Silly Boys!

One evening around 9 pm I realized that Curtis, Nathan and Bracken were missing.  Marco was already fast asleep for the night and Curtis had taken the big boys across the street to our chapel for a little basketball action.  I myself was blissfully content doing whatever I wanted with zero interruptions, and lost track of the time.  When I realized how late it was I decided to hunt them down for bedtime.  And this is where I found them...

... skinny dipping in our pool!

Nathan has been expressing his creative side through his unique table arrangement lately.  Attractive yet not very practical, but hey it's art!

Rain, Rain Come and Stay!

July 2013

The monsoon season finally hit!  

Independence Day

Our Fourth of July had the perfect combination of pool time, friends, BBQ and fireworks with a couple slices of fruit pizza thrown in for good measure!

A funny little side story:  I took my balloons and  pump to keep our kids entertained while we waited for the  fireworks show and before I knew it I had children approaching me and offering to pay money for a glow-in-the-dark balloon sword of their own.  I made a whopping $8 dollars!

World's Oldest Rodeo

July 2, 2013

The rodeo around here is a BIG deal.  They have a giant parade and people travel from all around the country to view and participate in Prescott's rodeo.  It always takes place the first week of July and when you combine a bunch of cowboys with Independence Day you better be ready for a festive and hugely entertaining show.

Nathan and Bracken are cowboys at heart and were enthralled with the show from beginning to end.  Bracken did get a little antsy 30 minutes into the rodeo because he was thirsty.  I never travel anywhere with my kids without water, they NEED it badly.  The rodeo is one of those venues where you can't bring in your own food or drink.  In years past I have been able to sneak a little contraband in via the diaper bag, but since the baby stayed home with Grandma Kleinman that wasn't possible this year.  I had cold water bottles waiting for them in the car, but Bracken and probably everyone sitting around us, was sure he was going to die if he didn't get water soon.  At around the same time Nathan announced that he needed to use the restroom so I took one for the team and missed some of my beloved rodeo to take Nate for a potty break and hunt down a source of water.  Ten minutes later and $15 dollars lighter, I was sitting back down next to my love with 2 water bottles, a small lemonade and a bag of kettle corn.   The rest of the show went on without a hitch!

The boys really loved the wild horse race, the half time show with the one armed cowboy that chased Indians and herded buffalo, and of course the main attraction the bull riding.

New Pool

June 2013

Our summers are long and hot here in Northern Arizona.  Halfway through June we were missing our kiddie splash pool something fierce.  So I did what I usually do and turned to Amazon to find us the perfect pool.  And find it I did.  We love it.  It is just the right size for the kids to play and practice their real swimming because it is deeper than the average kiddie pool.  And I won't have to deal with the hassle of emptying out and cleaning this baby because it has a pump and filter.  As long as I run it regularly, skim the bugs off the top, and keep it properly chlorinated this water will last us all summer long.

We get regular invites to swim at our friend's club house pool so the boys get their big time swim practice in.  But having this pool available to take a dip in when ever the fancy strikes has been positively devine.  The boys LOVE it.  The have spent hours swimming and turning into wrinkly little fishies.  In fact with all their swimming exposure we didn't worry about signing them up for swim lessons.  Nathan's endurance and skill has really blossomed this summer.  And Bracken just started swimming all on his own one day out of the blue.  Our little pool was definitely a good investment.

Marco is looking forward to swimming with the big boys in our little pool next year.  For this summer he has his own baby wading pool to splash around in till he is big enough to hang with his bros.  

Dusty & Melissa

June 29, 2013

Mesa Arizona Temple

Our Tio Dusty finally found the woman of his dreams and they tied the knot!  They are an adorable couple and everyone can tell they are completely happy together.  We all gathered together at the Mesa Temple to share the day with them.  We dropped the kids off at a local chapel with some sweet babysitters who did a great job wrangling the masses so all he adults could be with Dusty and Melissa.  It was really special being all together in the Temple.  

Being the end of June it was H-O-T hot!   After the Temple ceremony we collected the kids and braced ourselves for pictures in the oppressive heat.  We were practically melting.  After about 20 minutes of picture taking Nathan turned to me and said "Mom, it's hot here.  I don't like it!"  The second we were finished with the photo shoot we ran to our can, cranked the AC and hit up the closest fast food joint we could find (McDonalds-go figure) and loaded up on ice water and cold slushies.  Then we hit the road for home.

Ralph and Cherryl Kleinman Family

The Dudes

The Gals 

The Hooligans

Do you see my sweat glistening all over my face and neck?  Yep, I was a sweaty mess.

A Day at Lynx Lake

June 22, 2013

In our neck of the woods we are lucky to have several lakes and forest areas nearby to enhance our Arizona desert scenery.  Several of the Kleinman brothers and their families gathered at Lynx Lake for same family summer fun.  All the kidlets were beyond excited to take the paddle boats out for a spin or two.  We loaded as many kids as we could into the two paddle boats and let the big strong dads take them for a ride around the lake.  The down side to having only one adult in the boat is they get the full force of the work load paddling those boats around.  The dads definitely got their exercise for the day in. 

Curtis and I were able to take a boat out just the two of us.  We found a secluded little nook in the lake and took time for a few little smooches and then felt bad for abandoning our sister-in-law with all our kidlets so we headed back to the dock.  It was a memorable 15 minute date.

When our boat rental was up we found a picnic table in the shade and tired to get the kids to eat their lunches.  They were climbing all over trees, rocks and each other as well as swapping out their lunch items because someone else's lunch always looks better then their own.

After lunch we headed down to the rocky beach for some greatly anticipated fishing.  The chances of any of our kids actually catching a fish were none existent with all the splashing and rock throwing going on.  Luckily they were content to cast and reel.  It made them feel like pros.