Category Archives: Adventures

February 6, 2013 · 2:22 pm

Happy 2nd Birthday Simplywe!

I’m supposed to be doing my homework, so naturally I am using this time to check my email, fb and simplywe.  And though I wish I was still doing my homework and didn’t have the attention span of a gnat, I’m glad I checked because I almost missed Simplywe’s birthday!  SW came to be 2 years ago today!

I have been so busy with everything else in my life, I didn’t plan anything.  This should be where I put a montage of some of my favorite photos, but if I get lost in looking at old photos now, I’ll never do my homework.  I must fight the procrastination…clearly I am not as successful as I would like.

So instead I will share hiking photos, and a few from my solo trip to Prescott.

I took all of these with my iPhone, as I sent my Canon to Keegan in Germany.  I think he will get more use out of it than I will, since I haven’t used it in months.  The iPhone is so much more convenient.

These 1st 3 are from my trip to Prescott.

It rained and rained and rained the whole time I was there, mostly misty rain.  It was beautiful.  The fog was intense.  This fog was at 4 in the afternoon.

This one is from the hike we took at orientation.  How many colleges go on a hike as part of orientation?  I think I have chosen wisely.

The other weekend Der and I took a 5.2 mile hike in Tucson Mountain Park.

These are from our new favorite part of the park.

I don’t know why this one is so grainy, but I sure do love that guy!

The small upcropping of buildings, in the far off distance, is downtown Tucson.

Der and I make a good hiking team.

The rest of these are from various hiking trips.

Bug loves her hikes.

I’ve painted several batches of rocks and left them in random places on the trail.

I like to imagine the finders curious smile when they wonder who did that.

Happy Birthday Simplywe!

I heart Tucson!

 

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February 3, 2013 · 9:11 pm

Photos from Tucson Children’s Museum 11/12

The are from when Keegan came to visit, before shipping out to Germany.

Jeremia loves grossing me out, and this definitely did.

We had a lot of fun with this mural.

Conrad beginning to build a masterpiece.

Ami, and Jeremia working together to make tunnels for ping pong balls to shoot out of.

Keeg and his friend Nick playing with the caterpillar tree.

Look at all of the Keegan faces to eat!

These boys are the greatest!  So much fun was had by all!

 

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October 22, 2012 · 8:55 pm

The last of the Pinetop photos

We were playing a cool monster/dice/drawing game while simultaneously enjoying the beautiful Pinetop weather.   You roll a die 6 times and draw the corresponding monster body parts.  I know this is where I should show you the finished monsters, but I don’t have photos of them.  I do encourage you to go draw your own though.  Find the printable here.

Boy that sun sure was bright!

Two things you should know about Ami are he loves ducks, and he almost always has food on his shirt, face, or both.

Ignore the glaring sun and smile boys :)

No trip up north would be complete without roasting marshmallows for s’mores.

Or as Ami likes to call it, “fishing for marshmallows”.

Notice the food on his face, but to be fair, I think we all had food on our face at this point.

This photo made me do a double take when I downloaded it.  Even though I took it and I knew Keegan wasn’t on our trip, I thought this was Keeg at first…and then I realized it was our man-boy Jeremia.  No matter how much you think you are soaking up your kids when they are young, it’s never enough, they still always grow too fast.

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October 13, 2012 · 12:22 am

Trail Riding In Pinetop

Trail riding together as a family was so much fun.

Der taught the boys to skip rocks at a little watering hole.  We saw bear tracks right at the waters edge.

Conrad and I missed the memo telling us that is was green T-shirt day.

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October 10, 2012 · 11:08 pm

On the way to our Pinetop adventure

We rented a cabin/house in Pinetop/Lakeside last week.  Here are some photos from the drive there…sorry if you’ve already seen some of them on FB.

Is this some sort of rose?  They look like baby apples with green crowns.

 

The shot below is a closeup of the flowers in the above shot.

Ahhhhh….nature, how I love thee!  Oh and Instagram, I love thee too!

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July 24, 2012 · 10:58 pm

Tucson Children’s Museum 2012

The children’s museum has a new exhibit.  It’s beyond cool!

