Long Evenings

I know that daylight savings time is still a novelty to Indiana and people always complain about the switching around but these long spring evenings of daylight are fantastic! We have time to take walks, play in the yard and eat on the deck before the dark sets in. It was 76 degrees today! So, after French club, play practice, golf team try-outs and track practice, we all came home and relaxed.

We ate dinner out on the deck and after Max and Calvin had a big watergun fight, they jumped in the hot tub with Josh to just hang out. Life is good...

Spring-Like

Today was fantastic! We are really getting glimpses of true spring weather now. My walk this morning was still pretty chilly however, so we were thrilled to see the temperatures rise into the high 50's by this afternoon. The constant sunshine could not be beat! Josh surprised us all by coming home early from work this evening (early for him is 5:30) so Calvin immediately got him outside for a game of catch.

And, another picture from Sedona....

Routine...

Today was back to work for everyone! I had mountains of laundry and mail to go through as well as working in the high school cafeteria for 6 hours and getting some groceries for our barren cupboards. The kids all had school and Josh had work to go to. We also managed to get Coco back from my brother's.... Here are some pictures from our final days on our trip...

Three Thousand Six Hundred and Forty Miles!

We made it back home! We truly had a wonderful trip, the car had the perfect set-up, the kids were great, and the destination was fantastic! It always feels good to be home however so we are thrilled to be here. St. Louis was rainy and cold this morning and the NCAA basketball tourney was underway in town so we didn't spend as much time there today as we had hoped. We did stroll through my old college campus though and gorge on one last bit of frozen custard before hitting the road.


I will continue to post pictures as I get them organized. Here are a few that our jeep tour driver took in Sedona...

Eating Custard!

After a long day of driving, we have arrived safely in St. Louis for our last vacation overnight. We rolled into town at about 8:30, giving us just enough time to grab some delicious frozen custard from Ted Drewes before checking into our hotel and putting the kids to bed. I love being back in my college town! We are hoping to do just a little bit of sightseeing in the morning before heading home.

Heading East

We are now on the road back East. We really hate to see our time in the Southwest come to an end. We have had just an incredible time! Max even cried a little bit last night when he realized that we were leaving this amazing part of our country. It is so great that our kids are old enough to really partake in everything that we want to do. We have done our share of hiking this week and have had no complaints or dragging behind. Everyone can keep up. Yesterday, we drove through the mountains to Sedona from Flagstaff.

We stopped long enough to see some gorgeous views of the valley and to do some shopping at the Native American outdoor market. After a 4 mile dusty hike in the red rocks of Sedona, we stopped at the beautiful home of my friend, Leah's, aunt. We had a short but nice visit with Mary Kay and Gary while enjoying the amazing views from their rooftop deck. We then headed out on a two hour Pink Jeep adventure. The jeep tour was fantastic!! We all loved every minute of the scary, thrilling, and whiplashing ride, up and down steep rocks and crevices, to places that no vehicle should ever be able to go. Not one of the kids was ever scared and hated to see the ride come to an end. What an experience!

This morning, before leaving the Flagstaff area and heading to Texas, we stopped at the Walnut Canyon National Park and hiked down 185 feet below the rim of the canyon to explore some old cliff dwellings.

Cold and windy but beautiful and interesting. The rest of our day has been driving, driving and driving...

Incredible!!

Yesterday was our day at the Grand Canyon. What a magnificent sight! Impossible to put into words. We all absolutely loved it and could not soak in enough. We took the old fashioned Grand Canyon Railway up to the Canyon from Williams, AZ. This gave us the opportunity to really see the surrounding countryside and to hear a wonderful narrative by our guide. We were also involved in a wild west shoot out and a train robbery during the ride. Max could not have loved it more! At the Canyon, we hiked several miles along the rim trail and took more pictures than we could count. We saw some elk, enjoyed the gorgeous 50 degree day, and ate a very nice lunch on the rim. Wow! We then took the train back for a lazy evening in Flagstaff and some fantastic Thai food. I have many, many pictures to share but no time to do it now. Sorry!

