Happy 10th Birthday, Erin!

Erin turned 10 in July.  Double digits!  A whole decade!  We are very lucky to have Erin in our family.  Here’s a photo from every year, along with ten things we love about her, in no particular order:

1. Erin is a nice kid.  She is friendly and will go out of her way to do nice things for people.  She leaves little notes or draws pictures and always offers to help with things.  I like to watch how kind she is to animals, and to little kids or babies.  She is very, very kind to her little brother.  She is a sweetheart.

2. Erin is unselfish.  She’s never really begged & cried for things in stores, and she’s pretty content with what she has.  She is quick to offer something of hers to someone who might need it.  She likes attention, but she isn’t loud or obnoxious to get it.

3. Erin is sympathetic.  She is sensitive to other peoples’ feelings and very compassionate when someone around her feels bad.  She’s very tactful in the way she talks to others, and she chooses her words carefully so she doesn’t hurt anyone’s feelings.  She’s friendly and doesn’t want anyone to feel left out.  She will try to be a friend to someone who looks lonely.

4. Erin is smart.  This is a blessing/curse.  It doesn’t take her much effort to learn new things, so sometimes in school she’ll get bored during instructions and drift off a bit.  Or she’ll get in trouble for trying to help someone else.  She has a very analytical mind and can figure things out quickly.

5. Erin has an awesome memory.  Sometimes I think she might have a little bit of photographic memory ability because of the details she can describe (accurately).  This is a big deal to me because I seem to forget things all the time, and I can always ask Erin something and trust that she’s right.

6. Erin is responsible.  She sets her alarm and gets herself up on school days (I didn’t do that until college!) and I know that she’ll be dressed and ready by a certain time.  She doesn’t try to get out of doing stuff.  If it’s a chore, she might not always do it with the best attitude, but she will get it done.  She doesn’t have a reckless nature, so we know we can trust her to make good decisions and not do anything dangerous when we’re not around.

7. Erin is spiritual.  Although we’ve raised her going to church every week and praying and reading scriptures, some spirituality that can’t be taught.  It comes naturally to her.  If she has a worry or a problem, her first thought is to pray about it.  When it’s resolved, her first thought is a realization that her prayer was answered.  She understands what we read in the scriptures and can comprehend the principles behind the teachings and explain them in her own way.  She gets it. And I hope she will always have such a natural relationship with her Heavenly Father.

8. Erin is funny.  Not telling jokes, slapstick funny, but realistic and a little sarcastic (in a good way). She can find silliness in almost every situation, and she knows how to get others to see it.  She has a good ear and can do some pretty spot-on impersonations.  I think her goal in being funny isn’t just to get laughs, but to foster happiness, and it shows.

9. Erin is talented.  I’m very curious to see what she’ll be when she grows up, because she could go several directions.  She is a very good writer.  I really enjoy reading her stories.  She is a good artist; she has a very visual imagination, and she can recreate her ideas on paper.  She’s shy about singing in front of others, but she has very good pitch.  I hope she’ll get more comfortable with it, because she is a good singer.  She’s been playing piano for about a year and a half, and she’s catching on quickly.  Her playing gets smoother every day.    

10. Erin is a good example.  No, she’s not perfect, but she teaches her very-imperfect parents good things every day.  This post is not about Robbie, but a lot of the reason he’s such a good boy is because of what he learns from watching his big sister.  We all learn from her, and we can become better people because of her example.  She’s positive and encouraging.  She has integrity.  She wants to do what’s right.  She’s not afraid to show love or to speak a kind word.

We love you, Erin!

Camping 2012

We only went camping once this summer, because we're saving our money and vacation days for the Disney cruise we're planning in November!
We went to Knoll Lake as usual, but this time some friends from church, the Woodruffs, came with us.  They have 17-year-old twin daughters, and one of them has been spending a couple of days a week at our house with the kids while Rob and I are at work.  They're great girls.

One thing we like about Knoll Lake is that usually when most of the state has fire restrictions, the Knoll Lake campground isn't restricted.  Rob checks the Forest Service website every day leading up to our trips each year, just to make sure.

Well, this year, he checked it early in the morning the day we left, and unbeknownst to us, they placed a fire restriction a couple of hours later.  Oops.  After setting up camp and relaxing a bit, we built a nice campfire and made our hobo dinners.  We were all sitting around the fire when we had the pleasure of meeting Mel.

