First Day of School!

Well, it happened again. Summer ended and the school year began! Today was the kids first day back to school. Cali started middle school this year (6th grade) so everything was new to her. She came home (on the bus) reporting that it was great! Mom was very relieved that the day had a positive outcome as Cali had been very anxious about going to a new school. Cayden started 3rd grade and has a brand new, straight out of college man as her teacher! So far so good! She wasn't so sure about having a male teacher but once we explained that her Dad had started out as a classroom teacher she became a little more open minded! Camryn started 1st grade and also has a teacher that is new to their school. I'm not sure yet if she taught somewhere else or if she is also going to be broken in by my kids! We will see. We decided not to tell her too much about Camryn as it is always fun to let people discover Camryn for themselves! (Maybe the kindergarten teacher already filled her in!) Carsyn doesn't start preschool until after Labor Day so she felt a little left out this morning. It didn't last too long though as she spent most of the day playing at her "best friend Taylor's" house while Mom had meetings. Mom had truly forgotten how incredibly exhausting it is to send kids to school. Amazingly no one was late for their first day!

Meeting Ty!

In June we were lucky enough to receive a visit from Rachel, Ty and Grandma. They enjoyed our mild weather as the Phoenix area was under a heat advisory. We went to the Discovery Center while they were here, ate out at everyone's favorite - Lamberts, went to Branson but mostly just spent time hanging out at home and playing.

Cruising to Mexico

In June we took an awesome vacation. We were celebrating Mom & Dad's 40th wedding anniversary by taking a family cruise! Brandon & Reesha were there, as were Dustin & Lynn. It was fun to be able to spend some time together and visit new places. Before we got on the ship we also got to spend a day playing at the beach in Galveston, Texas.

Just for practice?

One of the requirements of the cruise ship is that you participate in an emergency drill. It seemed to be just routine to most of us however I'm not so sure what Camryn thought about it!

Relaxing

There was no shortage of things to do but it was also nice just to spend a little time hanging out together.

Eating and eating and eating!

Dinner on the cruise was quite an affair. Every night we would get cleaned up (one night we got all dressed up) and go the dining room. Our waiter would put the menu in front of you and your napkin in your lap if you weren't fast enough! The choices were awesome and we had lots of fun trying new things. We had assigned tables but with so many of us we got two tables all to ourselves! It was such a treat not to have to think about, plan, prepare or clean up after meals for 5 whole days!! Truly a vacation for any mom! As if that wasn't enough there was always a 24 hour sandwich and pizza bar for snacking in between meals! Most nights the serving staff performed in some way. Camryn really enjoyed getting into their little shows.

Cozumel

Our favorite stop was Cozumel, Mexico. There we spent the day snorkeling, hanging out on the beach, and enjoying the amazingly clear water! The girls loved seeing and swimming with all the fish. That day happened to be June 12, which was Camryn's 7th birthday so we let her fill her "life's dream to kiss a dolphin" - her words, not mine! Here are a few pictures of our fantastic day.