Mountains and Deserts

Our trip did not exactly start out well... we drove through lots of rain in Missouri before crossing the state line into Oklahoma and immediately encountering snow! Lots and lots of snow. It was described as blizzard conditions for at least 300 miles and accumulated 5-10 inches. We managed to plow onward however and arrived safely in Oklahoma City for our first night. The next morning was sunny and beautiful but all of the snow caused some serious highway delays. We sat in traffic with our car turned off for more than 2 hours before finally breaking free and heading to New Mexico. From that point on however, our trip has been great. We spent two nights at the home of my college roommate's parents' house in Albuquerque.

Leah and her little girl joined us for our visit and we all had a great time. We did some nice visiting, some serious eating and some wonderful sight-seeing. We took the world's longest tram up the Sandia mountain to see some beautiful views of Albuquerque.


We then explored the Indian Peublo Cultural Center, Albuquerque's Old Town, and hiked around the Petroglyph National Monument.

This morning, we took off for Arizona.

We had a beautiful drive and stopped to explore the Petrified Forest and the Painted Desert before arriving at the Meteor Crater National Monument.

The kids were fascinated by everything and we all had a great time hiking all over the place. We then continued on to Flagstaff which will be our home base for the next couple of days. Tomorrow, we hit the Grand Canyon!

Ready to Hit the Road!

The big day has finally arrived! Max is so excited, he is just about to burst! He loves vacations and the thought of a long time on the road is like a dream come true. He has his candy, his DVD's, his iPod, his books, and his DS games. He couldn't be happier. The rest of the kids are pretty thrilled too, they just don't bounce around like Max does. The car is packed and we will leave bright and early tomorrow morning for our trip to the beautiful Southwest. Wish us luck!

I spent the morning at the elementary school. The third grade class put on a mini-Iditarod with 16 stations full of activities. I was one of the parent helpers so we assisted and joined in the various team-building activities. It was great fun and Max's team had a ball. We let the new French little girl join Max's team and she loved every minute of it. She was even leading some of the activities despite the language barrier!



Spring is finally starting to come around here. We had some geese and fishermen return to our lake this week.


Last night, Tabitha's basketball team played and won their final game. They had been playing yet another tournament this week and finished the regular season and all tournaments with an undefeated record. Pretty exciting for Taba's first year on a basketball team. She sure had a great time and is looking forward to more years of play.

Bienvenue Anne-Héloïse!

After a chilly walk this morning where we even had some frost on the grass, the sun came out beautifully and warmed up our day! The temperature got up into the 60's and it could not have been more beautiful. My parents stopped by on their way home from 2 weeks in the southwest. We had a nice visit and a good lunch before they headed on home. This afternoon, I drove to Cincinnati with my friends, Kelly and Gaëlle. We went to pick up the 10 year old daughter of my very good friend, Sabine, from France. Anne-Héloïse pleaded with her parents to allow her to spend three months in the U.S. so that she could become adept in the English language and experience the American way of life. Kelly graciously offered to take her in since she has 11 year old twin girls and a nine year old girl. Sabine did not want us to take in Anne-Héloïse because we would be able to speak too much French to her. Gaëlle came along for the ride so that she could speak all French to Anne-Héloïse while we made her comfortable and got her settled in. We didn't know what to expect from a 10 year old who had just flown across the Atlantic by herself.


She was great though, had a huge smile on her face and couldn't wait to get started on her adventure. We took her home to Kelly's house where she quickly jumped into a huge basketball game with Kelly's girls, Max, Calvin and the two French boys. You wouldn't believe all the Franglais that was being spoken by those kids. It was wonderful to watch. I think that Anne-Héloïse will fit in just fine...

Max Sings about Art

The serious preparations are now beginning. We will leave on a driving trip to the Grand Canyon bright and early on Saturday morning, so we have plenty to get ready for. Josh is in Charleston, SC again for a few days this week so I am trying to get everything organized, cleaned and ready to go so we only have to pack the car on Friday night. Should be a fun trip! We are praying for good weather and easy driving.

