Science fair, rock show, and YW stuff

So far February has been full of good things. Rachel received 2nd place in her grade on her science fair project, so she gets to go on to SARSEF, the regional science fair.

 She was happy to see that all her hard work paid off. She tested reaction times of kids by dropping a meter stick and seeing how quickly after they saw it drop that they could catch it. Then she compared reaction times of those who played musical instruments and those who played sports.

It's always nice when the kids play nicely together for a while. One day I went to see why I hadn't heard from the kids for a while. They were playing school. :)

 Annie has been looking forward to the Gem and Mineral Show that comes every year in February. She saved up her money and brought many new treasures home with her. We made a family outing of it and had a good time, though it was a bit hotter than it should have been the first weekend in February.

 By the end the kids were all parched and hot, so we decided to get an overpriced lemonade, but only had enough cash on hand for one, so we got 4 straws and everyone shared, gulping as fast as they could to make sure they got their fair share.

 Ryan had a couple weeks off of karate after his belt test and was SO ready to get back into it.

 In Young Women we had New Beginnings in the midst of all the trek preparation.

The New Beginnings theme was Opening Ceremonies for Young Women 2018.

 It turned out pretty awesome with torch cupcakes our expert YW frosted and the olympic decor and torches all around while we talked about "Go for the gold" to work on Personal Progress toward their Young Womanhood Recognition award.

 Another trek prep hike was less attended than the first, but pretty nice weather and a pretty hike. Some of the kids decided the train trestle was perfect for climbing on.

 The boys got up pretty high, but no one died, so this goes down as another successful hike.

 At the end we actually met up with the Wolf Den from our ward's cub scouts. We didn't know we were planning a hike in the same place, so it was kind of funny. We all got to hike back to the cars together.

With trek next week during Rodeo Break we'll finally be able to get back into a normal swing of things in Young Women. With the temple dedication and cultural celebration, year end stuff, beginning of year stuff, and trek prep, we've had a lot of mutual plans taken up with all those activities and hardly any class activities, so it will be nice to get back into a regular routine.

Lunar eclipse

When we heard about the lunar eclipse, we were happy to find that it was happening at a reasonable hour when we would already be awake (6-7am-ish) instead of the middle of the night. We prepared a portable breakfast so we could go down to the train tracks as the moon was setting since we figured our neighbors' houses would block it when it got low. Jacob did manage to get several good pictures of the red moon from our house, though.

 By the time we got down by the train tracks the sky was lightening with dawn so much that it was hard to see the eclipsed moon. This was one of the last pictures that we got that we could actually see the moon.

Turns out, heading down to the tracks wasn't really all that worth it, since we couldn't see the moon at moonset, since the sky was too bright and the moon too dim, anyway.

Looking eastward, however, was a beautiful misty sunrise.

 The kids were just excited to be out on an adventure, and with chocolate muffins for breakfast.

The last of January

The 4th grade performance was in January and we got to go see Rachel and friends perform. They had some great songs with fun lyrics all put to classic songs like Für Elise and      .They did a great job.

Annie got to go to a birthday party and Pump it Up. She had a blast on all the blow up slides, obstacle courses, and such.

For my birthday I decided it would be fun to host a game night. I have 2 friends that have the same birthday as me, so we invited them and their spouses, and one more couple to make it even. We put the kids upstairs in our bedroom watching a movie so we could play in peace and it worked out pretty well. We just wished we could have played a little longer. One of the couples brought this game to introduce to us, which we all enjoyed.

Jacob got me a fire pit so we can roast hot dogs and marshmallows without having to go camping. We had a successful inaugural run and Ryan was as entranced with the fire as you would expect him to be. :)

Unfortunately we weren't as careful about closing the back door when people were going in and out of the house as we should have been, so it took a little effort to get the smoke smell out of our house, but it was gone within a day or two.

Megan always has definite ideas about what she will or will not wear. A few months ago this dress was a total no go.

 Now she wants to wear it every week. She loves how poofy it is. :)

Jacob being attacked by the kids needing a little tickle therapy:

Our next door neighbors were so generous and gave us a huge box full of art supplies. They said they were so grateful for our Christmas cards and treats that we give them every year (which is like a small plate of goodies, not meriting a huge box of Crayola brand stuff) and the chalk decorations the kids did for Christmas.

The kids were super excited and have loved all the awesome stuff. They got several large boxes of crayons, lots of coloring books, including some intricate coloring books for the older girls, glitter markers, smelly markers, metallic markers, colored pencils, twistable colored pencils, twistable crayons, fine point markers, glitter glue, sidewalk chalk, paints, glue, and probably a few other things I've forgotten.

We're going to have them over for dinner one of these days.

Annie has been doing Mileage Club this year. They run during lunch recess twice a week and have races once a month where they try to beat their time from the previous month. Annie's friend, Emilee, does it too. Here they are coming into the finish line:

Megan has been begging for a playdate with her friends Mikaela and Mckenzie who are triplets (with a brother). We finally managed to set one up when they were planning on going to Jump!, a new place in town that the kids love, and is relatively cheap.

