Random cell phone pictures

I just found quite a few pictures I took on my phone that I forgot to post to the blog!  These will be pretty random.  And the quality of most of them is really bad, sorry.

For Kyrie’s birthday, Derk and I took her to the Fun Factory for dinner and mini-golf while the kids went and played at a friend’s house.  She loves it when we take just her out, and it was a fun time!  Here she is at dinner – we let her get a full-sized soda to celebrate, and she was super stoked about that.

 

And a couple shots on the golf course.

  

 

A couple weeks later, we took all the kids back for rides on the gokarts (I just realized Kyrie is wearing the exact same shirt as last time we were there – how funny)!  It was really fun and was Asher and Bri’s first time on the gokarts.   Here are the kids anxiously waiting in line!

Bri and I after our fun ride!

Sweet sisters having a fun night!

This picture is actually pretty old!  I think it was from last year when Derk, Bri and I went out to lunch while the kids were at school.  We went to Asian Star, which is one of our favorites, and ordered sushi.  Turns out Cambria loves sushi! 

Torturing Zelda, as usual.

 

Grandma and Grandpa gave Asher money for his birthday this year, and this is one of the things he picked out at Toys R Us!  He LOVES it, and it’s huge!

 

Lastly, I’ve been watching an infant for the last few months, and Bri is always asking me if she was as tiny as Genevieve.  On this day, I told her that she was just as tiny and fit into this same type of car seat.  So Bri climbed into the car seat to see if she could still fit. 

No more training wheels!

**Some new posts got out of order and had to be rearranged, so keep scrolling to make sure you’ve read all our updates! **

Ever since Cambria turned 5, we’ve been talking to her about how it’s time to take off the training wheels.  She’s been refusing to do it for months, despite our best efforts to assure her that she was definitely ready.  Today, totally out of the blue, she came up to us and said she was ready – so we went for it!  This girl is so determined, and when she sets her mind on something she just does it.  This was no exception!  Take a look at this video, and keep in mind that this was her very first attempt!!

And some pictures!


I just love how proud she is of herself!!  Even though it was dark, she begged us to keep letting her ride her bike with the big kids.  She’s already planning lots of riding for tomorrow! 


Here’s a video.  I apologize in advance for how annoying I sound when I’m super excited. 

What a big girl!!

Telegraph Pass

Today we took the kids for a hike up Telegraph Pass.  Derk has been a few times before with some friends, but we’ve never gone as a family.  I didn’t realize just how tough it would be!  It’s a 4.5 mile hike that gains 1,230 feet in elevation.  Combine that with 80+ degree temperatures, and we definitely struggled a bit.  It starts off pretty flat at first, but as soon as the incline started both girls were whining almost non-stop.  Derk and I traded off carrying Cambria a couple of times, which was to be expected (not many hiking places around here, so our kids aren’t very used to it).  Both girls got a burst of energy and ended up doing really well!  Asher was a total champ – he didn’t whine a single time and only asked to sit down once the whole way up!  It took us about 1.5 hours, but we made it to the top!

Here are the kiddos at the beginning of the trail.

Each time we rested, I snapped some pictures of the scenery.  There’s a very different kind of beauty to the desert.

 

Finally at the top!!  There’s a mailbox looking thing that holds a guest book for all the hikers to sign, and the kids had a great time signing their names!  I forgot to get a picture of the page we all signed, but I’ll do it next time.  Cambria signed her name, too, but I didn’t get a picture of her.  She was so excited that she got to sign, though – she’s still thrilled with the whole concept of being able to write words now (although,  thankfully, she has stopped autographing everything in sight…*knock on wood*). 

 

The view of the mountains from the top.

 

Asher threw a rock over the edge to see how far down it was.  (Just after I snapped this picture, he got WAY too close for my comfort and scared me to death!!  It took me a good 10 minutes to bring my heart rate back down!)

 

Relaxing on the bench at the top before making our way back down.  (Is Kyrie the spitting image of her dad, or what?!?!)

