was made today when we signed her up for a class.