Horseback riding

This is Lincoln so excited for the date that he and I went on.  We decided to go horseback riding.  Lincoln was so excited to be able to wear the helmet because it is just like the people that ride the horses on TV.  I brought his cowboy hat but the guy incouraged me to put the helmet on him.  Oh well, maybe next time.

Lincoln was in front of me and he was on a horse named buster.  I was on a horse named Bess.  Buster was pretty good at following the other horses but Bess was pretty interested in walking over tall bushes to rub her belly and walking into short trees to try to scratch her sides.  She also liked to stop and grab leaves off the trees to eat.

We went in a group of 11 people.  There was a family from Phoenix and a family from Gilbert and Lincoln was the youngest.  The trail was pretty fun. (minus the powerlines in full view)  They showed us different pits that people had dug to find gold, but they stopped after about 5 feet down if they didn't find anything and then just left the pits open.  This area probably wouldn't be the best place to play capture the flag with all the pits, cactus and snakes.  It was really fun and I definately plan on doing it again.  I might try another company a little further in the canyon so that we don't have to have every picture show power lines.  We ended our date with pancakes at Village Inn and then heading over to the Mesa-Gilbert Airport where we watched 4 marine jets gear up and take off.  I love having dates with my kids. 

Responsibility

 Congratulations to Brinley for getting the Responsibility award through character counts at her school.  She didn't really understand what this was or why they made her walk up to the stage but she got this great certificate and a pretty cool cardinals shirt to show that she is a cardinal of character.

 I took this picture of her recieving her award from the assistant principal and then he had her turn around so that I could get a picture of the three of them and my cameras flash wouldn't recharge so this is all I have.

Lincln took this nice picture of Brinley before the program started.  Thanks Linc!

The going ons outside my house.

The above video clip is of a couple birds that snip off my flowers and eat something off the end and then throw my flowers on the ground.  I think it's a little strange but whatever makes them happy. 

This is Sammy.  We have decided to name every lizard in our backyard Sammy because Sammy can be a boy name or a girl name and we aren't sure of the gender so we have made it easy on ourselves.

This was on day when it was raining like crazy.  I could not believe how fast the place feels up with water.  If you enlarge the picture, you can see the rain coming down at an angle.  Pretty crazy.

 This is another picture of the rain.  Pretty soon after this the road was a river and the park was the lake.  It's nice to get rain like this to clean the dirt off the sidewalks.  I have never seen anyone spray the sidewalk off like we did growing up and I haven't seen anyone wash their car at home but I being the rebellious one that I am did wash my car out front, I will probably get fined from the community, oh well, my car is clean.  It must have something to do with living in the desert and conserving water.  hmmm!

Over at the park is a big blue dumpster that they bring out to put all the grass shavings in for the park.  They cut the grass as short as they can and rake up all the shavings and put them in the dumpster.  Then they seed because the rhye grass that they use for the summer can't handle temperatures in the 60's and will go dorment.  The new seed is already coming up and should look really good in a couple weeks.  I thought I would share this because I have never seen or heard of this before.  The things people do to have a good yard.  I think it's great!

Where is everyone?

Lincoln and Brinley were so excited to get to hang out at the pool for fall break.  It is a little harder to get to the pool when they have school due to homework and everything else.  We got to the pool and had it all to ourselves.  That would be because it was 99 degrees and not 100.  Nobody in Arizona goes to the pool when the temperature dips that low because it is just too cold.  The kids actually said the water was cold and didn't play in it for very long.  I think that is so funny.  I guess we are adapting to the weather. 

It must be time to put the swim suits away.

Is there anything on my face?

This is what Brinley's face looked like pretty much every day in May.  She thought it was funny to put food on her face and then of course ask us if there was anything on her face.  We learned to ignore her after a while and I think it wasn't fun for her anymore.  Yay, no more dirty face.  Now we get to ignore the lifting of the shirt or the shorts riding up, just to get our attention, I'll spare you the pictures of that grand idea.  What will she think of next?

Lincolns first Karate Tournament

Lincoln had his first Karate tournament today and he did pretty well.  We had a lot of fun watching all the different types of Karate and Lincoln ended up taking 3rd place with his Kata.  He got a trophy but not just any trophy, a green trophy which is his most favorite color of all.  He carried it around the whole rest of the tournament and showed it to everyone that he walked past. 

Congratulations Linc, we're so proud of you!

I did it

I bought a sewing machine two weeks ago and I have hemmed about 8 pairs of pants and I made this:

It was fun and I may have to attempt something else really soon.  I think Brinley likes it as well.