Utah Trip: Memorial Day

Monday was Memorial Day.  Grandma took us around to see the graves of Uncle Aaron, Uncle Denny, Uncle Lyman, Uncle Bill and some of our Cox and Bench relatives.


Andrew's clan met us at the graveyard and the cousin time started.







We went back to Grandma and Grandpa's house for a BBQ and to play with cousins. The kids organized a game of red rover.


I suggested that they should also play duck-duck-goose.




Andrew bought some corn on the cob, and Heidi and Grandma enlisted the kids to help to prep it for dinner.



Jesse barbecued some chicken and hot dogs and Grandma made some delicious potato salad.  Dinner was a big hit.

Someone organized a game of "Mother may I?" These pictures were taken when Megan was the mother.


I'm not sure how the game works when you are riding someone else. I think that makes you a team, right?




Notice how it is overcast but still nice enough to play outside.




I'm not sure what game this is, but it looks fun.




At some point the fun moved inside for a game of beat up Uncle Jesse.






Jesse was a good sport about it.  He said the experience had a sense of deja vu: "It was like being attacked by mini versions of Jacob and Andrew".

Probably the biggest hit of the indoor activities was hitty-pinchy-flatty-cutty-cow.

Utah Trip: Saturday and Sunday

We took a trip to Utah the last week of May to go see the family in Provo. Friday (May 24) was the last day of school.  The next day we drove to Provo.  The kids did great on the way up (and the way back).

We arrived late Saturday night and went to Church with Mom and Dad. Sharon and Jesse came over on Sunday.

The weather forecast said we should expect rain almost every day we would be there and it did rain almost every day, but it was very light and we got to spend a lot of time outside.The kids spent a lot of time feeding the ducks, playing in the backyard, and playing with the oversized legos.

Rachel is Awesome.


And humble.

Last week of school

As busy as the last month of school was, the last week was particularly full. On Tuesday Rachel's ELP teacher planned a special celebration to surprise Rachel. She was totally in the dark and it was a great surprise. Rachel won first place in the state of Arizona in the InvestWrite essay contest that went with the stock unit they did this year in ELP.

A guy from IBM who had worked with the class a little came and presented her with a $25 Amazon gift card and an exclusive apple tote.

A U of A professor that had introduced the stock market game came representing the big kahunas at the state level that couldn't drive down from Phoenix and presented the special certificate saying she got first place and $100!

It was quite an exciting thing for her. Ms. Bradshaw will be much missed by Rachel as she moves on to middle school.

Here's Rachel's 5th grade ELP class.

Tuesday evening Megan and Ryan had their kung fu belt ceremony. Ryan gets to move on to the intermediate group for the next set of classes, so he'll have to stay up later. And Megan earned her yellow belt, but has had enough of kung fu for now. She is just glad to be done.

She actually enjoyed it the whole semester up until the last 3 weeks.

And Ryan is excited to go on to the next level. So he will be able to participate in sparring if he wants to as a green belt (the beginners can't for obvious reasons). 

Megan had her preschool graduation on Wednesday. They sang lots of songs and did a great job. She really loves all her preschool friends.

Megan will miss Mrs. Janeth, but we still see her off and on around church since her ward shares our building.

Megan's graduation certificate tells us her favorite color is blue and when she grows up she wants to be a mom. And she'll be a great mom. I haven't had a kid that loves babies as much as she does.

Thursday was Rachel's 5th grade promotion. She ditched school that morning (at the not so subtle hinting by her teacher that if they wanted to keep their clothes looking nice one of the options was to wait until noon to come to school) and we went shopping for a new dress for her. After a few flops at different stores we found one that she was pleased with. We went home and got ready to go.

Rachel was selected from her class to give a speech. She did a great job and had some good jokes: "instead of starting with four score and seven years ago, maybe Fortnight and 7 games ago would be more appropriate" and sharing some words of wisdom from her favorite headmaster: "Nitwit! Blubber! Oddment! Tweak!" before sharing the real quote: "It is our choices, Harry, that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities." Several friends of mine commented afterwards on how amazing she did in her speech. And she was. 

Here's our 5th grader becoming a middle schooler:

And after the ceremony we got to hang around and take pictures.

Mrs. Chamberlain was a great 3rd and 5th grade teacher for Rachel.

Friday was a half day for the last day of school. But since the 5th graders had been officially promoted the day before they didn't actually have to come to school, so we hosted a graduation party for Rachel's friends while Ryan and Annie were at school. They had a lot of fun hanging out, watching a movie (or half of it, as most of them got distracted before the end), playing games, and eating snacks.

