Pre-Halloween

We got to go to a Halloween party thrown by Dave's sister. The kids were so excited to dress up in their costumes. They had lots of fun. Thanks Aunt Jill!


Allison got some new jammies from her Aunt Melinda. She would only let me put them on her this one time. I really had to convince her that they were pretty. So I had to take a picture. And she totally milked it for the camera.


We did pumpkins for family night. No knives at our house...only markers. The kids had fun.


Mckenzie had a Halloween costume parade and program at her preschool. This is her saying 'hi' to her sister as she walked by. (I loved the clown costume behind her!)


More Halloween fun to come...Happy Halloween!

Cleaning Tips

So we have relatively new bathroom fixtures in our bathroom. I've been trying to figure out the best way to clean them...I've only ever had older fixtures. After some experimenting, my husband finally asked the manufacturer who said that vinegar is the best bet. I looked online and found this website: Vinegar Tips and so I tried cleaning my bathroom with vinegar. And it actually worked! The tub is the cleanest it's been since we got it...ever better than the harsh Clorox with bleach that was scratching it. I just had to share. I will probably try more of these uses (since I bought 2 big bottles of vinegar at Costco several years ago and they have just been sitting in my pantry ever since.)
I would love to hear how it works on older fixtures...let me know if you try it!

A Day at the Zoo

Since the kids had vacation from school we got together with cousins and went to the zoo. We hadn't been in a long time and they all seemed old enough to enjoy it.
Mckenzie liked the tractor by the petting zoo.


How many cousins will fit in the clam?

Ride'm cowboy!



We had lots of fun! Definitely something to do again.

"Day-cation"

So the kids had a week off of school and Dave took a day off of work and we jumped in the car and started driving. We had planned a route, just some places we hadn't been before, and we started driving. We found this drink-hole for cattle in the hills outside of Globe. So we got out and explored. The kids loved it. They felt like they were real explorers.




Then we drove some more. We saw Christmas, AZ on the map and decided to stop. Here's what we saw:

It was a campground.

This bus was parked there...the only vehicle. It was called The Magic Bus and was pretty interesting.


We saw the Gila River there also. It was pretty fast.

Allison looks like she's fishing...she's just playing with a big stick.


We drove through some small mining towns. We both decided that we're really glad that we don't live in a small mining town.
This was a huge mine that we saw just outside of Kearny. Several entire mountains were just completely changed by the mining.

Storm

We had a pretty good storm on Tuesday. It's been forever since it has rained and even longer that it's been 100 degrees or hotter. I was beginning to wonder if summer would ever end! But we finally got rain, and wind, and hail! I was standing in the kitchen, listening to branches fall off our tree and watching them...it scared me! I called Dave at work and he said a tree had fallen on his boss's car and lots of awnings (that were bolted to the wall) blew off, as well as parts of the outside warehouse that were destroyed. It was pretty crazy. This was the destruction at our house...thank goodness it didn't get the house!


There is a branch resting on the porch roof, leaning against another branch in the tree. I had Dave pull it all the way down so it wouldn't fall on anyone.


This little girl was playing in the mud (even after I asked her not to...there's just something about mud and kids) and she wanted her picture taken.


That was the excitement at our house!