Creative Escape...here I come

After a whirl-wind two days of checking off my to-do list....
(top one is from last Thursday...bottom one is from Yesterday)

...I'm almost ready to head to Arizona tomorrow morning. Sommer and I plan to get away around 9am and drive to Phoenix, AZ where we will spend 3 days of Scrapbooking Extravaganza! An Escape that I'm really looking forward to.

I've left daily agenda's for Ryan and the kids, cleaned the house, stocked the fridge with fresh milk,(a must for cold cereal) and finished the laundry. Nancie and Raynold are coming to hang out while I'm gone. I know everything will be fine at home while I'm away. Ryan always figures things out just fine. Last year I only got 2-3 phone calls to find something or ask other questions. He usually even cleans up the house before I return. What a sweetie Ryan is to let me have my little get-away!
I'm sure I'll have lots of photo's and class projects to show off when I return.
I still have packing to do, so I'm off to finish. I hope to get to bed before midnight so I'm awake to drive tomorrow :)
Hope everyone has a fun weekend, just not quite as fun as me!!!!

Our Camping Trip

I'm short on time and energy, but I wanted to share some photo's of our great weekend at Duck Creek and Bryce Canyon!

Maiden Voyage

We're off on a new adventure this weekend. Not that I haven't been camping at Duck Creek before, but....this time we're taking our new trailer! Can you believe it...after all these years of Ryan wanting one, he finally found a deal too good to pass up. It's a 30ft bumper pull with 2 slide outs. It has a set of bunk beds for the kids so we won't need to make out beds every night. There's also two TV's and DVD players.

We're all pretty excited about the travel possibilities we'll have with a trailer.
We're going to keep it in Cedar (go figure our HOA won't let us keep it in front of our house).
I've been busy all week stocking it with all the necessary things like cards, bug spray & rain ponchos. It's supposed to be a serious down pour and major drop in temp. in Cedar this weekend. Can't wait to stay nice and dry inside the trailer :)
We're going with the Websters and the Christofferson's might meet us for a bit too. Should be fun despite the weather.
We'll be home Monday, then I'm off again Thursday morning for Creative Escape in AZ
I've had serious "to do" lists this week. I hope to check everything off so I can have a couple relaxing weekends.

Better Late than Never

Ryan's been giving me a hard time because I haven't posted his Africa Photo's yet. In my defense, I thought he wanted to create his own hunting blog to share them on. He gave me a disc of photo's and videos a while back, so here it finally is.
As most of you know, he went to Zimbabwe on June 25th through July 11th. He had a wonderful time in this beautiful country with his good friend Kory.
After many many many hours of hiking, trailing, waiting....Ryan ended up with three big trophy's
A Cape Buffalo-

A Hippo-


And a Crocodile-


I'm not so sure where these trophy mounts are going to end up. If you've seen our trophy room you know we're already low on available space...does anyone have room for a 14 foot Crocodile?
Take a peek at the slide show with some other great photo's he took in Zimbabwe

All is well...

Whew...the kids survived the first day of school.
Miranda woke up bright and early to get ready with no complaints.
She even smiled for her back to school photo!


I think Gus is more excited than the kids. Ryan is my morning half of Miranda's carpool and last year he started letting Gus ride along in the back of the truck. Gus was so excited to start going again he goes around yelping and whining. He's always right at the door when it's time to go.


Miranda had been a bit bummed with her schedule. Her classes were far apart and she only had one class with a friend that she knew of. But as she gave me the class by class rundown, it wasn't as bad as she had thought. In fact she was in an excellent mood when I picked her up (that's a good sign)
Parker was a little slower to wake, but still excited and ready to go.

When I dropped him off I asked if he wanted me to walk down with him. He told me he didn't care, but to spare him the embarrassment I decided to just drop him off.
BUT I couldn't stand it...I got out and watched from the fence. I've never been one to have a hard time with the first day of school, but I did.

I was hoping he wouldn't notice me, but my bright pink shirt gave me away. He was even chosen to read the morning announcements by his teacher.
Parker also had a great first day. He even finished his homework right away! (very unlike Parker)
I hope the rest of the school year goes as smooth as the first day! Now to just get my own routine down.

Happy New Year!

It's August 24th, but it's more like New Years Day for me. Every year as school starts I feel a new resolution to do oh so many things.
So many changes, with back to school, new clothes, new routines and holidays are right around the corner. I truly treasure this time of the year. I always have new found willpower to get serious on my exercise/eating routine in September. Hopefully it will hit me soon!

Miranda and Parker aren't sure about starting school this year. They are both the top of the school with Miranda in 8th and Parker in 5th grades. Neither one was very interested in back to school shopping (my favorite part). Miranda is perfectly content with what's already in her closet, and Parker, well, he's just a boy who doesn't worry too much about clothes. It's been a strange start to the school year to say the least.

This will be an interesting/exciting year. I'll be busy as usual filling my duties as PTA President at Parker's school. (don't ask how that happened..it's all a blur).
I hope to get into my routine soon with everything. Between the office, school, home, Exercise, Broadway, Scouts, Church, etc....
It might be a couple weeks however, since we're going camping this weekend and I'm off to Creative Escape in Arizona the week after that.
THEN my new year's agenda can begin!
So happy new (school) year to everyone!

It's all Geek to me

When my brother Logan called to invite Parker to a LAN Party, I said "a what Party??"
Seriously, I'd never heard of such a thing before. I'm now well educated with the definition of this term and know it to be a group of nerdy boys who get together and network computers together to play games against each other. My brother, who is the king of computer geeks, (love ya Logan) had enough computers/laptops just lying around for everyone. So, Parker, Josh, Zach, Vance and Logan all have their own computer and created teams to play against each other.
They are playing the night away as we speak.


Who knows if they'll get any sleep tonight. Hopefully Parker doesn't get caught up in the moment and feel he needs to do this too frequently. I know video games have their place in today's society, but, neither Ryan or I have ever been one to get too hooked. Parker's love of them truly baffles me sometimes. But, I suppose we all need our hobbies.

Miranda also had a sleepover with 4 of her friends last night. I hope the neighbors don't turn us in for being too noisy past curfew when the girls decided to have a late night swim. I was actually able to fall asleep and didn't hear a thing. (There's not much that can interrupt my sleep time) Ryan wasn't so lucky and ended up sleeping in the Casita because of their giddiness.
Ahhh to be a teenage girl again. Miranda was actually feeling guilty for spending too much time with her friends lately. (I know, everyone should have a Miranda for a daughter. Gotta Love Em!
School starts Monday so I suppose they're both sneaking one last sleepover into the summer. Who can blame them.