RAIN-aissance Festival

Yes, it rained on us at the Renaissance Festival.  We were wenched, I mean drenched!  The first couple of hours were soggy and cold.  I meant to grab an umbrella, didn't happen.  The boys endured and sucked it up, the girls complained and cuddled up with mom and dad.  I am so thankful MY LB was with me otherwise I would have gone home.  Going home would have been a shame because the sun came out and despite the rain we had a wonderful time.

My favorite part was the food; turkey legs, royal baked potatoes, onion rings, candy coated pecans, funnel cake and chocolate covered strawberries.  Yes, weight watchers and I have parted ways.  Very sad, I think some day we will reunite our love for one another.  But for now I am enjoying the reuniting with calories.

The kiddos love the shows!  Acrobats, juggling, music, jokes, fire, whips, falconry and so many other fun things that we don't see much of.  They also love looking at the shops and getting ideas for creating when we get home.  Already on the list is one axe for Spencer, a painted shield for Matthew, and fairy outfits for the girls.  MY LB and I love crafting and creating with the kids, especially when it is doing something that we love.  MY LB loves to wood work and the boys have shared this hobby with him multiple times. 

Over all it was a fun family day and a long drive so we were able to finish our CD book.  We finished a series that we all loved and are so sad to be done.  It is funny how we have made connections with the characters and feel like we are loosing friends.  It ended to all of our satisfactions!

Here are some highlights.....

2012 Here We Come!!!

For Christmas this year our household received tickets to Knotts Berry Farm. What a blast! We spent a glorious week in California. It was such a great time together, I love spending family time together without any interruptions. Just me, MY LB and our fabulous four.

MY BFF

Our first stop was a visit with Alice's clan. Alice and I have been friends since sixth grade and have spent many great moments, some of my favorite, together. I love her and I love that our families have remained close after so many years.

Waterfall Hike

Double Date

Two Friends Hanging Out

Off to the BEACH and KNOTTS

Next we were off to our beach side resort. We spent Monday at Knotts Berry Farm. We had such a good time. Once the kids over came their fears they were on a ride-page. I couldn't believe the rides they went on, and LIKED. We recently had watched We Bought A Zoo and in the movie they talked about twenty seconds of courage, the kids used this as their motto for the day. They kept telling each other, "Come on, it only takes twenty seconds of courage". It worked!

I used my twenty seconds of courage to go on the worst ride of my life and came very close to loosing my stomach. WORST RIDE EVER! Love roller coasters, HATE to spin! I was spinning, swinging and getting higher and higher.... I can't talk about it anymore. I had to take a good 30 minutes in the sun sitting completely still before I could continue on our Knotts adventure.

The kids each had their favorite rides and wanted to go on them again and again (which we could without getting off because there were no lines).

The boys favorite ride, 301 feet in the air spinning round and round. It was a pretty cool trip, once was enough for me.

Maggie, LOVED the swings! She stayed on for three rotations one time. I tried the swings right after my ride from HECK and it too was horrible, man I was sick.

Kendal loved the spinning hats and so Jeremiah was doomed to spinning ALL DAY, poor guy. By the end of the night he was all spun out. Did I mention I HATE spinning.

Overall the park was a blast, I liked the rides, we don't know about the food because none of us dared to eat, the entertainment was fun, however my favorite part was this moment I captured as I walked behind my family...

Vacation always brings us closer together. I am grateful for such a loving husband and wonderful children to spend my days vacationing with.

This is how I finished my night, on the kiddie coaster with two of my kiddies. We were screaming, laughing and throwing our arms in the air. A perfect way to end the day!

A Week in Sedona

As previously mentioned our clan spent a week in the beautiful red rock country of Sedona. We love Sedona! We stay at a nice kid friendly resort with swimming, mini golf, play ground and special activities. It is a nice home away from home, only with more stuff than our home has to offer, so really it is an awesome home away from home.

On Sunday we showed up for church to find an empty parking lot. Lucky for the kids I had my Gospel Doctrine manual and we could have a lesson in the grass. While we were there a very nice older couple also on vacation came and sat in the grass and had a little mini church meeting with us. They were so sweet and shared many wonderful stories and great knowledge with our family. We will always remember this experience and the impact they had on our family.

The thing we love the most about Sedona is hiking. It was warmer then we were hoping so we tried to go on hikes that stayed close to water. We went on five different hikes this trip and once again sealed our love for nature and Gods creations in our hearts and minds.

FYI: I know you know that the camera puts on about ten pounds well this particular one that I was using puts on an extra 12 1/2 pounds exactly. I have no idea what is wrong with the stupid camera, TUTT, TUTT.

Here are some high lights of our trip......

MY LB's sister Kosette and her friend Matt came to visit us. They are such a fun couple and the kids loved spending time with them.

Junior Rangers, any time you are at a national, state or county park you should ask about their Junior Ranger program. The kids have gone through the program in a few different places in Arizona and have had a great time doing it.


Submarine rock was the unplanned hike. We had one good over cast day and decided to make the best of it and go on a new hike that we hadn't tried before. Half way through the hike there was trail leading to Submarine Rock, as soon as Spencer saw it he said, "I am going to the top of it". So, that's what we did, it was a long hike and we didn't have a lot of water but the kid was determined. Thankfully, we traveled back from the hike via a Pink Jeep route, so there was a road straight to the truck in the parking lot. This hike is where we picked up our tadpoles, perfect for Maggie's life cycle studies.


We attended a free concert that was absolutely amazing. This man made flutes and produced beautiful music inspired by nature. Spencer really took to it and spent all of his summer reading money on a flute and music, he practices daily.

We also visit the Flagstaff Arboretum, it is a botanical garden of sorts, smack dab in the middle of the forest. We are studying plants for group science right now and man were we on our game. I think we had a few things that we could teach them. Matthew retains everything and knows everything so he makes tours extremely fun (not really). Spencer expressed a new interest in herbs and was very obsessive in the matter.




There was an animal encounter at the Arboretum, someone who works for the forest service and rescues hurt animals came with some critters to show us and talk about. Matthew has his mind set on being a Falconer and had many questions about the birds of prey. The best part had to be seeing my kids hold and pet a skunk like it was a cat. I could not believe it! This was as close as I have ever been to a skunk, the man received the skunk when it was 2 weeks old and domesticated it. It was not de-stinktified yet!


Our hikes took us to great heights this time around, we experienced many great and educational sights, found the best swimming hole ever, conquered Submarine Rock, dug a little bit deeper, pushed a lit bit harder and let nature fill us all the way to the brim with gratitude for this beautiful Earth the Lord has blessed us with.