Fourth, Fun, and Fairies

Just throwing this picture in because have you seen the movie The Tooth Fairy? Well we did and the next day, Spencer came out dressed like this and said he was the tooth fairy...

We went hiking up to the Sandia Crest today with the family. Here's a pic when we stopped for lunch.

Playing at our lunch spot.

Getting ready to start.

We tried these drinks for our Fourth of July dinner. All I can say is that the missionaries were impressed.

Lighting sparklers on the 3rd.

More Sparklers

We had our friends over for a 3rd of July party. We are so lucky that they live just down the street! We played games, made homemade ice cream and lit our fireworks. We had a lot of fun!

We also were really lucky that one of the cities north of ABQ, had a parade on the 3rd, so we got to go to it. We wondered how it was going to be, but it turned out really fun and the kids loved it!

Waiting for the parade to start.

We have had a really fun weekend! Last night we just laid in our backyard and watched all of the illegal fireworks that our neighbors lit. It was an awesome show!

Volcanoes

Kyle has today off of work (YAY!!) and Spencer has been asking us forever to go hike the Volcanoes. So, we went this morning.




At the top of one of the extinct volcanoes.

Carly posing.

Kyle and Spencer went to the top of this second volcano.

Some of the wildlife that we saw. (Thankfully we didn't see any snakes!)

At one of the little rest areas.

Good times.

Our Spelunking Adventure

We took a fast trip down to Carlsbad to go to Carlsbad Caverns. We got to see the hundreds of thousands of bats fly out of the cave the night before we went down into the Caverns. The kids were so worried at first, thinking that they'd see all the bats. But they quickly got over it and started loving the cave.

At the Natural Entrance, ready to start our journey.

We went with some good friends and had a great time. This is the start of the trail that goes 80 stories down into the cave.

Inside the cave looking up to the entrance. Our knees were shaky by this point because it was a pretty steep descent. I don't remember my legs being so shaky the last time we went... I must be getting old!

Inside.

Taking a rest. Kyle had Parker on his back for almost the whole time.

Eating some snacks down at the bottom of the cave.

Towards the end, the kids started getting tired. Obviously Parker couldn't fight it any longer and fell asleep.

And this is about 10 minutes after we left the caverns... Poor kids were exhausted.

It was a lot of fun though and while we were in the cave, Spencer kept saying that it was the best day of his life. :) So, I think that they had fun too.

Tids and Bits

Just funny Parker

Um... this scarey creature was on our kitchen floor. Awesome huh.

The kids have learned to play Jenga this week.

Kyle and I went to an Isotopes game without kids! Woo hoo! I love that Kyle gets suite tickets too- such awesome seats and free food. :)

Today I took the kids to a day camp up in the mountains. Parker was insane as usual and wanted to do everything the big kids were doing. You can kind of see his injured face in this picture. He turfed it and all of his weight went on his face. He had a road rash on his head, nose, chin and he cut open his lip and got a fat lip. This kid!

Cooking cookies in a solar oven.

Posing with the candles that they made.

THey cooked bread on a stick. Here's Spencer digging in.

Paintball slingshot. They both loved this one! They loved seeing the pink paint splatter the wall when they hit it.

The rope course.



We've had a great week so far, and it's only Tuesday! Here's hoping the rest of the week is just as good!

Time Outside

How cool is this picture of the new additions in our tree? I stood, posed and ready, to capture a picture of the young birds for all of about 2 minutes... great timing eh?

This girl could spend all day in the swing. She's just learned to pump her legs to go on her own.

But she still loves a good push.

And Spencer loves playing in the water.

The weather has been fantastic lately, we're enjoying it! Now, if it would just stay this way and not get any hotter, it would be perfect.

Lake Powell

Kyle went to Lake Powell this last week with the "boys" and so I'm posting some of his pictures. It looks like they had a lot of fun!

Glad to have him back, but we're glad that he had fun!

Boring...

Kyle's been gone for a few days and doesn't get back until Saturday, so we've just been hanging out here at home. Nothing too exciting, but here's some pics of some of our doings.

Took Parker to Sams Club today and we got this balloon and a sucker for donating a dollar to the hospital. Totally worth the money! He didn't climb out of his car seat once on the way home because he was too busy eating his sucker and playing with the balloon. Little stinker is a Houdini...

We spent all weekend on this puppet for Spencer's school. Can you tell what it is? It's a Sheriff Hot Dog. Duh.

And Carly was feeling a little left out of the whole crafting business, so I had her make a shirt. She loves it and wants to wear it constantly.

So that's it. Hopefully we'll have something a little more exciting to post soon. We can only hope.

They come and they go

We celebrated birthdays this week. Kyle's was first. We celebrate birthdays early in the morning- thus the bed head and squishy eyes.

Then a few days later, we celebrated mine.

And although the lives of some of us are nearing an end because we're getting so old, there are still some lives that are just starting... We found this nest in our tree yesterday. We've yet to see if there are actual eggs or anything in it, but it's pretty cool anyway.

Not much of an update, but lately, this is the most exciting our life has been. Which isn't necessarily a bad thing. :)