Me and my honey.

 

On our way back down!

We definitely learned a few things along the way.  Next time I will bring protein bars for Derk and I and some granola bars for the kiddos because it really does take a lot of energy in this heat!  We also bought an extra camel pack for the next time.  This time we only had one, so we ended up bringing that as well as a couple water bottles – and it was super annoying carrying water bottles around.  Lastly, I will NOT forget to sunblock everyone before going next time.  Derk and I ended up with some nice sunburns after that (luckily the kids were all totally fine!).  We still had a good time exploring and hiking the day away, and it was so fun to see how excited the kids were that we completed such a big (for them!) accomplishment!  We were all very wasted after that, though, and ended up spending the rest of the day laying on the couch watching movies. 

Honor Choir concert

Kyrie made it into honor choir again this year, and tonight was her concert!  They’ve been staying after school once a week for the past couple of months practicing their songs, and of course she had the time of her life.  This girl sure loves to sing, and we’re so proud of her.  Derk had a business trip in Phoenix and made it home just in time for the concert.  Here’s the stage all set up.

The auditorium was pretty packed, so Asher had to sit on Derk’s lap during the concert.  He loves to snuggle anyway, but since he’d just come from karate he was extra worn out and glad to snuggle.

Check out this cutie’s cowlick!    That’s what happens if his mother forgets to comb his hair in the mornings…

Here they are on stage with their director.  I drew a white arrow over Kyrie’s head.  I just realized it’s kind of hard to see – it’s on the right hand side of the picture, just up and to the left of where the director is standing.

In between songs.  In case you can’t spot her…there’s a boy on the far right in a white shirt, then you can see the girl right next to him to the left – she’s looking at Kyrie. 

I got some video, but for some reason I can’t get them to upload.    Here’s our girl when she’s all done.  Go, Kyrie!

Sleepy Cambria

 

Cambria was so tired that she fell asleep reading her library book in the van today.  I had to snap a couple of cute pictures before I got her out. 

Yuma County Fair

Spring Break means the Yuma County Fair is in town!  Tuesday is the dollar entrance day, but we opted to go today instead to avoid the crazy crowds.  Only that didn’t happen, and it was still a madhouse!   I didn’t get many pictures because it was SO crowded, but I did manage to grab a few.  Here are the kids thoroughly enjoying the petting zoo.  There were some brand new baby goats, llamas, goats, all sorts of funky looking chickens, and some pigs.

 

They have some big tents set up with all kinds of stuff inside.  We found this one guy who had some desert bugs.  This is a REAL scorpion he’s holding!!  He was joking around trying to get Asher to hold it, and Asher kept saying, “NO WAY!”  So the guy turns to me and says, “How about if your Mom goes first?”  YEAH, RIGHT!    Asher found some super bravery from somewhere (he did NOT inherit this from his mother!) and actually touched the thing.  *shudder* 

 

Before heading home, we saw a cool little show with some rare species of primates.

And the kids got to act out in the kids theater.  Kyrie is the orangutan on the far right. 

Here are a couple videos of the show!  Asher is the little bear in front of Kyrie.

Asher’s the first one to jump through in this one.

And here’s one of Bri.

Easter baskets from Nana

The kids got their Easter baskets from my mom today, and they were way too excited to wait to open them.  They got lots of fun stuff!  They all loved the glasses Cambria got and wanted to get pictures in them.

I told them to make a silly face, and Cambria refused.  I guess princesses don’t make silly faces.    Kyrie and Asher were happy to oblige, though.

Here’s a hilarious video of them opening the baskets!  They all got a little crazy, of course, and I quickly realized we should have opened them one at a time.  You’ll also notice Cambria gets just a little excited about some of her gifts.    And Kyrie was so cute – she had just asked me for a couple of the things she got only the day before, so it was really neat for her to get them in her basket from Nana (who, ironically, had NO idea Kyrie had asked specifically for those things!). 

Thanks, Nana!