Fall break--week 2

The second week of fall break we had more fun.

Monday Grandma took most of the kids on a hike looking for jack rabbits. Unfortunately they just saw cactus, no jack rabbits. Rachel headed off on another one of her bike rides with friends for hours on end. They are enjoying the freedom of bike rides without an adult around. They especially like going to Fry's and to a vending machine to get all the junk their parents won't get for them.

Tuesday we went up Mt. Lemmon for a picnic and to hang out with friends. Jill and Karolee and their friends went, too, so it was fun to visit and hang out with them.

The cousins on the log (Peyton and McKenzie only have one week of fall break, so they'll be with us more during week 3).

 The younger kids had a lot of fun playing hide and seek.

 And everyone had fun going down a steep hill on that toy garbage truck they had fun with last time.

The older kids played some games, too.

 Wednesday I took Rachel and a carload of friends to the temple, then out to lunch afterwards. While at the temple we heard from the temple workers about the announcement that anyone with a temple recommend could be witnesses for the baptistry.

 Since Grandma had the other kids while we were at the temple, she took them to Reid Park to play on the playground there, then go swimming at the pool there. They were the only ones there since most of Tucson didn't have Fall Break last week.

Rachel and I got back from the temple and changed into regular clothes then went to cut Grandma and Grandpa's trees for a surprise service. We had most of it cut by the time Grandma got back, then Ryan and Megan jumped right in eager to help stack all the branches for brush and bulky pick up.

Annie was feeling a little jealous about Rachel's freedom to bike wherever she wants (particularly to Fry's), so I told her she was welcome to go to Walgreens if Rachel would go with her. Rachel wouldn't, so I went with her. Then of course Megan and Ryan wanted to have a mommy date to Walgreens. So I biked 3 separate times to Walgreens with each of them so they could pick out some junk food (and a toy for Megan and Ryan) with their allowance.

 Thursday we headed to the Children's Museum since it was cheap admission day. Todd took the day off from work and came with us since we couldn't fit all the kids in just my car. The kids had a lot of fun like they always do.

 Ryan built himself a nice fort:

 Saturday was General Conference. The kids always get excited about it. This year we did a competition that was in the general conference notebook that came with the New Era, so that added a little more excitement.

 And of course the new announcements about the changes in the youth programs and how they will be administered and a new YW theme and all were very exciting, too.

Between the Saturday general sessions we kept to our tradition of a bike ride on Julian Wash trail. With some cousins coming along for the ride, too.

 We even found a geocache on the side of the trail.

 Then all the girls 8 and up went to the stake center to watch the Women's session and went out to Eegees afterwards. Jacob and Todd and the rest of the kids went out to Freddy's. Megan was bummed about being the only girl that didn't get to go, but hopefully the ice cream made up for it a little.

Rachel has been working on her Young Womanhood Recognition Award this year, trying to complete it all before the program changes from Personal Progress to this new youth initiative at the beginning of the new year. And she is making wonderful progress, definitely on track to finish before the year ends. During Conference she worked on two value projects concurrently: for Knowledge she watched general conference and took notes on what she learned, and for Good Works she crocheted a blanket to donate.

Since they're supposed to be 10 hour projects and conference was only 9.5 hours, she has a little more to do on each, but she's almost there.

Today the whole Knight clan had lunch together at Grandma's between sessions then came back to our house for the afternoon session. We stuck the kids in the front room with the projector screen and we watched in the family room on the TV so we didn't hear them when they got bored and loud.

It worked pretty well except when the internet feed stopped working in the family room. We reset the modem during the rest hymn and the rest of the session went off without a hitch.

And now we're ready for the last week of Fall Break.