Memorial Day Weekend

Our adventure started out with CRAZY weather! We hit sleet, snow, lightening, rain, hail...and that was just Gordon driving the five miles from work to home before we left! No joke!

But we continued to have some extreme weather driving between NM and AZ. And remember, this is the end of May!



Once in AZ we stayed with our good friends Calvin and Julie. We had planned on swimming most of the weekend, but the chilly weather (in PHX of all places!) forced us to come up with some plan B's.

So we went hiking to "Hole-in-the-rock". And we had a pleasant surprise of Aunt Becca being in town too! So she and Mike came with us!













We also visited parks, and fed ducks, and visited our favorite restaurant; Golden Canyon. We were seated at the largest table they had and I think we were the largest and messiest party there at the time. We had six adults, six children and two babies with us. We broke one glass and spilled two. But the food and service was still good. And the company was great!

ABC's of Me

A- Attached or Single: Attached, and happily so
B- Best friend: In high school, Rebecca and Rachel, of course there was also Mr. Lawson and Kevin. Now, Julie.
C- Cake or Pie: Pumpkin pie, still warm with whipped cream melting over it.
D- Day of choice: Sundays, since Gordon never studies that day.
E- Essential item: Phone, so I can clean my house, talking with my sister can keep me on task.
F- Favorite Color: Red
G- Gummy bears or worms: Gummy Worms
H- Hometown: Orem, UT
I- Indulgence: toffee
J- January or July: July, for family reunions
K- Kids: Lily(7) Eve(3) and Abigail(1)
L- Life is incomplete without: Family
M- Marriage Date: Oct 8
N- Number of siblings: 8
O- Oranges or Apples: Oranges
P- Phobias or fears: Roaches
Q- Quotes: Take time to stop and smell the roses
R- Reason to smile: A dh who does the dishes
S- Season of choice: Spring, and the promise of warmth again
T- Tag 3 times: Thanks Julie for tagging me, Amber, Maria and Rachel
U- Unknown fact about me: I enjoy the tv show MONK
V- Very favorite store: Ikea, although I haven't been for a while
W- Worst habitat: Laziness
X- X-ray or Ultrasound: They're both scary, used to diagnose problems I wish I didn't have.
Y- Your favorite food: tomatoes with a little salt
Z- Zodiac Sign: Taurus

Camping for Mother's Day!

Still suffering from major "lack of daddy" we went camping for some family bonding. I don't remember what the place was called. Somewhere near Santa Fe. It was chilly, but tolerable. There were lots of trees surrounding the whole area, making us hope that it will still be very pleasant come the heat of the summer.

A funny story to start it off. I packed and then forgot to grab our toiletries bag. So on our way through Santa Fe we stopped at a drug store and I ran in to grab the necessities. I ran through the store grabbing what I thought we might need for our two-night stay, rested my basket on the counter, and pulled out my wallet and grabbed a couple of bills. I expected the total to be $15. My jaw dropped when the cashier said I owed him $54.00! Gordon laughed at me, saying I could nickel and dime us to the tune of ten dollars of minute.

Here's what I grabbed:

2 adult toothbrushes
4 child toothbrushes (in a four pack)
travel toothbrush holders
1 trial size adult toothpaste
1 tube children's toothpaste
flossers
trial size mouthwash
trial size mens deodorant
trial size womens deoderant
hair brush
comb
spray bottle
small elastics for hair
large elastics for hair
2-pack of bibs
small bottle of hand sanitizer
bag of gummy sour watermelons

I knew it was alot, once I looked at it, but I somehow didn't think it was as I was grabbing it.

Onto the camping. We were in a campsite that had just been remodeled with newly built latrines, picnic tables and fire rings. It was nice to be there before there was any graffiti on anything. We were right by a little stream and all the kids loved exploring up and down that area, crossing to the islands and making sure to get their feet wet.

It did get pretty cold in the evening and we were grateful for our fire. There are other areas in the state that fire is prohibited because of forest fires. I tell you, it just doesn't feel like camping until you smell like smoke. The next morning our co-campers went home and we went for the hike that was in our little canyon. The girls loved looking for walking sticks and trying to convince Daddy his walking stick needed to be bigger (pointing out fallen trees for him to carry.) It was the running joke the whole hike.




Holding pretty feathers they found


I was there, I promise! But I guess I was holding the camera the whole time.

Another funny story. We were really careful about storing our food at night. Putting it all back into the car and out of reach of animals. But we forgot to be so careful while we went on our hike. When we came back our campsite was littered with chips, wrappers and crumbs. The animal(s) had opened every package and taste-tested our instant oatmeal, hot chocolate, chips, and cookies. They seemed to like the cookies the best because they were completely gone, whereas everything else was just opened, but not so thoroughly enjoyed. Lily seemed to think the animal invasion was the best part of the whole adventure. We want to go back here too.

Impromtu Family Pictures

This was on our hike at Tent Rock. There was the coolest tree ever. So we had our family pictures taken, in all our sweaty glory, since this was on the way down, after the bulk of the hiking.





And here are some cute cousins

Eve the model

Tent Rocks

This place is West of I-25 somewhere in between Santa Fe and Albuquerque. It was a great hike with lots of awesome rock formations and neat winding trees. Most of the hike was on a sand trail, whenever we put Abigail down to let her walk, she just wanted to sit down and play in the sand. I was a good day for hiking, the weather was nice. We had cabin fever really bad from all of Gordon's studying and this helped a bunch. We liked it so much we plan on going back, maybe taking friends or family who've never been there. It's fun to share such a neat place.

I'm sorry, I'm behind again.

I guess I'm not very good at blogging. I have a hard time being consistent. We have had some wonderful things happen in our family. And I do want share them, but I guess I was really busy living them first.

First things first. Gordon did take his exam. He had to travel to Santa Fe to take it since it was being proctored by the only credentialed CAS actuary in the state, and he happens to live and work there (for the state insurance department.)

We don't know how he did. We won't know until July when they release the results. So we're just putting it out of our minds for now.

And so, we play...