Cliffs

Embudito Canyon

I had all of my nephews and niece sleep over at my house one night when they were visiting. I bought their love with food - sopapillas for dinner and homemade donuts in the morning for breakfast. Those kids LOVE food, and they were so excited about eating it that cooking for them was super gratifying.

See? Donuts! YUM! The only way to get those kids up and at 'em before 9 was with the smell of bread frying...

As a side note, we had them help us with this little project in the backyard after our hike to Carlito Springs the day before. It starts with a pond on top that trickled down to a small pool before the turtle enclosure. There's another pool inside the turtle enclosure that empties out a pipe and down over our big rocks into a bigger pond. More pics of that to come...

After our *ahem* healthy and filling breakfast of donuts, I ordered the kids into the van so we could go to a nearby trailhead for a hike. Most of them were agreeable, but a couple of them needed a little tough love and coercion. We went to Embudito canyon and hiked about a half mile up the wash. There was a little bit of water trickling down the trail from recent rains and the kids spend the next two hours playing in the water and building a series of dams. We made videos of the water breaking through the top dam and rushing down to be slowed temporarily by lower dams.

It was intense work. Sometimes heated words were exchanged over the engineering specifications of a particular dam or the process in which it was destroyed. But all in all everyone had fun.

When we left there was a lot of talk about when we could come back and do it again. Unfortunately we didn't make it back, but I think it will forever be a memorable, happy place to these kids...even the ones who didn't want to go at first.

Seven years old!

Beau turned SEVEN on July 6th! I didn't buy the candy to decorate his bedroom door in time for him to wake up and find it, so I ran to the store before he woke up and then taped it to the front door so he wouldn't hear me. 

He's such an awesome kid! He really wanted just a few things for his birthday:

*Go to IHOP because they give you ice cream for breakfast. check.

*Open presents! We bought him a bird for his birthday and unfortunately it is still a baby being hand fed by the breeder, so he didn't actually get the bird yet. He did get to see his cage, and he got to go to the store to buy a new toy with his birthday money. But the new cockatiel won't get to come home until August 10th or so.

*Have a jungle cake. check. I'm glad his standards are fairly low...he thought it was awesome and that's all that counts! It was two cakes that had a "vine" between them with a gorilla hanging from it.

Other than that he was open to any sort of adventure. My parents had just brought by three nephews and a niece back from Arizona to stay for a week, so they came along with us on a hike. We went to a new place, not too far away from our house (about 20 minutes), called Carlito Springs. It is my new favorite place! SO beautiful!!

Here is our whole crew! I love how Marianne always dresses in a tutu to go hiking.

Look how lush and green this place was! And how cute my parents are!!

Rus just loves having his picture taken...

Preston, Hayden, and Madison are my sister Amanda's kids. Her oldest son Taylor just graduated from high school and was working that week. 

The springs were really so beautiful and serene! Just look at how happy the birthday boy was!

Madison and Bekah are about 9 months apart, with Madison being older (obviously, right? Bekah is so little!) They really enjoy hanging out together, even if it doesn't happen very often.

Madison was very sweet with Marianne. Marianne asked her, "will you be my best friend?"

Here is a terrible picture of Beau blowing out his candles later that night.

I am so grateful for Beau. He is a kind, thoughtful boy with a wonderful crazy/fun streak. He has the most adorable laugh and a good sense of humor. Sometimes he gets anxious about things because he just wants to be able to understand everything that's going on, and he wants things done a particular way. He's so creative and fun and I love him to pieces! Happy birthday Beau!!

Fourth Fun in Lordsburg!

We were happy to spend the fourth of July in Lordsburg with almost all of Rus' family. (Katie "fourthed" in Hawaii). Here are a few highlights of the weekend:

Emilee and Chip are homeless right now, getting ready to move to Utah for school in a few weeks. So their pet hedgehog Gypsy (who I call Chipsy), was able to entertain all the kids for just a little while. I think this was Gypsy's first time on grass.

Marianne hopes to be as fashionable as Emilee when she grows up, I'm sure. She's almost there, to be truthful...

Marianne has the special talent of wrapping anyone around her little finger with her cuteness and talkative sociability. Chip is especially susceptible to her charms.

