Erin on the Tile

It seems that we have always taken a picture of the first time that each kid scooted off the carpet onto the tile. Well, it was finally Erin's turn. She didn't make it far off the carpet, but she did finally touch the tile. It took a little encouragement by placing her plug just out reach, but here's the proof that she finally made it.

Climbing

I am going to make an effort to try and keep current on the blog.

This past Saturday I had the opportunity to go climbing with some good friends. We went to an area that had just recently been opened and no one in our group had been to before. The weather was perfect and it was a great day. Michelle was great to let me go and have a good time. She took the kids to go see Shrek the Fourth while I was out playing. I don't think she had as much fun as I did. Meagan was scared by the movie and so the two of them spent a lot of time in the hallway outside the theater.

This is me struggling to get up a route that is much harder than my current ability.
This is Rik...

...and this is Ryan.

I would take a day out climbing with these guys over most other things that I have to deal with. They are patient with my while I am trying to learn and they make for an enjoyable day. Ryan's wife was also with us, but I didn't get a picture of her.

Ride 'Em Cowgirl

I am not sure exactly what the kids were doing here, but they were being creative.

Kindergarten Graduation

Tyler graduated from kindergarten. Some might call it celebrating mediocrity (name that movie), especially when you see how the kids spelt kindergarten on the board.

100,000 Miles

This probably isn't blog worthy, but as you can tell, I am updating with everything that has happened in the last several months. I went climbing with a friend and when we stopped to park I looked at the odometer of the truck and it was exactly 100000 miles. I just happened to have my camera (in a hope that I would take some climbing pictures, but didn't) so I took a picture. The truck is now almost 8 and half years old. It has served me well so far. Let's see how many more miles I can get out of it.

Gila Valley Temple

In May, The Gila Valley Temple was dedicated. It is near Safford which is about 2 hrs and 15 min from our house. We met my sister and two of her boys there for the Open House in early May. The temple was decorated very nicely inside. The attention to detail was obvious. It was smaller than I thought it would be. It was much smaller than the meeting house that they built next to it. For size reference, the building next to the temple is the same floorplan as the building we meet in and the building across the street from Grandma and Grandpa. It was a good experience to take the kids through the open house and talk with them about the importance of temples.

President Kimball was from Safford. Supposedly one of these two houses (or maybe both, they are next door to each other) was his house. There is a marker at the church building next door, but it didn't indicate which house was his.

When we left Safford, after having a picnic lunch at a part with my sister, Tyler and I went to the Father's and Son's outing. I had driven the truck half way to Safford and left it in a Wal-Mart parking lot and finished the drive with Michelle and the kids. When we got back to the Wal-Mart, Michelle and the girls continued on the freeway and Tyler and I went and spent the night next to a dry wash in the desert. The only saving grace was that because of the wash there were lots of trees. Tyler had a great time playing with friends and sleeping in the tent.

Catalina State Park

This spring before it got too hot, and while there were still some wildflowers blooming, we took the kids for a hike in Catalina State Park. We did a loop trail that ended up being along the creek for about half of the hike. There were several places that we had to cross the creek. The kids eventually gave up on trying to keep their feet dry and walked around with "squishity" feet. There are places where the desert really can be beautiful.