Gotta love the legos at the Science Center!

One of our favorite hangouts is the AZ Science Center. We were able to go this week and take Candice Reidhead and her 2 kids. They had a blast running all over the place (we lost a few of them a few times...boys are so fast)! They had a great time playing upstairs with the lego exhibit. The weather (Forces of Nature) was also very fun!

AZ Museum of Natural History with the triplets and the Millers

We had a fun day on the 29th at the Arizona Museum of Natural History in Mesa. We went with most of the Miller family and Francelle's triplets. The kids enjoyed learning about Mars, dinosaurs and early Arizona history. Their favorite part was panning for gold in the courtyard (and eating ice cream afterward)! They also loved playing the jail cells and the tunnel behind it. Thank you to the library culture passes that got us all in for free! Yay!

12 Years of Fun! Happy Anniversary!

Yep, it's true. We've been married for 12 years (as of the 25th of July). We were married in the Mount Timpanogos Temple at 9:00am in 1997. It seems like yesterday and yet like forever ago! We've come a long way and had our share of ups and downs. I'm happy to say we've weathered the storm this far. I am so grateful to be married to such a wonderful man!

We celebrated by letting the kids stay with their uncle Chris overnight while we headed to the Royal Palm resort. They don't have an anniversary inn in Phoenix, so I looked for the next best thing (yes, I got to plan this anniversary celebration). We went to see Beauty & the Beast at the Hale Theatre in Gilbert and we went to Tutti Santi for a nice Italian dinner (very tasty)!

Every year Bob buys me roses. One for each year we've been married. I teased him because this year was the easiest of all so far (one dozen is so much easier to buy then, say, 11 or 10)! This year he found these cool striped roses!

Here are a few fun tidbits about our engagement and wedding:

We were engaged on May 3, 1997. Bob proposed at the fountain on the south side of the Salt Lake Temple. There was a U-2 concert that night at the stadium nearby. We could hear it in the background. (my brother happened to be at that concert). We finally went to a U-2 concert a few years ago, here in Phoenix. (my brother was at that concert too).

I wore my grandmother Reeves' handkerchief during my wedding (I can't remember what I did with it exactly - probably stuffed it in my sleeve or something, but it was there). She wore it to her wedding 49 years before.

None of our siblings were old enough to go to the temple for our wedding (we're both oldest children and I was 20 when we got married). Our parents, uncles, aunts, grandparents, Bob's mission president & wife, Bob's cousin Curtis & wife Danylle and a few family friends were there.

My sister signed her name Dacia Gray in my wedding book (although she was still a Spann at the time)! She was married in December that same year and was engaged as well. (My parents & aunts were completely broke after 2 weddings within 6 months)!

My Grandma Spann and Aunt Claudia played piano at my wedding; my sister Dacia sang as did my uncle Gary, my brothers and cousins. Truly a family affair!

Fun memories! I love you Bob!

Kiwanis Wave Pool (finally)!

We were going to go to Kiwanis Wave Pool in June, but life was too hectic and it never materialized. So finally we went! We took Cassidy, Ari and Jacob with us. The kids had a blast. I felt like I couldn't take my eyes off them for one second, so it was a little nerve racking and after 2 hours I was DONE! But, we had a good time floating in the indoor pool and enjoying the waves. They even had a little waterslide that Channing and Ari could go on. (Again, Cameron was bummed out because was too short to go - it's been a hard year for him and his lack of height).

Legos at the Science Center (with Cassidy, Ari & Jacob)

Cassidy, Ari and Jacob joined us for an afternoon at the Science Center. The kids loved their lego exhibit. They played on the slide and built castles and other things. They dressed up as dragons, knights, kings and princesses. It was very cute and lots of fun!

A Rainbow of Taekwando colors!

So after stressing (a lot), 4 of us managed to pass our karate tests this time around! Bob passed with flying colors and even earned a silver star for his efforts - for having a great form. He earned his orange belt. Channing did a great job and earned a "most improved form" award (only 1 earns this per class, so this was really neat for him). He now has a blue belt and is about a year away from his black belt. Cameron passed by the skin of his teeth. It was the longest form he's ever had to learn and he had half the time to do it due to us being gone on vacation so much. He had a little help from his instructor during testing and he made it through and earned his green belt... barely. I passed. Yay me! :) I am now a yellow belt. Cason, well, he'll test when he gets older. He just likes to run around the room still.

Channing and Cameron with their instructor. Cameron in sparring gear.

Channing after getting his award. Cameron sparring with lots of energy!

Channing doing his form. A rainbow of belts!

