Snowflake....take TWO

After taking a little hiatus from blogging, I thought I would once again attempt to document our trip to Snowflake in July.  Jesse's father grew up in that little town located in the middle of Arizona.  Every year they have a huge celebration the weekend of July 24th to celebrate when their town was founded as well as Pioneer Day (the day the LDS pioneers arrived in Salt Lake City). Jesse has memories of going to this celebration from the time he was a little boy and remembered the parade, kid races, rodeos, barbeque, and the fireworks.  Somehow in the 8+ years of marriage I have never been able to go up to this celebration due to work, church young women's camp, etc.  This year as we prepared to move across the country, I knew that if I didn't go up it would probably be years before I could make it up to the Pioneer Days Celebration in Snowflake.  So we fit it into our crazy schedules months in advance and were seriously so excited to go.  It definitely did not disappoint; I felt like there was always something to do pretty much at every moment of the day.

{taken at the gas station in Payson on our way to Snowflake.  J and I just got brand new phones and are LOVING all the fun editing options available!  For the moment we have completely abandoned our regular camera in place of the phone cameras....and yes, Miss thing knows how to strut her stuff}

{Eli with all his golden locks}

{Rubba....love the most recent battle wound right?!  Apparently he tried to jump backwards off the diving board at my parents house and didn't clear the board.  He scraped his chin down the board as he fell.  He is such a tough kid and didn't cry when it happened. Jesse freaked me out because he sent me a picture of R right after it happened and I thought he had a huge laceration below his lips.  Luckily no stitches required, just time to heal}

We drove up with our little family on Friday evening and arrived around 8:30/9pm to our hotel.  First thing we did was take the kids swimming at our chlorine infested indoor pool at the hotel.  I was at least glad that all the kids enjoyed themselves. I have to admit that I wasn't too thrilled about their super chilly pool and toxic level of chlorine in the spa. Seriously major gag point.  The next morning it was off to the children's races at the old church chapel on Main street.  It was fun to see all of our kids participate in their age race.  Eli refused to run when they said go {surprise surprise} and instead hit his head in Papa's leg.  Finally when Jesse walked out onto the grass Eli ran over to him.  He was much happier when he found out he got a piece of candy for running :)  Robby did really well, although his age category had so many children crammed in, he really could hardly run.  Afterwards he was a little bummed because he really wanted to win!  Maddie did really well and placed second in her age division and was only beat out by one of the boys.  Afterwards they were all a little confused that there was only ONE race per age division, so we had to have a few of our own on the sidelines to keep the troops happy :)

 {I refused to get all the way into the pool, and luckily with some persuasion Daddy took one for the team and  hopped in the water and played with the bigger kids for awhile}

Robby was showing off his Kung-Fu fighting skills to Nona and Papa

 Mr E absolutely refusing to run across the grass after they said "Go"

 {You can't see Robby very well in the picture, but if you look closely you can see that his hands are already in fists so that he can run "super fast" as he puts it}

{Miss M running with pigtails flying!}

After races, it was time to get ready for the main street parade.  I loved the parade! It was the perfect size for our little family and we all loved how we could sit right on the side of the street to watch.  We also enjoyed having so many family members with us....Nona, Papa, Abby, Joanna, Grandma, Grandpa and of course tons of J's cousins and Aunts/Uncles as well.  Maddie and Robby became experts at running out to collect candy.  My parents decided to come up for the celebration kind of last minute and after driving half the night to get there, they elected to sleep in a little while and came toward the end of the parade.  We were glad they were able to meet up with us at the parade and Grandma was nice enough to buy the children each a popsicle.

