Summer Vacation!

We planned a trip to Mnt. Graham for our summer vacation.  We had planned to meet up with Jeff's siblings and let the kids have some great cousin time.  Not everyone was able to make the trip, but we still headed out and met up with Nathan and Tiffany and their kids.  We left really early on Friday morning so we would have time to visit the cemetery in Central and still make it up the mountain to camp that night.  When we pulled into Safford Gus, our Excursion, died.  It was pretty frustrating to be so close to what we wanted to do and be stuck.  He finally started, but we weren't comfortable heading up the mountain with a truck that wasn't running well.  We decided to stay in town for the night and head up the mountain in the morning.  We found a hotel and hung out with the kids. 

Here is Lorna trying on Clark's shoes ;).

Daddy cuddling with Clark.  Clark is ready with some of the money for the tip for our pizza dinner!

Grant and Sandra watching a survivor show on cable.  It was very interesting ;)

Talmage, Daddy, Mhari, and Clark

Daddy cuddling with Mhari and Sandra for bed

Lorna and Clark slept on the pullout bed.  They did so good!

In the morning we headed out to the local mechanic, that we were told could deal with diesel engines.  After getting there and the guy realized that Gus is a diesel he decided he couldn't really do much for us in the short amount of time we had.  Gus was running better and cooled off after the long drive the day before.  We decided to head up the mountain and get him checked out when we got back to Texas.  Luckily for us Gus worked and the rest of the trip was incident free.  

Before driving up the mountain we drove by my Grandparent's old house:

The pink house (well it used to be pink anyway)

The cemetery:

My grandparents 

The kdis by my dad's grave.

Close up of the headstone 

My great grandparents. 

The view of the mountain from the cemetery

The Gila Valley Temple.  It was finished in 2010 

It was finally time to get onto the mountain.  Nathan and Tiffany followed us up.  Nathan gets motion sickness and the mountain road really made him nauseous.  Tiffany was also really anxious.  We didn't think the road was that bad and on the way up the steep mountain road Clark and Lorna fell asleep. I love how cute Clark is when he sleeps!  Such a sweet boy!

Well after a little vehicle drama and seeing some family sights we made it up to Riggs Lake!  We were so ready to be up in the cool mountain air!

Birds of Prey!

Our local nature park hosted a Birds of Prey event this Saturday.  I took the kids while Jeff was helping a family from the ward move.  

There were lots of birds and people to talk to.  The kids had a great time!  

Here is the Red Shouldered Hawk.  Mhari and Talmage are listening to the lady talk about him. 

The barn owl

The Bard Owl

The Screech Owl.  It is the smallest owl and has great camouflage : )

This is the Peregrine Falcon!  So cool!

 Another of the Screech Owl.  It can turn it's head around 270 degrees and has twice as many vertebrae as humans!  

There were some cool stuff at the tables.  Grant and Mhari are checking out Hawk wings, talons, and feathers.  

The wing

Sandra being attacked by the hawk talon!

So cool!

There was a Mississippi Kite bird was also there.  It would eat grasshoppers if the kids caught them they could feed the bird.  Such great motivation to catch some grasshoppers ;).  

Here is Grant with his grasshopper ;)

Feeding the bird!

Sandra's turn

Talmage's grasshopper

Feeding the bird.

Mhari even caught her own grasshopper!

Feeding the Kite

Mhari was chatting and teaching this guy all about Bumblebee Bats.  It was so cute to listen to her.  She even remembered quite a few facts.  It's so great to see the kids love learning!

Yay for great programs!

Free Day!

7-11 gives out free Slurpees on July 11th!  Our vehicle was in the shop so I couldn't go til evening.  We got in line and we got some of the last cups in the store.  It was a fun evening treat :)

Chick-Fil-A was also doing a customer appreciation day and was giving out free food for those who dressed up like a cow.  We didn't make it out for that one, but still pretty cool idea.

Right before bed my friend, Allison, dropped by with a box of Krispy Kreme donuts!  That was a fun surprise :).  They had a dozen donuts for $.77! 

We ate them for breakfast and really enjoyed them ;). 

Riding the Coasters!!

Tiffany and I took the kids to 6 Flags because they earned their tickes through the Six Flags reading program!  As homeschool mom's we got free tickets in too!  It was a great day and fun to share it with cousins!

Waiting in line at the Texas Giant!  This was the first time any of us had ridden this ride ;)

 Our excited faces!
Sandra 

 Grant

Talmage

Sandra chickened out at the last minute and Talmage didn't want to try at all.  They ended up in the Chicken Coop while we rode the roller coaster!  It was so awesome!

Mhari was my riding buddy :)

We went to the Superman ride.  Talmage was still not thrilled about roller coasters.  We had gotten him to ride the runaway train ride (in the dark) so the challenge was to get him to ride a bigger ride.  Tiffany challenged him to see if the penny would float as we went down on the Superman.  He took a while thinking about it. 

Mhari was just too short for the ride.  I tried to help by letting her wear my shoes on top of her own, but she was just barely too short still.  She was really bummed ;(.  Next year she will ride it though!  She really does awesome on roller coasters!

All strapped in and ready to go!  Talmage, Owen and Grant

Bree and Me.  Bree was tired and decided she wouldn't ride the ride without her mom (who was hanging out with Mhari while we rode).  She ended up getting off the ride.  I rode it all alone.

The last ride we went on was Shock Wave.  Talmage was all excited after riding Superman.  I was so happy that he was willing to try another rollercoaster.  After the ride stopped he was the first to turn around and ask if we could ride it again!  This one even had 2 loops... he had come a long way in just a few hours!

We ended up riding it three times because there was no one in line and the park was getting ready to close so it worked out well for everyone :).  

We had a great time and can't wait to go back again!

Holiday fun!

We decided to do a project for our 4th of July celebration.  We had taken out some bushes in the front planter so it needed to be filled.  The other planters have large boulders and river rock so we decided to do the same thing in this one.  We have a small river bed on our side yard so we had to move the large rocks out and then move the river rocks over.  It took several hours, but it was nice to get it done.  

Here is moving the large rocks :)

Getting the first one hooked up

Ready to tow

Made it to the planter, but need to reposition it.... come rolling came in handy!

Time for the huge rock!  
All strapped in.

 That one was a lot further into the river rock!  You can see the dirt line and see how much the tow line was really holding onto.  So crazy!

It looks so nice!

Next project is figuring out what to do with the space we took the rock away in the yard.  We may end up with a deck or patio :).  Would be a nice gathering spot outside!