Piano Lessons - Year 5 begins

Micah is continuing his piano lessons with Mrs. Amy Cline.  Today was his first day back, after the summer.  He is beginning year 5.  Lessons will be Tuesdays at 2pm.

New Gymnastics Season

Lilly continued her gymnastics classes through the summer, but now the fall season has begun (August 1st).  Class times, rosters, and schedules have changed.  At this time, Lilly will remain as a Petite Elite.  Her class days and times are:  Tuesday 9:30-11:30am and Saturday 9:30-11:30am.  The time frames were 1.5 hours and have increased to 2 hours.  Her Tuesday classmates have both moved out (another class and no gymnastics at all), so Lilly is the only one in the class.  This is a bittersweet situation - she has Coach Kristine all to herself (a private 2 hour lesson - wow!); but if no one else joins then they will eliminate the class from the schedule and we'll need to find an evening class.
During this month, Lilly and Coach are having a fabulous time!  Today, August 19th, Lilly got her first "rips" - she worked hard on the bars and when she was done had raw sores on her hands.  Coach got her cleaned up and wrapped up and then they moved on.

6th Annual Summer Camping with Gravel Family

This is our annual camping trip that began in 2006, when Micah turned 3 years old.  We've gone camping almost every summer since then during the month of August.  For 6 years of those years, the Gravel family has joined us.  The last two years we have camped at Dogtown Lake.  It's a beautiful place just west of Williams, Arizona.
Everything was terrific this year - company, weather, kayaking, biking, meals, and s'mores.  We were allowed to have campfires in the pit (which have been restricted the last few times we've camped).  All of the children have become quite independent.  Our family used our camping bunks and cots for the first time ... and were very comfortable sleeping.

DBacks Game

We got tickets for this game through the baseball camp Micah did in the spring.  We were on the first level in the foul zone.  One foul ball was caught by a man sitting three rows in front of us.  Our friends, Keith & Ryan Gravel, were also at this game and came down to visit with us for a little while.  Micah's sign was in honor of his birthday and Lilly lost her first tooth.  In the 9th inning, the game was tied 3 to 3.  The DBacks had bases loaded but we didn't pull it out.  We ended up losing in the 10th inning, but it was a fun game.

Lilly's 1st loose tooth

Lilly’s first loose tooth (front top left) started wiggling early June.  We thought it might come out while we were in TN  … but it didn’t.  Then she thought it might come out in Flagstaff … but it didn’t.  In the midst of all of that time, her 2^nd loose tooth started wiggling (front bottom left).  While we were at the Diamondbacks game on Sunday (8/10/14) the bottom one came out.

 

Flagstaff

Ahhhh, our weeks in Flagstaff are something we so look forward to.  Aunt Alice & Uncle Charlie have a timeshare through the Wyndham and invite us each year for a week with them.  We have such wonderful memories relaxing up there.
This year our neighbors, Dave, Max and Aracely drove up on Sunday and spent the day with us - hiking Walnut Canyon Ruins, swimming, grilling, and having some ice cream.
Matt was able to spend five of the seven nights with us (Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Tuesday, and Wednesday).  He was there for the weekend and then came up again to spend all of Wednesday with us - Micah's official birthday.
The week was spent swimming, playing miniature golf, playing pool, watching movies, doing crafts, playing games, and enjoying the Bear Paw's ice cream.

THANK YOU ALICE & CHARLIE!!

GRAND FINALE FUN - Kerish girls

Friday August 1st was our last day to watch the Kerish girls (our neighbors - Millie & Ollie) for the summer.  So, on Thursday we took them to McCormick Ranch Aquatic Center for a GRAND FINALE FUN DAY!  The center has a lap pool, high dives, waterslide, fountains, and a lazy river.  Our friends, the Kroenings, also joined us.  On one of our lazy river rides we had a string of nine linked together.