a weekend in the mountains

Let's start off with this amazing selfie. Thank you, Layla!

The infamous cockroach keeps appearing around here, scaring many of us to the point of jumping, to the delight of the tricky person in current possession of the fake bug. It even came along with us on a weekend getaway to the mountains.

We had some friends from our new ward invite us up to their family's cabin for part of fall break. My kids were in heaven on the ATVs.

We found some really beautiful spots and it was nice getting to know another family better.

Layla had her first slumber party while we were there. On the second night, all of the girls slept out in the loft. Before it was time to sleep. I walked in to this sweet little group playing "Truth or Dare". I occupied myself in the loft for a few minutes because I was a little bit curious about how they were playing this game. I knew had nothing to worry about when the truth questions were things like "What's your favorite pet?" and the dares were "I dare you to jump from the couch onto that pillow." And there was always the option to "pass". What fun, good girls!

I got to fall asleep next to this sweet buddy boy at night.

Before we came home, we drove over to see Eric's grandma. We were so lucky to get to see Josh and Jasmine again before they left (they are such an amazing couple! I adore them so.).

Sweet, Grandma Mary. Oh how we wish she was still down in Mesa so we could visit her more often!

Natural Bridge

We spent a wonderful fall break day visiting an Arizona beauty I don't remember ever going to before--Natural Bridge.

It was such a cool wonder to explore as a family. 

While the top was pretty cool, hiking down to the bottom and scrambling through the bridge is where its at. So amazing!

The two older boys are daring climbers who would've scrambled up many more rocks if we didn't reign them in a little to stay somewhat together.

We had a little picnic under the bridge with this gorgeous view.

I can't believe I had never been there before--Natural Bridge was pretty awesome.

firestation

This picture has nothing to do with the firestation. But I had to throw it in to make sure it gets documented somewhere. This boy has a deep love of legos. He loves when his big brothers make him cars and he comes up with some pretty great cars with trailers himself. I adore him.

We went with a little group during the fall break to tour a firestation. It was interesting and cool and all of my kids did great during the tour (I jumped for joy that we are in a stage that we can do stuff like this without any tantrums. at least that day we were).

Toothless Perry

Oh man, our Perry boy got quite the surprise the other day.

He was playing upstairs when I heard him yell for me to help him.

As I was walking to meet him, I thought I heard him say "The poop came out!" Oh no, what mess was I about to walk into?!?

He repeated what he said, but this time was in my line of sight. With one hand up to his mouth and the other hand held out cupping something, I thought this time he had told me "The food came out!" He sometimes has acid reflux and will throw up in his mouth. Though I didn't think throw up was a much better alternative to what I first thought I heard...

But when I got a little closer and he repeated himself one more time, I finally understood!
"The TOOTH came out!"

I was relieved. And after I explained how normal and ok and exciting it was to lose a tooth, my little buddy felt quite relieved, too.

We were all so excited for him! The tooth fairy came that night and he left him a few quarters. He clutched those quarters all the next day.

We discovered then that his second front bottom tooth was also loose. We checked on it each night to see if it was ready to come out. One night I asked if he would open his mouth so I could wiggle it. Without even looking at me, his sweet reply was simply "Wiggle, wiggle!" We laughed with him at that one.

Wednesday afternoon I got an email from his teacher telling me that his tooth did indeed fall out at lunch. She said he was "cheesing" to everyone in the front office to show off his two missing teeth. And he told everyone that the tooth fairy was going to come tonight so he could get more money for Legos.

So that is two missing teeth for this little guy. I can't believe how quickly he is growing up!

fall break fishing

We are at the tail end of our first extended fall break. The kids got two and a half weeks off of school. Which we all think was pretty great. It has been just long enough to get out and do some fun things, relax at home, read lots of books, and then start to feel ready for school to start again. 

Last week, we drove up to Payson. We caught a small glimpse of Fall up on the Mogollan Rim.

 

We pulled out the fishing poles when we got to the lake. Layla and Perry (mostly Perry) were so excited to go fishing. They had been looking forward to their first fishing trip for quite some time.

Thanks to my grandpa Neff and all of the fishing trips we took while I was in high school, I surprised my kids and knew way more about fishing than they thought I did.

Perry was as happy as lark with that fishing pole. He got quite tangled up many times, but wasn't bothered by it. One of my favorite moments of the day was sitting with him by that lake on a rock helping him to reel in his line. He was so content. And I was, too. Not many minutes later though, he had tripped into the lake and got wet up to his ankles. And that was the end of fishing for him. Without saying a word to us, he turned around and started walking right off. I followed him all the way back to the car and got him changed and settled into the warm car.   

Kyler was cold. We layered up with as many extra shirts and jackets that we had, but he was shivering. He did get out there and fish (no pictures, darn), but he was happy to get back to the car soon after Perry went.

Once we taught Kacin a few fishing tricks, he was loving it.

Layla had a blast with her fishing pole, too.

We didn't catch anything. But it was about the experience. It was a beautiful day on a beautiful lake.