Tucson Campbells

Campbell cousins and Thanksgiving

Jesse arrived Tuesday evening, and the Campbell Clan got here Wednesday evening. Then the excitement never ended until they left this morning. 10 cousins, 21 people total under one roof for 3 days and 4 nights made for lots of excitement.

We did Thanksgiving dinner it two shifts. With the Campbells and the Knights all coming for dinner we had 33 people here, and even with our folding chairs and benches and maybe even our patio chairs it would have been pushing it to have a place for everyone to fit. Besides that parents never actually eat peacefully when they have to keep getting up to serve their kids. So we had the kids go first, then sent them upstairs and showed a movie on our big screen projector while the adults enjoyed Thanksgiving dinner in relative peace.

There was a lot of time spent outside in our back yard, a trip to the park every day, games, drawing, and toys to keep everyone occupied all weekend.

Friday night we had a movie night watching Home Alone.

Many adults got sucked in to trying to solve our Perplexus Maze.

We filled our days with lots of fun with aunts and uncles and cousins. We're glad everyone came (but we really missed Lisa, though we were able to Skype with her for a couple hours on Thanksgiving). Thanks for driving for hours on end to be here on Rachel's special day! We love you! Come back anytime!

Knight cousins

Since Rachel turned 8, she is now old enough to get baptized. In our stake they do stake baptisms the 4th Saturday of the month, which, lucky for us, meant her baptism would fall on Thanksgiving weekend. It was nice because almost all of our families would be able to come. Only one aunt had to work the day before and after Thanksgiving, so she was the only one who couldn't make it. (We missed you, Lisa!)

The Seattle Knights were able to come a week early, and we let Rachel and Annie miss a half day of school and a full day of school of their choosing to spend time with cousins while they were here. Rachel got to go on a hike with them. Annie went to the Children's Museum. We got in many visits to various parks. We went to Chuck E Cheese. We had a picnic/bike riding adventure at a park and celebrated B's and Rachel's birthdays.

At the park Megan assumes the position.

Her hair is her comfort blanket. Whenever she drinks milk or water or juice she'll hold her cup with one hand, her hair with the other. This is also how she falls asleep.

Annie was not into the idea of going bike riding. She was happy to play on the playground the whole time. She has gotten really good at doing the monkey bars.

Digging for worms in our garden is a favorite pastime.

Megan was fascinated with baby Sammy.

She did NOT like to share her toys with him, but as long as her favorite toys weren't involved she thought he was pretty cool.

We're so glad they could come visit for a couple weeks and spend Thanksgiving and Rachel's baptism with us. We've got a couple more days to cram in a little more cousin fun before they head back to Washington.

Rachel's 8th Birthday

Rachel turned 8 a little over a week ago. It's a big one and she was excited about it. Since her birthday fell on a Friday she wanted to do her party on her actual birthday. Knowing we probably wouldn't get to most of the family gifts until the next day because of the party, we let her open one gift that morning when she was all ready for school nice and early. She opened a new lego set and it kept her (and her siblings) busy all afternoon so they didn't keep asking me if it was time for the party yet. Rachel built all the things in the idea booklet that came with it: an alligator, train, jeep, and flower.

For her party we decided on a movie night, since we usually do those Friday evenings anyway. We had pizza, did gifts then the cake, then headed in for the movie.

Since Rachel had been diagnosed with pneumonia the day before, we took her candle off the cake when she blew it out so she wouldn't spray germs all over the cake. (Her doctor did say that she could go right back to school that same day as far as contagiousness went, so we figured we didn't have to postpone the party.)

Saturday morning she got to open the rest of her presents.

Her favorite was her special quilt that I made for her.

She picked out the fabric toward the beginning of the year, and I put it together mostly since school started back in July. I'm pretty proud of how it turned out, as it's the first quilt I made all by myself. Except that Grandma Knight tied it for us.

As Rachel turns 8, she is an excellent student. She excels in reading, writing, math, and pretty much everything in school. She is happy to get to participate in the 2nd grade enrichment club at her school, which is by invitation only. Her school also recently hired a reading enrichment specialist, so while Rachel's class does reading, Rachel goes to this other teacher's classroom and gets to do some higher level stuff. She and I are both happy that they're finally doing enrichment for her. Though her teacher, Mrs. Curtin, really does a good job and making her work at her level.
Rachel is an excellent piano player. She has gotten over the hump of moving hands while playing (previously she was playing in only C or G positions). She was really frustrated for a week or two, but has really caught on well and is really enjoying her ability to sight read Christmas songs and play not just what she is assigned in her piano lessons, but songs that she wants to play.
She is caring and a good big sister. She really does set a good example most of the time for her siblings, and I know she sets a good example for her friends and is a good missionary. Some of her favorite things include reading (Geronimo Stilton is a new favorite), gymnastics, reading, Rescue Bots, Jake and the Neverland Pirates, reading, piano, riding her bike, and books. We're glad to have Rachel in our family and see her grow and learn.

Rachel's field trip

Wednesday, the day before Rachel got diagnosed with pneumonia, she had a field trip to the Desert Museum. I got to go along as a chaperon and we had a good time. One time Rachel got kind of weak and pale, so we stopped for a little while and she felt better after a little snack. I was glad I was along.

Her little friend was quite a talker. "Mrs. Campbell did you know...?" "Mrs. Campbell come look at this!" "Mrs. Campbell can I tell you something?" The other girl in our group was much more subdued.