flagstaff weekend

Ryan chose to work on Memorial Day and so took Friday off this weekend and we headed north for a few adventures.

First stop: Lava Caves North of Flagstaff. It's about 3/4 of a mile to the end of the cave and a very good choice for first time spelunking. All the kids did fantastic and it was a blessed break from the heat to be underground with temps in the 30's AHHH!

Here we are at the entrance ready to descend.

This is close to the end of the cave.

And Sarah and Nelson climbing out.

Our next stop was the Lowell observatory were we got to see the moon, Jupiter, Venus and Saturn, like REALLY see them! So stinking cool. The sky was beautifully clear and the constellations bright and beautiful. I really thought it was so cool and definitely worth the trip.

Here is Ryan checking out Jupiter. It was clear enough we could even see the color and stripes! The staff was so friendly and helpful and very knowledgeable.

We spent the night at the KOA and the next morning headed to Priest's Draw one of Ryan's AZ bouldering spots. We climbed, played, visited, shot the bow and arrow and snacked. It was a lovely morning.

When we were all done we headed home to unpack, do laundry, swim and pack for Utah! I tell you, life does not slow down but I am so glad we took the weekend to be together and enjoy Heavenly Father's AMAZING universe.

puzzling

Last week the kids got ambitious and broke out the 1000 piece periodic table puzzle. We worked steadily on it for a whole week until we all gave up except Diana who doggedly finally figured out the all black areas and the random false edge pieces that had us totally confused. Hooray for Diana and never giving up!

working for what you want

Sarah NEEDED an umbrella but I would not buy her one willy nilly so she took matters into her own hands, had a lemonade stand and raised the money.

We went to IKEA and got one. She was very happy.

She played with it for a day.

The next day a sibling broke it. Ah the fleeting joy of materialism!

grandpa McKay

50 years ago my Grandfather McKay passed away (my mom was 11) and we thought it would be nice to get together as a family and do a remembrance and so we did! We gathered at Uncle Cam's house and had a fantastic dinner of Grandpa's favorite foods (steak and apple pie) and then retired to the basement where we got several of the out of town family on Skype and each of the 5 kids took a turn and shared memories, stories, and history with the next two generations. I learned so much about my grandfather and his family. It was such a wonderful evening that we have decided to do one each quarter to help share, record and connect with our family! Hooray for Uncle Cameron's great ideas!

early morning swims

We did it! We took the plunge and joined the recreational swim team for the weeks we are here this summer. We start at 6 am with Diana, 7 am is Nora and Em and Isaac finishes us off at 8. For all it was so hard to get up for school, so far it has been a breeze getting up for swim (halleluiah!). It is extra wonderful because Maxwell and McKay are on the same team so Marie picks up Diana and there are COUSINS which make everything wonderful. Lastly we have the most amazing, wonderful, kind, kind, kind coach. Denise has coached Olympians and yet still lovingly coaches these kids through their strokes and never stops smiling. She has been a gift from heaven, literally.

We had our first meet on Saturday and the kids had a great time. We are not champ swimmers yet but all the kids have made huge improvements in all the strokes and swam each race strong and smiling. I was so proud of them. Between races there were snacks, games and cousins so pretty much perfect and much better than being at home cleaning bathrooms.

I was again so grateful for all the volunteers and coaches. Even the coaches from the "other" team were yelling and cheering for whoever was swimming a half length behind to finish (usually a Chase kid - seriously, we are so slow), but there they were all yelling and cheering and letting these kids know they were proud of them swimming their hardest and not giving up! Yep, rec swim team is my kind of sport!

end of school

The end of school was a bit of a limp to the finish but we made it. Mornings were HARD!

We did have a few last project in the last weeks that kept the kids engaged and mom ready for it to all end! Don't teachers know I already went to school??

Here is Nora's flamingo hair for Alice's Adventures with Idioms. We were quite proud of our improve hair creation.

  Ms. Graves added make up - huzzah!

The 6th grade had their medieval faire and Diana was assigned the seamstress guild. Thankfully her group did most of their work at school and Diana fit in her Medieval gown from a few Halloweens ago so I just made a surcoat and she was off.

All in all it was a good year at Jacobson, but as always we are glad for a break.