Saguaro Lake

We got to go as a family to Saguaro Lake on Fri with another family from our ward that had access to a boat. Previously, taking small children out on a big, deep lake has filled me with anxiety. But there were a lot of precautions taken to ensure everyone's safety. And the kids are a little older, so it seems my apprehension is directly related to their age. :) The older they get, the less apprehensive I am. Here is Rylee trying her luck at wake surfing. It's where you surf the curl of the wake. Done correctly, you don't even have to be hanging on to any ropes from the boat. You just use the ropes to get into the curl, and then the force of the wake propels you behind the boat, just like surfing a big wave. It is slower than water skiing or wake boarding, but looks really cool. :)

Aubree actually got up on water skis! It was pretty rough...it's her first time. But it helped that Dad was in the water with her giving direction and encouragement. She was only up for about 20 seconds, but it was a great experience. Now that she knows she can do it, next time won't be so difficult.

Scott got really close to being successful at wake surfing. He almost got up on two feet, but it takes so much out of your arms, you tire easily. I just thought this was a really cool action shot. Look, Mom, only one hand!

Canon was absolutely giddy in the water. It was infectious. He learned how to say boat and water on this trip. He was able to communicate water before, but it sounded like "waller". Now he can annunciate both words. His favorite thing to do was stand on the back deck of the boat, which was about 2 1/2 ft wide and kick water at the girls who were swimming. What a stinker!

Kiersten was the only one that had a little fear of getting in the water. Some areas were cold and she didn't like the idea of not being able to see the bottom. But we got her in eventually and she had a blast! We talked this family into taking us again this Thurs for Scott's birthday. :)

First Lion's Pride day of 2010-2011 school year!!

Lion's Pride days occur at the end of every quarter grading period. At the beginning of the grading period, each student is given 10 Pride points, and in order to participate in Lion's Pride days, they have to hang on to atleast one point. It's a system of rewarding good behavior. I am in charge of planning and carrying out Lion's Pride days and I decided that since we're still setting heat records in the Valley of the Sun, we would have a water day!
So the fire dept came and hosed down our students as well as our camping tarps that acted as a big slip and slide for our first activity. It took a few minutes for the kids to get crazy, but after just a little while, even the teachers were taking over the hoses and sliding down the tarps.
We had the water on for about 30 minutes, and the field was wet and muddy. But the kids are obviously having fun.

We also played water kickball, where the bases are kiddie pools and you literally have to slide into home plate because it's a slip and slide. Some of the other stations were drip, drip, splash played like duck, duck goose, only with BIG wet sponges, water volleyball with water balloons, and water dodgeball. We filled up about 2,000 water balloons Thurs afternoon, thinking that would be plenty. By the time we were on our second of 5 rotations, they were asking for more. It was a frenzy trying to keep up with the demand for water balloons.

It was a successful activity with only minor sun burns and a few bruised egos. I would really like to keep the energy going with a killer Lion's Pride day in Oct. Any ideas for a theme??

Traditional first day of school breakfast at McDonald's

We've been lucky enough the past several years to be able to eat breakfast together on everyone's first day of school. This year it just happened that Scott's boss was out of town and he had to work later that day, so he didn't leave at 4 am like he usually does.
This year, Aubree started high school, Kiersten started Jr high school, Rylee is in 5th grade and Raegan is in 1st. Parent/teacher conferences are this week, so we will see how well everyone is doing in class.


We love being involved with school and helping when there is something to be done. Aubree and Rylee both ran for Vice Pres in student council for the jr/sr high and the elementary and won. There will be a lot of opportunities for them to serve the students in their school.
I decided to volunteer with the parent organization this year and am in charge of anything to do with the jr/sr highchool. I also help with fundraising, book fairs, teacher appreciation, etc. It is a lot of work. I set it as a project goal in my personal progress program and had the 10 hour minimum in 2 weeks. I love being around this age group, especially when the kids are well behaved. I love seeing the look on their faces when they realize that I know their names.

