Piper

 

Piper

Some pretty awesome jumping!

I wish I could show you all the awesome jumps that were done. Josh and Troy had the best ones!

Maybe I'll make an animated gif.

Arizona State Fair

We did the Arizona State Fair. In November! And we sweated like pigs it was so hot! Wouldn't you agree there's just something about state fair ambiance, and I got hooked on it when I was a kid hanging out at fairs in my travels with the performing Lee's (a story for another time). Where can you get such unusual choices of things to see, do, and eat. And the people, the people are unique too. I really should've taken more pictures of all the "unique" people at the fair. We got the early bird special and got in for a whoppin' 2 bucks each..........(or we may have just missed the cutoff by two minutes). We may or may not have tried fried Twinkies and chocolate covered bacon, and we may or may not have spent too much money on games and rides, (trying to win that big huge stuffed.............THING). The kids' favorite thing may have been the super loud and smoky Monster Truck Show and RV Demolition Derby. Baby may now be hooked on Monster Trucks as he was waving his flag and watching the whole thing very very closely. Isn't it just in a boy's blood to like that kind of stuff. We had fun, we played hard, we did the state fair!

Enjoy!

Nate's First Birthday

 Nate turned 1! 
(on October 28th)

There were presents!

 
One to be exact (from us), a puppy piano, and we knew he would love it because he played with it at the store in the cart the whole time we shopped and did not want us to put it back. The other present, cards, and money he got were from his Grandparents.

Look how anxious he is for Dad to get that toy out of that box.

 

He loves it! 

He has to push that puppy's nose one more time.

There was cake...............

yum!






He was my best cake smasher so far. Josh cried and had to be encouraged, and Brad was very timid.
Nate felt right at home!

And.........


 Nate got to do his most favorite thing......

 take a shower!

Happy birthday Nate!

Our Little Ghost

Three years ago today. Tears. We miss you little baby girl. I wish you could be a princess with me for Halloween. Glad we got to visit you on our trip to Utah. Did you like the lanterns we lit for you tonight that Patty gave us? We did too. We love you!


My sister and her daughter make these videos of Baby Sabrina for us. Every year Baby Sabrina busts out some pretty awesome moves. This year Baby Sabrina did some baby brother bumper spanks, baby shimmies, and her shake her baby booty dance moves (something she does every year. LOVE IT!!! I'll have to find last year's and post it.

From CC and Shanna:

We've been thinking about you too, little princess!




Here's the other video of Angel Sabrina:

 Cupie doll.

Slot Canyons

Ever heard of a slot canyon? When I was about a year out of high school, I worked for a troubled youth program where the kids were sent to survive out on the desert for 6 weeks. I spent practically the whole summer hiking around the Escalante, Utah area and I absolutely fell in love with the landscape including slot canyons. When we moved down to Arizona in May, I got homesick for slot canyons. I wanted to take my kids to where I had hiked and let them experience what I had experienced. Well, I knew the hikes we had done were way too hard for my little guys, so I started researching slot canyons that we could do with them. I found Antelope Canyon. You've probably seen pictures of the canyon, supposedly it's the most photographed slot canyon in the world, and maybe you've even heard about the 11 hikers that were washed away in the canyon back in 1997. But, if you've never been in a slot canyon, it's definitely something you might want to try to experience. They are quite awesome. We hiked Upper Antelope Canyon which is a simple maybe 20 minute walk through the winding hovering walls. All of my pictures are from the upper canyon. Lower Antelope Canyon (where the hikers were washed away) starts as a crack in the desert sand and descends down into the deep walls. I included some interesting pictures I found on the internet of  Lower Antelope Canyon. I wanted you to see how it opens up and what it looks like when there is a flash flood roaring down it, but we haven't hike that one ourselves ... yet.

Entrance to Upper Antelope Canyon

Heading in with our tour guide

 

 

Our tour guide played his Navajo flute for us in the canyon. The Navajos own the land and the canyon.

The following pictures are ones I pulled off the internet showing the Lower Antelope Canyon entrance. If you want to read more about Antelope Canyon, just Google it or look it up on Youtube. It's quite fascinating!

Entrance to Lower Antelope Canyon. You descend right there in that crack. (Photo taken by Monika http://scientika.blogspot.com/2010/06/lower-antelope-canyon.html)

Entrance to Lower Antelope Canyon during a flash flood. Crazy! This is exactly how these canyons are made.  (Photo taken by JD Rose, http://photo.net/nature-photography-forum/00FmEu)

After the canyon tour, we drove a few miles to Lake Powell. We spent an hour or so playing in the lake. This is the third time I've been to Lake Powell, only one of which I had access to a boat. It seems I'm always playing in the lake from the shore.

You know baby is happy if his tongue is out. His happy trademark.

We did the whole trip in a day which equaled about 10 hours of driving. We decided to make it a day trip instead of an overnight camping trip. Whew!