Ryan's 11th birthday

 Ryan is 11! We were in Sierra Vista for his birthday, so he opened presents and we had our family celebration with Grandma and Grandpa on Sunday after his birthday. Ryan and Jacob got matching ties out of the Campbell tartan.

Ryan was pretty excited to get a pogo stick. He's gotten pretty good at it, as have the other kids, to varying degrees.

Coconut cake: Ryan's and Grandpa's favorite.

We set Ryan's birthday party for the week after his birthday and made invitations. The evening after he took the invitations to school we found out that the Air Show was going to be the same day. 🤦 We had the party late enough that we could go in the morning, but not nearly as long as we would have liked. Especially because we got stuck in a line that took WAY longer than it was worth. But the planes were cool and everyone had a good time, thought Jacob wished we could have seen more. Nice of them to plan the air show around Ryan's birthday every time. 

Back home we had Ryan's birthday party. Ryan got a TON of nerf guns. They played games, had cake and presents and watched a movie. A good time was had by all. 

Ryan is a great peacemaker and problem solver. He has great sportsmanship and is a good leader. Sometimes his leadership skills lead other kids to be crazy, but most of the time he uses us gifts for good. He's a great friend and is always quick to make friends with people he meets. He's started learning coding and is the fastest typer out of the kids. He works on his computer skills as much as we let him, and his latest favorite things to do on screens are Bloons, Nitro typing, and Minecraft. We're happy to have Ryan in our family and excited to see what middle school brings for him.

Spring Break

 #RyanPosts

We R moving rooms here and Rachel and Annie were switching rooms. Up is Rachel's junk stuff. Below is Annie's junk stuff.

We were going to go to Phoenix over spring break, and dad wanted to go to Phoenix's Red Robin, but we changed plans to Sierra Vista, so we went to Red Robin here in Tucson.

We had a party on Sunday with people from our ward that Mom and Dad minister to, and a few others, to come over to have ice cream sundaes. Our ward and part of another ward were combined over spring break, so it was good to get to know some people a little better before the changes.

Pi day! We had chicken pot pie for dinner on pi day (3/14). We also went to the Ollerton's house for a pi day party where we all brought pie to share. It was delicious.

The Desert Willow Ward was formed in 2008 just before April conference, and it was dissolved this year mid March, so it was in existence for 15 years. The Rita Ranch Ward and Desert Willow Ward were combined, except for a part that went to the Mica Mountain ward. Now we're in the Desert Sky Ward. It was a little of a slow start, but most callings are covered now, though I know many are still pending. Grandma Knight was called as the new Young Women President, so that is fun to have her in with the Young Women. She's doing a great job.

With the change of wards and no leaders primary activities were canceled over Spring Break, which was a huge disappointment to Megan, so we decided to just hold our own activity. We invited everyone in primary activities and most of them came. Annie helped lead some activities and they all had a good time and were super excited to get together. It was good to get to know a few of the new girls who we weren't familiar with. 

The kids played many games over Spring Break, including Ryan's new Tetris game.

We decided to take a mini family vacation to Sierra Vista to wrap up Spring Break. We started with a horseback ride at a stable on Ft. Huachuca base. Everyone enjoyed the horseback ride and we'd be happy to do it again. 

Since we were already on base we decided to visit a museum there and saw a little of the history of the area, including the Mormon Battalion marching through there. We went to the mall to watch Puss in Boots (maybe our first time back to the movie theaters since Covid?), then checked into our Airbnb. Enjoying some ice cream, Culvers and movie night made for a relaxing evening.

The next morning we packed up and headed to Bisbee to check out the historic town. Main street was cool looking and old fashioned. We only walked Main Street for a short time, then we headed over to get ready for the mine tour.

We donned vests, lights, and helmets and headed in to the mine on the train. The tour guide explained about the rich copper history of the area and the history of the mine. It was interesting, but a little long for Megan's taste. She would have been happy if it was just 2/3 as long.

The last leg of our vacation was the Cove at Sierra Vista. It's an indoor water park with a wave pool, 2 large slides, a smaller slide, and a large hot tub.

We lured the kids out of the pool with the promise of Dippin' Dots which we ate at the park outside The Cove before heading back to Tucson. It was a nice to not have to drive far, but to still be able to have a vacation and spend some quality family time together before heading back to school the following Monday.

