Valentine's Day, Del Sol Ragnar, the Kids and School and Happy Birthday Rob!

This year only Brooklyn & Alyssa had to make Valentine boxes for their classes. Thank goodness for the Cricut!!! Since Rob wants the kids to decorate their own boxes, I do all the cutting and put the double-sided tape on the back of the decorations and then show the girls where to stick everything:)...Does that count as letting them decorate their own boxes???Ashley didn't have to take her box to class, but I still had her make one just for fun. This is the product of a no-help-from-Mom box:)...Isn't it adorable?!!! She did use a few left over hearts that I cut out for the other girls though:)
Rob, Hunter and I all got to go to each of the girls classes for the Valentine's party. Ashley made this cute bag for her valentines. She has one of the best teachers in the world!
Hunter enjoyed eating all of the candy that Ash didn't want.

Brooklyn

Hunter made himself at home in Alyssa's class. He plopped down on the rocking chair and read a book to himself:)...Well, he at least looked at the pictures.

Alyssa let Hunter eat most of her candy too:)

Valentine's Day was also Black and White Day at school. Hunter and his Valentine's gift from Rob and me

Brooklyn

Lulu

Ash

A few weeks ago, I ran in my 3rd Ragnar Relay. It was terrible, yet sooo much fun! By the third leg, we were all seriously wondering why we keep signing up for these things. Fortunately, or unfortunately:) some of us are running the one in Los Angeles in April. I think now that all of our muscles have healed, we should be able to make it:) My total this round was 13 1/2 miles. Who in the world came up with the idea to run this far in 36 hours with little to no sleep???

Our team name was Wii Not Fit

Thanks to my photographer friend, Ruth, I have pictures of myself.

Jeff giving me some water...Thanks Jeff!...I was really thirsty:)

Last year we had a problem growing lemons, but this year we got a bunch! The kids were so excited when they actually got to pick some:)

Rob and Hunter made lemonade

My girls have had very few big projects that had to be done for school. For some strange reason, this time Alyssa's and Brooklyn's were both due on the same day. Being the procrastinator that I have been since I was in school, we of course waited to do the projects until the last couple of days before they were due. Rob was out of town, and once again, I was saved by the Cricut. Alyssa's project was on the skeletal system.

Brooklyn had to choose one of the Winter Olympic sports to do a report on. Since she is taking ice skating lessons, she of course chose figure skating.

Last Saturday was the annual Spring Carnival at the girl's school. Keeping with tradition, Rob had to win a basket at the silent auction. This year Rob bought Brooklyn's class basket which was "Pamper Yourself".

I don't know who was more excited for this basket, me or the girls. Yes, Rob does like to pamper himself, but this basket was full of stuff for girls:) All Hunter got was a blue loofah that I later took back, and of course he has no idea that it's gone:) Hunter was really disappointed that we bought this basket instead of the Hot Wheels basket:(

On Rob's birthday, Alyssa had her 3rd grade musical. I went to the morning showing at the school so that we could go see Alice in Wonderland 3-D after school...Loved Alice in Wonderland by the way. Anyway, Alyssa was a crow and she looked so adorable singing all the songs and flying around like a crow:)

The lighting is always terrible on the stage, so this is the only decent picture that I was able to get.

Our friends came over Monday night for cake and ice cream. I think Rob offered to hold Max while we sang to him so he could hide behind him:)...I still got a picture Rob:)

Rob's bosses sent him a YUMMY fruit basket for his birthday. The kids have never eaten so much fruit in one setting.

I guess Ashley and the Richey girls thought that we were having a fiesta...Ashley is so dramatic:)...In a good way!

Happy 37th Birthday Rob! We love you! I will say that one of the best presents he got for his birthday was the card from Benson:)...That was awesome!!!

Annie, Supercross, Desert, Ice Skating & Peter Piper Pizza

During Christmas break, we took the kids to see Annie on Broadway with some of our friends. Rob and Hunter were the only boys that came:) The kids had so much fun, and have renewed their love of the movie Annie. I think they've seen it 10 times in a month and a half.Even Hunter liked the play, until he got stuck in the seat while he flirted with the Richey girls:) After that, he had to sit by Mom and Dad.
In January, we went to our first Supercross race. We went with our friends the Richeys and the Urrys. Instead of trying to park downtown, we decided to take the light rail. Once we boarded the train, the kids quickly got a culture shock! Everyone on board was a die hard motorcross fan! I'm also pretty sure that we were the only ones that were sober and wearing bright colored clothing:). We were definitely the only group of adults that was outnumbered by kids. Everyone aboard wanted to teach us about supercross. It was a blast!
Ashley, Hannah and Alyssa on the light rail.
The kids watching the mouse trap outside of Chase Field. The moms were all busy people watching, while the dads tried to get us tickets.

Hunter loved seeing all the motorcycles, but I think he may have liked the cotton candy more.

It didn't take the guys long before they started making bets on which motorcycle would win. Shane and Rob cleaned out Derek's wallet:)...and then Rob cleaned out Shane's:)...nice going Rob!

Rob and Ashley

Alyssa

We went out to the desert again with our friends, only this time it was a lot more adventurous than the last. I'll get to that a little later:) The kids are always so good to entertain us by posing for pictures:) I love this one!

The kids had a half day of school this day, and we were so excited to get to the coveted shooting spot before anybody else. We were thrilled when we pulled up and nobody was there. Luckily we had already used up most of the bullets before a cop showed up to inform us that we were shooting on government land and it was illegal:( We have never seen any signs posted...I guess that's why it was open this time. Maybe everyone knows now. Rob wanted to make sure I got a picture of the smoke coming out of his muzzle loader while her was shooting. I got it Rob!

Hunter wanted to hike up the hill to help Rob and Derek set up more targets.

