Day 61 - School & Friends

Today we had a full day of school together. The truck was fixed so Joshua & David were able to pick that up after lunch. Once the truck returned home, I went out to do a little Christmas shopping. It does feel strange to head out in a t-shirt, turn on the A/C and go CHRISTMAS shopping.... but I like it! ☺ While I was gone David & the kids went for a walk and enjoyed a blended drink out by the pool. It's hard to believe that we will be leaving at the end of the week. We apparently have a scorpion that lives on our front deck. Freaks me out slightly as I think you have about 20 minutes to get to the hospital in order to avoid any complications. I'm thinking we need to kill Mr. Scorpion, but everyone seems to be enjoying him. This evening we went out for dinner with Mike & Leslie Gomez. Mike is our banker and we just hit it off with him and so when he suggested going out for dinner together, we took him up on it. His wife is expecting their first child and we had a fantastic time out with them. The kids enjoyed their stories and we laughed and just had a really great time together. We were there until the restaurant closed, and then continued to visit in the parking lot for another 45 minutes! I guess that means we had a good visit. It was after 10pm by the time we got home, so we did a little clean up, got kids to bed and got to bed ourselves. Field Trip in the morning :)

Saint George, Utah here we come!!

Day 61 - Feels like "winter"!

Today we enjoyed a day off of school & a bit of sleeping in. Again without the truck, we couldn't get to the Alliance Church so we decided to walk to the Baptist Church that just a couple of blocks from our house. The wind had really picked up over night and blew in some cool air. We were all quite chilly walking to church and David & Joshua even wore PANTS! ACK!!!

David made brunch for lunch and we played some games and watched Funniest Home Videos in the evening. With the wind & chilly air no one ventured out into the pool.

We were greeted this morning with this scorpion on our front porch. We were hoping to catch it (we thought it might have been dead), but by evening it had crawled off. We had another one at the same time in the garage (that one we killed, a bit too close to INside!!)

Day 60 - Lots of swimming today.

Having the truck in the shop kept us home for the weekend. We had school today even though it was Saturday, and finished up in the early afternoon. The rest of the day was spent in the pool and the hot-tub. After supper we enjoyed the sunset, an evening swim and then a family movie night.

♥

Megan & I spent some time on the puzzle and got a lot done... It looks more complete than it is as the puzzle mat is black and we have a lot of black pieces awaiting to be placed!

Up on the rocks watching the sunset.

Sarah's favorite spot... the hot-tub!!

Sure is pretty to watch the sun sink below the horizon.

Joshua taking in the view before jumping off!

Swimming in the pool at night with the lights on and the stars above.... ahhhhhh!!!

Such an amazing view night after night.

Day 59 - Turn on the pool, Daddy is home!!

We were busy today getting our new place organized in Phoenix and of course getting in a day of school. We will be going on a field trip next week - St. George, Utah.

The CHECK ENGINE light came on in the truck as David travelled home Wednesday night, so it's in the shop right now getting a service. Hopefully we'll get it back on Monday and be able to get back out exploring.

The pool was slowly heating yesterday & Joshua was ecstatic to have his pool buddy back! The boys splashed in the pool most of the afternoon & Sarah continued to improve her "diving skills" in the hot tub. She's gone from being scared of the water to being a fish!!

Megan & I worked {slowly} on the puzzle and enjoyed the warm breezes and the sounds of the waterfalls and laughter from the deck.

After a BBQ'd dinner David, Joshua & Sarah went back in the pool/hot-tub. The boys enjoyed a long swim in the pool floating on their back looking up at the stars. After that we all cuddled on the couch, munching popcorn & watching Survivor.

Mid November in Arizona. It's hard to believe it's snowing/raining and cold "back home".

Day 56 & 57 & 58 - Catching Up!

