Nelson's Reservoir

We had another beautiful Saturday afternoon. After Clayton and Carson got done doing yard work to earn a little extra money at a friends house we went fishing at Nelson's Reservoir. I packed a picnic, a few blankets and off we went. Dayson brought about 4 fishing poles and they were all in the water but no fish. But we had fun anyways just hanging out together as a family.

Daycee

Harly, Konsti, and Clayton looking in the water

Aarron with his cheesy smile

Dad, Adam and Aarron keeping an eye on the fishing poles

Carson

Clayton, Aarron, and Carson

MacKenzie wasn't feeling too good so she stayed under the blanket. The sun must have felt better than the shade!

Harly

Konsti

Aarron

Carson and Clayton getting closer to the water

Carson realizes there is only room for one on the rock.

This is the view from the dock facing towards Alpine

I love having these family outings while the kids are still young. Pretty soon they'll all be too busy to spend weekends with mom and dad!

Carson's Basketball Season

Carson made the 7th grade basketball team this year. They ended their season 3-3. Carson is #30. Here they are warming up at their last home game.

Carson is in the air shooting during warm ups 

waiting for the ball

Dayson was asked to ref the 8th grade team. So he took off his gun belt and put on a striped shirt. I think you can only get away with that in Apache County! (he did check off duty for the 45 minutes).

Dayson also helped coach the 7th grade team and he took Clayton and Carson to practice every morning at 5:30. He is such a dedicated dad. Clayton couldn't play 8th grade basketball again this year but he was the "assistant coach" and practiced every day with the team. He's ready for his Freshman year!

President's Day

Presidents Day was the last day of our fun week long vacation. We took the kids up Water Canyon Road and had a picnic. The weather was so nice, a little breazy, but nice! Everyone who has a bb gun brought one. They had a good time shooting targets and cans.

Aarron shooting his target

 Harly shooting her target

MacKenzie and Adam having snack and Daycee in the background dancing and singing!

Dayson shooting Daycee's pink bb gun...how cute!

Harly and Aarron having a shoot out

Harly showing Adam how to use the gun

MacKenzie and Daycee snacking away

Daycee shooting her gun

It was so nice to have one more afternoon with the kids before they went back to school. (Konstantin was skiing with his friends.)

Finally Getting Her Ears Pierced

MacKenzie has been waiting to get her ears pierced since she was 5 years old. Harly and Daycee both got their's at 5. Since we moved to Springerville there was never a convenient time to take Kenzie to Wal-Mart because it's 45 minutes away. During our trip to California she kept begging to get it done. So on the way home through Payson we stopped at Wal Mart and she got her ears pierced.

MacKenzie was so excited and very brave!

I love the expression on her face!

She knew what was coming the second time around...she didn't even cry.

So proud!

Harly's ears closed up and so she asked if she could get her ears pierced again....why not!

Brave little sisters!

Daycee doesn't have earring's anymore either, but doesn't want them. She hated it the first time and will never do it again!

The Beach

Thursday morning we packed up and headed home, but first we stopped at Sunset Beach for a few hours.

Aarron throwing rocks in the water

Carson, Dayson and Aarron checking out the waves

Konsti and Clayton trying to get brave and go in the water

Adam having a hard time smiling for the camera because the sun was in his eyes!

Clayton and Konsti getting deeper

Clayton

Daycee

Aarron

Harly writing her name in the sand

MacKenzie, Daycee, Konsti, Harly, Adam, Mom, Clayton, Carson and Aarron

This is one of my most favorite places in the world. Give me a beach any day and I am in paradise. I love the sound, the sun, the sand, the water and love being lazy. After about 2 hours we decided to eat lunch and load up for home. Driving back through L.A. at 2:00 in the afternoon was not a good idea. It took us 2 hours to get out of the city. We didn't even get back to Phoenix until alomost 11:00 pm. Everyone was wiped out and excited to be in a bed again! Thanks grandma and grandpa for letting us stay at your house one more time!

California Adventure

Wednesday morning we went to California Adventure. Dayson dropped us off and than walked back from the hotel. As we waited for him to meet up with us we went to the Hollywood mural and on the Monsters Inc. ride.

We were right by Tower of Tower so that's what we did first. This ride is the scarriest one for me. I can only do it once because my stomach can't handle it. We made Adam and Aarron do this one too! They hated it! There was no wait in line so everyone else did it again except me and the little boys.

I had to hide myself in Carson. Dayson held on to Adam and Aarron. Kenzie stayed close to Daycee and Harly was between Konsti and Clayton.

There 2nd time around

Adam and Aarron posing with Lightning McQueen

I love this picture of all the kids with Mater and Lightning.

Kim and MacKenzie on the Screamin roller coaster

Clayton and Carson on Screamin

Harly and Konstantin on Screamin

As we were walking to A Bug's Life, Adam stopped and said "mom take a picture of me right here". I couldn't pass up this adorable opportunity!

Dad in line with the kids for a ride

 Dad and Adam

This is our only full family picture and it happened to be with Buzz Lightyear!

We got rained out after lunch, so Dayson and I took back most of the kids back to the hotel to rest and change clothes. Clayton and Konsti stayed behind and kept riding the rides. Dayson, Carson, Harly and Daycee went back after the rain stopped and I stayed with the three little kids. They were asleep by 7:00pm and stayed asleep until morning. We were all exhausted and couldn't wait to fall asleep.