The last week of school, the Mesa Fire Department came to visit with Ashley's kindergarten class. Hunter and I were able to go too. As much as Hunter loves fire trucks, he did not want to go near the firefighters when they had their fire gear on! He is definitely one of those kids that would be hiding under his bed if we had a fire! He did, however, enjoy his little walk through the fire truck and was so proud of himself sitting on the fireman's shoulder!
Ashley's favorite part was when they each got to take turns holding the fire hose. Hunter didn't want any part of that!
Ashley's kindergarten class
Brooklyn & Alyssa have been taking piano lessons since September and they had their recital in May. They both did so well! I remember being sooooo nervous to play in front of all of the parents!
On Ashley's last day of school her class had a party and an awards ceremony. Ashley's teacher name was Mrs. Mellow and she gave Ash the MOST MELLOW award. She said Ashley got this award because nothing ever riled her. She told everyone about when she fell off the monkey bars during recess and it wasn't until later in class someone went and told the teacher Ashley's chin was bleeding. She asked Ashley if she wanted to go to the nurse and Ash shrugged her shoulders and said, "I guess.". She ended up getting stitches after I picked her up. Her older sister Alyssa needs a lesson from Ashley on not going to the nurse for EVERYTHING!
After her class party we went to the kindergarten musical. It was so cute! If you are wondering which kid is Ashley...she is the one whose mouth is open the widest:) She was soooo expressive during this performance! Ash is my little actress!
Alyssa had Mrs. Vierra this year. Lissy got the MOST MOTIVATED award. Her teacher said that Alyssa would always quickly finish her work and then go up and ask the teacher for more:) I guess that is why Alyssa was sent with LOADS of homework when we went to Hawaii:)
Brooklyn had Mrs. Schafer this year. She didn't have an awards ceremony this year:( But, I'm sure she would've gotten one for being the sweetest! My girls all had such wonderful teacher this year!...Hopefully next year is just as good:)
My girls can finally play Rock Band with us. We have to do it on the no fail mode, but at least they can play:) Alyssa is amazingly good at the drums...she gets that from me:)!!! Hunter was just busy trying to play Ashley's DS. It is really funny if he can just get the game to go to a different screen, he thinks he is winning a game:)
Here in sunny Arizona, we spend many hours in the pool!
Ever since I can remember, my girls have used our waterfall to pretend they are on Splash Mountain at Disneyland...Not quite girls:)
Ashley and Hunter trying to get a sun tan...Keep on trying Hunter...maybe one day you will get one:)
I love summer because I get all kinds of help around the house. My girls love to do tasks that most people dread. Wiping windows, cleaning toilets, unloading dishwashers...it's great! Unfortunately, I would rather do those things too, than pick up toys. I need a kid that likes to do that!
We went to St. George a couple of weeks ago and stayed at my Grandpa's condo. St. George is our one vacation destination where we really just relax. The kids loved being able to eat their cereal outside while watching the small airplanes land at the nearby airport.
No trip to St. George would be complete without a photo shoot at Red Hills. Too bad this picture isn't zoomed enough to see the scared look on Brooklyn's face! She wasn't happy that Rob made her climb up and scoot to the edge:)
The kids had so much fun hiking up the rocks! They were, however, a little nervous to go near any caves once we saw the biggest lizard I have ever seen in my life!
They finally made it to the top!
Rob wanted the kids to climb under this ledge for a picture. None of them wanted to.
After a long search for lizards, Alyssa finally went in. Hunter got close, but he wouldn't actually put his head in:)
Ash & Lulu over looking St. George
Rob's parents drove down from Las Vegas to spend some time with us in St. George. Grandpa Bob played tennis with the girls and watched bats flying around our heads...YIKES! Grandma Jeanne played on the playground with the kids...sorry, no pictures:)
After St. George we headed to Vegas for our nephew's baptism. Here are the kids watching Kitt Kittredge in our hotel room.
After Tyler's baptism, we went to Rob's brother's house for dinner and the kids had a blast playing on this water slide.
Luckily nobody broke any bones while piling on the hammock:)
The girls all played dress ups...they even dressed up Hunter. My poor son is likely going to have gender confusion:( Choncho, you can thank me when you are older for not taking any pictures of you as a girl:) But, I think Grandpa did:)
I guess living in Arizona makes Ashley think that putting on a nice furry coat is playing dress ups:)
Ashley's favorite part was when they each got to take turns holding the fire hose. Hunter didn't want any part of that!
Ashley's kindergarten class
Brooklyn & Alyssa have been taking piano lessons since September and they had their recital in May. They both did so well! I remember being sooooo nervous to play in front of all of the parents!