I brought a little craft for the kids to do - "stained glass" stars. We made salt dough stars with cookie cutters and then filled the hole in the middle with clear pony beads and cooked them in the oven. They turned out pretty dark but the kids were happy with them.

Here are my kids with their coordinating shirts. Each family had a shirt color and ours was white. I let the kids pick out an animal, cut out a stencil on my silhouette, and then let them paint theirs with red, white, and blue paint. Bekah made hers a hedgehog just for Emilee. Mine was a gazelle (because that's what Rus calls me when I go on runs), and Rus had an eagle.

One of my favorite things about Lordsburg is the pool. The slide is the very best thing. It's not too big or scary, so all of the kids except Marianne can go down by themselves. Jacob kept track and said he thought he went down about 42 times! DeAnn coerced the adults into an underwater handstand contest and a round of chicken fighting. We spent hours there and everyone got plenty of fun and sun!

The women had a craft too. We did these simple pallet-like stars. I really like the navy one in the middle, Louise's. Mine is the red one next to the flag. Carla got creative and painted the flag on hers!

Emilee was awesome - she had games prepared for everyone to do. One night we played family feud, just the adults, boys vs. girls. The boys were terrible sports so it was even more irritating that they won. She also planned for the whole family to play human hungry hippos! It was hilarious! I really liked when they made Roger be the hungry hippo...and he overloaded the wheels on the cart so he couldn't go!

I painted all of the kids' faces and then all the moms got a turn too! Fireworks! We even somehow got all of the men to have a star on their faces - under duress, of course.

This is where we watched the fireworks from. It was a big dirt lot, but it was front and center for both the sunset and an amazing fireworks show! Roger and Louise must have had two dozen packages of buns, and they tried to invite enough people to come eat with us to use those all up. 

Here's another sibling shot from the next day after church. Who is that mountain man on the left?!

It was a great Fourth! God bless America!!

Summer happenings

Just a few random things this summer:

We made baby pies! Beau and Jacob picked cherries and wanted to use them, while I had a bunch of blueberries I wanted to use up. Mmm. I love pie.

The Monday after girl's camp Louise and Carla and DeAnn all came over with their kids and we sewed skirts for the older girls. Here is Bekah in the skirt we sewed.

Bekah wanted to do a lemonade stand and Beau wanted to sell brownies. The lemonade was fresh squeezed and so good, and we enjoyed visiting with our neighbors who stopped by.

My friend and neighbor Jen had been wanting to make strawberry jam and finally the strawberries went on sale. We were surprisingly successful at getting all of the kids to help us chop up all the strawberries, and then they went off and played while we finished the jam. I love talking and hanging out with Jen!

Yay for random summer fun!

Backpacking in the Pecos

Rus has had the dream of taking all of his children backpacking ever since they were in diapers. Yes, in some ways he is an optimist.

This year we finally collected enough gear to give an over-nighter a try. We headed up to the Pecos and set out on a three mile hike to our destination - Mora Flats.

 Three miles was quite ambitious and there were a few tears close to the end. Jacob and Bekah were super strong, Beau was diligent and Marianne lasted much longer than we thought. She carried her bag for a little while, and then I carried it, and then Rus carried her. The trail was so beautiful with a lot of aspens and pine trees and blooming wild flowers.

When we got to the Pecos river the kids immediately wanted to fish. Beau was the only successful one that night, although it was just a little guy so we let him go.

Our campsite was beautiful and secluded. It would have been perfect if there weren't millions of little flesh eating bugs that feasted on us that night.

The next morning we fished a little bit more. Jacob was disappointed that he didn't catch one, Bekah was thrilled that she caught one, and the hundreds of bugs that ate me were sad that they had to share.

The cutest thing happened on the hike out...We were trying to motivate Marianne to keep hiking, so Jacob would pick flowers for her and then yell for her to come and get them. Marianne surprised Jacob by giving him a flower one time. Here she is holding it behind her back...and Jacob was holding one behind his back too.

All in all the hike was a success. Next time we will not hike so far for just an overnighter and we'll pack more bug spray and a better breakfast (oatmeal was not filling).

Welcome Leo Dewey Dries!!

