Tonto National Bridge

Chris's army buddy, Joe is running in the Iron Man this year in Tempe, AZ so him and his wife flew in on Thursday and are staying with us until Tuesday. Today we took a trip to Payson and went to the Tonto National Bridge. We actually ended up hiking down to it and then through it to the other side. The weather was great and we had a great afternoon.

Ready to hike!

Hiking under the bridge.

Joe & Jenni in front of the Tonto National Bridge

Jenni

Adalyn & I resting after our long hike! We both had wet hair from hiking under the bridge.

Chris & Myles (and other hikers) at the base of the bridge

Hiking under the bridge (you can see the opening)

Adalyn & I hiking

My family in a neat tunnel we found when hiking.

Raelyn, Joe, Jenni, Broedy, Myles & Chris in the tunnel.

A pretty rainbow!

The Tonto National Bridge

Hiking down so we can see the bridge.

Across the river

Raelyn, Broedy, Chris & Myles on the hiking trail.

A morning at the Park!

The kids and I spent this morning playing at the park! We brought a picnic lunch and Chris walked over to eat lunch with us during his lunch break! It's been awhile since I've taken the kids to the park and we had a really fun time together!

Our Picnic Lunch! Raelyn and Myles were so excited to have lunch packed in their lunch bags. They both had to carry them over to the park and were very cute!

Raelyn pushing Myles! He LOVES the swing and would spend all day in there if he had someone to push him:-)

Raelyn swinging. She is finally learning how to swing on her own without having to be pushed!

My sweet baby boy! I so love him:-)

Me & My baby girl!

This is what I see when I look down! I LOVE how her little feet hang out of my sling! She slept in the sling for a good part of the time we were at the park.

Bowling Fun!

Our church had a family bowling night tonight complete with pizza & soda! It was a lot of fun to hang out with other families from our church and our kids had a blast!

Toni, our children's youth director

What's so funny?

Bowling Contest!

Even Adalyn had fun!

Chuck, our Youth Pastor

Pastor Jeff

This was Myles 1st time bowling and he loved it!

Chris did well for not having his own bowling ball!

My turn!

Broedy's turn!

Raelyn's turn!

Yum! Pizza:-)

Natividad & Chris

Elyse & Raelyn having Pizza!

Officer Jakola

Tonight our family was invited to a dinner ceremony for officer Jakola at the Cardinal Stadium. He is the police officer that works at the school where Chris teaches at and Broedy attends.

He was promoted to a Sargent tonight at the ceremony and invited us to come. We thought it would be fun to go and support him since he is such a great part of our school system.

Sargent Jakola, Broedy & Chris

Gina, Sargent Jakola, Chris and the principle at one of the elementaries in our district!

It was a formal dinner and I was really worried about the kids, but they were excellent and it was a fun evening for our family!

Raelyn, Adalyn & Mommy after dinner!

Daddy, Myles & Broedy after dinner!

All I want is ONE stinkin Picture!!!!!

For the last few days I have been trying to desperatly get ONE stinkin good picture of our family! It's been quite the adventure. I tried setting the timer on the camera a number of times in different locations and poses of us around the house....it has lead to some funny moments. The kids didn't know where to look, Ozzie would get up and lay down right in front of the camera moments before the timer would go off and a picture would get snapped. The kids were screaming, Myles wouldn't sit where we wanted him too. Finally I gave up on the timer!

Here are some of pictures from the past few days with the timer:

Our 1st attempt! Actually not the worst pictue, at least no one is screaming! But, no Ozzie and everyone knows it's not a complete family picture without Ozzie in it! And as much as I miss Kalae and was sad that we never got a family picture with her in it, I can only imagine what it would of been like to get both dogs in our family picture. It would of been double the fun I'm sure!


2nd attempt! We made sure Ozzie was in this one! She promptly layed right in front of the camera moments before the timer went off and the picture was taken!



Okay, so we managed to get Ozzie to lay next to Broedy, Myles on the other hand wanted to be on TOP of Chris and kept climbing all over him and Adalyn was not happy with the fact they we were trying to take her picture!

Maybe this one?

Or how about this one? Myles managed to get his shoe in the picture and was running away and Ozzie by this time is gone!

This one wasn't actually all that bad! At least Adalyn is the only one crying!

Okay, let's try a new position to see if we can get one! NOPE!
AHHHHHH! I give up on the stupid timer!


This morning I marched my family down to John & Stephanie's. I asked Stephanie if she would take a picture for us (she has 5 kids, she knows how hard this can be) and she was more than willing to take the challenge and help me out! We did get ONE picture where everyone was looking at the camera, no one was screaming or crying AND Ozzie was in it!

With four kids, that IS a SUCCESS:-)

So, THANK YOU Stephanie! I owe you one:-)


And here is one I took of just the kids that actually turned out pretty well!

The simple & wonderful things in my life!

Little Miss Adalyn Grace!

She loves her jump a roo:-)

and often falls asleep in it!

I love eating dinner with my family! It's the one meal everyday that we eat as a family!

Raelyn eating her chicken!

Myles always wants more!!

Raelyn and Myles!

Adalyn doesn't like it when we leave her out and usually screams when we are eating until either Chris or I go and pick her up and let her sit at the table with us! She was sitting next to Broedy and kept looking at him and smiling! I love watching my oldest and youngest together. She adores her big brother and he thinks his little sister is pretty awesome as well!

Chris, Adalyn & Broedy

Myles reading a book to himself!

My goofy little boy!

Nap Time!