The sun returned today and we once again had temperatures in the 60's. Maybe our grass can dry out a bit so the endless stream of muddy footprints across my hardwood floors can end??!
Max participated in the CREATE technology fair after school today at the middle school. He was one of the few third graders from his school to present a power point presentation of their own creation to demonstrate how the school uses technology on a daily basis. Max did his presentation on dwarf planets. He is now hoping that he won one of the many door prizes that they were offering.

After running home for a quick bite to eat, it was then time for Max to participate in the 3rd/4th Grade Spring Concert. The kids did a great job singing nine entertaining songs about visual arts by the composer, Mark Burrows.

Happy Birthday, Maxwell!

We are celebrating again!! If I eat one more bite of birthday cake, I'm afraid that I will explode! Three birthdays in 16 days is a bit much. Anyway, we had a nice time this evening, taking Max out to dinner at our local Mexican restaurant. He got to wear a big sombrero while they sang to him and smeared ice on his face. He loved it!

Can't believe that our BABY is nine years old...

B-I-N-G-O

Today was again the biannual time for our Super Sunday Bingo held at the church and school. Over 1200 people come and help the school to earn over $100,000. It is crazy. The amount of money pouring out of all the die-hard Bingo players just amazes me. The amount of junk food that is consumed and the fact that they can all sit for hours and hours just playing Bingo over and over again.... I put in four hours of volunteering by selling special event Bingo cards. Josh and Quincy are still over at school now, putting in their time by cleaning up and reassembling the school. No small task before Monday morning classes resume.

Another Birthday Party

Today was busy but fun! Max turns 9 on Monday so we threw him a birthday party today to celebrate.

With 9 of his friends, he enjoyed a crazy couple of hours of running around, climbing, eating pizza, eating cake, opening gifts and playing at the local gymnastics gym.

Max loves nothing more than to climb so climb he did...


A contingent of Josh's family then drove down here this afternoon to go with all of us to see Quincy's 2nd performance of his play. Quincy was feeling so much better today that he played all of his roles and put a lot more "oomph" into it. He had us all laughing and did a great job.

To Be or Not To Be...

Quincy was finally quite a bit better today and we decided that some normalcy couldn't hurt, so we packed him off to school. I spent the day catching up on details that had been neglected all week and doing all of the baking that I had volunteered to do. I finished my dozens and dozens of cookies to serve during intermission at Quincy's play tonight, I baked a birthday cake for Max's birthday party that will be held tomorrow, and I began baking the pies that I had volunteered to make for our big Bingo fundraiser at church. I also made a big pot of a creamy and delicious crab and corn bisque for tonight and a big pan of manicotti for tomorrow night. There is nothing that makes me feel better than spending the day in my kitchen! We had another warm and nice day although in the middle of the afternoon, we were suddenly hit with a huge thunderstorm, full of lots of rain and even hail. The rest of our evening was then off and on rainy but at least we still have our warm temperatures. Finally, all of the snow has melted from our yard and deck and all of the ice has melted off of the lake. We can finally have some lake views again!


Quincy managed school all day without a hitch. He did complain of a headache, some mild chest pain and fatigue, but he was ready to perform as Hamlet in tonight's play.

He gave his smaller parts to his understudy but managed to do his Hamlet without feeling too badly. The play is a very silly spoof on a bunch of different plays so bear that in mind as you watch this little video clip of Quincy. The sound effects were supposed to be in there, messing up his soliloquy.

Josh came home from Louisiana late last night so we all enjoyed being together for the evening and look forward to a nice weekend.

Happy Ending

Quincy continues to not feel well so we made a couple more trips to the doctor. We are just waiting to see what happens next. So, a day of just hanging out with Quincy and doing what needed to be done.



This evening ended well however when Tabitha's basketball team won the southeastern Indiana basketball tournament. It was a close game but they ended up winning by 3 in overtime. She even got to cut down the net!