The first bird leaves the nest.....August 23rd 2019

How did 18 years go so fast... Just dropped our oldest off at her dorm. It brought me right back to her first day of kindergarten. Bella had a friend who was in a different neighborhood so she was supposed to go to a different school but her mom registered her to go to Bella's school. She knew if her daughter had one true friend that her shy daughter would have a good experience. Last night Bella got a text from someone she met at the U of A orientation a couple of months ago, asking her to meet him at the science department mixer, knowing that if he had one friend he would have fun. Walking into the dorm today a fellow freshman said hey are you looking for new friends too?! My outgoing, smart, friendly and good looking daughter (she's like my brunet twin) will be just fine.

At Benjamin's UofA graduation 15 years ago.

The siblings take in one more swim while their sister still lives at home..

One more sunset on the balcony while she lives at home...get the idea :)

luckily she is only 20 minutes away!

Ohhhhh Mexicooooo

Sharon and Scot Bell invited us to go with them to their vacation property in Mexico....we were so excited to go!! We have never traveled to Mexico beyond Nogales or on a pit stop from a cruise ship. The Bells's place is amazing. It is oceanfront property. Close to an estuary perfect for jet skis. The Bells also brought down the quads and we drove those around. We buggie boarded, hunted for shells and dove off sound cliffs into rolling hills of sand. It was so lovely and relaxing. The Bells also hosted Sharon's brothers family, and their daughter Brooke and her kids were there too. This place is BIG. There were plenty of kids to entertain our kids and plenty of beds. We rotated kitchen and cooking duties and even made it into to town for authentic food. We were in heaven! The Bells are basically who Benjamin and I would like to grow up to become, friendly, kind, the belief that there is always room for one more, optimistic and treats others like family... It was a great weekend. We didn't run into any problems going south of the boarder so we gotta go again!

"Oh, Mexico
It sounds so sweet with the sun sinking low
The moon's so bright like to light up the night
Make everything all right"

First Day of School August 2019

First day of school pictures. August 1st 2019 How did the summer go by so fast?!

                                                                 Parkin 7th grade

Holman Freshman year

Olivia Junior year

Adrianna 4th grade

Bella will be a freshman in a couple of weeks... Only 4 kids at school right now, the last time that happened was 6 years ago. Time flies!

The never ending project actually ended!

Last year I found a female carpenter in Tucson on Facebook. She had several furniture pieces that she had redone and they were beautiful. I explained what I was looking for and she quoted me $500 cheaper than what I had found online. I was so excited I hired her and sent her a deposit. Months went by...my name was still on the bottom of the projects list. Finally, 6 months and I had had it. I contacted her and had her send me the deposit back. I was so frustrated with the wasted time. I started looking at furniture that I could redo and change to look like what I wanted. I bought an entertainment center on Craigslist for $300. My thought was I would save a lot of money and possibly find a new hobby I enjoy....that did not happen. It was the worst. Sanding proved to be so terrible I tried many different methods all were arduous and time-consuming. Probably more than me figuring out that I didn't want to be a carpenter was the major inconvenience this was to Benjamin. He helped with sanding, painting and constructing the doors so that we could close off the TV... the project ate up much of his free time. When possible hire a dog groomer. When possible hire a mechanic to change your oil. When possible buy finished furniture. NEVER. AGAIN.

Well done Benjamin. It seems your reservoir of talents runs very deep. As Meatloaf once sang, "Oh I would do anything for love, Oh I would do anything for love, but I won't do that. No, I won't do that." Thank you, Benjamin, for doing that. Benjamin saved us $1300 if you don't count time...but I have learned one should always count time. Thanks babe!

Swim team season wrap up

Another great swim season wrapped up. Our community pool is straight out of the "Sand Lot" movie. The movie is based on the era of the 60's when neighborhoods would gather to play baseball and swim at the community pool. Our pool stays open till 9 pm, families come and make it an evening. People from all over the east side drive in to be a part of this team 1) it is the most affordable private pool 2) the people are so friendly. The snack bar has a tab..unless you are at a country club tabs don't exist anymore 3) Nothing about this pool is trying to make a profit. The fees are low just to cover bills and salaries and the snack bar is the cheapest in the city ( I price the snack bar items, my motto is "keep it low keep it a family show"). We love this place. Bella and Olivia's first job was here. Olivia still works as a coach and guard. It was a crazy busy summer. All the kids missed several weeks of practice and competition because of camps and family vacations but they still improved times, got good exercise and had fun.

