Pure relaxation

I promise I did not stage this shot, but I simply had to take the picture. I went in to put something away in Christopher's room last week and there was Pooter. Completely crashed out with his back feet tucked under the sheet, his head on the pillow. He figures he's a member of the family, so why can't he use the other child's bed when it's available?

Flagstaff weekend

This past weekend we went to Flagstaff with Matt's parents and our friends Jason & Erin. We went to the Highland Festival on Saturday (pictures will be posted soon) and then after the boys went home on Sunday, the girls stayed for an extra day to play a little more.

On Monday morning we went to the Deer Farm. Christopher was more interested and excited about it than he has ever been before.

Petting the pygmy goats. They were pretty passive this time around, so maybe that made it easier for him.

Outside the deer farm is an old tractor. We tried getting pictures of Christopher and Hannah together on the seat, but that didn't work out too well. They were fighting over who got to drive. So they parted ways and Christopher decided to "fix" the tractor while Hannah snuck back up into the driver's seat.

Erin, Hannah and Christopher. Same goat as before, I believe.

Summer activities

No earth-shattering events, but just some recent happenings:

Christopher loves building towers now out of quatro blocks that are taller than he is. Then the fun part - knocking them down! Which is impossible to capture on camera.

Swimming with his buddies Decker (middle) and Caleb (right side of photo). They're all such good swimmers now that they can get to that step by themselves.

Singing "Happy Birthday!" to Daddy. All day long he was asking when we got to celebrate Dad's birthday and he truly loved singing to him, helping him blow out the candle on the birthday brownie, helping him eat the brownie, and helping to open the birthday cards too.

Yesterday when it started raining, it was still sunny. A strange combination, but really pretty. It partially accounts for the completely washed out lighting on this picture since I was on the darker front porch. Anyway, as soon as Christopher saw the rain he ran to get his umbrella and his "rain boots" (the snow boots Grandpa Hail got for him when we were in Utah for Christmas last year). Christopher has been watching the late afternoon/evening cloud buildup typical for this time of year and hoping for rain for days.

Rain, rain, go away...

Wow. We just got about three inches of rain in about two hours. Our lawn is a pond, the streets in front of and behind our house are streams, the drainage wash behind the house is literally flowing like a river (you can even hear it flowing), and Matt is out draining the pool because it was almost full up to the top. That's a lot of rain. We also had some really close lightning strikes. It's welcome rain, but it sure was a lot at one time. I'm actually curious to watch the news tonight and see what the technical rainfall amount was. Only in Arizona does the weather become the top story of the night when it rains!

Happy Birthday, Matt!

Happy 35th Birthday to Matt!!! He's a wonderful husband, father and friend and we are so blessed to have him in our lives. If you'd like to call him and wish him a "Happy Birthday," please feel free to call or email me and I will quite gladly pass along his cell phone number for all to use, all day long!