February Goes Out with a bang

Early Saturday morning U3 headed out to Peppersauce cave. I was really excited because I had never been before - I have never been to any cave that didn't have a tour guide so this was a completely new experience for me. We met outside the cave and broke up into smaller groups, my group included Nikki, Beth, Deanna, Danielle and Shaun.

We met up with a bunch of other groups as we went along, in this chamber everyone smiled while I took a picture. Notice the nice graffiti - though in most cases it was actually helpful markings.

Our group had a GREAT time - we stopped and took pictures - stopped to wait for Shaun to reappear for random exploring and we stopped a lot because most places we went you had to go one at a time and it took a little bit to wiggle through some of the tight squeezes.

Danielle flattens against a rock as we moved through this hallway-like slat (which compared with the other places we went was wide and open.) Beth hangs up-side-down for a picture (even though it looks like she is sitting), and Shaun disappears down a hole that he found - and we all follow! (surprising I know.)

This is Nikki checking out the smallest hole we went through and then her feet as she makes her way through. This one was a both arms in front - head first - squeeze that I am surprised I made it through (mentally and physically)- but we had fun taking pictures and didn't think about it and were completely fine.


This hole was the perfect picture pose - we looked like we were disappearing down a earthworm tunnel - surprisingly this one was the least of the worries.

As we were making our way out of the lower part of the cave we had to stop and wait while everyone else climbed one at a time out with the rope. We used our time wisely and took pictures of course!

Our group out of the cave and really dirty as you can see - but it was FUN!

Right before our BBQ we posed for a picture in our cave grubs - then we ate hamburgers and hot dogs - chips and veggies! This has to go down as one of the best ward activities ever!

BUT even better was that within an hour of getting home - after a rush through the shower - I was back out the door this time to the Mesa Temple - where we did baptisms. It was amazing the difference in spirit and cleanliness of these activities but well worth it. The Temple is so clean, bright and peaceful, the caves were dark and crazy(a good kind of crazy - but still crazy).

After doing baptisms we posed for a picture at the visitors center. Then the rest of this group drove back to Tucson, while I spent the night at Tim and Rosa's. We talked about our crazy childhood and I think Rosa might be second guessing the family she married into - Just Kidding - but it was fun to reminisce. Now I am back in Tucson, ready for a new week!

Amanda Inspired!

Okay so Amanda totally inspired me to check out my phone, but I really don't take very many pictures with it, not unless I need shopping advice or something like that - what I do happen to use my phone camera for, because I don't have one on my regular camera, is the video function. So here for your viewing pleasure are some of my favorite videos! Just note that my camera on my phone isn't the best.

Okay so right after Christmas I was at Daniel and Amanda's and we were watching the boys play with their Christmas present - a guitar. They had us laughing so hard! With a camera tripod as a mic this is some of what they came up with.



Here you can see the forming of a boy band!

Earlier I posted Carson singing; "You are my sunshine" Well Kenz wanted to sing too - but this time Carson is trying to Video - the end of this one is hilarious as the phone is dropped when Kenz tries to grab it from Carson.

This one has to be one of my favorites - Sam does such a great job! Really cute!

Okay - one of the all time funniest things I have ever seen is when Melany Soloman asked Jaden to sing "Ring Around the Rosies" in opera - I was dying laughing so hard. I tried to get him to do it again but every time I videoed he would never follow through all the way - but still funny!

Crazy Tuesday!

So yesterday was a crazy day for me and just because it was so humiliatingly funny, I am going to share it with you! I got the call to substitute PE at an elementary school and gladly accepted - thinking it would be great fun - Little did I know...
The first class comes and everything goes well - the PE teacher was sick and so only had emergency plans - free choice for the students between basketball, hula hoop and jump rope. The next class comes in - a fourth grade class and they start out - everything going great - but they all seemed to want to play with the wall balls that I added to choice list - so I go into the office to grab a few more and when I flip on the light switch - the light doesn't go on - but an alarm does. Thinking I had somehow set off a security system I rush back out to see to the kids - they know what is going on - A fire drill. For a second I think oh - it is just a drill and had nothing to do with me. We get out to the fence with the rest of the school and I get my kids to wait quietly for a few minutes, but those few minutes stretch out...
Then I find out from one of the office staff that this isn't a drill - the alarm really did go off and it went off in the gym! So I am thinking "Was it me? Was it the kids when I turned my back?" Every person in the school was out side because of something that happened in the gym.
Well we wait the kids start getting wiggly and loud - the sun goes behind a ginormous cloud and the temperature dives down. One teacher asks what we do if it starts to rain (which the sky threatened to do) and we were told that we would just have to sit through it, we couldn't go in until it was cleared. I am sitting there - miserable - thinking that this is somehow all my fault, everyone is outside in the cold without jackets because of me. Then the fire department shows up, they have to inspect the gym. Great just great - not only did I interrupt the learning process of over 500 students but now I make the firemen come to a needless call. Another office assistant comes over to talk to me to ask what was going on, I tell her everything and ask what she thinks it is - Then they tell me that the gym has done this before! That it is notorious for setting the alarm off. Wouldn't that have been a nice bit of information to hand to me when this all started!
After about 30 minutes we finally get to go back inside and I have to send the fourth graders back to their class amid protests and grumblings that their PE time was wasted - But I totally agreed.
But wait - my day isn't over yet! The next class to come in is second grade. They start playing and after I give them instructions a maintenance worker comes in and says he needs half of the gym to bring in a forklift to check the alarm. I scoot all of the students to one side and just when they are getting back into playing instead of watching the fork lift a small girl hits her face with a basketball and gets a bloody nose - but doesn't tell me - she just bleeds on the gym floor and all over the girls bathroom. A little boy finds me and points out the blood - I tell him to watch it so no one steps in it and I go to investigate the bleeder - finding her in the bathroom I have another little boy escort her to the nurse - while I search for some disinfectant and gloves - which I can't locate anywhere. The maintenance worker calls for custodial help and I again shorten the playing area of the students - at this point I put them in lines and we have scooter races - this way I could control where they went. I also had to stop all girls from using the restroom. This went on until the end of the class, when the custodian came with all the right stuff and cleaned it up. The kids went back to class and I got a small break for lunch. The rest of the day went really well - only one accident in kindergarten and that was taken care of quickly. The last class of the day the teacher had to leave early for an emergency dentist appointment and I took over her class, trying to make sure they got to the right parents and buses, which is crazy with five year-olds.
So that was my crazy substituting story for now - most of my sub jobs are thankfully less complex - but I must say that I got to play girls against boys basketball in third grade today, a second grader helped me with my basketball finger spinning (which improved 120%), a kindergarten boy gave me a high-five every time I made a basket and I got to sing the same jump rope songs that I sang in my own first grade class! Life is really good - no matter what happens!