They had so much fun, but Megan was pretty content knowing her friends were in the building, not worrying too much about actually doing anything with them. ;)

Ryan spent at least half the time there playing with the games that are projected on the floor. They change every couple minutes. This one was a working piano.

I got to go out to Saguaro National Park for a trek prep hike with the youth. Half the youth missed a turn and ended up at the wrong trail head. Luckily all the leaders who drove ended up back at our cars, so we drove to pick them up.

The scenery was beautiful, and since we only lost 2/3 of the youth for a little while, not permanantly, we'll call it a successful hike. :)

I got back from that hike to my family getting ready to go on a hike, Jacob meant to be gone before I got back so I could have some quiet down time, but instead I joined them for a while until Megan and Ryan were ready to turn back. Jacob, Rachel and Annie continued on to find the bridge that crosses the wash near our house for the "shortcut" to the kids school. Though the gate there was locked.

It would be a great shortcut that we could actually bike ride through the desert to the school instead of along busy roads. I wonder if it's unlocked on school days... maybe I'll have to go check it out.

Annie and Rachel got BookIt certificates to Pizza Hut, which they brought home maybe 5 days before they expired. The day they were expiring, Rachel went to a stake activity day with Grandma Knight, and they ended up going out to lunch afterwards, so I took Annie to Pizza Hut and used Rachel's certificate for myself. :)

Annie loved ordering her own personal pizza, and the root beer and the sit down restaurant one on one with Mom was a bonus.


It was a great, full month.

More of January

We've had maybe 2 or 3 days of real winter so far, but mornings are cold enough to make my Tucson kids run for their coats. Megan found her hat, too, to help her bundle up.

Ryan has been really enjoying his karate class. Or kung fu or whatever they do. I'm real informed.

They had a belt test in January and he earned a rank advancement from white to yellow belt. It was pretty late for an elementary-aged event, so I stayed home to put the kids to bed, and Jacob went with him. He was happy to have Grandma show up, too, even though she was pretty exhausted from just getting back from Washington and traveling all day.

Megan has asked to do ballet for a few months, so we finally signed her up for a 6 week session, and she is absolutely loving it.

The youth in our ward were in charge of a priest/laurel dance for the area. They chose the theme of decades, so I was pulling out things for the photo booth when Ryan saw the afro and decided it was time to get all dressed up.

Yes, he's got on a tutu, dinosaur slippers, a doctor vest, afro, and bat ears.

Here's our set up crew at the stake dance.

I wish I had gotten more pictures. We had an awesome 50s diner set up on the stage serving milkshakes with the best "drive thru" sign ever.

On Martin Luther King Day we went and picked up Jacob from work half way through the day so he could accompany us to see Coco at the theaters, then we headed up to a hike on the north side of town, near the temple.

We were checking it out to see if there was a way to go on the hike, then get into the neighborhood of the temple easily for a hike we were planning for the youth to help get ready for trek. It didn't work out as we had hoped, but the family enjoyed the hike and we realized we should get out on more hikes while the weather is cooperating (not 100+ degrees).

The kids especially liked the tunnel we passed under.

And since we were already so close to the temple, we stopped for a quick visit.

That night Rachel and Annie decided it would be hilarious if they dressed up like Mom and Dad. It was pretty funny. The clothes didn't quite fit right. 😁

January update

January has come and gone in a blur. Thankfully we have some pictures to remind us of some of what we've done.

Jacob got a cheap VR headset (basically Google Cardboard) that works with your phone for Christmas. But of course it doesn't fit over his glasses, so he can't actually use it. The kids like riding the roller coaster app, and running through the maze app. Megan loves the roller coaster (or train, as she calls it).

 We had a hawk come visit our back yard.

 When I opened the back door to get a better picture he flew to the wall, then when the kids came to look at him he flew to a neighbor's roof, where he watched a small yapping dog in another yard for a while. We think this is a Cooper's Hawk.

 We decided to go explore a park that we heard got a new playground installed recently. Ryan LOVED this version of a merry-go-round.

It was purposely made to not be able to spin so fast you fly off of it. It is kind of hard to push, but the kids kept begging the adults around to push them. We'd give in for a while until we got too tired, then the kids would jump back to work. It's good for them. :)

Jacob joined Annie on the slides.

Over all the playground got two thumbs up for some climbing features and the ball merry-go-round.

Ryan loves his walkie talkies he got for Christmas. Goof ball picture. :)

Ryan and Megan loved these blank books and filled them with pictures and coloring. Ryan still pulls his out to look at and show us on a regular basis.

Over Christmas Ryan pestered me over and over to ride to his school so we could know how long it would take if he rode to/from school. We finally made it out, then just before we were leaving our neighborhood Annie crashed and got her knees pretty scraped up. A nice mom heard her cries and came out with wipes and bandaids to patch her up, then Annie and Rachel headed home to chill while Ryan, Megan and I continued on our ride.

Ryan loved it, and once school was back in session he was all gung ho to ride his bike to school. But his mother is not about to go bike riding in the cold-ish weather of winter morning, mild though it may be here in Tucson. So we compromised with bringing his bike to school, and me riding to pick him up after kindergarten every once in a while. The weather is perfect at that time of day, at least for another month or two. :)