Our trip to the Grand Canyon

We decided on our way home from Page, we would take a little detour and visit the Grand Canyon. Aubree was the only one of the kids who had ever been there and she was 2, so didn't remember anything. We picked a bad day to go because the cloud cover was so thick, you couldn't see anything. It was drizzly and a little chilly. We weren't prepared for that kind of weather, so we were a little cold. And being on the edge of a huge, deep chasm with little children (one of which is extremely headstrong and doesn't like being told what to do) was a little nerve-racking for me.

But we tried to make the best of it by laughing at eachother and having fun. This lady in the background asked if she could touch Canon's cheeks and take a picture with him. It was a very random request and she giggled the whole time. This was another area where we heard a lot of different languages.

Scott is making the best of it... silly man! Atleast he made us laugh. :)

This was the view no matter where on the canyon you went. There was just nothing to see because the clouds and f0g were soooo thick. It was disappointing for us, but I can't imagine traveling half way around the world to see a wonder and not being able to see it and not be able to plan a trip back next year.

Here we are getting rained on. I think we'll come back in a few years when everyone is older and the clouds aren't so thick!

Visiting Page and Great Grandma and Grandpa Moore

C'mon Grandpa! I said this was the "crazy pose" picture!

Thanks for your hospitality, Grandma and Russel.

We told the girls they could tell their friends we went to Utah over the weekend because this little dinosaur museum is actually in Big Water, UT, near the AZ/UT border. Quite a few universities and conservation groups have done digs in the Staircase Escalante Nat'l Park. They've found lots of different dinosaur fossils, and some of them are on display at this little museum.

I had never been in Lake Powell prior to this trip. I've driven by it many times, but we never stopped to play. The water was a little chilly, but bearable and there were TONS of tourists around. We went an hour without hearing anyone else speak English. And even then, it was with a British accent!

We visited a few days with Grandma and Grandpa Moore. We did a "movie at the park", the dinosaur museum, lots of card games, and a BBQ with Uncle Darrell and Aunt Lena.

Good times, good memories!

Sunset Crater and Wupatki Nat'l Monument

By the time we figured out where we wanted to be at the crater, it started pouring down rain. Not usually a problem for us Arizonans who are rain-starved. But this rain was accompanied by some pretty severe, too-close-for-comfort lightening. This was the only picture I got outside the car because some of us (you know who you are :) were scared! We did get a chance to go through the visitor's center and learn a little about the volcanoes in the area. Very interesting.

Seriously...check out the size of those drops! It got to the point where we couldn't see 25 ft in front of us and the windshield wipers were full speed.

We got out ahead of the storm and were able to stop at the Wupatki Indian Ruins. We didn't learn too much about these ruins because we knew the rain ( and lightening ;) wasn't too far away. We ran through the ruins snapping as many pictures as we could and figured we could learn about it on the internet, right?

Hard to believe these ruins are just out in the middle of nowhere.

Here comes the rain! Hmmmm...is that Dad already in the car? Poor Raegan was left to fend for herself. :) We had a little more time at the other ruins to read and explore. It was a great side trip on our way up to Page to visit Great Grandma and Grandpa Moore.

Montezuma's Castle

We took a few trips this month before the girls had to go back to school. We always pass so many national parks in a hurry to get where we're going. So this time we decided to stop along the way and visit these places we always see the turn off signs for, but never visit.
Our first stop was Montezuma's Castle, which was on our way to Flagstaff. It was named for an Aztec chief, but the Sinagua Indians were actually the ones who built it and lived there. And it's not really a castle, but a multi-level dwelling for several families. These aren't the only ruins, just the best preserved.


We called this the camouflage tree because the bark reminds us of army fatigues. :) Everyone wanted their picture in front of it, I'm not sure why.

Beaver Creek- Neither Canon nor Dad was ready for this photo op.
We have to be the loudest tourists. It was such a peaceful, quiet place until we got there.

Through this whole trip, it was amazing to see how many foreigners there were visiting these sights. I never realized that people who live in England would want to visit Montezuma's Castle like I want to see Stone Henge.

We like to learn about past cultures and people because it helps us realize that the world is a lot bigger place than our immediate surroundings and keeps things in perspective. What will they say years from now about us?