Camping In Cottonwood AZ

Last weekend the kids and I attended the Clark Family Reunion in Cottonwood, AZ. Kory wasn't able to come with us due to his new school/work schedule. So the kids and I followed along after my parents. This will be one of those experiences that I will NEVER forget. The reunion itself was great! It was fun, I was able to visit with cousins, aunts and uncles that I haven't seen in year's. My kids made friends with extended family that they have never met and probably won't see again until the next reunion.

My little family and I camped in our tent.  It was HOT! The weather was unbelivably HOT! There was no escaping the heat. It was over 90 degrees during the day and didn't drop below 70 at night. We sweated throughout the day and night. Being we lived pretty near Cottonwood for almost 8 years I was expecting the heat. When I put up the tent I opted not to put the top covering on to allow a little breeze at night trying to keep us some what cool. That was my 1st mistake. Not putting the top on allowed a bazillion small yellow pollen pieces to fall into our tent. That first night when we got into our tent I realized EVERYTHING was covered in pollen. The suitcase that was left open, the sleeping bags we slept on top of, the blow up matresses, our pillows. I shook off what I could and then we just dealt with it throughout the weekend.  

 One of the best parts of Family Reunion's is all the food. No one went away hungry!

 As if the heat wasn't bad enough to deal with all over the camp site had a MAJOR infestation of ants! Big Red ANTS! Ants became a toy that we coundn't keep the kids away from. This is Brayden and his cousin Mya catching the ants! The ants were literally everywhere. You could not escape them. They even got into our tent. By the time I got home I had 20 red ant bites just on my arms. I never did count how many I had everywhere else on my body. We really couldn't go anywhere and not find ants.

 When the ants got boring the bigger kids moved onto bigger creatures. You can't see the lizard that Emily helped catch in our bug catcher. These little kids were pretty proud of themselves!

Kylie is not walking yet and so I tried to hold her most of the time due to the ant issue we were having. If I couldn't hold her I'd pass her off to Grandma/Grandpa or an older sibling. There came a point however that this 13 month old little girl had had enough. She wanted down! And so she too played in the dirt right along with the ants. She kept covering herself with dirt! Kylie must have been blessed this weekend as she didn't have a single ant bite.

 It was so unbearbly hot that during the day we tried to escape the heat by hanging out with Grandma and Grandpa Christensen in their cabin. However a 12x12 cabin doesn't offer much for 4 adults and 9 kids. We tried taking this kids on a hike but it was just to hot to enjoy it and all we got was a bunch of complaints from the kids about the heat! We took the kids to Sonic and got everyone their very own slushy thanks to "happy hour". One afternoon we escaped to Wal Mart and let all the cousins play in the toy section. Another afternoon we found Cottonwood's Rec Center and was able to spend a few hours swimming indoors, away from the heat. During the day the camp site was pretty empty but about dinner time the WHOLE family came back. After dinner we all sat around in our camp chairs visiting or we created our own entertainment. One evening we held a family auction. For $40 I bought a children's illustrated book called Hairy Legs and Wagon Wheels. This is a book that a distant cousin wrote and than had published. The story is about hairy trantula's taking a ride on the old school's wagon wheel's. My Great Grandpa A.V Clark use to tell this story to the kids and that's where this book originated from. When the story was mentioned at the reunion it struck a chord in me. I vaguely remember sitting at my great grandpa's knee's and listening to him tell this story or at least a similar one. It has been so long that I don't remember how the story goes or how it ends but I remember feeling frightened for the spider's when the school kids discover them on the wagon wheel's on their way to school. I haven't read the book yet but am anxiously waiting to read it to my own kids this coming week. 

 Grandpa Grow brought Grandma. Grandma had 2 of her siblings present at the reunion. I think it's safe to say they were a bit taken back with Grandma's condition. Until you try to talk to her and visit with her you don't understand what Alzheimer's has done to her. She didn't know/recognize her siblings. Most of the time she thinks my mom is her sister, Barbara. Comparing her state of mind now to how she was at the reunion 2 years ago there have been some drastic changes. This will be Grandma's last reunion she attends with her family here on earth. It's just to hard to travel and take care of her outside of her own home.

 .

One of the highlights of the reunion was going to Slide Rock with many, many cousins in Sedona one morning. Oh boy did we have fun! The water was freezing which really helped us feel like we were escaping the heat! We brought a few toy's to help entertain the little ones. Brayden was quite content to sit with his bucket. He'd fill it up with water and than dump it on himself over and over again.

 This is cousin Carlaya, Madelyn and cousin Zhana goofing off.

 Here's Hunter sliding down on one of the rocks!

 Uncle Jonathan and Hunter taking a break in the shade.

 For snack we brought a water melon and kept it in the water to keep cold.

 Miss Emily enjoying that cold water melon in the sun.

I didn't get as many pictures as I would have liked with the kids actually going down the natural rock slides. Jonathan and I were there by ourselves so he'd take the bigger kids to the slides and I'd stay in the shallow area with the little one's. There were so many people there it was hard to keep track of all our kids. Slide Rock was definetly a blast! I hope to one day return just for fun with Kory.