Amy had the audacity to birth her fifth child while I was out of town, unconnected, at girls camp with my stake. She said she hoped that the unknown-gendered child would come on Mikey's birthday, and if not then, then on Father's day. He (yep! a BOY!) came the night of Mikey's birthday. Amy is a labor machine - super fast, no drugs, and her make up always looks great. 

I got back from girls camp on Saturday afternoon and on Sunday morning at 5:30 I was in my parent's truck with Bekah in tow.

We were so happy to just spend a few hours hugging and kissing the adorable Leo Dewey (Mikey picked his middle name, after "Malcom in the Middle").

This is my favorite picture of Leo! My mom was showing Sarah (aka "Momma Bear") how to swaddle Leo tightly and I'm not sure he liked it.

I had to get a picture like this because I have similar ones with Joshua, Luke, Sarah and Mikey. Gotta keep tradition!

We made some lunch and cookies and even a cake, I think, and then by 4pm we were back on the road, headed back to ABQ. It was super fast, but completely worth it!

Hasta la Vista Elementary School!

I broke my "commencement ceremonies are lame unless you're graduating from high school" rule to attend Bekah's fifth grade commencement ceremony. I dragged Cutesy and Grandad along because they enjoy monumental events like this one...and they are a good distraction for Marianne. 

Bekah was dressed and ready for the pool party that was to follow the ceremony. She is so cute and so grown up. She was incredibly excited to get flowers from her grandma..."I've never gotten flowers before!"

Great job Bekah! You were an excellent fifth grader and I am sure you'll blow sixth grade out of the water!

Emilee and Chip's BIG Reveal!

In May our family was delighted to attend Emilee and Chip's Graduation Party and Grad School Reveal. Note that we did not actually attend the graduation ceremony because that would have been tedious and tortuous. But the party was super fun! Emilee worked so hard planning everything, coordinating food, buying a dozen 3-foot long sandwiches (which fed us all weekend long), decorating with her collection of globes, and adding adorable touches like mini paper airplanes in the cupcakes. Everyone that came got to guess what school they might be going to next, and they revealed it at the end with dramatic flair - they simultaneously pulled school shirts out of gift bags that said UTAH STATE UNIVERSITY! They even had giant candy bars to reward the people who guessed correctly. (Not me. I think I guessed Washington state.)

One HUGE surprise for the weekend was that Katie came to visit from Alaska! Emilee had NO idea, and truthfully the video of Emilee seeing Katie right after the graduation ceremony is PRICELESS. (Think visible disbelief to excitement to joyful exclamation to hugs to scrunched up face crying.) Another funny story is of how Rus and Jacob (his brother) and Carla went to the Tucson airport to pick up Katie. Rus and Jacob knew that they were going to get Katie but Carla didn't know at all. So the brothers spun an elaborate lie of how they had to pick up a special kind of fabric for their dad that was export-regulated and thus could only be delivered in person at the airport. Even when Rus was hugging Katie, Carla was still trying to see how her brother hugging this strange woman was part of the mission to pick up special regulated fabric...

Marianne instantly took to Katie and they were buddies the whole night. 

See that tiny picture by Katie's shoulder? It's a print I made of Emilee and Chip, kind of pop-art style. I wish I had a better picture of it.

Oh Payne sibling photos. Yes, Carla is protecting her butt from her brothers because they are trying to pinch her. Jake is the main culprit here and Rus is about to retaliate. Katie is in on the action and Emilee is mentally disowning her siblings...

...Until it all spins out of control and Emilee is openly disowning her siblings, Carla's "big sister" voice is trying to regulate, and the competitive spirit of the other three has taken over and left them senseless to the scene they are creating. Good times!

I brought my face paints so I could work my magic on all the little kids' faces. Bekah wanted to be a unicorn just for her aunt. (Emilee loves unicorns.)

Also that weekend: The kids made bug boxes and then had a great time decorating them and catching inhabitants for them.

We also made dream catchers. Aren't these earrings amazing on DeAnn?

I love my other family! They bring light and joy to my life and I am so grateful for the blessing they are to me! I'm going to miss Emilee and Chip being in New Mexico, but I am so excited for their new adventure!