 {Miss M and Cody, her "Toronto cousin".  Funny thing is that these two cute kids share the same birthday, Sept 9th.  Cody is exactly one year younger than Maddie.  This fact cracks me up because M is obviously petite for her age and Cody is definitely big for his age}

 {Papa and Eli}

 {R and Abbs}

{the scene on the street during the parade...kids running everywhere to collect their precious goodies}

{Funny story:  Miss M kept dragging her grocery bag of candy on the ground, until it wore a small hole in the bottom.  Her candy kept falling out of the hole but for awhile she didn't realize it.  When she would look down at another piece of candy laying at her feet, her eyes would light up and she got this huge grin on her face as she carefully picked up another treasure and then would tuck it into her "goody bag".  After this scenario repeating for approximately 10 minutes she finally realized that it was just candy that had fallen out of her own bag.  She was pretty upset when she learned this piece of information and quite irritated that other children had also been scooping up some of her candy}

At the end of the parade the kids loved how the fire truck soaked the road with their water hose.  Literally flooded the street, it seriously took about 15 minutes for all the water to head farther down the little hill and aware from our kids feet.  Luckily we walked away with just a few muddy shoes....there were some other kids that ran out and soaked themselves in the water.  Once we were finished at the parade, we walked over to Jesse's cousins house and all kids ran wild in their backyard for awhile.  Sam and Vandee (cousins) bought J's grandparents home after his grandma passed away in 2005.  It has been so fun to see the updates/changes they have done to the place and particularly special to Jesse that someone in the family still owns the place.

We met my parents back at the old chapel grass for an authentic Snowflake barbeque complete with Beef, coleslaw, corn on the cob, rolls and of course watermelon slices.  I am not a beef eater, but the coleslaw and corn on the cob was delicious.  Did I mention the coleslaw?  Probably the best tasting slaw I have ever eaten.  Then it was back to the hotel for naps and relaxation with the children while J and his family went to the Snowflake temple to do some ordinance work.

Late afternoon we headed over to Aunt Ruth's house for an outside dinner eating, horse riding, tramp jumping, cat chasing good time.  Miss M was in heaven with the kitty cats and would carried every cat she could catch around, until they managed to escape her arms. Robby and Eli LOVED the barn in the backyard and took particular pleasure in climbing up the hay stacks and then jumping off onto the floor.  They also ALL loved riding horses.  I think it was the first time for all of them.  The only downer to this dinner was that we found out partway through that Jesse's cousin, Ron, had fallen while hiking earlier in the day and was stuck down in the canyon and waiting for helicopter rescue to come get him out.  It turned out to be this horribly long, scary evening for the family.  They finally managed to get him out early the next morning and he was transported down to Phoenix.  He injured his wrist pretty badly and required multiple surgeries, amputation of several of his fingers but thankfully he is now doing much better and has made it back up to Snowflake as he begins the long healing process.

 {Robby with his Papa}

 {Miss M and Uncle "Bert"}

 Maddie loving on another kitty 

 {Eli and Abbs...gotta love those pucker lips.  He does this whenever you tell him to say cheese}

 {Eli, Abby, and Maddie}

{Picture taking Daddy}

After dinner was complete we headed over to the rodeo.  At this point we were pretty tired and not too enthused about dragging all of the kids to a stadium and expecting them to sit.  I was so glad that we went anyways.  We all had a great time and they had some really neat things to watch: bull riding, calf tying, a musical barrel game, fireworks, etc.  The kids sat well for most of the show and ended up crashing big time in the car.  {Miss M insisted that I did her hair curly for the Rodeo, because at the Parade earlier in the day the Rodeo Queen had lots of curls in her hair and M wanted to "be just like her"}

{cute E at the rodeo wearing daddy's cowboy hat; just makes me want to walk over and give him a squeeze when I look at this pic}

{Grandpa, Robby and Maddie in the stadium at the rodeo}

{another funny/not so funny story:  After the rodeo I walked down to a large construction digger truck per the boys request and Maddie saw a little girl riding a horse.  It was obvious to me that this little girl had grown up around horses and probably been riding them since before she could walk.  M on the other hand didn't realize that and threw a HUGE tantrum because she wanted to ride a horse all by herself as well.  It was almost funny to see her kicking the dirt, stomping, pouting, and spouting off every mean thing she could think of.  She was so tired that when we finally got to the car, she fell asleep with her hand folded across her chest and a pout on her face.  Gotta love that girls spunk right?!}

The next day we took them to church with some of the family and then headed back to the Valley afterwards (the kids were so tired from the weekend that it was a rough sacrament meeting for us)

Frustrated

I had literally spent hours typing up my journal entry for our trip to Snowflake and it just DELETED itself.....beyond frustrated. Dear blog: I thought the whole reason you have your auto save function was to prevent this from happening.  Why is it that you constantly auto-save normally when I never need it, but somehow you fail to save my material for the time that it really matters.  You suck, in a major way.

