Cleveland

The couple times of year that Ty has a work trip are my favorite times to tag along and enjoy a little break from the day-to-day routine. We went to Ohio a couple weeks ago and we loved every minute. We ended up with a few more minutes than we thought due to the burning of a Chicago air traffic control tower, which delayed our flight by two days. So we made the most of it and went to Kirtland, Ohio, where there is a lot of great LDS church history sites. Thank heaven for a very patient Mike & Lois who watched our kids all week, then unexpectedly watched them all weekend!

General Cleaveland memorial. I'm not sure why they spelled his name wrong in naming the city after him. And hello to fall temperatures. At 67 degrees, we were both in jackets right away. Getting cold under 70 degrees is probably the best sign that the Arizona summer is finally over!

We love to find what Ty calls "a good food value." Generally this means no chains, frequently a dive and pretty good food. The Flaming Ice Cube was a total vegan restaurant, complete with flower child chef, incense and hippies new and old. This was a pesto "burger" (soy and oats) with "cheese" (? we didn't ask). It was delicious!

 We walked our vegan food off along the piers of Lake Erie, which was beautiful. Cleveland is called the "mistake on the lake" but we enjoyed it. The only thing we didn't get to do was go fishing. Ty will be bringing his pole next time. 

I love having nothing on my list to do each day. This was the "productive" part of my day reading a book listening to a piano player. 

 Another good food value: 

split the entree of ribs, brisket and salad so there's still room for the chocolate lava cake!

Walking the city at night in downtown Cleveland. 

*We were not mugged during the making of these photographs

 Ty found his next hobby: paragliding. Just after this photo was taken, the man you see paragliding went parallel with the shore and crashed into a tree. We ran over and found him 30 feet up, uninjured. 

After he got down and we pulled his parachute out of the tree, we sat and watched about 8 or 9 others fly around for an hour. After watching that crash, it's funny how my confirmation that I would never do this 

was Ty's confirmation that he can't wait to try it.

Walking along the beach at Edgewood Park. 

Kirtland was very powerful for us. Going to place that you know the Savior has been and learning of the faith of so many pioneers was inspiring and lit an interest in knowing more about our history. 

Upper right room is the school of the Prophets where Joseph Smith and others studied the gospel of Jesus Christ and established much of the framework of today's LDS church. They have many of the original buildings (including this one) complete with the original hard wood floors. It was a fun trip to spend time together and see some new sites!

Jack's Birthday

This birthday boy has had a fun week. His birthday celebration started Wednesday night with In-N-Out. I think this has been a tradition for Jack's last four birthdays.

Thursday was his actual birthday and he asked for waffles, eggs, and bacon for dinner. Mimi brought his favorite bakery cookies and mint ice cream for dessert. He opened his presents and, as you can see, was very excited about this minion shirt.

On Saturday we had his birthday party and invited friends from his primary class. This year, Jack asked for a minion on his cake. We had pizza, played games, and had fun doing a homemade obstacle course.

Jack's Favorites at Seven:

Animal - giraffe

Food - pizza

Activity - play Nintendo 64

Movie - Despicable Me 2

Color - gold

Seven

Jack turned seven years old this week. We're so proud of the young man he is becoming. Here's a few pictures I got of him this morning before school.

First Day of Preschool

Audrey and Elliot started preschool today with Mrs. Goodrich. She lives just down the street from us and is such a great teacher. They were excited to go and are looking forward to going again tomorrow. Happy day!

Camping Trip #4

For Labor Day weekend, we took a trip to Greer, AZ with Cody and JoEllen's family. This was our first time camping in this area and we loved how green it was! The kids were happy to have their cousins to play with all day and the adults got to talk for hours each night by the fire. Here's a little recap of all the fun things we did.

Lots of snuggling..

...and reading

A little bit of fishing at Big Lake

Waiting in line to use the swing

Getting incredibly dirty and muddy

Catching horny toads

Taking a dip in the {freezing} creek

Hiking and relaxing

Tidying up the camper with Reese

And a little shooting, too

Cutest cousins: Trevor, Audrey, Elliot, Reese, Gavin, Ethan, and Jack

Camping Trip #3

We finally made it out camping again. This time it was for our ward camp-out. We went to a beautiful spot near Camp Verde called West Clear Creek. The weather was lovely and the kids had a great time playing with their primary friends. We took the kids on a six-mile hike and I'm so proud of all of them for enduring it!

The creek was a little too cold for swimming so the kids decided to just throw rocks in. What a bunch of crazies.

Birthday Photo Shoot

Getting these two to hold still for a minute is a challenge, but at least getting them to laugh and smile is not!