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. :)

End of the year

Grandma and Grandpa Campbell got to our house on Christmas night. They stayed for a couple days and the kids enjoyed having them around. Lots of games were played, movies watched, bikes ridden, etc. But we forgot to take pictures of it. Grandma and Grandpa Campbell went to Mesa to have some family time for the rest of the week. We joined them on Saturday.

But first, we had to get a fun visit to Jump in. Jump is a new place with lots of bouncy houses and obstacle courses and slides and such. Grandma Knight and the Tucson Knights came, too.

 Apparently I didn't get many pictures of the other kids since I had to stay close to Megan. I did snap one of everyone on the big jumping pillow.

And a few panoramics of the place.

It was super fun and the kids are hoping to go back sometime soon. Afterwards we headed to Eegees for lunch.

 Eegees is always a winner.

 Later that afternoon we headed up to Mesa to spend time with Jacob's cousins and family. We decided to swing by the Mesa temple to see the temple lights since we haven't been up there at all.

 The visitor's center had a creche display from around the world. This one from Guam was carved into the pages of 3 books. It was amazing. There were lots that were pretty cool.

 The kids were excited to see all the lights outside, and didn't care that the sun hadn't set yet.

 They rather enjoyed the nice grass, too.

 After a little while the kids had had enough of the temple grounds, so we headed over to Susie and Shawn's house to stay overnight. Susie is Jacob's cousin and they have kids Rachel and Ryan's age, and a baby. We enjoyed dinner with them, and the kids had fun together. Susie had to go to the hospital in the morning, so we stayed and watched the kids until the babysitter they had already arranged for showed up so we can go to the airport to pick up Cari and Sharon. I loved how their baby climbed into a box to better reach the toys and be close to the TV while the kids were watching a movie.

 After we got Cari and Sharon we went to Uncle Galen's house for a little while to see Jacob's cousin Russell, then we headed over to his Aunt Nancy's where lots of the cousins that were still in town were headed. The second cousins got to play all afternoon and had so much fun.

 Ryan and Hyrum were buddies playing together all day. Megan joined in with them occasionally.

 Annie loved the tree house they have in their back yard. (So did Sharon and Cari.)

 The tire swing and rope swing and all swings were in constant use. Rachel's arms and abs were sore from swinging on them so much.

 We left about an hour later than we should have, so we had some crankiness on the drive home, but all in all it turned out ok and it was good to see Jacob's extended family that, though they live only 2 hours away, we hadn't seen most of them for probably 4 years.

Because everyone stayed up late Saturday night, as we were driving back from Phoenix, Sunday night on New Year's Eve, everyone needed to go to bed on time, or a little early. We celebrated with fancy cups at dinner, then hot chocolate for a special treat. The pie I had baked went uneaten by the kids until New Year's Day because they were so full from the hot chocolate. Overall it's been a fabulous year, and a fabulous Winter Break. We'll be sad to see Dad go back to work tomorrow, but we're glad we still have the rest of the week for the kids to have off of school for a little more R&R. Happy New Year, everyone!

Christmas!

For Christmas Eve we went in to Grandma and Grandpa's house for our traditional nativity play and dinner. Grandma and I had our Ugly Christmas Sweater T-shirts.

Ryan didn't want to be Joseph or the shepherd or a wiseman or anything except the star. So that's what he was. Jacob and Justin stepped in as the wise guys men.

Megan was Mary. She stuffed a baby in her t-shirt so she could have a fat tummy.

Rachel was the donkey Mary rode on, Annie was a shepherd. And Joseph, too, I think. McKenzie and Peyton were the angel choir.

We wish the Seattle Knights could have been here to help us fill in the cast a bit, but we hear they were the animals we needed for the stable, so they did their part from many miles away.

Rachel and Annie performed some songs on the piano and McKenzie and Peyton performed a choral number for us. They got to open one or two presents from Grandma and Grandpa, then we headed home where they opened some new PJs, then got ready for bed. They all fell asleep more easily than I expected, but of course were open early to find that Santa had come.

Annie got a big Lego Friends set she had been hoping for. Rachel got a solar-powered DIY robot and a bag to hold crochet projects and yarn. Among other things...

Megan was excited about the chapstick and gum. And her magic doodle board.

Ryan's favorites were his ball shooters and walkie talkies.

We should have gotten a picture before we had collected all the wrapping paper, but here is some of the minor Christmas chaos (compared to the full blown chaos with the wrapping paper).

Books always call out to this girl. Before playing with toys or getting dressed she just HAD to read at least half (if not all) of one of her new books.

Jacob was taking all the pictures. But he was there. :)

Megan and her gum. :)

The robot Rachel got turned out to have a million tiny pieces and was rather more complicated than advertised. We'll make it happen, though. :)

Cousins and the rest of the in town family came over and we opened a few more presents.

The big hit were these body balls Grandma and Grandpa Knight got for the cousins. Justin stole one and tried to knock everyone over.

No injuies came from them, but a lot of Christmas Story's "I can't get up!" was happening.

Ryan and his walkie talkies have been huge. He loves that you can go anywhere in our neighborhood and still hear over the walkie talkies.

Megan, instead of getting a big body ball that she would barely fit in, got a horsie ball that she can sit on and bounce around on like a horse. It is awesome. She loves it.