New neighborhood fun

We live in a master built community in a tiny town just south of Tucson called Sahuarita. All the street names are in Spanish and the highway we use is in kilometers :) We have been enjoying exploring the desert. 

 We got these cheap, inflatable rafts to paddle around the lake next to us. We had a lot of fun despite the chep paddles 

 Backyard BBQ. Yup, that is an AstroTurf rug you see back there. Grass is a weed here and too hard to maintain so we bought the fake stuff--not at all the same.

The summer was not near as bad as everyone led us too believe. Granted, it is hot, but because it is also monsoon season, there is almost always an afternoon rain shower to cool things off. After years of drought in Texas, the boys were very happy to play in the daily rainstorms.

 Then they played in the mud. Kimball found a feather and used it for a paintbrush to decorate his body with mud--so creative.

 Awesome train track the day after we arrived

 Here's the neighborhood mini golf course with a few holes-in-one

 The cool kiddie train that goes around the clubhouse

 The awesome waterpark

 The fun giant turtles by the lake

The week we moved in Peter and I celebrated our 8 year anniversary. As you can see it was very low key at home with our 2 favorite boys. We're saving up for 10 years for when he graduates and we'll go away for a whole month and leave our kids with grandma and grandpa--get ready :)

 I just love when Joey spontaneously reads to Kimball. I love seeing them snuggled together being sweet brothers

 Joey was begging me to let him ride his bike through the big puddle in the road, so one day when dad got home early we went (I knew Kimball would want to too, but that might have been dangerous until he gets older). Joey had one messy back when we got home

 Filling up the honey jar. Every so often we have to fill up the honey jar from the 5 gallon bucket of raw homey we have. It's so cute to see the boys sit there for quite a while and just watch the honey drip from the funnel into the jar. It made me so happy to see that that is entertaining to them. Not watching tv and rarely playing computer games has payed off--the simple pleasures of life are still amazing to them. Or they could just be doing that because they know if they stay there long enough they will get to lick all the honey equipment when I'm done :)

Backwards day. We got Ice Cream for Breakfast from the library and the boys begged me for weeks to have backwards day, so one day I finally caved (after I made carrot cake so they could have a semi healthy dessert for breakfast.). So one morning we woke them up and said good night, they put their shirts on backward, and then we had cake followed by peas and grilled cheese for breakfast. They attempted to walk backward all day just like Huckle did, but that lost it's charm after a while. It was fun to have a silly day with them!

Joey inherited my small mouth and his 2 permanent teeth weren't coming out because there was no room so Peter took two baby teeth out. The hygienist said she thought the tooth fairy payed extra when you're brave and get your teeth pulled out by the dentist, so we found this note next to his teeth, "My teeth we're pulled out at the dentist." Written partially in cursive nonetheless  so she had to give a good reward.

Backyard Buddies. right next door to us is a family with a little girl, Katie, who is in Kimball's class at school. The boys really like playing over the wall with her. On Saturday mornings we hear a little voice yelling, "Joey, Kimball, can you play." They often throw balls back and forth to each other over the wall.

The boys really wanted the missionaries to stay and play with them one night after they ate over, but they had to get to an appointment. So they got out their planners and made an appointment to come back and play chase with the boys. It was so cute. I was so impressed that these Elders would come run around our yard in the hot Arizona sun. They are really good guys. We will really miss Elder King when he goes. He always shares a scripture with the boys about respecting your parents and appreciating you mom. He is welcome in my house anytime!

 Because we live out in the boonies, and because there is a city ordinance against street lights because of the observatory on the mountain, we can see some amazing stars right in our backyard. We have seen quite a few shooting stars! The boys love to listen to stories we make  up staring them as we watch.

 The boys had endless hours of fun going down the water slides. It's so much better than crowded Sea World!

 This fun Saguaro is down the street. It has two little balls growing from it that make it look like eyes.

  This frog was on our front porch one night. Apparently some kids lick the frogs back to get high. It secretes a chemical similar to LSD. People have to watch their dogs because they love to lick these guys too. How desperate do you have to be to get a buzz.

The boys got a certificate for their 4 days of summer camp!

Move from Texaz to Arizona

Our moving adventure/nightmare.

Peter flew back from CT to TX on Friday July 6th to load up the moving truck. The boys and I started our flight back from Ct the  next day to arrive in San Antonio late afternoon, sleep and get up early the next morning to drive to AZ.  Unfortunately, we got stranded on our layover for over 6 hours. It was HORRIBLE! I was so stressed out! The boys did well for being stuck for ridiculous amount of time. The worst part was just sitting in the same stinking terminal seats for 6 hours. We had to just wait their because they would come on every 20 minutes to say, "hopefully we'll get you on a flight very soon." We'll very soon was not at all a reality. We didn't get to San Antonio until 1 a.m. Then we had to wait until 2:30 a.m. trying to get our luggage, which NEVER came. We wouldn't normally have waited that long, but we were moving out of state in a matter of hours and really needed our things. So after we had had enough, we left and told them they needed to fly our bags to Tucson and bring them to our home.

We finally got to bed at 3:30 a.m.. We woke up as early as we could, cleaned the last bit of the house that needed it, ran to the store to buy a few essential that were missing from our lost luggage, and headed out for AZ. Peter drove the moving truck and I drove the van. Because we left late and the moving truck always slows us down, we ended up driving ALL NIGHT! It was horrible. I was so tired that even the energy drinks were doing nothing for me. Peter had to call once and wake me up because I was drifting. That scared me to death, so we pulled over and took a 45 minute nap. We finally pulled up to our house at 5:30 a.m. By that time the sun was coming up and Kimball who had slept all night was ready to go. All Peter and I wanted to do was sleep. We pumped up the air mattress and told Kimball to stay put, and slept for and hour and a half until Peter had to leave for work. I don't think I have ever felt worse :) It was a mixture of sleep deprivation and caffeine hangover. NEVER again will we drive through the night in different vehicles! Poor Peter had to go to work, but we miraculously survived.

Monday morning, with nothing in the house, we had to make a little cooler/box table to give the boys breakfast.

One saving grace for me was that when the boys and I were touring around the clubhouse the rec director asked me if the boys wanted to go to the free neighborhood sports camp. There was only 1 more week left, but it was great to have the boys entertained for 2 hours a day.

We then had fun seeing all the fun amenities--the Safari trail park

This in one silly saguaro. It;s fun to see what shapes they come in.

We rode our bikes everywhere! I told the boys that they could earn 1 token at Peter Piper Pizza for every mile they rode on their bikes. So that week we rode 25 miles.

happy boys with their $5`

One Saturday when Peter was at the hospital, the boy scouts brought lots of canoes to the neighborhood lake and let anyone who wanted take them for a spin. The boys and I had fun once they learned to paddle in unison.