Fall break

 Vail's fall break did not overlap with Kenzie and Peyton's fall break, but during their fall break the week before they did some work every morning so they could be done with school early the whole first week of Vail fall break so they could have fun with all the cousins together. It worked pretty well. 

Peyton and McKenzie had started sewing their own skirts during their fall break. We finished the skirts and since we had the sewing machine out Annie decided to make a purse, and Kenzie and Peyton decided to follow suit. More practice with the sewing machine and they are starting to get better at it.

Savannah invited us to join her family on a street car adventure. The street car that runs between the U of A and downtown is free right now because of COVID (I think so no one has to handle dirty cash). So we parked at the LDS Institute at the U of A and hopped on the street car at the stop just down the street.

The kids thought riding backwards, standing up while it was moving, and being able to walk around on a moving vehicle was very exciting.

It was a bit hot, so when we got off to walk around at the Mercado San Agustin some of the kids were ready to get right back on. We eventually got off at downtown to follow some of the walking tour there, but most of my kids were ready to be home, and not interested in walking more, so Savannah continued on, and I took my car full home via the McDonalds drive thru for McFlurries.

McKenzie bought a really cool LEGO set with a dragon. She spent a lot of time putting it together while Rachel and Annie just watched her build. 

There were several afternoons of swimming at Grandma's back yard. The weather during Fall Break continued to be record setting with the latest day that it has hit 100 degrees, so the pool was put to good use by some of the kids.

Puzzles have become a big hit lately. There is always a puzzle being worked on. It makes it hard to use our big whiteboard (I think I know what we're getting for Christmas), but it's good to have something everyone enjoys doing together. 

They'll often turn on a Hank the Cowdog audio book and work for a long time on it. 

We've gone through all of our 300 piece puzzles and are no to our 500 piece puzzles. We'll have to get more soon.

The girls piling up at Grandma's:

Rachel set up this awesome mic stand for Megan's microphone she got from our treasure box. For a couple of days I would walk in on one or more kids singing their hearts out to whatever music they had playing, singing into the mic.

They'll be stars one day.

A screen turns on and everyone flocks to see it. This time it was the Silly Song with Larry: Belly Buttons.

To wrap up Fall Break we decided to go on a very close vacation. Jacob wanted to go some place green, but since monsoon season was a bust this year, and Mt. Lemmon caught on fire, there's not anywhere within 3 hours that is super green. We decided Madera Canyon would be our best bet, so we found a hotel in Green Valley and headed there for an overnight adventure.

Friday Jacob took off from work early and we headed south. Before heading to our hotel we stopped at Tumacácori National Historic Park. With the 4th grade national parks pass it was free to visit (though with Covid, it apparently was free anyway). They had some cool buildings built hundreds of years ago by a mission sent to teach the natives about Christ. 

Some of the kids were super impatient to get to the hotel, so after walking around for a while looking at the church and other buildings we headed to the hotel. The water was super cold, but the hot tub made for a great place to warm up after the kids got too cold in the big pool.

After Chipotle for dinner the kids settled in for movie night at the hotel. We had two adjoining rooms.

We had two adjoining rooms with two double beds in each. Not super spacious, but good enough for one night. And of course the kids loved it. Even Rachel, who normally doesn't like sleeping in a hotel, or anywhere away from her own bed. 

We were up at at 'em early and after a pretty good hotel breakfast we headed up to Madera Canyon. We went on a hike that was a little stressful for some of the kids at the points where we were walking along the side of a steep mountain. The trail was plenty wide to be safe, but seeing the ground dropping off quickly to one side made some of the kids a bit nervous. But we survived.

We did about a mile hike up to the next picnic area where we found an amphitheater. Some of the kids put on a bit of a musical talent show before moving on to climbing a big rock, then hiking back to our original picnic area. 

On the way back we saw two deer, then when we were at the picnic area we saw a squirrel (or maybe a few squirrels), 3 deer including one nursing deer, and some wild turkeys. This inspired Annie, McKenzie and Ryan to build a home for some critters out of rocks and sticks and leaves.

Megan and Peyton explored and had fun off on their own.

Ryan commented several times how much he loves being in nature and that he would like to spend more time in nature. I agree.

On our way home we saw the 3 deer again just down the road. It was a fun trip.

Since we had cleaned the house before we left we were able to come home and veg out watching a movie and playing with cousins for the rest of the afternoon, a perfect way to end Fall Break.