Tid Bits

Maddie:
**Has done AMAZINGLY well this summer at gymnastics and has now learned- back handspring on tramp, back walkover, front limber, back hip circle on bars, handstand on balance beam.  It made me so sad when she had her last day of classes this week.  She is intent that we will quickly find a new gymnastics place in New Hampshire and was so sad to leave coach Jason.
**Participated in swim team this summer.  Although it was difficult at the beginning for her to swim 25 yards she stuck with it and learned how to swim much better.  She learned breast stroke, butterfly, back crawl, and freestyle (front crawl).  She was so excited to place 7th in breast stroke at one of her last meets instead of eighth.
**Can be a real stinker.  She asked me the other day if I had a baby in my belly.  I quickly told her no and asked her why she said this.  Here was her reply, "well your belly feels all soft, so I thought there was a baby in there."  Gee thanks little Missy, love you too.

Robby:
**Has also done really well at swimming this summer.  He only took one round of lessons, but has learned how to swim down to the deep end in my parents pool and retrieve objects, can jump off diving boards and swim to the other end of the pool in front crawl, can swim back crawl for a short distance, and basically monkey around however he chooses in a pool.  I love how all my kids are little fishies!
**Has been so excited to move to New Hampshire, but the other day I guess he was having second thoughts.  He came up to me and said, "Mom, I was thinking. How about we just VA-cation to Ba Hampshire {how he pronounces NH} instead of moving there." I had to laugh at his smart thinking, too bad it is a little late for that idea.
**Has found some new loves in life: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Star Wars.  He begs us to watch these movies and loves to pretend he is a Ninja Turtle or a Jedi.

Eli:
**Is really growing up these days and talks sooo well.  Like full sentences almost all the time well.  Once again I am not ready for him to continue to grow up.  Good thing he still likes cuddling in my arms with his blankies and pacifier otherwise I might really lose it!
**The other day I was getting ready for the day and he made me laugh.  He immediately said "You not going to work today, you not have work clothes on, yeah!" I had to smile because I actually did work that day, I just had a doctors appt before then and had to get ready.  He was pretty bummed to find out I actually did have to go to work.
**Despite his best efforts to NOT learn to swim this summer, he has actually learned how to swim quite well.  He took lessons at my parents pool by our ever favorite "Miss Darla". He spent a good portion of the time scared and crying but has not become quite the little swim floater.  He has jumped off the diving board a few times and loves to have me push him to the bottom of the shallow end and he will retrieve swim buddies.  I love seeing him conquer this fear of his and move past it!

I love my kids so much, they truly bring me so much happiness in life.  As hard as motherhood can be, just one little hug or smile by them can wipe away any frustrations I may have.  I am kind of lame, in that I LOVE to be with them.  I revel in my time I get to spend with them.  Whether it is building a puzzle, watching a move together, going to McDonalds, or reading books together I love to be with them.  I have especially cherished the one on one time I have gotten with them.  Robby and I went to Jamba Juice the other day after his dentist appt on a Mommy-Son date. We had so much fun and he keeps asking when we get to go on another date together! I can't wait to do more things with them!

