Our friends in Reserve, New Mexico called Saturday morning and asked if we wanted to come over for the day. Jim said "We are bored out of our skulls! Of course we want to come!" Really we had planned to work on our new garden along the fence and I think he was ready for a break from the yard! I am so glad he was! We had a really great time! Thanks Brandyn and Jacqui (and Kadyn and Ashlyn) for a wonderful Saturday!

This is Michelle and Ashlynn playing outside on the patio. Both Kadyn and Ashlyn were so sweet to Michelle!

8 Months!

I took Michelle into the backyard for an 8 month old photo shoot and here are a few of the results.

Who do you know?

We know some pretty important people, or at least they know us well enough to send us mail. Michelle helped me sort through all our mail from people like Vice President Al Gore!

Some people who are pretty important to us: my brother Mike and his wife Jacqueline and their kids Ryan and Maya and "Baby Twelve" (which is the name Ryan has lovingly chosen for the baby they expect in December). Also, Jacqueline's parents, the Mionis, who have been so kind to us so many times! This week I had a conference in Phoenix for strategies to teach AP Government and Politics and Elvia, Jacqueline's mom, watched Michelle for us during the day. I have rarely met such wonderful people and am so appreciative of their kindness! Michelle was able to play with Maya, who just celebrated her 1st birthday. Hopefully this is one of only many times they can have fun together!

But we were pretty happy (Michelle and I) to get back home to the most important person--Daddy! Where we can play in the back yard that he has taken such good care to mow while we were gone. You can see from this picture it really needed mowing!

Hiking

One of our favorite things to do is hike, but we didn't go while I was pregnant, and haven't been since Michelle was born because it has been hard to take her anywhere for too long until recently. This weekend we were going to go camping, but decided instead to have a fire out back Friday night with tinfoil dinners and s'mores and then hike on Saturday. We drove to Greer, AZ to hike and it was worth the drive. It is truly a beautiful place. The trail was difficult at first but only for about 1/2 hour. We sat down to feed Michelle and got attacked by flys, but it was a thoroughly enjoyable day. After our hike we decided to try one of the top rated restaurants in Greer for lunch . . . and were extremely disappointed in the food. Still, the important thing is Michelle loved hiking almost as much as we do and we will definitely be going again (though for next time Jim says we need a back carrier for Michelle since the front carrier put too much strain on his neck).

We had to cross the stream to get to the trail

The extent of exciting wildlife we saw was this Horny Toad.

This would've been a nice picnic without all the flys buzzing around.

The scariest part of the day was posing for this family picture and the log fell underneath Jim and started rolling down. He was afraid it would hit him from behind, I was afraid he would fall flat on Micki.

Independence Day

We had a VERY uneventful 4th of July. We worked on the yard in the morning, went to Home Depot in the afternoon to measure for a new water heater, then we bought vegetables at Safeway and came home where we played a little MarioKart until dinner. For dinner we had some DELICIOUS grilled vegetable kebabs (the skewer kind, not the sandwich kind that I learned to love in France). We started a fire and put Michelle to bed. Then Jim and I made s'mores and watched the neighbors set off a couple of illegal fireworks (all fireworks are illegal in Arizona). We didn't go to the Show Low fireworks because they are past Michelle's bedtime. We also figured we saw fireworks in Disneyland not too long ago, so it would be okay . . . I wouldn't be going through withdrawals from one of my VERY favorite things!

This morning I had to take a picture of Michelle how I found her in her crib. Lately she ends up on the opposite end of the crib where she goes to sleep, sometimes with her legs propped up on the side. But this morning she had added another twist. Somehow she got the bumper pad untied and got it over her head. She is so funny!

You know, I will have to ask my little brother Colby if he got to see the fireworks in Times Square. He is in New York for his mission. I remember on my mission we got permission to go see the Bastille Day (July 14th) fireworks if we could get a member to drive us, but the Elders got someone and we couldn't, so we watched the fireworks from the balcony of our apartment and really could see them okay.

The Happiest Place

Those of you who know us well know that "the happiest place on earth" is our happiest place to vacation! And thanks to my mom being an FBLA advisor and thanks to several of her students qualifying for nationals in Anaheim we were able to get a zippidy doo da deal and go this past weekend! We have never been in the summertime and it WAS a little crowded, but we learned that if we went early in the morning we could ride all the most popular rides without much of a wait. We also heard a lot of horror stories about taking infants to Disneyland, but as usual, Michelle was a perfect baby. And of course, as with most things, Disneyland makes it user-friendly! Actually there was a benefit . . . the stroller! We could haul in all kinds of stuff (like a cooler) and not have to carry it, just push it in the stroller. Besides, Michelle LOVED meeting the characters. When we took her to meet Winnie the Pooh and she squeeled in delight and smiled the whole time, the entire trip was worth anything! When Donald played peek-a-boo with her and she giggled, my heart jumped! I don't care what anyone wants to say about them not remembering it, or it being a pain . . . I am SO glad we decided to take her--FOR US! WE will remember it, and they are memories worth a million! (Though, we didn't spend nearly that much . . . THANKS MOM!)

Here are a few of our memories for you to share with us.

Meeting "the Mouse" with my brother and sister (Thanks Madison and Travis for all your help with Michelle . . . and with entertaining Jim!)

I mean "the mice"

Jim and Madison were a little more daring than the rest of us. They road the puke cups . . . I mean the tea cups! Travis later joined them and I think he would prefer my name for them!

Jim took Michelle to A Bug's Land while I rode the Grizzly Peak with my family. It actually closed down while we were in line, but we decided to wait and with all the people leaving the line we ended up waiting 45 minutes (the exact wait time expected BEFORE the technical difficulties)

Back in A Bug's Land--Mom, Dad and Michelle this time! (I'm taking the pictures)

Kisses for Donald Duck

I took Michelle on Dumbo while Jim rode Space Mountain with Trevor, Madison, and Travis

After 30 years being closed they finally re-opened Sleeping Beauty's Castle! I was so excited to see it and was not disappointed!

Later I introduced Michelle to my favorite Disney princess

I think Snow White was her favorite though. She kept trying to touch those "lips that shame the red, red rose."

And I think Ariel must have been Jim's favorite because it was the only princess picture he wanted to be in (AND he kept his eyes open for this one)

We also took one day off to head to Venice Beach. There were WAY too many people and we parked about 2 miles away, but Michelle LOVED playing in the sand and putting her feet in the water!

We had been hoping Jim's brother Gary could join us on this trip but he is training for a big bike trip from Seattle to Portland, so . . . Gary we missed you but we wish you luck!

Roll the ball