On Ashley's last day of school her class had a party and an awards ceremony. Ashley's teacher name was Mrs. Mellow and she gave Ash the MOST MELLOW award. She said Ashley got this award because nothing ever riled her. She told everyone about when she fell off the monkey bars during recess and it wasn't until later in class someone went and told the teacher Ashley's chin was bleeding. She asked Ashley if she wanted to go to the nurse and Ash shrugged her shoulders and said, "I guess.". She ended up getting stitches after I picked her up. Her older sister Alyssa needs a lesson from Ashley on not going to the nurse for EVERYTHING!
After her class party we went to the kindergarten musical. It was so cute! If you are wondering which kid is Ashley...she is the one whose mouth is open the widest:) She was soooo expressive during this performance! Ash is my little actress!
Alyssa had Mrs. Vierra this year. Lissy got the MOST MOTIVATED award. Her teacher said that Alyssa would always quickly finish her work and then go up and ask the teacher for more:) I guess that is why Alyssa was sent with LOADS of homework when we went to Hawaii:)
Brooklyn had Mrs. Schafer this year. She didn't have an awards ceremony this year:( But, I'm sure she would've gotten one for being the sweetest! My girls all had such wonderful teacher this year!...Hopefully next year is just as good:)
My girls can finally play Rock Band with us. We have to do it on the no fail mode, but at least they can play:) Alyssa is amazingly good at the drums...she gets that from me:)!!! Hunter was just busy trying to play Ashley's DS. It is really funny if he can just get the game to go to a different screen, he thinks he is winning a game:)
Here in sunny Arizona, we spend many hours in the pool!
Ever since I can remember, my girls have used our waterfall to pretend they are on Splash Mountain at Disneyland...Not quite girls:)
Ashley and Hunter trying to get a sun tan...Keep on trying Hunter...maybe one day you will get one:)
I love summer because I get all kinds of help around the house. My girls love to do tasks that most people dread. Wiping windows, cleaning toilets, unloading dishwashers...it's great! Unfortunately, I would rather do those things too, than pick up toys. I need a kid that likes to do that!
We went to St. George a couple of weeks ago and stayed at my Grandpa's condo. St. George is our one vacation destination where we really just relax. The kids loved being able to eat their cereal outside while watching the small airplanes land at the nearby airport.
No trip to St. George would be complete without a photo shoot at Red Hills. Too bad this picture isn't zoomed enough to see the scared look on Brooklyn's face! She wasn't happy that Rob made her climb up and scoot to the edge:)
The kids had so much fun hiking up the rocks! They were, however, a little nervous to go near any caves once we saw the biggest lizard I have ever seen in my life!
They finally made it to the top!
Rob wanted the kids to climb under this ledge for a picture. None of them wanted to.
After a long search for lizards, Alyssa finally went in. Hunter got close, but he wouldn't actually put his head in:)
Ash & Lulu over looking St. George
Rob's parents drove down from Las Vegas to spend some time with us in St. George. Grandpa Bob played tennis with the girls and watched bats flying around our heads...YIKES! Grandma Jeanne played on the playground with the kids...sorry, no pictures:)
After St. George we headed to Vegas for our nephew's baptism. Here are the kids watching Kitt Kittredge in our hotel room.
After Tyler's baptism, we went to Rob's brother's house for dinner and the kids had a blast playing on this water slide.
Luckily nobody broke any bones while piling on the hammock:)
The girls all played dress ups...they even dressed up Hunter. My poor son is likely going to have gender confusion:( Choncho, you can thank me when you are older for not taking any pictures of you as a girl:) But, I think Grandpa did:)
I guess living in Arizona makes Ashley think that putting on a nice furry coat is playing dress ups:)




I love her excited expression! I hope my kids always act this excited by the gifts we give them!



















I was the unlucky runner that had 2 out of 3 of my legs cut because of permit issues with cities along the route. I was originally supposed to run 12.5 miles and was suddenly cut down to 3.5. So, I doubled up with my friend 





When we were sitting in the hot tub at our hotel after the race, Alyssa decided to swim across the hot tub. Apparently she didn't have her eyes open because she hit the other side...Check out her goose egg!
After Rob and Brooklyn played tennis, we all played ping-pong in the courtyard of the hotel. Hunter kept trying to steal the girls ping-pong balls:)











On Thursday Ashley had her Easter Egg Hunt for her kindergarten class. She was really fast at collecting her eggs:) Thanks to 5 years of being trained for family egg hunts! This is Ashley and her 






Hunter's idea was the best...To heck with throwing, why not just get a "ringer" this way?!!!







Rob likes pie for his birthday instead of cake, so this year I made 3 (in order to fit all of the candles). It was either that, or buy a Costco-sized sheet cake:) Rob and his brothers played Zarahemla, and the cousins all had fun playing together.