Summer Movies at Harkins

One of our favorite parts about summer in Arizona has been the awesome summer movie program that Harkins theaters has every summer for 10 weeks.  10 kid friendly movies, one each week, for the entire summer for a whopping $7 per ticket bundle.  Eli was still free this year so I paid a grand total of $21 for an entire summer's worth of entertainment every Wednesday.  The best part about the program is that we had lots of our friends join in and also buy the tickets.  We tried to meet up with each other every Wednesday and the kids got to sit by their friends.  It was so nice to be able to get the kids settled in their seats and then run out and buy popcorn without the hassle of all three kids hovering around me in line.  The kids also love the end of the movie when they all run up to the front of the theater and dance to the end song that plays with the credits.  I will sure miss meeting up with the Potter, Padilla, Grave, and Fagrell families to name just a few. 

 Miss Maddie and Rubba have become much more interested in taking pictures. One of the benefits to this is that I finally have a few pictures of me for once :)  One of the downsides is that you get to catch me in another one of my "no-do hair-do" sort of days.

This picture was taken by Rob.  It only took five tries for him to learn how to not cut off my head in the picture....classic.

Forts at Grandma's

Maddie's Swimming

This summer, Maddie was able to participate in swim team with the parks and recreation department in a semi-competitive/fun environment.   It was a great way to introduce her to a little more serious, competetive atmosphere that still maintained some of the playing, goof off type fun.  It was probably one of the best decisions we made.  It pushed Maddie and helped to grow more than almost anything else.  She started out the season barely able to make it across.  She would finish a lap looking more like a drowned rat than a real swimmer.  I was so proud of her though.  She got up every morning for swim team with a determined look on her face, she never complained about going or told me she wanted to quit, and gradually she got better at each of her strokes.  By the end of the summer, she could make it across with all four swimming styles much faster and more at ease.  She even managed to swim 50 yards a few times at the end.  She walked away knowing that if she works her hardest she can accomplish almost anything and had a big confidence booster to realize that she really is a great swimmer!  Some of our top memories of swim team include:

*M's first swim meet, she had a major meltdown in the middle of her race.  I saw Maddie putting her goggles on, in preparation for her race.  Instead of walking over to check that they were tight enough, I just hoped she had managed to put them on snugly because I didn't want to be the embarassing Mamma that is overbearing.  When her race began she stopped in the middle in tears because her goggles were full of water and she couldn't see.  I felt horrible as I watched her treading water, upset and unsure what to do. I quickly talked with her and told her to do her best and keep going.  After a little pep talk, she managed to get her goggles back and on and did end up finishing the rest.  I was so proud of her to keep going even when something unexpected happened, and that she managed to not touch the lane line during all of this.  Afterwards she was so upset that we ended up leaving the meet early.  I am happy to say we learned our lesson and I taught her how to make sure her goggles are tight enough!

*Miss M stopping in the middle of her breast stroke to wave at her daddy on the side of the pool, then she slipped back in the water and leisurely made her way to the other side of the pool.  Afterwards she was pretty upset that she placed eighth AGAIN!  We had to explain to her that stopping to visit with daddy in the middle of the meet is probably not the best thing to do, if you want to not place last :)

*Maddie announcing rather loudly that "I've gotta go potty" as she is standing on the board waiting for them to say "swimmers take your mark....GOOOOO".  We laughed and then told her she had to swim before she could use the restroom.

*Bribing Maddie with money to get her to swim all the way across the pool during practice initially without touching the lane line and later without stopping and floating.  She is such a reward kid and worked ten times harder when there was a bribe in place.  Luckily after awhile I stopped bribing her, otherwise she would have broke the bank :)

*Miss M calling me on the phone in excitement to tell me that she got seventh place instead of eighth at her last meet!  I was at work that day and it was so fun to hear her enthusiasm for accomplishing her goal of "not being last".

*The daily treks to Perry Pool with the boys.  This included breakfast at the pool out of two ziploc bags of cereal and two sippy cups of milk.  I also changed Eli almost every day in the car at the pool and usually finished my make up in the car for a few minutes after Maddie would run into practice!  Like I said....good times!