As I said I really did enjoy myself at the reunion. We all could have easily done away with the heat, the ants all over the ground and in our tent, the personal belongings covered in pollen and the swarm of bee's that decided to camp out above our tent the last 2 day's/nights we were there. But I'm glad we went. I'm glad I stayed (there were many moments I felt I had reached my moment and was ready to head home early). I'm so glad the kids enjoyed themselves. Madelyn and Emily want me to get the adresses of their new friends so that they can write to them and keep in contact until the next reunion in 2 years.

Madelyn turns 9

Good Morning Beautiful!

On June 25th our family celebrated this pretty girl's 9th birthday.

As with tradition we put candles in our breakfast!

 She was able to blow them all out on her very first try!

 This Birthday Girl was a bit anxious to open her gifts!

 Love this smile on her face! She's just realizing what the case of earings mean.

This pretty girl is finally getting the chance to get her ears pierced!

 Woo Hoo!

 I'm not sure what she was most excited about. The pierced earings or the new bike.

 Madelyn wanted to invite some cousins over for dinner and games. Because we were leaving to AZ for a family reunions the next day and the family she wanted to invite over had mutual obligations they came over later that night for a few games.

 Madelyn, Brayden, Emily and Ruth's behind's playing twister. A new favorite of the kids.

 Had a bit of a water fight. We also played Blokus and Boxers and Briefs but I missed the picture opportunity. I love to make cakes but our family just doesn't eat them. Madelyn wanted a fake "artsy" cake and a cheese cake. Due to us leaving the following day I talked her out of the fake cake for the time being but she did get her cheese cake to share with the family and her cousin's that night.

When we returned from our AZ family reunion I took Madelyn and her cousin Carlaya to Claire's to get her ears pierced. Aunt Sheri and Aunt Hanna tagged along with us.

 She was just a bit nervous! Can you tell???

 Her nerves got the best of her and we had a few quick tears after the matter. And yes I know I'm a terrible mom for having to document those tears!

 Then those tears turned into laughing hysterics.

 In the end she survived! She loves them! She's following the instructions given and makes sure she twists and cleanses numerous times a day. She can hardly wait to be able to switch them out and match her outfits.

Happy Birthday Madelyn!

We've been busy...

I feel like this summer is going by too fast already. We've had a great 4 weeks of no school already and we've only got about 7 more weeks to go.

We've gone swimming,

 We've made sock bubbles

 Look how long Madelyn was able to get her bubble strand.

 We've gone shooting in our very own front yard with cousins.

This is cousin Seth taking a turn. Seth is 2 weeks older than Hunter and a whole head taller too!

 We've played with regular bubbles and then tried blowing them with our hands. Madelyn won hands down in this department.

 We've baked and have tried making new things.  For whatever reason I've always struggled with Monkey Bread or otherwise known as Pull-apart bread. I can't seem to get my pan to cook evenly so the tops are always burnt and the bottoms are still doughy. We tried baking them in a cupcake pan  this time and they turned our PERFECTLY!

Kylie loves it when we bake. The beaters are her favorite part.

 Now that's is warming up outside we've spent a lot of time on our bikes.

We've roasted marshmallows outside.

 More shooting with cousins.

 Skipping rocks and fishing at the resevoir.

 I'll admit the kids have also had plenty of "veg" time. Whether it's in front of the computer, watching a movie or playing the Wii.

 We've also got our "show" animals that the kids are taking care of this summer.

 We got our goats just 2 weeks ago. There are a total of 8 in the pen right now but only 2 of them are ours. While we've all got family reunions out of town these next few weeks we've decided to keep the goats all together until the reunions are over with. This will make it a bit easier on everyone while we each have our turn of being gone and having some one else feed these funny little animals.

 We also have pigs. We've had our pigs for a few weeks now but the kids enjoy "checking" on them numerous times a day. All of our kids have their own pig for the fair this year. Hunter and Madelyn are in 4-H and can show 2 animals which is why we also have goats. Emily and Brayden our in the Pee-Wee 4-H program and can only show 1 animal. We are hoping these animals will grow and make weight. We want our kids to be able to earn money with these show animals that they can later use for missions and college. Hopefully show animals can give them a jump start in the "savings" department.

 Miss Emily and Brayden with their pigs.

 Madelyn and her pig.

 Here's a picture of all 4 of them. I missed a picture of Hunter and his black pig.

 Here's a baby calf that is being kept near our pigs. He lost his mama and is being bottle fed. The kids enjoy feeding him a handful of alfalfa everytime we walk by him.

Our summer's going strong. We've been busy but have had fun along the way. We've got 3 upcoming reunions in the next 4 weeks that we are all looking forward too. I love reunion's. I love sitting around and visiting with my cousins that not too long ago it was us running around causing mischief. It's great to see my kids develop friendships and making memories with our extended families. Family reunion's here we come!

Look Who's One!

My baby is one!