Cason's Turns 3 and has a Bolt Birthday Party

Cason turned 3 on Tuesday, July 7th. So now he can officially say he's 3 (he's been telling people that he's 3 for 1/2 year now...finally we got him to say 2 1/2 and now that he's actually three he says he's 2 1/2 - go fig.).

After changing his mind several times, he decided on a Bolt birthday party. Suzie made him a darling Bolt cake and we played a few games; pin the bolt on Bolt, find Penny (I hid chocolate coins with pictures of Penny on them), and the kids each practiced their Super Bark (which was hilarious). We made homemade pizza for dinner and everyone got to help put toppings on them. The cake and ice cream were delicious!

Bob Gets a New Job and Our Second Trip to Utah (4th of July)

Well, after much searching, Bob found another job. His last day at JDA was June 26th (officially the 30th, he just took the last few days in vacation). He started with Select Blinds yesterday (July 8th). He will be working on their websites...programming etc. (I don't really know - computer stuff... ask him)!

Inbetween jobs we were able to take a vacation to Utah since Bob didn't get to go last time we went. We wanted to see all our family and have our own family days too. Bob was able to spend a day with Pres. DeWitt from his mission.

We went to Seven Peaks for a day. The kids had a lot of fun despite the fact that it rained a little and Channing and I got a bit sunburned (hey, at least it turned to a tan). Bob was able to convince Channing to go off the freefall (it took him about 10 min. at the top to convince him). Channing finally laid down and Bob pushed him off. I have it on video, it's pretty funny. He was a little scraped up on his back after his wild 2 second ride (I remember that being a problem years ago - guess it still is), but he says it was scary but really fun and he'd do it again. Cason and Cameron loved the tube slides and the wave pool. He liked the cave one that had green in it. He called it the Nemo slide for some reason. As we were waiting at the top to go down, Cason heard some kids screaming as they went down the slide and he said, "Uh, oh, it's a Nemo Ghost!" I laughed so hard. What an imagination that kid has! We met my friend Lisa and her 2 kids there as well, so we had a great day of fun!

We also went to Lagoon with Donna, Jonah & Jonathan. Man have the prices gone up! Crazy! The first 3 1/2 hours we were there were fine, but then the clouds rolled in and it POURED! After 2 hours of rain, we gave up and called it a day. We did manage to ride a bunch of kid rides with hardly any wait. It wasn't very crowded, so that was nice. The rattlesnake rapids were a blast and Donna and I and the kids were drenched after going under a waterfall.

We made the 4 oldest kids ride the white rollercoaster (in the rain). Channing cried because he didn't want to go. Jon did too. Cameron was worried he couldn't get on because he barely was tall enough (close enough), Jonah didn't really want to go either. So we made them go anyway! LOL! Why does it feel like you're going to die everytime you ride that thing??? So in the end, they all survived. Jon was crying when we got off. Channing had calmed down. Jonah was fine and Cameron.....LOVED IT (of course).

We also went to the waterpark inside Lagoon for an hour. The kid play area was super cute and perfect for the small crew that we had. Bob and Channing went on a few larger slides and Cameron and Jonah went on some smaller slides. We left there just as it started to rain. If Cason happens to mention to you something about a spooky house, he's probably referring to the 2 haunted houses we went to. LOL!

We went to Park City one day and shopped and rode the Alpine slide and the Zipline at the Olympic Park. The kids loved the Alpine slide. Bob went fast with Cameron, I went slow with Cason, and Neeke went super slow with Channing (he has a strong sense of self-preservation it would seem). Bob and I rode the huge zipline from the top of the mountain to the bottom. It was crazy long! I thought it would be scary, but it really wasn't. You're a long way up, but you mostly just glide down, so it was fun. Bob tried to get Channing to go on the smaller zipline, but when he got to the top and saw how high it was, he refused. So I'm standing at the bottom watching Bob come down by himself and Channing riding the chair lift down! LOL! My mom stayed at the bottom and watched ski jumpers practice by landing in a pool. More sunburns this day!

The 4th of July was a blast! (pun intended). We went to the Provo Freedom parade (Bob's least favorite thing to do...but he went anyway...what a good sport...even though he probably hated every minute). :) It rained for a few minutes before it started, but then it was pretty nice (much cooler than last year). We had a big BBQ at the Paxman's with alot of our extended family. Lots of good food and treats (yummy homemade ice cream and rootbeer) and lots of fun talking and watching everyone play baskeball! Then we headed to Grandpa and Grandma Paxman's to watch some Stadium of Fire fireworks. We left early to beat the traffic home though (it can be so hard to get out of there)! It was a very fun day!

We spent Sunday at church and then we ate dinner at the Spann's. Yay for Spaghetti factory take-out! Very tasty! We had a fun trip and wish we were still there (especially because it's going to be 115 degrees in Phoenix this weekend)!