ABF

Watching the man from ABF unload our pods onto my parents driveway was sort of like Christmas for our children.  Their eyes were full of wonder as they watched the man expertly guide the pods off the large flat bed trailer and then set them down on the driveway.  He was also nice enough to allow them to climb onto his equipment and check it out.  As fun as the whole packing experience was {not} we are definitely excited to be settled in our place for the next two years.  I think we are both totally burned out of packing/unpacking.

 Eli was just slightly happy when it was his turn to practice driving :)

Before:

After:

Wedding in Colorado **long post**

The very beginning of July, we headed up to Colorado for the weekend for Jesse's cousins wedding.  We had so much fun seeing all of Jesse's mothers side of the family one last time before we moved far far away.  Some of our favorite parts about this trip include:

*being upgraded to the deluxe suite in Albuquerque after our first non-smoking room smelled pretty badly of smoke.

*swimming at the pool in the hotel in Colorado

*WILD children at the restaurant with all the family the evening we got to Colorado...okay this really wasn't such a great thing, but it was definitely a memorable portion of the trip.  It goes to shows that driving 16 hours in the car with kiddos is pretty hard to do!

*Maddie and Robby dancing their hearts out on the dance floor at the reception that evening.  In addition to being the stars of the night, they definitely worked their wonders in keeping the dancing relatively clean for most of the evening {good job kids....keep up the good work}

*Aunt Esther catching the bouquet, and Maddie going on and on about this fact for the next few days :)

*Dinner with Pres Hawkins and his wife in their beautiful home (Jesse served a church mission in Peru for two years, and Pres Hawkins was his mission president).  The kids loved their backyard and even made friends with the neighbor children.  Other than getting attacked viciously by mosquitos {me}, we had a great time visiting with them.  Jesse also loved reliving the old mission days and I enjoyed seeing pictures from "back in the day".

*Visiting Aunt Gina and Uncle Vince, and eating yummy homemade cookies and lemonade.  The kids once again loved their beautiful yard and Gina even took M and R down into her garden.  Robby especially loved the vintage red model car that Gina let him take home.

*Stopping in Payson on our way home to see fireworks on the Fourth of July.  Although I definitely wouldn't want to mostly drive in a vehicle on Independance Day, it was fun to stop for Pizza and fireworks in Payson to see their firework show.  After it was over we hopped back in the car and drove the rest of the way home. 

Maddie was cracking me up striking poses at the gas station.  I love the fact that she has my watch on...such a big girl :)

My "bigger two" children, as I frequently call them.  They have become such buddies this summer since we moved out of our house and away from other friends.  Although there have still been many fights, there has been even more pretending together, and of course lots of laughs!!

In Albuquerque we stopped for a few minutes at the Mormon Battallion monument.  To be honest, up until that day I never even knew there was a monument like this in New Mexico!

E, Mommy {me}, M and R

Maddie and Robby dancing together at the wedding reception.  As we sat at the Catholic church, I realized that this is the first wedding my kids have ever been to {other than my sissy's when M was 1 month old}.  They had NO idea what to expect, but I know that sitting in a church for an hour was not one of them.  It was a great experience to talk with them a little more about our beliefs and why we were married in the temple.  Maddie and I also had a great talk about modesty and why a "pretty white dress" that does not have sleeves is not appropriate for us to wear.  All in all it was a fun day feeled with lots of family togetherness, great food, good weather, and even a fun photo booth!

The Toronto Fam: Uncle Brett, M, Aunt Joanna, Aunt Abby, Aunt Esther, Eli, Tiffany, Uncle Adam, Robby, and Jesse 

Everyone thought that Robby was quite the little dancer....little did they know that he was actually just doing his "kung-fu moves" instead of real dancing :)

 Rob got pretty tired and cranky, thank goodness Papa was there to hold him until he fell asleep.  I have to admit it was rather nice to have all three kids sleep in the next day

 Pres and Sis Hawkins with Jesse

 Maddie was pretty darn tired by the time we hit fireworks and kept running around the parking lot we had stopped in to watch the firework show.  She got pretty crabby when we made her stay by us :)