Fall Break-Week 3

We made it through Fall Break! It feels like quite the accomplishment. We certainly get busy during school, running around to after school clubs, doing chores and homework, and trying to keep track of everything. So it was a nice break from all that, but we made up for it by keeping busy in a different way. We tried to schedule in some dull moments, but the kids managed to fill the time with fun anyway.
For the last week of break Savannah also had her fall break with Law School. So we didn't do quite as many things with cousins as we did the other two weeks. I think both sets of kids were happy to have some chill time at home. We did, however, still hang out quite a lot.
Sunday night Grandma had McKenzie and Peyton stay over night since they were on fall break now, too. Annie and Megan wormed their way in and got to join in the sleepover, too. Monday morning Megan, Ryan, and Peyton came to workout group with me while McKenzie, Rachel, and Annie stayed at Grandma's to play games.

 They spent the day going back and forth between everyone's houses having fun.

 At about 3pm we all headed off to the Marana Pumpkin Patch. Family selfie:

 It was fun going with all the Knight clan. We kind of scattered partway through, so I didn't see much of Rachel and Annie, but I think everyone had a good time.
The petting zoo:

 Rubber duckie races:

 The giant slide was a huge hit.

 The mountain of straw is always a big draw, too.

 They fired up the swing ride while we were doing the giant slide over and over and over, so the kids were excited to jump on it.

 They turned a tractor and a fire engine into a playground with a slide attached, but Ryan spent way more time in the driver's seat pushing all the buttons and levers.

 The jumping pillow is Jacob's favorite part of the whole place, and it was a big hit with everyone else (that didn't have back problems), too.

 Motorized tractors:

Real tractors that didn't move: 

 We got there at 3:30, about a half hour after it opened, and stayed almost until it closed at 7pm. When we had to leave Megan was devastated. She cried the whole way out to the car and driving home until we turned on some music, "I don't wanna leave! I don't wanna leave!" Definitely lots of fun was had (even though we didn't actually get any pumpkins) at the pumpkin patch.

Tuesday Ryan went to play with his friend, Donovan while I went to a YW presidency meeting. Megan was excited to finally be allowed to go to a meeting with me--she usually is very sad when I leave her at home to go to a meeting. She realized after a while that meetings aren't that exciting. After Ryan came back from his playdate, we headed to Bookman's and all the kids except Rachel got to finally use their $10 gift card from Bookman's that they get every birthday. (Ryan has had his since March, so it's been a long time coming.)

Wednesday Rachel headed to the temple with friends while the rest of us went to workout group, and stayed after for a baby shower for one of our workout buddies. Partway through workout group I got a phone call from the bathroom remodeling people that were supposed to have called the day before to tell me when to expect them (but didn't call), telling me they were at the house. I ran home to let them in and headed back to the church for the rest of workout group.

We came home to the demolition guy making good progress:

 We left Thursday for Patagonia Lake and came back on Friday to some progress:

At Patagonia Lake we had a good time. We went with the Allens, Reimanns, Grace/Parkers, and the Knights. We set up camp and the kids headed down to play at the beach for a while. That night we had one fire set up for all of us (I think we figured 7 adults and 21 kids, plus 4 more adults and 2 more kids that came on Friday to play).

We realized after not too long that we should have gotten two fires going to make roasting hot dogs and marshmallows and warming up a little easier. Live and learn.

The kids mostly slept ok, except Rachel who had a hard time sleeping, and Megan, who had a tummy ache. And when Megan is tired and not feeling well she has no volume control, so I took her into the van to try and contain the yelling and not wake up everyone else in the campground. She fell right asleep and just woke up off and on through the night, falling asleep pretty quickly each time. I tried sleeping on the back bench of the van very unsuccessfully. After 2 or 3 hours I moved to the passenger's seat and dozed off and on for 30-45 minute intervals for the rest of the night.

The next morning we had breakfast then broke camp.

 We managed to find a geocache and the kids ran around enjoying the great outdoors. Then Ryan wiped out playing tag, or something, and cut up his knee pretty good. There was a decent sized flap of skin and after trying to wash it out with water squirting out of a water bottle, I figured we probably needed to take him to the doctor and have it cleaned well, and probably stitched up.
Thankfully, Justin and Todd had driven down and arrived less than a half hour before in my mom's car. So we were able to take off in her car and everyone else was able to stay and play for the day. That was one of the little miracles of the day. If it had been the night before or even an hour before we may have packed up everything and had the whole family leave to take him to the doctor, but having the smaller car available to take let us leave the van that would fit everyone else to drive up later. Ryan was having a lot of pain and was having a hard time calming down, so when Jacob offered a blessing he said yes, he wanted a blessing. But he didn't have consecrated oil, and no one else did, until Savannah remembered that she had been meaning to take Todd's keys out of her backpack all week long, but never had gotten around to it, so they were still there with a vial of consecrated oil. Then as I was packing the last of what we were taking with us in my mom's car I remembered the children's Tylenol I had grabbed on impulse as we were loading up the car, and got it out for Ryan. That kicked in about 10 minutes later and greatly eased his pain. All those things seem like little miracles to help make Ryan's wipe out a little easier to deal with.