And when the other kids got home we all had popsicles to celebrate. 

Yay for the end of the school year! On to summer!

Camping

Jacob and Ryan went on our ward's Father/Son campout. They had lots of fun, but didn't get any pictures.
Since I knew the girls would be begging us to go camping after they got back, I decided to preempt the camping requests, assuming it would be super hot in June and I wouldn't be super excited about camping then. So we went on a girls' campout that same night. We invited Peyton and McKenzie, too, and Grandma decided to join us, too, thankfully. We went to Catalina State Park to camp. It was my first time there and it was not bad. There were high winds that day, so fire restrictions were in place so we had to use our campstove, but it was fine.

The girls played cards in the tent and had a real good time just hanging out in our (awesome, super easy to put up) tent.

We went on a little hike as the sun was setting. It made for some cool pictures.

Most of the kids slept alright. Megan, however, kicked off the blankets/her sleeping bag every time I put them on her, then would cry about how cold she was. I eventually had to have her come lay with me in my sleeping bag, which didn't fit us both and made me too hot anyway. And I can't sleep with someone touching me, so I didn't sleep incredibly well. But I always go camping expecting a poor night's sleep, so it was alright.

The next morning we packed up early (since the kids were all awake with the sun at 5 am) and headed to Dunkin Donuts for breakfast.

Since we were already close to the temple, we stopped there to meet Justin so he could pick up his girls, and to give the kids a chance to be at the temple, since we don't often make it up that way.

It was a fun campout. Except for how poorly Megan and I slept. Eh. Who needs sleep on a campout? Not us.

May school activities

As school was wrapping up we got really busy. The last 3 weeks in particular were full of juggling activities, running to the store for one more treat to take to yet another party, and attending the last _______ of the year.
Rachel helped at a fundraiser National Elementary Honor Society was putting on at Arby's. She stood outside with a sign and handing out fliers. Annie pitched in, too.

Then we all ate dinner there. The kids were happy to see teachers and friends from school. Especially Annie--more than half the families that were there when we were there had kids in her class.


Annie decided to participate in the Relay for Life assembly at their school where anyone who wanted to (and had parental permission) could cut off at least 8 inches to donate to Pantene Beautiful Lengths to make wigs for cancer patients.

All who participated got a bouquet of flowers as thanks.

Sibling love!

(It doesn't always happen between these two, but I'm always happy when it does.)

Annie and Ava:

Annie and Alexa:

Annie and Sariah and Nevaeh:

Mother's Day was lovely. I was showered with love and homemade cards. And other great treats and stuff. I felt the love.

For a FHE activity we went out into the desert to photograph the pretty flowers that were blooming on the cactus. Rachel was helping with the NEHS induction for next year's 5th graders, but the rest of us had a good time.

And after we picked up Rachel we all went out for smoothies.

I was at the school volunteering during the end of the year Caught in the Act assembly, so I got to see Annie's name drawn recognizing her great citizenship.

She had had a dream about it the night before, so was doubly excited about it. She got to choose a prize, and a couple days later got to eat pizza with the principal.

The next day Annie's class went to the planetarium for a field trip.

Grandma Knight went with her and they had a great time.

The same day was the 1st grade water party. Megan and I went to play in the sprinklers with Ryan and his class.

They had a real fun time, but Megan got cold after a short time so we headed home early.

That same day was also the end of year band concert in the evening. We all went and enjoyed some fun music from both the choir and band.

The following day was the 5th grade water day. It had been warm enough the day before when the 1st graders were running around in the afternoon. But the 5th grade water day was in the morning and was windy and the high was only going to be maybe 80 that day. Rachel and her friends avoided the water for a while.

When the fire truck came about an hour in to the fun, the girls got up and got wet and had some fun.

Rachel of course gave me a big, wet hug.

Rachel had some good friends at DWE. Alexandria and Madisyn won't be going to the same school next year, but Daryne will and she and Rachel have plans to walk to school together.

There were several other activities I didn't snap pictures of, but so far have managed to not forget them. :) Rachel went on a field trip to the middle school she'll be at next year to get familiar with it a bit. Then a few days later they went on a field trip to the same school to watch a drama production there. We all (including Megan and I) went to the school for the big A+ celebration assembly where their school was designated an A+ school by the state board of education. Megan thought it was going to be so exciting, but halfway through she was tired of sitting still. Luckily at about that point some of the teachers got out there and did an awesome dance/rap to spice things up a bit.