Noah's new blog: July 2016

Grandma & Poppy rented a cabin in Flagstaff for a week and we had such a great trip being with our family in some perfect weather. Here are some pictures of the cabin and the culdesac it was in...

Russ brought a few toys along!

We went to Sizzler the first night we got there... NOT worth the money we spent there and we ended up at a different Sizzler than the rest of our family :(

The next day when we woke up, we rode bikes to get some donuts. We tried out Fractured Prune for the first time. It was yummy but not the best donuts we've ever had!

A group of us did the ropes course at NAU... the scariest part was climbing up the first pole. The 3 little girls (Ellie, Roxy, and Sophie) and Noah were the most brave of the whole group!

Here's the group of us that went. We had to partner up and everyone had nicknames.

Bryan & Roxy: Willy Wonka & Veruca

Russ & Sophie: Mike & Sully

Scott & Brad: Batman & Robin

Jax & Noah: Harry & Lloyd

Suzanne & Ellie: Rooster & Annie

Auburn & Shalae: Thelma & Louise

The kids liked riding back to the cabin in the back of Poppy's truck

Day 3: we loved waking up to having the babies with us!! We also went to the "cinders" to do some riding...

Day 4, we went to ride the chair life at SnowBowl...

Our 5th day in Flagstaff was the 4th of July. We woke up and headed to the parade...

(We had these twin girls invading our personal space while they tried to get some shade. Their names were Sophie and Izzy.)

Day 6: Everyone kind of went separate ways on this day. Some of us went to Bearizona, some hung around the cabin, a few went golfing, and Russ, Noah and Brad went riding...

On our last day there, Russ took the kids out for one last ride in the Teryx and let each of them take a turn driving. Here's a few still shots from a video he took of Noah driving with Sophie in the passenger seat next to him... so funny to me!

We had the best week with our family and we're looking forward to having a place to escape to soon! Flagstaff is a perfect mix of having a forest-y atmosphere as well as the convenience of the stores and restaurants we have in the city!

June started out with Tanner & Tyler's wedding... cute cousins!

Noah and Sophie held their first "lemonade" (really kool aid and candy) sale of the year... it was hot outside and we probably won't be doing another one until fall!

Here they are counting up the money they earned!

Noah enjoyed participating in the basketball camp put on by Mesa High and this summer, he also did the speed and strength class right after basketball. So for 4 weeks, he worked out for 3 hours - 4 days a week. These pictures were taken after the first 2 weeks of the camp, at a scrimmage game that the parents were invited to watch.

Out to eat at Sweet Tomatoes with the Sherwood family...

Celebrating Russ on Father's Day... Noah and Sophie both wanted to get him some gifts with their own money. I took them shopping for some of his favorite treats - they came up with the ideas on their own - (Diet Mt Dew, Diet Dr Pepper, Mother's Animal Cookies, and coconut almonds) but when we were at the store, they wanted to get him even more. I told them they didn't need to spend a lot of money to show their love. What sweet and thoughtful kids they are though!

I took Abby, Noah, and his friend Stephen swimming at Mesa High. Abby loved the elephant slide, Noah loved the high dive and the lazy river (and the snacks), and I loved Abby's buns in her swimsuit. haha!!

Our ward had a campout planned that sounded fun so we made plans to go... until we realized that the weather was supposed to be pretty hot and the fires weren't too far from the campsite. The camping conditions sounded less ideal that they had in the beginning! So... instead of cancelling our plans to get out of town, we decided to surprise the kids by driving to California instead! It wasn't until we were in Yuma that Noah started getting curious about why things looked so different than they usually had on the way to the cabin (he knew the ward campout site was not far from the cabin). So we finally broke the news to them that we were on our way to San Diego and were taking them to Sea World the next day!

That night we went out for pizza next to the San Diego temple then walked around the temple grounds. Abby especially was in heaven. The San Diego temple is her favorite one and has asked us for months if we could go there. She would even try to convince us by telling us that she had money in her piggy bank to take everyone there!

We stayed in a hotel next to the bay and the kids liked to ride the elevator that looked out into the water!

Sea World was so much fun and perfect for our kids at these ages... Abby's favorite was for sure the pet show. Sophie and Noah also loved that show along with the sea lion and sea otter show. The dolphin show was also a good one, and we had lots of fun on a few rides... Sophie and Noah rode the roller coaster several times and Abby had fun in the sesame street section with little rides for her.