Living Legends

Okay so last Wednesday I went to Living Legends with a bunch of friends and let me tell you it was AMAZING! I don't usually promote things like this, but really I loved it. If you have any opportunity to go - GO. These BYU students from all over North and South America and every island around, dance folk and native dances. They have tons of energy and even more talent.

This dancer is from Hawaii, but when I asked him why he didn't go to BYU Hawaii, he said it was like five minutes from his house and he wanted to get away - lucky us that he did! I know the picture is terrible - background and flash - but I didn't want to take pictures during the performance, and for once it was nice to put my camera down and just watch and enjoy.

January 28 I flew to California! One of my favorite places in all the world - Scott and Beth's house! We had a great weekend! Friday morning the boys and I all got up early and made waffles, they are super helpers and they were very excited to eat them.

All weekend long we had to dodge, look for and buy Nerf gun bullets for all the guns the boys got for Christmas. Every member of the family has one, Sarah had to get one just so she could survive in the house! (She didn't have to get the one that shoots ten rounds, but she did just so she could one-up William - maybe we shouldn't focus on the fact that she is competing with a first-grader!)

Ryan is the sweetest, most handsome little baby boy and everyone loves him! Especially Thomas, who Beth has to watch every minute.

You can see why, the look in Thomas' eyes is enough to put you on guard, but the look on Ryan's face says even more.

Understandably Ryan spends a lot of time up high, and he is starting to get used to the constant holding.

Sarah amazingly found time to sew a new baby bag, I must say it is one of her best yet.

I spent a good portion of the time in CA taking pictures - not surprising I know. We did an extended photo shoot with all of the boys, together and separate, pictures of each of the Lamb grandchildren to update Mickey's wall, and infant pictures of Ryan, plus blessing pictures. I have posted a few of my favorites on my other blog. When we took all the boys to the park for pictures of them together this is what we were dealing with! William and Sam were all over the place.

Of course we had only taken a few pictures and William and Sam trip up and Sam face plants it into the pavement, skinning both hands and, of all things, his forehead, on the photo blog I had to photo shop his head in most of the pictures but you can see from this one that his head has a goose egg and he is not happy about the fact that the photo shoot continued.

Among our other obstacles we had Bossy and Brainy here, but we survived and some of the pictures after a few weeks of late night photo shoping came together nicely I would say.

February 1st we all got dressed up and ready for the blessing. Even with early church we found some time for some more pictures - I'm surprised that the boys would even smile for me at this point (the trip to the candy aisle at Food Maxx helped a lot!).

Ummm... Can we say "Family resemblance!"

The boys were ready and waiting so we took a few pictures with Grandpa and this one ended with a bang- I did not ask Dad to kneel - but he did and then when trying to get up he feel over - I guess the hip still needs more healing before we can do lunges dad - hope the shoulder wasn't bruised to badly.

A few quick family pictures out front.

Thomas, William and Sam all help to make it last a few minutes longer than necessary. William moon walked away and back, Sam, who is sick (probably has a headache from the day before), frowned in most of them, and as you can see Thomas had a Itch he just had to scratch. I also tried to photo shop the neighbors house, cars and trailers out - but I'm afraid I will have to do a better job later.

After the blessing we went to Mickey and Keith's for a lunch. Beth, Sarah and I stayed up the night before making banana cream pie, cherry cheese cake and potato casserole. All of that added with what everyone else brought made for a delicious dinner!

Dad, Aunt Louise and I all take time to pose with Ryan before we head out off to Arizona. We left at 3 pm and made it to Tim and Rosa's around midnight, where I crashed on the couch before heading out in the morning for the last leg of my journey back to Tucson.