These tubes have air pushing through them and dampers you can open and close to make the airflow change directions.  When you put a scarf or sponge ball in the tube it shoots through the hoses and come flying out of different opening, depending on which dampers you had closed.  We could have played with that thing for hours, but we had to share with the other museum goers.  We want one for the house.  It was a blast!

Everyone was running around, catching balls and putting them back in so it was hard to get photos.  The blurs are scarves and sponge balls as they fall from the shoots.

This table shot air out of those movable tubes and the balls would hover in the air stream.

Or as Jeremia likes to remember it, he uses “the force” to keep the ball up.

Ami loved this tube filled with tiny styrofoam balls.  There was a knob he was turning to make the balls bounce to different sound waves.

Derek drew me an eggbird in the art corner. I love the bird and the man who drew him!

Jeremia built a tomb at the block table.

My favorite exhibit we played with that day was the giant prism box, because it was so much fun to photograph.

It was a long box full of mirrors with open ends on both sides.

We had a ton of fun!  Thanks for the free passes Brooke!

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June 12, 2012 · 1:17 am

And He’s Off

Our eldest son, Keegan, is off to the army!

We had a sendoff party for him.  I didn’t take as many photos as I had planned.  I somehow forgot to get a photo with Keegan and his granddad and twoshooze (grandma).  I don’t know how that happened.  I will have to make sure to get some when he comes home for a visit.

I don’t think I will be able to bare him in his uniform.  I will be a blubbering mess, I am certain of it.

Here’s Keeg with me, Der, his great-grandma Chris, aunt Cami, uncle Craig, and cousin Cassie.

Keegan and his brothers.  Taking photos of the 4 of them together is tough.  They are all jokesters.  When I would get 3 of them to make nice faces, inevitably one would have to be a goofball and make a funny face.  I was literally begging them to cooperate.  I think they secretly loved having me at their mercy.

As you can see, I did manage to get some sweet ones.  They are all so handsome.  I am so grateful for them.  I have immeasurable love for them and appreciate how very different, yet similar they each are.  For all of their bickering and fighting, it’s clear that they have mad love for each other and that warms my heart to the max.

After behaving for the camera, they let loose.

Our little boy, isn’t so little.

I love this one!  His expression is perfect!

Never too old for mama’s love!

I don’t have words that adequately express my excitement and pride, with just a scoach of fear thrown in for our beautiful boy.

He is off to become a man.  He is about to learn valuable skills that will serve him well throughout his life.  He will travel and see the world and will make amazing memories.  He will meet new people and forge bonds that will bear lifelong friendships.  He will be pushed to grow mentally and physically and will tap into strengths he never knew he had.

I hope he comes back a stronger, wiser version of his already wonderful self.  I hope he knows how much we love him and believe in him.

It will not be easy, but the best lessons in life never are.

We love you forever and always, Keegan, and can’t wait for your safe return!

 

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June 10, 2012 · 10:33 pm

Candlelighters Camp 2012

I am really tempted to whine about all of the things that need to get done and the lack of time to do them in, but isn’t that most everyone’s reality?!  We all keep chugging, tick one thing off the list at a time, and each item checked off is quickly replaced by 1 or 2 more things.  Insert big sigh here.

So anyway here are some photos from Candlelighters camp-3days later than I had planned.

We were lucky enough to have my cousin Stacey and her daughter Piper come along.  I am so glad they came.  We like them a lot!

The sparkle in Ami’s eyes makes me happy.

I think Jeremia had the ropes course gear on more often than not.  We didn’t see much of him except at meal times and bedtime, because he was off with the other kids his age having adventures.

All the boys got a chance to climb the rock wall, but we were only lucky enough to catch Conrad doing it.  We were off doing circle time with the other grown ups when Ami and Jeremia gave it a go.

He wasn’t nervous at all.

He struggled at first, but once he got the hang of it, there was no stopping him.

He climbed all the way to the top and rang the bell!

The most extraordinary Amy Tidwell was in attendance and shared her gift of face painting.  She has mad skill and puts her all into it.

Amy had a very long line of kids patiently waiting their turns.

Coolest dragon ever!