A little backtracking as we got behind on our blog this week! Good thing Megan is so faithful with her journal so we can be reminded of our days :)

Tuesday:

Another full day of school. Sarah still isn't feeling too well, so we're laying low in hopes that the headaches and slight fever disappear. Of course we played some games too - Apples to Apples & Checkers were the choices today. :) Tuesday is our family show, 18 Kids & Counting, so we enjoyed making a big batch of popcorn, grabbing our blankets & snuggling on the couch!

Wednesday:

David should arrive tonight between 1AM-2AM so the kids ( and I! ) are very excited today. They know in the middle of the night Daddy will come into their room & wake them up for a hug!!

We got our day of school done and then did some chores together. After chores were done we played Catan. We did some sidewalk chalk out on the driveway to welcome daddy home too! Sarah's head was bothering her again, so she went to bed a bit earlier, but everyone was in bed & fell asleep rather quickly.

I stamped the night away as I waited for 2AM to come! :)

Thursday:

DADDY IS HOME!!!!

We had school this morning while David slept. Once Daddy was awake it was hard to focus on school, so we tried to finish up a bit early. In the afternoon we went to Wal-Mart to pick up a few groceries for the week. We only have a little over a week left here which is bitter-sweet. We absolutely love it here and are amazed at how much it feels like home. At the same time, we look forward to new adventures that lie ahead of us.

Returning from Wal-mart we made Vanilla Bean Frapps to enjoy together out on the deck.

We purchased another puzzle, this time a Mickey Photomosaic 1000 piece puzzle.

Megan & I are looking forward to getting this one started.

Day 55 - Hello Monday.

Today we were back into routine with school. It seemed slower today, perhaps just being a Monday, but we did have to resume after lunch for a little bit to complete our work. I turned the hot-tub on this morning so the kids could at least play in there this afternoon, but Sarah was the only one that actually went in as it was warming. She had her goggles and was full of glee to be back in the water looking for darts to "dive" down to and retrieve.

We did a little stamping together again too, this time Joshua was working on a card for a friend.

Later in the afternoon we played our daily game of Catan. It's funny how we hardly play it all when Daddy is home (too busy exploring I guess) but when he's away I think we play it nearly every day! After our game, we went out for a walk to enjoy some fresh air. Sarah had a bad headache so we thought getting out for a jaunt around the neighborhood might help her feel better. We took the camera along as there's a few favorite things along the route we thought we'd like to remember :)

We came home to dinner (in the crockpot - love that!) and then watched Little People, Big World on TLC.

We decided we'd have a hot-tub night so around 7pm we all went in and enjoyed the warm water. It made everyone sleepy, and I think Sarah was sleeping before Joshua even got into his bunk. Hopefully she'll be feeling better in the morning.

We had a great day, a few lonely bugs, kids are missing Daddy... trying to push through those final couple of days.

The skateboard usually comes along with us and Joshua & Megan take turns pushing each other along the way :)

Silly Sarah totally excited to be in "her pool" again!

Joshua... missing his pool buddy!!

The sheer height of this cactus is amazing... along with that little nub on the side!

Megan calls this the pineapple palm :)

The needles on this cactus were so long and thick - OUCH!

We found our first orange tree!!

When we visited the Havasu visitor center the lady explained to us that if we saw this particular type of cactus with a hole in its side (as the one above has) it is where a bird will build its nest. Along our walk we noticed this one, with the hole, although we didn't hear any chirping.

☀ Two More Sleeps ☀

Day 54 - Sunday

With David being gone we didn't have a ride to church so we spent the day here at home. Everyone had a lazier morning and we decided we'd take a break from school today. I have all my stamping stuff pulled out, so Megan & I worked together and she made a card for her friend back in Nanaimo who is sick. Here's her card, didn't she do a fantastic job!!!!

In the afternoon we made some blended drinks, Mocha for Joshua & I, Vanilla Bean for Megan (with a few sips for Sarah) and drank them out on the deck (we thought Daddy would NOT be impressed if we drank them INdoors!) *smiles* We are so enjoying the warm days even though the pool is a bit chilly to swim in.

We played games in the evening, and before we knew it, bedtime had arrived :)

3 more sleeps.