The campground used to have a caretaker called Mountain Eddie, who we really liked.  But this year, the Forest Service decided to manage the campground themselves, and they guy replacing Mountain Eddie was much less personable.  Mel drove up to our campsite, headlights blazing into our faces, and marched right up to our fire with a 5-gallon container of water.  "I'm going to have to put out your fire," he said and immediately dumped the water on it.

We were all a little dumfounded, and Rob started asking him what was going on and what they guy's name was.  Mel was kind of a big jerk, but he eventally explained that he was away from the campsite during the day because he had to go into town to pick up the fire restriction order, and that he had to make sure all the fires were out.  Fine - we're all about not buring down the forest, and we would've put out the fire if he had asked us, but he didn't have to be a creep about it!  We were scared we wouldn't be able to cook all our meals and we'd have to go home early.  The kids were crying.  Good times!

The next morning, Rob talked to Mel and he sort-of apologized for the way he treated us and offered to let us use his gas camp stove to cook our meals.  It ended up working out OK, but it was kind of a rough start.

The rest of the week was nice!  The weather was great, no rain at all.  The lake was too cold for me, but we went several times, and most everyone else swam quite a bit.  Even the Woodruff's dog, Drew had a good time swimming.  The kids loved having Drew along with us!  She's a very good dog, and Robbie was in heaven.

We played a lot of cards and ate a lot of candy.

We went on a few hikes, and the kids were excited to find this log they like to walk across every year.

We had baseball gloves & bats, so we played catch a lot and we even had a little bit of batting practice.

The first day, before we knew we wouldn't be able to have campfires, Rob had gathered a bunch of firewood.  Since he went to the trouble of getting it, he went ahead and split it all, and we brought it home so we'd have it next time we go camping.  It's hard to see in this picture, but Robbie had the mallet and was helping split wood.

It was a much-needed vacation!  And the next weekend was Father's Day.  One of Rob's presents was a small propane table-top grill, just in case.

Tolleson Ward Building

One Friday morning at the end of June, Rob woke up at 4:30 to use the bathroom and got a text from his mom when he was getting back into bed.  She couldn't sleep and was up watching TV.  She told him to turn on the TV because she thought our church building was on fire.  WHAT???


So he did.  And we stood there in the dark, half asleep, watching our church burn on live TV.

What a weird feeling.  I had to be up in a half hour anyway to go to work, but I felt creepy leaving for work that morning.  I felt like I should be doing something!  Rob, too.  But there was nothing for us to do.  We just kept checking the news/internet for updates and tried to wrap our heads around it.  It's just a building, but it was kind of a second home.  We spent every Sunday and at least one evening a week there for the last 11 years.  Our babies were blessed in that chapel.  We had parties and activities and spiritual experiences there and made friends there.  It was hard to see it go.

The first thing you wonder about a church fire is whether it was done on purpose.  I didn't know this, but every time a place of worship burns, the ATF has to investigate it as arson.  That's too bad.  After a week, the investigators announced that it had been ruled an arson.  So then we knew, but what do we do with that knowledge?  The outcome is the same, regardless of the cause, and as Christian people, we can't hold a grudge against the person who did it.  So that's that.  We try to be OK with it and move on.

It's neat that a couple of schools in Tolleson called and offered up their facilities for us to use on Sundays.  There were three different congregations meeting in our building, so other LDS church buildings found room to work us in to their Sunday and weeknight schedules.  Some congregations had to change their meeting times to accommodate us, and they did it without batting an eye.  So we're meeting in another building for a year or so until we can rebuild and everything is fine.  We do miss our old building!

(image from Google maps)

Robbie Turns Six

Robbie turned 6 last week!  He and Erin spent his birthday at my parents' house, swimming and eating cupcakes and playing with cousins.

That night, he opened some presents at home and we went out to eat.  He was really happy to get a box in the mail from Papa Bob and Nana Sandy in Illinois.

He was super-excited about all his presents, especially his slingshot.  Here's how both kids felt about the slingshot:

Chili's had a coupon for free kids' meals with an adult entree that night, so guess where we ate?  They also brought Robbie a free dessert that was roughly the size of his head.

The kids also get a free meal at Red Robin for their birthday, so that's where we had lunch on Saturday.  Again with the giant free dessert:

On Sunday after church, we had some family over for more presents, and yes, more dessert!  Grandma & Grandpa, Nana & Papa Dan, Kristil and three of her boys, and Scott & Sydnie drove clear over from the east side to see him.  We have good families  :)

Robbie originally wanted a Star Wars cake, but I realized I probably wouldn't be able to replicate my sketches in frosting, so I talked him into a Lego cake instead.  Well, a pair of them, since they were small.