I don't like it. I don't like the fact that she continues to grow each day and is slowly getting out of the baby phase. I miss her cuddling underneath my neck. I miss that newborn smell. I miss her grabing onto my finger and not letting go. I miss her being able to fall asleep anywhere and being able to transfer her to her bed without her waking up. I miss those times that she'd fall asleep on my chest and I could just sit and enjoy those rare moments. I miss her soft giggles that have recently turned into full belly laughs. I do love those belly laughs though! I miss many things that she only did as a little baby. I'll admit that there are definetly things that I don't miss like getting spit up on, the daily night time fussines, blow out diapers and constant drool, you know things like that!

Depsite what I want... this sweet baby girl of mine is growing up and learning new things.

My baby has learned a new game!

It's called

peek-a

 -boo

 and she chose to show how she plays while the family was singing Happy Birthday to her! So lucky me I've got her fun little action's caught on camera. Woo Hoo!

(Don't mind the messy hair. This is something else that is new to her, pulling out her "pretties")

This birthday she had plenty of help opening her gifts. It was a big deal that each older sibling had their very own gift to give to Kylie. It's a good thing I saved a bag full of toys that each of them got to pick from to give to her. They then each got to help her open their gifts to her.

 Here's Kylie and her very own baby doll.

 She was so excited about her car! This has been the best $30 I have ever spent!

 Kylie loves to be outside. Most sunday's we walk to church and this little car of her's has sure come in handy. Now that the weather has finally decided to warm up we've used this car numerous times for family walks, a morning walk with mom or a quick ride over to our garden spot. She loves her time in this car. If she's unhappy you know all you got to do is take her for a walk in her car. So far the kids love pushing her around in it too making it a win-win situation for all of us.

Miss Kylie's birthday fell on a busy day for daddy. We didn't have her open her gifts until after dinner. Then Daddy had a meeting at the church. We were going to eat our cupcakes and icecream when he got home but Kylie got tired before he arrived. She just may be scarred for life. The kids think it's just terrible that I did't wake her up for her to eat her cupcake we had made. She is getting a birthday cake. In fact it's in the freezer. I want to do a fun little photo shoot with her and her 1st birthday owl cake. Since my camera does terrible in low lighting I want to take her pictures outside. And that there in lies the problem. It's still a little cool in the mornings but come afternoon the wind can seriously blow you away. The wind has been terrible this year. Our garbage can is blown over numerous times a week, our bikes can't stay up on their kick stands, our trailor was actually blown off it's block, rolled over the wood behind it's back wheels and rolled into our quad and white picket fence. We have had huge tree's blown over in recent weeks. So my outdoor photo shoot has been put on hold. I'm hoping that after our upcoming family reunions are over the wind will die down some and I'll have time to decorate that cake I've been so anxiously waiting to make and get some fun pictures of my baby eating her 1st birthday cake!

Last Day of School

The last day of school for our kiddo's was almost a month ago. It's crazy how fast our summer seems to be going by this year.

Here's one of the many pictures of our 3rd grader on her 1st day of school.

Here she is again with her teacher on her last day of school. She had a great year. We love Mrs. Esplin. What's kind of funny is that while Kory was in higschool  one of his classes was being an aide for an elementrary school teacher. Mrs Esplin just happens to be the teacher he was an aide for 15+ years ago. Kind of crazy to think my husband and now two of my children have been in this teachers class! 

Here we come 4th grade!!!

This is Hunter on the first day of his 4th grade school year.

 Here he is on the last day with Mrs. Judd.

Mrs. Judd is a great teacher and loves science. Hunter's favorite part of her class was the homework. During the school year he had to "collect" different things and his collecting was the homework. He had to collect 10 different types of leaves, 20+ insects, 10 types of rock, etc. With each collection they had to categorize the items, identify them, look at them under a microscope and such. It really was fun. It's hard to believe that he's going to be in 5th grade this coming year!

I like to celebrate with my kids on the last day of school. Sometimes I think I'm looking more forward to our summer break than my kids our. I LOVE our summer's. I LOVE having my kids home. I LOVE no homework, spelling words and reports. I LOVE not having to get up at 6am each day to get my kids on the bus at 7. I LOVE the break in our regular routine. In years past we've had water party's with friends on the last day of school to celebrate. One year we went to the movies as a family another year we went to out to eat. I try to do something we don't normally do for our celebration. This year it was a mutual decision to do a water party. We bought lots and lots of water balloons, I rounded up some large water squirters and I've got a slip n' slide I was going to set up.  I guess Mother Nature had different plans for us. The last week of school ended up being windy and a bit too chilly for our planned water games. In the end we had a pizza party.

 Miss Emily

 Mr. Brayden

We invited a few cousins over and everyone was able to make their own pizza's. For being last minute, it was fun and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves. After their pizza's the boys had a turn playing Skylander's on the Wii while the girls played "hair" on each other and painted each other's toes and fingernails. A little while later the girls took their turn on the Wii playing Just Dance while the boys played Lego's. If was a fun afternoon for my kids to celebrate the last day of school.