Scouting...

... we're still plugging away at it.

Christopher is loving scouts.   It's his favorite.  He shows up every week with his neckerchief and slide on.  He's usually AT LEAST 10 minutes early.  I've apologized to his leaders, but he's just so excited.  In his head, anything less than 10 minutes early is LATE.  He's wearing Zach's shirt here though.  It had more badges on it.  I hadn't quite gotten around to sewing a few on, and that annoyed him, so he solved his problem and wore Zach's.

Zach's cool with it though.  He's off earning rank advancements that his mom won't sew on his boy scout shirt.  Some day he will get his Eagle, and I promise to sew that one on.  Maybe. I will do my best.  (I really shouldn't promise those kinds of things)

taking a stroll...

My dad lent me use of his thing that converts film to digital, and I've been having fun with it.

I have a gazillion pictures on my computer dating back to about 2004, but before then we were living in the dark ages, when you would load film into your camera, take a set number of pictures, then take that film to be processed. 

I did pretty good getting many of those in photo albums, but those are so bulky and heavy that they don't get pulled out much.  I wanted another way to view those pictures.  Take them with me. Post them to instagram, or on this blog. Share them.  Because my kids were so stinking cute, they deserve to be shared with the world.  (disclaimer - I do not necessarily think these particular pictures are THE absolute cutest of my kids, they are just a few of the ones that make me smile. )

I actually heard her squawking and when I saw that she was stuck, but not hurt, I left her there and went to find my camera.  This was back in the day before we all carried cameras in our pocket 24/7.  

Playing in the back yard on our first swing set. 

Nick climbing in the apricot tree at the house in West Valley.  Our first home.  Fun fact, I helped plant that tree when I was a little girl. 

These two were the best of buddies. 

They adored each other.  See that wallpaper?  That was the one and only time I ever attempted to hang wallpaper.  Never again.  Nick's grandma made that zoo animal quilt for him. After he destroyed his first blankie - he had a nervous habit of chewing on it. 

It was a constant struggle to keep that girl from looking like a disaster. 

I believe we are at one of Nick's soccer games.  He played for a few years. 

On any given day, she would just walk around with some random accessory on.

I just love this picture.  He thought he was very silly to have spiky hair.  He normally didn't let me do it. 

These two. Partners in crime.  Over the years they've drifted apart (to say the least)  and they've come a long way back, but I have hopes that some day they will be this close once again. 

The Wild Wild West

We've been heading down to Tucson fairly regularly these days, and so we decided we needed to make a day of it and head down to Tombstone as well.    It had been a few years, and the kids barely remembered it, so we figured it was time to head back down to that little touristy town for a little wild west fun.

I'll just let the pictures speak for themselves.

Hanging out at the store near Boothill Cemetery

The General Store at Boothill Cemetery

A Statue of Wyatt Earp

We took a tour of the town on this bus. 

Selfie on the bus while we waited for it to load. 

Still waiting... 

Just a fun picture

Another fun picture.

"Don't you want to be in the picture? Let me take a picture of you with your kids!" - random stranger

behind bars... 

Trying it on for size. 

A beautiful day for some mini golf.

 

Green Day

My super sweet friend Audrey invited me to go see Green Day with her.

We had box seats.   It was a really great show and a lot of fun. 

Funny story though - since we had box seats, I was right up next to the plexiglass wall, and the sound kinda bounced around and I could never quite make out what the lead singer was saying.  I knew the songs, so I could sing along, but when he was talking to the audience I couldn't make out a single word, so I just cheered like an idiot whenever the audience cheered.  At one point Audrey turned to me and told me she was a little shocked and surprised I was cheering at some of the things he said.  They were really obnoxious. 

And that my friends, is why you should never blindly go along with the crowd. You end up looking like a clueless idiot. (Who was having a lot of fun)

Morp

Morp was superhero themed this year, so of course Maddie HAD to go.  Plus since it was super casual, and they both love The Flash, she decided to ask one of her best friends, Seth. 

Unfortunately Seth couldn't make it to the pictures part of the evening because he had a soccer tournament.  (This seems to be a pattern of her asking guys who are mostly unavailable because of sports.)  So Maddie was going to try and either do pictures again with Seth, or just photoshop him in, but neither even happened. 

Also half the group was late to get there because when they found out Seth couldn't make it, they decided to recreate the last dance, and find Maddie a balloon.  Maddie was super annoyed, because she knew it would offend Seth, but she made nice for the camera.

They asked me to take pictures at the local Riparian preserve, and they mostly turned out ok, but we were losing light fast, so I'm not super pleased with most of them, especially since it's been a couple of years since I'd really played around with my fancy camera.

Neat Freak

After four kids I finally got a neat freak. 

I finally feel like I've got someone on my side. 

Zach looked at me with pleading eyes the other day while Christopher was yelling at him to pick up his pants.  "Don't look at me.  I'm on his side.  Pick up your pants."

He rearranges the garage, picks things up, nags the other kids so I don't have to... It's great.  One time he even rearranged my pantry.  All the labels were facing forward.

Of course, I confess, there is a slight downside.  I had to tell him not to wash the dishes anymore because he doesn't like hot water, and most of the dishes  were still dirty  weren't quite up to my standard of cleanliness. 

We also have a lot of trouble finding anything we are looking for. 

"Cleaning is easy!  You just hide things!"

The Very LAST Pinewood Derby

Three boys times three years in cubscouts equals a lot of Pinewood Derby cars. 

I guess technically one year we reused a car because we ran out of time, but still...

Our stake boundaries realigned recently, and we got shunted to a new stake, but I love the way they did it.  Instead of leaving it all up to the wards, the stake primary took over, and it was a pretty smooth and painless operation (once the cars were finished and ready to go.)

Zach and Maddie used their shop skills and helped Christopher construct his car.  He was fairly enthusiastic about the whole process, and slammed part of it together all by himself.

I think Christopher ended up getting 4th place over all. 

He didn't qualify for a trophy, but I thought he definitely earned some In n Out.