fall break

Rob and I were asked to provide about 20 minutes of entertainment for a mother/daughter "Mad Hatter" dinner party (for Activity Days).  It fell at the same night/time as one of Rob's soccer games.  When I got back to the organizer (a friend old enough to be my mother) to tell her we wouldn't be able to do it, she said something like, "Oh Tamsen, you are great and don't need Rob to sing with you.  Don't sell yourself short!"  It was actually pretty funny and sounded like something my mom would tell me.  Truthfully, the thought of singing alone (without Rob) is very stressful.  I can't imagine finding background music, or even sheet music for a pianist??  No harmonies?  No 'funny guy' that I can count on to entertain the crowd?  Actually having to prepare in advance instead of the night (or hour) before?  Gah!!  I realize that I've gotten very spoiled over the years; it's pretty great (and convenient!) being married to such a talented guy.  

This whole topic came up when we were over to dinner at some friends' house (both play on Rob's co-ed team), and the wife said, "Can I make a suggestion?  Why doesn't Rob play just the first half of the game and then go sing with you?"  I was thankful for her suggestion and joked with Rob saying, "Yes, how stressed out do you want me to be this week?"  So Rob, the good man that he is, agreed to miss half of his game to support his wife that is very much a 'pleaser' (didn't want to bail on my friend) as well as a 'stresser' (didn't want to sing alone).  

The husband of my friend was there taking photos during the activity (our activity day leaders are a DREAM team!  Everything was so well planned and pretty awesome).  He brought some copies by the other night  and I snapped photos of the photos to share:

 This photo is not at all flattering of me (I look seriously geeky), but it certainly shows that my cute husband still makes me laugh!

 

Thanks for singing with me, Rob.  I know that the memories of times we've sung together will be some of my most treasured memories when we're old(er) and gray(er).

 We were lucky to have our good friends, the Haynies, come down to visit the second week of our fall break.  We tried to take full advantage of the last days it would be warm enough to swim for the year:

Liv was Abbi's shadow pretty much the entire week.  I think both of these cuties enjoyed having another girl around.

The friend I walk with suggested that we go to "Organ Stop Pizza" for dinner.  The pizza was good (thin crust and not greasy at all), and the entertainment was pretty awesome.  Rob was so impressed with the organist on this amazing Wurlitzer--it was connected to so many instruments all over the room.  We'd recommend going again with any of our family that is interested.  Our kids loved making requests and listening to all sorts of things from "Star Wars" to "Mary Poppins."  It was a fun night!  This first shot is cute of Abbi watching bubbles fall from the ceiling:

I caught Liv taking a bite of pizza (love that her eyes are closed):

We stopped to walk around the Mesa Temple before heading home:

The kids are always sad when it's time to say goodbye.  Burke and Zac have been BFs for eight years now!

Abbi and Hewitt --playing less together now as they are getting older and more awkward :/.  Still hoping they may get married some day.

Carter and Tosh (Tosh introduced Carter as his 'cousin' when he saw some friends at the park!)

Liv and Gavin.  How are they both four already?!

Sunny shot of the gang:

Silly shot:

Liv still LOVES to get into my things and had fun wearing my wedding slip around on Sunday afternoon.  Just practicing for the big day, I guess:

The kids built a big fort in our playroom (Liv had knocked some of it down before I got this photo).  I suppose she planned on permanently moving in, since she brought every single clothing item into the playroom!  I guess she knew I needed some motivation to put some of the summer things away...

We went to the library and park the final day of fall break.  The weather is perfect right now!

Liv's face in this next shot makes me happy.  Such a sweetie:

More monkeys in a tree:

Love these kids!  We had a great 'break' from school.  And now, back to it!

the 'ancient olympian' turns nine

Hewitt has learned all about Greek Mythology this quarter.  The third grade held an "Olympic Day" and he was supposed to come dressed in an ancient greek-style toga.  I put most of the costume together while the boys were at school.  Tosh was the first one home and so I used him as a model for the finishing touches.  His blonde curls were so perfect for the look,  I couldn't resist.  I'm hoping to convince him to wear this for Halloween (I doubt it will work).

Ahh, here is the official Olympian.  He didn't want to show his braces because "braces are not authentic to Ancient Greece."

 The entire third grade had several different games to compete in.  They had an awards ceremony (medals and ribbons) afterward.

Liv was thrilled to get to go to Hewitt's school and class.  She was a great audience member (and looked adorable too!):

 After the awards (and juice and otter pops), we went inside the classroom for presentations.  Hewitt did a great job.  He presented on Socrates.

