Monday, June 15, 2009

Firefighters, Last Day of School, Swimming, St. George, Las Vegas, Harley's...How Long has it Been Since I Blogged???

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:)

Last week Rob's boss was in town and so we went to his house for a BBQ. He took Hunter out to his garage to sit on his Harley.

When Rob asked Hunter if he was going to have one of these when he grows up, Hunter smiled really big and nodded his head yes:)
"Uncle Jerry" (as my kids like to call him) gave Hunter this airplane hat. He also made us some yummy hot dogs that were flown in from New York.
The girls spent about 6 hours swimming in the pool with Jerry's granddaughter Julia. The kids all slept very well that night:)