Tea Partaaaay

 

 

The weather has finally cooled down and the neighborhood girls decided to have an outdoor tea party.  What's on the menu?  Traditional high tea eats including: ramen, limeade, apples and oreos.

 

I've been trying to catch up on our pictures for quite a while now.  Daniel found a way to help me: he erased all the pics on my phone.  Yes, it's depressing.  But hey, I'm all caught up now.  No more excuses.

 



Balboa Beach

 

For fall break, we headed to Cali for the weekend.  Balboa beach was beautiful.  The waves were huge and Daniel laughed and laughed while poor Connor was pounded.

The Pump Track at McDowell Mountain

 

Saturday will loaded up all the kids and all the bikes and headed to McDowell Mountain.  We had the pump track to ourselves which was really fun.  It was hot though.  

Megan's first girl's camp

I was SO excited for Megan to go to Girl's Camp.  I have such great memories of my camp trips.  She had a wonderful time and camp back tired, happy, and dirty.  

4th of July

 

Watching fireworks at Ahwatukee Park.  I think this was the first year we didn't have a lightning storm during the fireworks.  It was hot, but still fun. 

Saguaro Lake

Only 45 minutes from our house there are lakes and rivers.  I had no idea.  You can also go tubing down the Salt River and the water is actually cold!  So nice to find a way to cool off during the 115 degree heat.

 

Newport Beach with the Cousins

We had so much fun this summer in California.  Our favorite thing to do is go to the beach, of course.  The kids made sand castles, body boarded, dug holes, caught unsuspecting sand crabs, buried each other, and ate pounds of snacks because playing at the beach is hard work.

 

You can't really tell but the girls were lying in a hole they dug.  Avery dubbed it: Hole Everest

 

Skate Park with the Cousins

I will love this picture forever! 

Swimming

My high jumper

 



 

Is that a nice dive, or what?

Coming down the slide

Oh come on, that's pretty cute

I can't believe I have a hamster.  I never wanted a hamster, but when you're given a free hamster, free cage, and free food and all of your children look at you with those eyes, you have a hamster.  To top it off, I even like the hamster.  He's adorable.  I even paid a ridiculous amount of money to amputate his foot when he broke it.  This is no longer a free hamster.  He has also been renamed.  The hamster formerly known as Pickle is now called Stumperton or Lieutenant Dan.  

Camping at Christopher Creek

The ax man

Our backyard - loved it

There were tons of crayfish in the water

Mallory slipped off the rock and fell into the water.  For some reason I thought this was hilarious.

Look at Megan's face.  She's saying, "Mom, why are you laughing?  That's so mean."

Hearty was so adorable on this trip.  I was strong-armed into bringing her, but I'm so glad I did.  She followed the kids everywhere, played in the creek, and completely tuckered herself out by dark.  

Some of the unfortunate yet tasty crayfish we caught.

Connor hugging his sister...once in a lifetime shot.

The girls caught lots of caterpillars.  I think their names were Jellybob, Juliebob, and Jellybean.