For championships, the kids drew names and picked a secret swimmer to do kind things for. I made these drawstring bags with the team logo and the swimmer's name. They were adorable!! They got some cute things from their secret swimmer too. It's a fun bonding activity that I always put off until the night before..

Our team one the title of ous swim league!! Everyone was thrilled! All the kids qualified for at least on stroke in the finals. They crushed their relays which placed as well. Parkin got 1st place in butterfly! He was a foot shorter than everyone when they lined up but finished a full body length ahead ...it wasn't even close! Both Parkin and Holman got high point runner up for the age group on the team. Liv, unfortunately, twisted her ankle three weeks ago. It was still bothering her but her coaching skills were recognized buy a whole lot of gifts from grateful parents. Summe is sadly fastly coming to a close.

New baby animals at the Yellow Barn

The Holman's do foster cat care for a local animal group since they were going out of town they needed someone to care for their kitten. My kids were thrilled to volunteer. We had a kitten named Fish who loved the outdoors and one night never made it back home...he went on a big adventure... Penny is the cutest who loves to snuggle and play in Anna's dollhouse.

  Benjamin used to be highly allergic to cats but the last two that have been in our home don't seem to bother him. Cats really are incredible with how they are litter trained.

Anaa put her in here once and now she enjoys coming in on her own.

The mare we are boarding had her foal!! She is a sweet scrawny thing that seems to be adjusting really well. Her mother used to be quite skittish and now she seems braver and more assure since having her baby.

Fun with the Smiths in Washington! July 4th vacation!

Basically, the Smiths moved to the Wizard of Oz movie set...This picture doesn't even do the electric yellow fields justice. Absolutely so beautiful and green! I am not the best picture taker so these are some of the highlights from our week-long trip.

  On the 4th we went to a small neighboring town and watched the cutest community parade. I just love a small town parade! We wore matching shirts all day that Preston designed and ordered.  They said, "American freedom to be talented". We got the matching shirts as a reward for participating in the family talent show. The talent show we had the night before was the highlight of the trip for me...I was crying I was laughing so hard. We had a water balloon fight after the parade.

Lindsey sang and played her guitar and read poems that she wrote! Ryan played a song using just his teeth and a pen, never seen anything quite like it. Preston sang a song from Hamilton "You'll be back" very appropriate since it was a 4th of July tribute! Calvin played a rap song that he and a friend composed, we later watched the music video. It was a legit production. Simon also sang a beautiful song, "What do I know" by Ed Sherin. Annie showed us how to walk like a model. She has it down! Owen and Parkin did a hilarious dance/skit to a song called "Coincidance".  Norman did a dance number (think hip hop/break dancing!).

I brought a blade of grass up and whistled with it. Benjamin juggled tennis balls and basketballs. Bella did a dramatic reading of a poem that Lindsey wrote with some additional verses that she added. Olivia showed how she could put 40 gapes in her mouth...Holman showed how long he could hold his breath and then demonstrated how he could do all 4 swimming strokes on the floor with a blue towel. Parkin did the dance /skit with Owen and then he also showed how he can roll his belly. Adrianna brought her dress and did an Irish dance. The talent show was fantastic Bella and Preston were the MC's, a truly magical night.

Water Balloon fight

We drove up to Spokane. What a beautiful city!

This is an art installation in the beautiful city park. A metal goat that eats trash! It was awesome. It has a vacuum that sucks the trash in.

A giant red rider slide wagon!

We all drove to Coeur d' Alene, Idaho and stayed at very large house that was super close to the lake. It was so picturesque!  

Bella and Benjamin at the park right at the beach.

The water was calling us and we could not deny it.

Norman truly is the family mascot.

See that pole out there just in front of the paddle border, we all swam out to it.

We went to Golden Corral for dinner....Bella was happy. This is where she wanted to eat graduation night but it was closed. We couldn't help sing happy graduation to her.

A lovely hike we went on around a part of the lake.

We went up to Montana to bike the Hiawatha bike trail. It's an old railway line that has been converted to a bike path. It goes through several tunnels some a mile long! and over several large bridges. It was breathtaking and about 15 total miles. We ended in a rainstorm it was awesome and very muddy! 

 We were famished after and stopped for dinner in a little town called Wallace Idaho. The town claims that they are the center of the universe and nobody can prove otherwise! Its a hard thing getting a party of 15 seats! We also stumbled upon an ice cream shop it was closed but the owner opened it up for us. They had this space ship in the corner of their parking lot/

This trip was amazing because 1) we love the Smiths 2) everyone was was there even Preston flew in from college 3) we flew! No long car trip, it was awesome and a first for our whole family. The trip left us dreaming about next time.