Primary Program

On Sunday, the boys had their primary program. I have to say they all did a great job. All three boys had their parts memorized. Yea!! This was Tylor's last primary program and Ryan's first. So I was able to watch the program with all of my kids in it. I love to see the work that all the primary kids put into their parts. The Primary presidency made invitations for the kids to hand out to Friends and/or family. James and I asked the kids who they would like to invite. They all asked the people that they wanted to come. At first they wanted to asked their grandparents but as both sets live in Portland, OR, we suggested that although we were sure they'd love to come it may not work and maybe the boys should think of other people to invite. Ryan asked his friend Jacob for preschool. Jacob and his mom, Dawn, came to the primary program, Ryan was very happy to see them there. This was the first time that they had been to the LDS meeting. Jacob and his mom both really enjoyed it so good job little missionary Ryan!

The kids a practice on Saturday with pizza afterwards. The only problem was that the pizza didn't show up until a half an hour after the practice ended... So some of the kids were a little disorderly by then, but what do you expect.

Congratulations Trevor and Mayumi

Congratulations Trevor and Mayumi! They both completed masters degrees, Trevor in Information Systems and Mayumi in Business. The commencement ceremony was last night at 7pm. We drove down after school -making it just in time. But because of the boys first soccer games of the season this morning we didn't stay and turned around and headed for home at 8:45PM last night! We rolled in here at about 11:30 or so. But we were /are really excited for them as it's a huge accomplishment especially with two kids and both of them working on degrees and with full time jobs! Congratulations again! Thanks for inviting us celebrate this accomplishment with you.

Soccer season starts again

Yes! The soccer season is in full swing again. The boys had their first games of the season today. They are all on different teams.





Ryan's team is called the Killer Whales (because their uniforms are black with white letters). It is really fun to watch 4-5 year olds play soccer. They sometimes look like swarming bees around the ball. Ryan got to play goalie for two quarters. He was really good at it. For one quarter, he got to be a forward. He is not afraid of the ball or the other players. That is why he makes a good goalie, even though he is one of the smallest kids on the team.

Kyle's team is called the Flaming Snakes (they chose the name before they knew what color their jerseys would be). Kyle's team had a double header today, and Kyle made a goal in the second game, YEA!!!! And we are going to buy a shade thing, like a patio umbrella or something. Because it was to hot in the sun at two this afternoon. It was 97 today!
Tylor's team is called the Raptors. Ty did not get to vote on the team name because he was not at the practice when they chose. He was with us driving to and from Yuma. Ty was a mid-fielder when he played. He was able to make some good plays. He is becoming quite a soccer player. Tylor's pictures are further away because they play on a regulation sized field.

Tylor's first campout (as a scout)