I got to hold Piper while she had Dora painted on.  She was so good and held super still.

Conrad’s army guy was supremely cool.

Then we were off to the archery range.

Later I snuck off to see if Amy had finished painting all of the kids faces so I could have a turn.

We had a nice little chat while she painted these adorable owls.  Then it was time to pack up and go home.

Der took these pics after we got home.

We had a great time and can’t wait until next year!

Cancer ripped an irreparable hole in our family, but it also bore immeasurable gifts in the form of opportunities to have fantastic experiences and chances to meet amazing people.  It is an inexplicable thing to hate something so thoroughly, yet be full of gratitude for the gifts it brings.

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June 7, 2012 · 6:20 pm

Zippity Do Da

We went to Candlelighters camp last weekend.  Candlelighters is a parent-run organized support network for families touched by pediatric cancer.

It’s a good time full of activities, bonding, fun and quality family time-plus I didn’t have to cook once the whole weekend!

We did lots of cool stuff that I’ll post about tomorrow, but the highlight for most of us was the zip-line.

Conrad and Jeremia couldn’t wait to try it.  Ami said no-way-jose.

Jeremia posed for me, before climbing the pole.

It’s a long way up!

Fearless Jeremia went down FOUR times!

As you can tell he was in 7th heaven!

Jeremia’s orthodontist is having a fun contest called The Flat Docs.

They gave him a printout of the Flat Docs to cut out.  The challenge is to take an original/fun photo holding the Docs.

I think the Docs enjoyed the zip-line, and I hope it’s good enough to win the iPad 2 they are giving away.

If Conrad looks miserable, it’s because he was trying his hardest to be patient, while waiting for his turn down the zip-line

Finally!

So, so high.

Pure glee.

He wanted to go again, but never got a chance since he had so many other activities he wanted to do as well.

Positively giddy.

And then shocker of shockers, I agreed to go down.

What?!  I didn’t give myself a chance to think about it.

As I scurried up that pole in record time, I could hear everyone’s shock at how quickly I climbed it.  I was very focussed.  Der tried to cheer me on, but I had to ask him to stop talking to me.  I was afraid if thought about it too much, I would chicken out.

Huey was there to greet me at the top.

He told me “Don’t jump until I say it’s ok.”.  I assured him I wasn’t going anywhere until he gave me the all clear.

Huey counted down for me and then I was zipping on down, squealing the whole way.

It was a rush for sure.

Then it was Der’s turn.  I didn’t get to watch Der go down, because I had to run off to help families make candles for the candle lighting ceremony later that night, but someone took photos for me.

He was so handsome dressed in all of his gear.  It made my heart pitter patter.

Super-champ didn’t even hesitate.  He jumped as soon as Huey gave the thumbs up.

I can’t wait to find out what our next awesome adventure will be.  With us, there is no telling.

We laugh in the face of fear! Mwahahaha!

 

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May 30, 2012 · 1:38 am

Low-key

Saturday was what would have been Benny’s 11th Birthday.

We kept it low-key.  Derek baked strawberry cupcakes and I decorated them with hearts, B’s, and piggies.  My cake decorating skills could use some help, but I think Benny would have liked them just the same.

Please forgive the bad photos.

We visited my mom.  She has a pond in her retirement community and there are tons of baby ducks right now.  The boys caught some and we all got a chance to hold one.  I had to use serious self-control not to put one or twelve in my purse.

Jeremia was there too, but he wasn’t up for having his picture taken.

Nothing makes me happy like holding baby animals.

Derek found a nest that had blown out of a tree.  I now have 3.

Then we spent some time with my sister and her family.  The boys LOVE their house and not just because they have a pool.

Uncle Craig launched Conrad into the air. C-rad kept saying “again, again”.

Kersplash!

We’re lucky enough to have Piper for a visit again.  I love the look on her face.

Not a day goes by that the boys don’t make me laugh one way or another.

It would have been easy to lay around and feel sorry for myself, because Benny should be here.  He’s not and there’s not a damn thing I can do about it.  Instead of wallowing, we had adventures, did family stuff and had fun.  I think it’s how Benny would want it.

Never forget-Boy that Benny sure is cute!

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