Rob and Hunter

Rob and Derek shooting clay pigeons.

What is it with boys and guns???

Now to the adventurous part of our day. While Rob, Sarah and I were shooting with four of the kids, Derek took the other four on a rhino ride. It is so dry here, 360 days out of the year you wouldn't have to worry about driving in mud in the desert. We had a lot of rain in January, and I guess Derek couldn't resist driving the rhino into a swamp:) He says it was Brooklyn idea...you be the judge:) Where we were, none of us had very good cell phone reception. While we were talking to the cop about our illegal shooting, I received a text from Derek that they were stuck somewhere. It was getting dark, so it didn't take long for us to get worried. Rob immediately jumped in his truck and headed out to find them. We had brought walkie talkies with us, but of course they were both inside the rhino because the kids had been playing with them. Rob drove around for about 20 minutes before coming back to tell us he couldn't find them. We were finally able to get enough bars on our phones to call him, and he tried to direct us to him. Rob then headed out again to find them. As he was driving he found Derek walking alone without any of the kids. Rob thought that was weird, but as soon as Derek led him to the rhino, he quickly realized why the kids weren't with him. Rob drove the truck (which has 4-wheel drive) as far as he could, but couldn't reach the rhino because it was 150 yards into the muddy swamp. Rob and Derek had to walk that distance in the mud and then carry each kid back to the truck. Poor Brooklyn got dropped by Rob and got so muddy! Lucky for us, Brooklyn had taken her camera so we have a few pictures. I guess these are pretty good for a 10 year old:) I'm so proud of her for thinking to take a picture before it was dark. Anyway, Rob and Derek tried to get the rhino to budge, but soon realized they couldn't do it without a winch. They all piled in the truck and drove back to where Sarah and I were and told us they were going to have to leave the rhino over night and come back in the morning with a winch and some shovels. This was pretty inconvenient for Sarah and I because we were supposed to run a 10k the next morning at 8:10 a.m. Once we got home the men decided that they would just go to Bass Pro Shop and buy a winch and then head back out there to see if they could get it out. After driving all over the valley trying to get everything they needed, they headed back to the desert. Derek brought along his big utility light and his generator so that they would have some light. Since the truck could only get with 150 yards of the rhino, they had to connect 3 extension cords to the generator and then they put the big light on a piece of wood to keep it from falling in the mud or from falling into the pond next to where they were. The light was still a good 50 yards from the rhino, but it helped some. Armed with shovels, Rob and Derek suited up in their new rubber boots, and started to dig out the wheels. As soon as they freed the wheels, Derek told Rob to jump in and drive. Rob didn't dare turn around for fear of getting stuck again, so he popped it into reverse and stepped on the gas. At one point the whole passenger seat was submerged in the water from the adjoining pond...but nothing was going to make Rob take his foot off the pedal:) Rob's account of his driving backwards was like this..."Amy, you should have seen me...I was like Mario Kart driving that thing! You wouldn't believe what that rhino can do backwards!!!" As he was racing to the "finish line", he drove over the extension cords that were powering the light. The wood that the light was sitting on slid through the mud and into the pond. Rob (he has been electrocuted more times than I can count) grabbed the extension cord with his bare hand and electrocuted himself. Luckily Derek didn't have to give him CPR:) Rob survived and they quickly loaded up the rhino and headed home, with plenty of time for Sarah and I to run our race in the morning. Sadly, I don't have any pictures of our race. I forgot my camera:( We ran London's Run in Queen Creek to benefit children's charities. It was so much fun!

Brooklyn all muddy after being dropped by Rob.

This mud smelled so bad you wouldn't believe it! It took hours to get it all off! But, the rhino now has the most powerful winch we could find!

The girls started ice skating lessons in January. We all went together one of the days before the lesson. Hunter hated it when we were skating, but cried when we wanted to stop.

One of the little girls on the rink couldn't figure out why Hunter wasn't skating on his own:) Nothing is more exhausting that holding up a three year old while trying to ice skate!

Ashley fell about every 60 seconds on her first day of lessons. This girl never gives up and never cries...no matter how hard she falls.

Alyssa was pretty wobbly at first too, but she his such a determined kid, she would never stop trying to be better.

Brooklyn may fall a lot when she is walking, but she actually has only fallen a few times while skating...This was one of those times.

The girls can't stop smiling during their lessons:) Except Brooklyn...She always seems to get paired up with the only boy in her class:)

Hunter and Rob

Brooklyn skating with a boy:)

The girls during their lesson.

Brooklyn asked Rob to chaperon her school field trip this year to see a Charlie Brown play. Rob was given the biggest group of kids with the naughtiest boys. All the kids loved Rob (of course), and Brooklyn was thrilled to have her daddy go on her field trip.

Hunter...Or should I say "Sleeping Beauty"?

The girls helped Hunter load up his backpack one morning before school, complete with a water bottle. He was so proud to be going to school...or so he thought:)

My friend and I took the little kids to the Mesa Art Museum...aka AMY. Hunter and Grace had so much fun together.

The kids drawing a picture...

painting...

sitting in the weird chair...

driving the car...

and playing kitchen.

One morning a bunch of moms took our kids to Peter Piper Pizza before it opened to make pizzas. With all the toppings to choose from, the kids all chose cheese and pepperoni.

Alyssa was so nice to lift Hunter up so he could see better.

Brooklyn had fun even though she was the oldest one there:) She may not ever admit it though.

It was so nice for the kids to be able to roam around and play the games without any other people in Peter Piper. The kids quickly realized that they were with the wrong parent when I informed them that they didn't have an endless amount of tokens. Rob's the man for that!

Ashley and Hannah didn't realize they needed more than one token for this game:( I didn't stick around to see if they gave up the rest of what they had to make this one work:)