An Arizona Adventure

In October I braved the pre-dawn flight and all three kids by myself for an Arizona trip- totally worth it! I saw Sisters, my Grandma, and dear Friends, wouldn't you? 

It wasn't even 8am when we landed and tired already, err.. still tired!

My sister picked us up and we drove straight to the Zoo.  Cute little creatures at that Phoenix Zoo!

It felt good to be hot again!

I can remember being Rocky's age at Willyerd Family Reunions and my Grand Grandma Joyce throwing pennies to all the grandkids sardined into her pool.  The FUNNEST memories! It was great to watch them do it too.  It technically wasn't warm enough to be swimming in her pool though, but the kids didn't seem to mind for the first 15 minutes.

After we spent a few days in the valley Kaylee dear picked us up and we headed up to Prescott.  Heaven on Earth.  The kids were wonderful, the Nuckles were excellent hosts, and memories were made, as always.  Look at those kids off to adventure.

Rosy found Cameron's stash of dress up clothes.  (Which were later sent to miss rosy for her birthday!) She practiced her balancing in high heels, on a 3.5ft retaining wall! All or nothing, I suppose.

This evening was Joe's famous slideshow he prepared on a Barbados dream vacation hopefully taking place towards the end of 2014. (By the way, Joe and Kade joined us in Prescott that weekend).  Kaylee has to have her baby boy, and the boys have to ask the time off from work...but that's really all that's standing in our way at this point! Have I mentioned that I love these girls?!

We had a lovely adventure with the Nuckle's canoe- they took us to a Prescott Lake that reminded me of a land of Giants.  The bulging boulders unlocked my imagination out there, I can't wait to go back some day.

Ashley and Adam's September Wedding

It is now January and I am just writing about my sisters wedding in September.  What we have here is an insta-..problem.  What happens is we post everything on insta-gram and then never get around to blogging about it.  So here's a recap of the wedding and all the fun family outings we had that weekend. Congratulations Ashley and Adam!

The cousins were so fun to watch- they all definitely look like cousins!

We had a BIG game of kickball! 

A frosty sibling off-roading trail run that landed us in the middle of a marsh... Grant said it was supposed to be a Novel jogging trail!

Ashley and Adam took us to a great hike up Payson canyon. Everyone loved it. 

Plus it ended in a waterfall- who doesn't like waterfall hikes?

Adam- don't break a leg, you have to walk down the isle tomorrow!

Rocky and Emily found the best climbing tree EVER!

Emily went realllllly high up the tree.  

The rest of the pictures are from the wedding, which was such a darling wedding (Sarah is writing the commentary for the pics)! Adam and Ashley threw a fun and memorable party!

They are the cutest!

Carly Carlson photo credits. 

Pearl, Mona, & Maxine were fun to join us at the wedding. 

I'm not sure the reception was officially over when Leah put on her comfy clothes! 

Joe and his siblings (but especially joe) cut a RUG that night! 

Back to PreSchool

Here comes a major blog catch-up! I can't leave anything out, so I am starting right where I left off... In September.  That's only 3months I need to blog about but I take A LOT of pictures, so it will probably be a while.  My goal is to be caught up before January is over though.  So here it goes:

Summer's officially over when the backpack goes back on.

New shirt + New hair cut= Picture Day

Brothers.

He eats food now! How did he get big enough for that?

Her new favorite dress to match her most beloved golden shoes! So precious, that girl of mine.

Tis the season to be canning.  This was a new adventure for Joe and I, and we both enjoyed it.  What made it even more fun was my mom loaned me her Grandmother's canner! Are you kidding me?! So that just made the experience awesome.  I canned apple sauce for BO, and he likes it! I also did peaches because I have a good friend who has given us many peaches that her husband farms. And because they're delicious.  Joe canned us peach salsa- divine! And he made us some peach and apple pie filling.  We're stocked.  I can't wait to branch out and try more recipes next year.

Annual Campout in the Eagles

Every year we make it up the the Eagle Cap Mountains. It started 3years ago when Joe started his first rotation in Oregon- we only had our little rocky boy and he was not quite 2. We still remember that as one of the most perfect days. Huckleberries and strawberries all over the ground, fishing, bear dog, no one up in the mountains but us.  The second time I was pregnant with Rosy and caught my first fish!  We went again when Rosy wasnt quite 2- and it wasnt quite as perfect. This last Labor Day we packed up and went spur of the moment and had a great time. Here's a photo reel of our adventuring. 

Rosy never seems to mind if she has a swim suit on or not, she took her boots off and just jumped in to the creek!

Love this picture of rosy and her daddy. 

Rocky has no fear of creepy crawly jumping slithering things. 

In the morning joe tried to catch us some brook trout with my bow. 

It was not warm and the water was chilly but rosy still insisted she put her suit on and go swim with the fishies. 

Rocky and joe were entertaining themselves by shooting at the fish with the arrows and then catching the arrow downstream somewhere. Rosy decided to grab rockys arrow for him and just took off into the creek- she didn't see a deep spot and got really scared when her feet didnt touch- but bravely made it back to shore, just a little shook up. She was content to watch from her perch the rest of the time. 

Joe jumped in too in order to make Rose feel better!

We also had a bow shoot out in the morning. 

Rosy is trying to get the hang of it. Successful campout with kids always feels good!

Here's some cute kids too-

She's obsessed with her golden shoes so a friend gave her a darling little golden dress hand me down!!

Back to school for this handsome man!