I brought a picnic lunch (including Subway sandwiches which thrilled Hewitt) for the three of us to share.  I couldn't resist packing these grapes still on the vine for Hewitt to eat.  :)

School got out the very end of September and the kids had almost two and a half weeks off for fall break.  We stayed close to home and spent the first week of October just outside of Payson, AZ at Kohl's Ranch (17 miles from Payson).  It was nice to only have a two hour drive.  We stayed in our own little cabin (it was actually quite big with two bedrooms and a nice big kitchen, dining and living room). The place was right on Tonto Creek and it was great to enjoy the mountain climate.  The weather was gorgeous!

We arrived on Saturday night, and attended church the next morning in Payson (all three hours--I was grateful we had done that after hearing the conference talk the next week about that. Ha!).  We couldn't find Rob's church socks anywhere (found them on Tuesday in Burke's bag) so he went "European" with the white socks:

The bishop taught the combined third hour about callings and touched on several points including "what if I feel too old (busy, etc., etc.) for a calling?"  The lesson was excellent.  There seemed to be quite a few seniors in the ward.  Our four kids attended class and then spent the last hour in a combined, small primary.  When we went to pick them up, we had a touching experience when we observed Tosh visiting with his primary teacher.  She was an older sister (oxygen tank under her chair!) and Tosh was looking at her so sweetly and respectfully as she spoke to him.  When he came out of class he was so excited to tell us about his class and said, "My teacher told me she would miss me!"  Rob and I got slightly emotional over this (maybe you had to be there to get it), and I wanted to write it down so I wouldn't forget this simple act that touched our (often rowdy) son.  It certainly was a great reminder that we are never too old to serve (especially in primary).  I think of both Patti and Helen that serve willingly wherever they are called (as well as Martha Proctor) and others.  Thanks for the great example.


Sunday afternoon Tosh and I went for a little walk along the creek.  We stopped to swing for a bit:

In front of the lodge:

 Monday morning we explored around the "resort" and played tennis, mini-golf, etc.  We then went to the Tonto fish hatchery.  The kids were not excited about going, but ended up having a great time exploring around (of course).

The little visitor's center there reminded us of Rog.  He would have loved to read all of the pamphlets and information.

So, it turned out that Rob hadn't forgotten socks, but had forgotten his swimming suit.  I asked him if he wanted to drive the 20-25 minutes into town to buy one and he didn't (as I'm sure you are not surprised).  He hadn't brought any athletic shorts either so we started to consider our options.  He was physically able to get Burke's athletic shorts on (can you imagine?!), but settled on my running shorts.  Do you see a European theme here?   We were laughing so hard.   I asked Rob if he wanted to buy shorts the next day and he said, "Nah.  I'll just keep wearing these."   What can I say, I married a confident man that doesn't really get embarrassed...  Nice legs, babe!

We enjoyed playing soccer and wiffle ball:

Hewitt turned nine on the 2nd of October.  He was NOT excited about being away from home on his birthday.  He finally seemed to relax when I assured him that I was packing some presents!    We hung out the morning of his birthday and played around the resort.

Burke wanted to play tennis as much as possible.  I thing we played at least two hours every day.  It is getting really fun to play him; he is starting to use some backspin and has good control.  I would start out winning each game for the first hour and a half and then he would start winning some as I got tired.  I would like to continue to play a lot this winter as it's really fun for both of us.

A game of horseshoes:

Hewitt requested KFC for birthday lunch.  Dining with the Colonel:

We found a park by a lake in Payson.  Fun on the tire swing:

After swimming and the hot tub it was finally time for some presents.  Hewitt is on a bit of a Ninja kick and got several ninja-themed toys including a costume for Halloween.

Make a wish, Hewitt!

We sure love this great kid!

We decided to come home a couple of days early from our vacation.  Rob has been swamped at work and had some deadlines to meet.  We packed up after lunch on Thursday and headed to Tonto Natural Bridge State Park.  I have never been in the Payson area at all (the boys are up that way every year for the Father and Sons camp out).  The park was so pretty and had lots of different trails to hike and explore.

(Not a very good hiding job, Burke:)

By some falls:

Such a great photo of these two cuties:

The kids can explore for hours.  Rob made a comment that he thinks the boys probably enjoy crossing a creek to any other activity:

 Monkey in a tree:

At the bottom of the bridge:

 

Sweet Petes!