Camping Fun

Hi There.

Lots of new stuff to catch everyone up on...Elliot and I both started new classes this past week. Elliot started a "Little Movers and Shakers" class through the city parks and rec. dept. It is held in a big gym-type room with lots of mats, springboard floor, obstacle courses, balance beams, bars, etc. The teacher opens the class with a music and movement circle-then lots of play climbing and running...Elliot even learned how to do a forward roll (with my support) and we played with the parachute. It was a lot of fun (for both of us)!! I started a 3 credit class I have to take to recertify. It's half online and half in class for 8 weeks. So far so good...but already looking forward to the end. And Sean got to pick up Elliot a couple of times last week and even dropped him off one morning-Luckily Elliot didn't cry when Sean left...Oh but Elliot did get his first "ouch report" from school last week...He went down the slide head first and busted his lip-it healed pretty quickly.

So for fun we got to hang out with the McGuire's a bit two weekends ago. It was fun to have the boys (Rory and Elliot) together again. Elliot continues to do new things to amuse us. He had a green mesh bag he uses to put little books in, sometimes he puts little animals in it, and sometimes he puts it on his head and says "Hat" and walks around the house with it on his head. Fortunately he can see through it!

And the big fun we just had this past weekend was CAMPING. We took Elliot on his first camping adventure. Went to Mt. Lemmon (close by) on Saturday. We had lunch in the little town of Summerhaven and then spent the night. Elliot loved being outdoors-lots of rocks, sticks and dirt to play with and Petty enjoyed it too. So, in addition to it being Elliot's first night sleeping in a tent, it he also experienced his first bee sting, first scraped knees, first campfire, and well, it was actually his second car sickness experience! I guess he inherited that from Sean, poor guy! But watching the expression on his face when he woke up in his own little sleeping bag in the tent.....PRICELESS! Then Sean made us a pancake breakfast and we headed home. It was a fun way to celebrate my birthday!

That's all for now-Keep in touch.

love ya'll

Take a Hike

Some of us are hiking and some of us are being hiked....Can you guess who is who?? We bought a new backpack for Elliot and decided to give it a try on Mount Lemmon last weekend. It was so nice to escape the heat and be in the woods with lots of trees and wildflowers and even critters! Sean found a horned toad. We have never seen this trail so lush and overgrown. It was a lot of fun and even Petty found water at the end of the trail...

Erin and I were feeling rather adventurous and decided to take our yearly journey north to Chinle (over Labor Day weekend) but this time with the kids. Chinle is where Erin and I met and we love going back to visit the canyon and our friend Betty Kay. We were a little nervous about the long car ride which usually takes us 6 hours....but the kids were so good and really entertained themselves pretty well in the back seat with toys and books. It did take us 8 hours to get there....and 7 hours to get home, but we made a few extra stops this time...We hiked down and up the canyon with the kiddos on our backs-and the canyon was so beautiful and full of energy. We also took the kids on the playground at Betty Kay's school and just enjoyed being together with old friends and away from the heat and hustle and bustle of the city.

So besides our outdoor adventures, Elliot has just been exercising his independence and now wants to "help" with the vacuuming, fixing things in the house, and lots of other tasks around the house. He has also been practicing some new dance moves. He seems to be settling into the school routine now and he didn't even cry when I dropped him off this morning!!!

Hope you all had a fun, relaxing weekend-Keep in touch and check out the new pics.

XOXOXO