So it took a little while for the 11 year old scouts (aka Blazer scouts) leaders to get their act together enough, and I'm speaking from experience. We kept wanting to plan a camp out but it just didn't happen UNTIL I posed the question to the boys. "When and where should we go camping?" we couldn't go soon enough was their response and they were open to suggestions for locations. As all three of the wards that meet in our building don't have large youth organizations, the cub and boy scouts meet together, and do activities together -as I'm sure Ty would have had a lot less fun if it were just him and me, my knowledge on video games is dreadfully deficient to maintain a lengthy conversation on the merits of... yeah I don't even know. Anyway, we had four of the seven boys commit AND make it to our designated rendez-vous for the caravan /car-pool up to the campsite. Sidebar: One of the things that is considerably different living here than anywhere else we've lived is that you almost have to drive for two and a half to three hours to go camping, otherwise there aren't any trees (saguaro and other large cactus are NOT trees) AND there isn't any water. So we drove up northeast of here to a little "hamlet" about 20 miles east of Payson called Christopher Creek. The campsite was just under the "Mogollon Rim". Here is what the forest service says about the "Mogollon Rim" and no I have no idea what it's called that name...
"The Mogollon Rim is a rugged escarpment that forms the southern limit of the Colorado Plateau. It extends across the entire forest and provides excellent views within Plateau Country and Desert Canyon Country as well. Dropping as much as 2,000 feet in some areas, the Rim provides some of the most far-reaching scenery in Arizona."
http://www.fs.fed.us/r3/coconino/recreation/mog_rim/rec_mogollon.shtml
So anyways we were down below that looking up at a section of it along Christopher creek. Which must be spring feed because it has water in it year-round.
To assure that we weren't setting up camp in the dark we decided to meet at the church at 2pm yesterday and head up. I figured it'd be at least 20 mins before everyone was there and ready. But I was wrong, we were pulling out of the parking lot at 2:10. We got there and picked a campsite by around 5pm. The boys went down to the creek to throw rocks in to see if they could get each other wet. We had to drag (almost literally) them back up to camp to help set up tents (to fill Tenderfoot requirement #2) and then start a fire (Second class requirements #2e and 2f) and finally put the tinfoil dinners together and cook them (Second class requirement #2g). The best part is they didn't even know that they were going through a check list of requirements they just thought they were being given free reign of the campsite...
After dinner and clean up we had a campfire -Ty was the M.C. as that was one of the two requirements he had left for the communications merit badge. Then we played a game, it doesn't really have a name it's kind of like capture the flag but there wasn't a flag. How it worked was that the boys (and /or the adults -we had several variations on different teams over the course of the couple of hours we played this game) would go up the dirt road to the latrine (about 100 yards from camp) then they'd have to try and sneak back into camp without getting caught by the team "guarding" camp. So it was a no flashlights roll around in the dirt and brush kind of game -perfect for boys of all ages. I have to admit I enjoyed it as much as they did.
The weather held (I was a little worried as there had been forecasts of thunder storms for up in that area this weekend -along with high winds) we did get some strong winds but the tall Ponderosa pines kept it from really being a problem for us -other than a pine needle or two in our food -but it's fiber so...
This morning the boys worked on a slew of requirements for first class as they cooked breakfast for the adults. They did good, they just aren't going to win any neatness awards -it's going to take a pressure washer to get the pancake batter out of every nook and cranny on Br. Conways folding camp table...
We then did the requisite ax, saw and knife training (basically the "Totin'Chip"), and the boys had to have another round of splash each other by throwing rocks in the stream game before we left...
Well that's about it, I'm glad we did it. I think some of the boys were becoming disaffected with scouts as if it was just this Wednesday night I don't get to play video games thing, now it's cool, for a little while...

The dentist

Ryan has been to the dentist one or two times before. But this time he had three small cavities in some of his back molars, so he had to go back to get them taken care of. Ryan was excited to see the dentist again, maybe because it was Noah's dad. Ryan knows Noah from primary. While we were there, they took a picture of Ryan in the chair. Ryan did really good at the dentist. They used the "sand blaster" to "drill" out the cavities it apparently doesn't hurt -because it's the heat from the drill grinding into the teeth that makes the teeth hurt, so they say. Anyway here is the photo of Ryan in the dentist's chair with "shades" on...

Visit from Grandpa and Grandma Macki

My parents came down to visit us here in Arizona. They came down during fall intersession from school, the schools here are on a "modified" year round schedule. The weather has cooled down from the summertime highs but it was still over 100 every day they were here. They arrived on Saturday, September 27, in the afternoon. That evening, I and my mother got to go to the women's session of conference. I really enjoyed listening to the speakers. And that left James and my dad with the boys for the evening. I know they would be fine. The boys enjoyed having their grandparents here. Tylor liked that he was able to get his reading done before breakfast by reading to grandma or grandpa, everyday. I really appreciated that as he tends to follow me around in the morning so that he can check that box off on his daily chart. We played board games with them on Sunday afternoon after church. I don't know how many different games the boys got out and played with them but it was a fare number. Then on Monday, we took them to one of the local swimming pools where we like to go with the boys. The boys like the waterside, lazy river, diving boards and whirl pool, and we (James and I) like that it costs us about $5 to get the whole family in. But that's because there are so many pools here that they have to have a lot of stuff and be cheep in order to get you to come there rather than fall in the one in your own yard. Kyle when down the big waterside for the first time. YEAH! Then of course it was hard to get him off of them after that. We had a great time at the pool, that was partially due to the fact that no one was there. We often had whole areas to ourselves.

On Tuesday, we took them to the zoo. We walked around for about 2 hours and only saw 1/3 of the zoo. If you go to the zoo with Kyle or Ryan, they only look a the animals for about 30 second then move on to the next animal. Unless there is a button to push, then they will stay long enough to listen to the short (1 min) recording. Then Kyle always asks a question about the animal, because the recording peaked his interest.
I rented a stroller for the zoo so I would not have to carry Ryan around as he still finds excuses to not walk when we're there. I got a two child stroller, so Kyle could get in too -which lengthened the amount of time we could stay at the zoo. At one point in time, Ryan was pushing the stroller with Tylor in it. I should have gotten a picture of that, oh well...