Wet N Wild and Frank Lloyd Wright

One weekend we made big plans with the Nuckles to go to Wet N Wild. Joe's been wanting to go since we moved down here over a year ago, and Jon, well let's just say Jon's enthusiasm about water parks is enough to get the Wizard of Oz Witch to put on a bathing suit. Of course, it was also the same weekend Monsoon Season decided to show up. That didn't stop us from having a good time though, I had free museum passes, thanks to the library, to check out Frank Lloyd Wright's domain in Scottsdale. Joe and I both thought it was really interesting and were so glad we went, even though Wet N Wild was a total bummer.

The upside to the whole day was the temperature dropped enough we were able to wear jeans!

This was Frankie's favorite view. You can see mountains all the way to Tucson on a clear day.

This sculpture garden was my favorite part.

The ladies!

Kade always makes friends with the little babies, which works out great cause they love him. Rock looks pretty happy, and fairly drooly. He had a dum dum or two to get him through the tour.

And we still made it to Wet N Wild a couple weekends later!

It was not Jeans weather.

Rockwell LOVED it, and slept sooo well that night!

Cameron's first and only kiss for Rockwell, so far.

Oro Valley

Labor Day weekend we headed down to Tucson (or close to it, Oro Valley) with the Nuckles and Esplins. Another grand adventure...

In the parking lot of Catalina State Park where we went hiking- Rocky I'm not sure you would be smiling that big if you knew what was coming...

Do we blend in with our surroundings?

Cameron you are caught in the act!

The plan was to hike to these desert pools that were only 1.5 miles out. They were all dried up, but if we went about a mile further there were more pools. We decided to do it. Unfortunately, unaware to us that next mile was entirely up the mountain. The poor little babies started getting hot, tired, and thirsty! I have never seen Rock drink so much!

Content for now...

Unfortunately we had to turn around before we got to the pools. Nothing at that time sounded more refreshing than to jump in a cold pool of water, but the kids had had enough. It ended up being the best choice of course, but nontheless disapointing!

The Nuckles trekking back through the last leg of the return trip. What a hike!!

When we got back we relaxed in the hot tub- only to find a dead scorpion floating around in there with us! It was the first one Joe or I had seen since we have been here.

Andy thanks for the good deals on the condos and fun weekend!

On the way home we took a slight detour to get a peek of good ol Biosphere 2. Tours are over $20 a person, so we just wanted to get a good look, maybe a picture of it and then head home. Just so you know security keeps a tight reign on things out there. Am I right Jon, Kaylee? Rocky made up for not getting to see the Biosphere upclose and in person. This picture was taken in the gift shop.

Slide Rock

The weekend before the boys had to start school up again we went out to Slide Rock in Sedona with the Nuckles. Joe and I had been last summer but Rock had never officially been, he was just a tiny little peanut then since I was only 2 months pregnant.



Once we got our fill of the water and the crowds we headed upriver as far up we could go.

Do we look natural? I could totally see us living somewhere like this. Would it really suprise anyone?

Papa Bear and Bear Cub found a blackberry patch.

Rock's just catching his breath after the fun hike. He's got his trusty pretzel rod.

Tribute to the Summer

10,000 miles and 22 states later we made it home to AZ! We had such a great time this summer, we were so glad we did rotations out of state. The very best part was we got to see every single one of our siblings and parents! How incredible is that? Here's a little tribute to our amazing summer.
Sarah's Family:

Grandpa Daines- CA

Mom and Dad, CA

Jonathan, Sondra, Collin, Brandon, and Madeleine- CA

Jennifer, Sidney, Abigail, Emelina, Olivia, not pictured-Tom- IL

Rebecca and Natalie not pictured, Trent- AZ

Pearl, Ramona, not pictured Elizabeth and Greg- UT

Joe's Family:

Dad, not pictured Mom- OR

Leah on right, not pictured Grant, Jackson, Emily, and Gavin- NC

Morgan, Owen, not pictured Dan, Marci, soon to be Ruth- KS

Aaron, not pictured Carina, Isaiah- OK

Ashley- UT

Ross- NC

Kansas, again

On our way back to AZ we got to see Dan and Marci and the kids again in Kansas. Marci took us to the funnest places! Hallmark does this really neat thing for kids with their recycled art supplies, it's called Kaleidescope. The kids can make whatever they want at all these fun art stations. It was seriously one of the funnest places for kids I have ever been to!

Owen, nice crown buddy!

This room had melted down crayons you could paint with. It was black lit so everything glowed. I think that explains the look on Rocky's face.

We also went to an awesome Lego exhibit that Joe and the kids loved.

A+ work Joe!

This artist had some incredible Lego statues.

I got tired of just taking pictures of statues so I started posing Rockwell in with them, he seems more interested in the pretzel he's got in his hands though...

EMMY

I'd like to dedicate this post to my neice Emmy. She's cute, funny, total fun to be around, and extremely well dressed.

We've all been there when we have our shirt on backwards, the tag is sticking up out of the front and you've got a little bit more than skin showin...completely unaware.