So I drove Ryan back to Tucson and to Urgent Care, with a stop off at McDonald's to grab lunch. By the time we checked in and ate our lunch we were getting called back to our room to get checked in. The quick check in did not translate to a quick visit. It was at least 45 minutes before we were seen by the doctor or nurse practitioner, during which time Ryan played on the iPad and I fell asleep a couple of times.

They cleaned out the wound and put in two stitches with Ryan turning white as a ghost a few times from the pain. But he didn't cry, just expressed his fear and pain very articulately, considering. We kept him distracted by him playing this fraction/decimal game on the iPad--he's a number's boy and doing math solves problems. (Get it?) :) 
When we were done he decided he wanted a Slurpee, but since 7-11 wasn't close by and Target was and had Icee's (which are the same thing), we headed there to get it for him. And found a fancy iced cookie that had "Ryan's World" on it. It cheered him right up. He was proud of how tough he had been, and so was I.

 He wouldn't let me take a picture of his wound while we were at the doctor, but a couple of days later he told me it was ok to take a picture of his stitches now that it's starting to heal.

We've got to go back to snip off the stitches in two weeks.

Meanwhile, back at Patagonia Lake the kids were having a grand old time.

Showers were definitely in order when they got home. They all had a great time, though. And despite the stitches, everyone was happy we got to go camping with good friends at Patagonia.

Then Saturday we did our one last adventure of Fall Break: Disney on Ice. Jacob wasn't interested in going with us, so we went with Grandma and some of the Knight cousins. Todd wasn't interested, but when Savannah wasn't feeling well on Saturday, Todd ended up taking his kids, anyway.

 There was 2 hours of awesomeness. Megan was ready to leave about 15 minutes before the end, so she lasted pretty well. Besides ice skating, there were some acrobatics on trampolines and on ropes from the ceiling, catapults, and other exciting elements.
Beauty and the Beast:

 Toy Story (the green army men were most of the kids' favorite part):

 Coco:

 Aladdin with lots of pyrotechnics:

And lots of others. We met Jacob at Chick Fil-A to eat, then headed home to veg out for the rest of the day. A regular Sunday, and now the kids are back to school and another quarter of learning and fun.

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.

Fall break--week 1

The kids get 3 weeks off of school for fall break. It has been really nice not keeping to the regular school schedule running here and there and all the afternoon activities and homework, but we have still managed to stay pretty busy, while thankfully keeping some days free to stay home and clean/organize/relax.

The first day of break we went to workout group and let the kids run around and have fun in the church building while I worked out, then headed to the park to meet up with some friends. Rachel and some friends decided to go on a bike ride instead of playing at the park. They took a little longer getting back than planned, so finally my mom came to get Sammy and Ben and Megan who were so ready to go home. When Rachel and friends returned we headed home and Annie brought a couple friends home from the park with us to play. One of the kids' favorite parts of fall break is the TV ban during the week is lifted so they usually get to watch a movie or a couple shows at some point during the day.

Rachel got to go over to her friend Alexandria's house along with a few other friends from 5th grade. They went to separate middle schools, so they had a good time getting the crew back together a little.

Tuesday and Wednesday turned out to be very rainy days so the horse camp Jared and Eloise were going to for the week was canceled. We were planning to have Sammy and Ben bouncing back and forth between our house and Grandma's, so it wasn't a big deal to add a couple more to the fray. My kids cleaned and sorted through clothes to give away the ones that are too small or they don't wear and to get out pants and long sleeves that have been packed away for months in case it ever gets cold in the next couple months.
Around lunchtime we all headed to the library and found a plethora of good books.

 Megan is getting better at reading and Sammy was happy to have her read to him (with some help).

The next day we all went to see Aladdin and it was really good. I think. The parts I saw anyway. ;)  I lost count of how many times I had to leave to take a kid to the bathroom. 

Thursday Eloise and Jared were back at horse camp and Grandma was at her temple shift, so we just chilled at our house. The kids had a good time playing together and got out all sorts of toys and games. 

Thursday night was a stake sports night. Rachel had told me when I asked her if she wanted to go that she didn't. Then when a friend called to ask for a ride she changed her mind. Then another friend and another friend needed a ride so we made a mad dash to pick up everyone and got there about 15 minutes late. They had a good time playing volleyball.

Friday I headed off on our Laurel High Adventure (the last one, apparently, since "Laurels" don't exist in the church anymore). It was a rainy morning so we had to keep postponing our departure time since our first activity was rappelling and rappelling in the rain is not safe, because of the slippery rocks. We finally got off around 1pm and had a real good time. My mom and Savannah took charge of my kids until Jacob got home to take over.

We camped at Catalina State Park then headed to the Biosphere 2 the next morning.

It was a cool tour and pretty interesting to see all the science experiments they are working on there. And to see all the infrastructure it takes to try and replicate God's creations.

After lunch we headed over to the zipline place in Oracle.

It was pretty fun.

Compared to other years' it was a lot shorter and closer, but at least it allowed more girls to be able to come that wouldn't have been able to come if it was a 2 night thing farther away from home. There was some good bonding. And to be honest, I was glad to get home after one night camping. Sleeping outdoors is not my favorite part of camping, because I don't actually sleep.