Adventure Day

We went on an "adventure day" last Tuesday to a place called Cluff Pond. I was a little skeptical as we were driving further and further into the desert that there could possibly be an actual body of water out there, but after driving for awhile on a dirt road we came to a pretty good sized pond. The kids had fun exploring and wading in the water a little.
Rachel thinks it's so cool that she has a new friend with the same name.

Hazel's Firsts

I just realized today that I never posted on Hazel's first teeth--probably because she cut her first two teeth the very weekend that we were moving! In the three weeks since then, she has cut two more teeth on the top so she officially has a mouth full of teeth!
Hazel's other first since we moved to Arizona is swimming. Since she was born in the middle of last summer, we had actually never taken her swimming until just recently. Since we moved here, we've been swimming several times and she absolutely loves the water!Rachel and Eliza are making funny faces in this picture because Hazel would not stop splashing the whole time she was in the pool!

Happy Father's Day Ben!

Like last year, Ben's race fell on the same weekend as Father's Day which is actually not too bad because he comes home and gets totally pampered after two days of running and no sleep. So we did our best to take care of him on his special day which of course meant letting him take a really loooooong nap after church and making him lots of good food. It was actually really nice because I had Matt and Nikki there to help me make a really awesome meal and then we all enjoyed it together. It was a great day!

Last year we started the tradition of making a special tie for Ben to wear on Father's day. Here's a close up of the awesome tie the kids made.After being away from Ben for three months, we all really appreciate the fact that he's with us again. He's such a great dad and great provider for our family. We love you daddy!

Ben's race

Ben participated in the Wasatch Back for the third time this year and had a great time. It took a little more effort this time to get there since he had to fly to Utah to participate, but it's something that he enjoys doing and he has finally found a team that he really likes to run with. Way to go Ben!

Summer Fun

It's hard enough to keep the kids busy during the summer. This summer I have the added challenges of a) hot weather that keeps us indoors most a lot of the time and b) I don't know any of the neighbors and therefore, can't send the kids off to play with the neighbor kids.
Under the circumstances, I am trying my best to keep the kids busy and happy (aka not fighting). And even though we haven't met a lot of kids in our neighborhood to play with, we have met some really awesome people in our new ward--thank goodness for the church!

Last week we made a fire in our backyard, made smores and sang campfire songs. The kids had a great time roasting and eating lots of marshmallows and got nice and dirty. I honestly have no idea how people in Arizona keep their children clean with the lack of grass and the abundance of dirt! Hazel had her first marshmallow. YUM!
On Monday we were invited to have family home evening with a really neat family in our ward, the Konopnickis. We had a great time getting to now them and are happy to be making some new friends.

On Tuesday, we went on an "adventure day". A sister in our ward came up with the idea to have weekly summertime activites which totally reminded me of all the fun summer activities we did with our friends in Harrisville last year. This weeks "adventure" was ice blocking on the EA campus. I am sad I didn't take my camera, but we had a really fun time. I had never actually been ice blocking before, but it seemed to be the perfect Arizona summertime activity. We are going to have to go again and next time I'll get pictures!

Just a couple of days ago I saw this cute craft idea on skiptomylou.org and just knew it was something my kids would enjoy. We made paper dolls and decorated them with scrap fabric and ribbon. Check it out at: http://www.skiptomylou.org/2010/06/16/fabric-scrap-dolls-from-this-mama-makes-stuff/

The Big Move

The day after school let out, we spent the whole day packing up our Harrisville home in preparation for our move to Arizona. We were very grateful and amazed by all the help we received from friends, neighbors and ward members.

After packing up, we spent one last night with my parents and started our long trip Sunday morning along with my brother Matt and his wife, Nikki. We traveled to Gallup, New Mexico (Route 66 was running through my head for two day straight) the first night with only one puking incident--given our track record, we were actually pretty pleased. It was a long drive, but the kids were kept busy with a ready supply of DVDs (thank heaven for modern technology!). That night we all stayed in two tiny rooms at a Motel 6 then got up early the next morning and drove the last five hours to Safford. It actually almost seemed longer than the day before due to the winding mountain roads, cranky kids and the fact the Brigham threw up three different times and was completely miserable. Needless to say, we were all very happy when we finally arrived at our destination.

The house we are renting is an older home that apparently at one time housed a radio station. There is actually a guest house right next door that is also rented out and then a studio apartment above the garage where Matt and Nikki are staying. Even though the house is older, it's actually quite nice and has a lot of character. The kids spent the first two or three days just exploring the yard and discovering things that they wouldn't have seen in Utah.

The second day we were there, they found this little lizard in the back yard.
A couple days after we moved in, they flooded our yard, which is a common way to irrigate in Arizona and the kids got a kick out of playing in the flooded front yard.
Ben's Aunt Ruth and Uncle David live just a couple of miles away from our new home and have done everything they can to make the transition to Arizona easier for us. The kids already adore them and their boys (Ben's cousins). They especially love to go to Aunt Ruth and Uncle David's house because they breed Golden Retrievers. They have a litter of puppies that are about five weeks old and the kids LOVE them! The kids ask nearly everyday if they can go see the puppies.

School's out for the summer!

Summer vacation is finally here. It seemed strange that I wasn't at the school once during the last month of school, but things were crazy around here since we were in the middle of packing everything up for our move to Arizona.

I did get to attend Rachel's pre-school graduation on May 25. My mom and grandma came and the kids did a cute little program where they sang songs and demonstrated what they had learned during the year.

My mom and niece, Kate, came over the morning of the last day of school so that Kate could see the girls one last time before we moved. The girls are sad that they will be gone for the rest of Kate's stay in Utah. They really love spending time with her.

My mom took this cute picture of the girls with some of their friends at the bus stop. They have made so many good friends in Harrisville and will miss them a lot!
Eliza, Emma, Timmy Eatchel(behind Emma), Rachel Staker, Aubree Staker, Rachel Perry, Amanda Eatchel, Giselle, Trevor Wadman