Snow much fun

 Towards the end of February we had more snow that we usually have here in Tucson. The first snow fall happened during the nitric acid spill, so we were stuck inside under shelter in place orders. We looked at the acid snow from inside, but never went out to play in it. 

The following week was Rodeo Break. It did not snow in Tucson, but the Wednesday of that week, the day before trek started, all the Mas and Pas and other leaders were at the trek site getting ready and it snowed there. Luckily the 3 days of trek were nice weather. Then the day after we returned, Sunday morning, it snowed here in Tucson. Later that same week, on Thursday it snowed again, and stuck really well. 

The desert is beautiful when it snows. 

The next day was bright and sunny and warm. Megan and Ryan had field day at school, sweating by the end of it by the end of their time outside, on the same field where they were playing in the snow the day before. It was a fun way to end the 3rd quarter and kick off Spring Break.

Annie invited friends over for a party to kick off Spring break. She's found great friends at school this year, for which we are super grateful. Sofia, Annie, Courtney and Laura:

Ryan wrapped up another Hoopz season, with their team getting 2nd place again. We're so grateful for Coach Kevin and for Ryan and Derek's friendship. It was a great group of kids.

End of February

The third Saturday of February is always Vail Pride Day out at the fair grounds where the school district shows off all the great things the kids are doing. There are also lots of vendors and clubs that set up booths giving away stuff to advertise, and selling stuff to make money. Megan visited the Truly Nolan table and held a cockroach. 

Annie and Ryan both had band performances. Ryan's happened to be the same time that Megan had Academic Jeopardy.

Megan's team won first place! 

I also helped out at Cienega's CatFrat PTO table for part of the day. We took a picture with this year's board: Kiki Ngo, Maryanne Freddette, me, and Briana Cota.

Annie's band performance was with all the district middle schools combined. They were supposed to rehearse earlier in the week, but it was canceled because a semi carrying a load of nitric acid crashed on the freeway between Rita and Kolb and everyone within a mile and a half were under a shelter in place order, so school was canceled for everyone and we stayed inside with AC and heaters turned off for a little over 24 hours. It was a crazy. Turns out the semi driver had over 5 times the legal limit of alcohol in his blood. 

Anyway, back to Vail Pride Day. They didn't get to practice ahead of time, but did great. Mr. Constantine (who taught at Desert Sky last year, but not this year) led the combined bands in playing Danger Zone from Top Gun and wore a safety vest and used traffic wands to conduct. It was hilarious. Annie said she had a hard time playing because she was having a hard time not laughing.

Ryan participated in the Math Bowl and did a great job. Their team got 3rd place out of all the elementary schools in the district.

Ryan and his best friend Derek got to do math bowl together. Ryan went home with Derek to hang out together more that afternoon.

Megan showed us her art work.

While we were at Vail Pride Day, Rachel was at home with Lydia finishing their quarter project for physics: a marble run. 

They went a little over board and did a great job, getting the best (longest) time of the class. Rachel drew Harry Potter in each of the 5 sections of the marble run and made it look extra cool.

The following week, Megan's class got to go on a field trip to the Canoa Ranch. It was a slightly rainy day, and the activities were a little lame, but just going on a field trip was fun for her and her class. 

Annie had a good time playing basketball this year. 

She was on a team with her good friend, Courtney. At the awards banquet at the end of the season they both received awards. Annie got the coach's award for her great attitude and always being willing to go out and work hard, and encouraging others, too. That is very descriptive of Annie. She looks on the bright side, and helps others to do the same. 

The other highlight of February for Annie was getting a new teacher for language arts and social studies. Her teacher first quarter was great, but ended up moving, and the replacement was not a good teacher, but besides just not teaching well, she was rude and unkind and talked badly about her students and the administration and was very unprofessional. Thankfully, she moved on (with encouragement from admin) and they found Ms. Samuels who was a big blessing. Annie has often come home since Ms. Samuels took over and talked about how awesome school is now. She has great friends, good teachers, and life is just good all around. 
 

In other new teacher news, Mr. Knox was offered an opportunity for a doctorate that he couldn't pass up, so the school started hunting for a new band director. Rachel was invited to be on the hiring committee, so she got to sit in on all the interviews. They ended up being able to hire a band director and an assistant band director, so next time they need to replace a band director it'll be a little bit smoother transition, hopefully, since it would be unlikely that they would lose two in the same year. 

Rachel's band had a performance right after rodeo break, with an Americana theme. It was great. They've got a lot of talented musicians.