 What a week!

Robbie is a good boy.  He's growing up fast, although he still hasn't lost any baby teeth!  Not even a loose one yet.  Hard to believe he will be in first grade and we won't have any "little" kids anymore.

Robbie is pretty quiet with people he doesn't know very well, and he can be shy in large groups, but he has a pretty wacky sense of humor, and he keeps us all on our toes.  He's also very kind.  This kid is compassionate and can empathize with people, animals, made up characters on TV, you name it.  He's a lot like his sister that way.  He's really into Legos, Star Wars, and anything involving projectiles right now.  He can be a little gentleman and always waits after he gets out of the car so he can walk me into church every Sunday.  He pesters his big sister, but he also completely idolizes her.  He looks up to Rob and wants to be like him, from helping fix things to wearing the same color shirt sometimes.

We love you, Robbie!

The End of the School Year...

School's over until August!  May was a busy month.

This was Erin's first year to participate in the science fair.  She got 3rd place in her class!

She's also been staying after school every Tuesday to participate in a 4th grade engineering design squad.  They had a district-wide competition last week where each school's design squad had to build a table out of paper and cardboard.  Erin's team didn't win, but they were able to stack 27 books on their table.  She had a lot of fun doing similar things every Tuesday.

Because Erin was on Principal's Honor Roll for the first three semesters, she got to go to Honors Night again.  This is her fourth trophy in four years - she's hoping to end up with eight of them before she goes to high school!  Rob and I think that's a pretty good goal  :)

Today was the last day of school.  Erin's class was supposed to dress up as NERDS.  Last night as we scrounged the house, I was pleased to discover that we don't have anything nerdy, ha ha.  But we were able to come up with a pretty horrifying outfit, complete with Richard Simmons pin, a "Star Student" sticker, a bun, and a clip-on tie.  Her teacher provided the black-rimmed glasses with white tape on the bridge once they got to class.

Robbie was all dressed up for kindergarten graduation.  I don't really agree with the idea of kindergarten graduation... but if they're having one and our kid's going to be in it, of course we're going!  It was really cute.  He had the same kindergarten teacher Erin had, and we really like her.  She's so good at making every kid feel special, and you can tell she really loves what she does.  I'm a little sad that our kids are past kindergarten and we won't have her for a teacher anymore!

He got a little diploma and some extra certificates for reading and attendance, and he got to talk into a microphone to say what he liked best about kindergarten.  (His answer: "Going to kindergarten")

We also had to get a picture of him with one of his best friends, Elijah P.  (there was another Elijah in the class)  His mom and I exchanged contact info so maybe we can get them together to play sometimes in the summer.  Robbie is excited they're going to be in the same class next year, too.

I've never posted a video on the blog before, so let's see if this works:

AGFD Outdoor Expo

We missed the Tres Rios Festival this year, so we decided to go to the Arizona Game & Fish Department's Outdoor Expo in April.  Rob was playing in a softball tournament that day, so the kids and I stopped by and watched a game before going on to the expo.

This is an annual event AGFD puts on, and it's HUGE.  It's geared mainly toward hunting & fishing, so there were lots of vendors there showing new guns, knives, bows, you name it.  Not particularly interesting to me and the kids, but there was lots of other stuff, too.  Plenty of live and taxidermied animals and pelts, giant fish tanks, target ranges, a rodeo arena with different competitions, ATVs and RVs on display.

Erin got to hold a snake!  I thought Robbie would want to, with how much he loves animals, but maybe snakes aren't his bag.

The kids got to shoot BB guns and keep their targets.  One of the guys at the range gave them bright orange shooting vests to wear.  Erin quickly realized they were dorky and decided to carry hers.  Robbie, on the other hand, wore it proudly and for about a week afterward, it was his eating vest, his playing with Legos vest, his drawing vest, you name it.  He still wears it around the house every now and then.

Classwork

Sometimes it's an adventure opening the kids' backpacks to see what treasures have come home with them. Robbie had this gem in his classwork folder the other day:

In case it's too hard to see... Question 2 asks, "How do you know?" And Robbie answered, "Be cus I am cmart."

Rob and I about died laughing! I see Mrs. Jones got a kick out of it, too. And she even gave him full credit!