Fun times in Pinetop

Schools out and the next day we are gone. Can't wait to get out of town...can't wait to do nothing! Nothing planned that is. It was so great. Bike rides, dutch oven dinners in the mountains, catching crawdads, talent shows, dance-offs, fixing beds to sleep out in the hammocks, ice cream cones at McD's, going to the movies and lots of card games! It was so fun to spend time with cousins and grandma and grandpa! And of course - time with our great friends the Shumways! What a great end to the school year!

Ash - dancin at the Dbacks game

Love it when the studio sells the kids on the idea before it gets home to mom...$150 and tons of rhinestones later we are dancing at the dbacks game! When you see the smiles - it makes it worth it. (I think.)

It has become tradition...

to eat Spaghetti with anything but a fork! If the kids see that Spaghetti is for dinner, they run to the utensil drawer to find what they think will be the hardest to eat with! Dad always gets the winner...he is a good sport. We tried it out on some friends the other night and they thought we were nuts...We kinda are. We try to keep life fun!

It's recital time...

April and May start filling up with recitals/programs and all the other end of the year parties that need to happen before Summer. We started off with Callie's piano recital. She finished her 3rd year of Let's Play Music with Ms. Jenny. She wrote her own song for the performance. It was named "Dancing Girl." Now we start private lessons...One more thing to practice!

Mother's Day programs

Two Mother's Day programs this year...I loved them both! Thanks girls for making me feel so SPECIAL!!!

Jax will do about anything for $...

...even learn the unicycle! Greg promised $50 when he can go from one end of the driveway to the other. (We have a very long driveway) He is getting sooooo close...

We start holding on to the trash to get balance...

...halfway there!

Back to our roots...

I love learning about family history. One thing we have tried to do on Sunday afternoons is learn more about our grandparents and great grandparents. We have wonderful books on so many of them thanks to our parents. We love them and love reading and feeling like we are getting to know them. Life was so simple - yet so tough for many of them. Well this past weekend we took a trip to learn about Grandpa Roc's family. Grandpa was from a small town on the Arizona/New Mexico border called Duncan, AZ. We packed up our little family (smiles and all - especially from Ashlynn), took Grandpa with us and were on our way to meet up with over 100 family members - all descendants of Tom and Annie Arnett. We had arranged a small bed and breakfast for our stay. It looked a little better on the website - when we arrived, there were goats, chickens and cats roaming the grounds. A little uneasy at first - but once your asleep - all is forgotten. That is until the train rolled through town at 4:30 am and awoke us all! We were glad to have a bed while the others all stayed together in a large church house - now used for reunions. The group gathered together at this church house for dinner. We had a little program that evening with memories from Aunt Doris - the only remaining child of Tom and Annie, and then the next morning was breakfast and a tour of Grandpa's childhood. The tour was wonderful...so many memories were brought up for the cousins that brought on many tears and laughter! I was so glad my children were there to be a part of it. Grandpa does not think he will ever get back so I am so glad we took the opportunity to go and see this and have him as our personal tour guide! It made him happy to have us there! Here are a few pictures of what we saw!

Aunt Doris giving memories at the cemetary where Tom and Annie are buried.

Grandpas second home is now the home to several animals...goats, pigs, chickens, etc...
Grandpa and Greg by his 2nd home.
Visiting Franklin Cemetary.

Annie by the grave of her Great Great Grandmother - who she is named after.

Grandpas first home - where he was born - now a pile of bricks!

Schoolhouse that Grandpa went to through 2nd grade.

Duncan High School

The cooks! Uncle Spence and Uncle Chet! The food was awesome!!!

Our bed and Breakfast!

Our housemate! YIKES!!!