...here's what you missed

Our computer was broken you know...All the while we were just saving up all these great pictures.

Okay, take a deep breath and dive in!

Two weeks of our life in 5 minutes or less :)

Geocaching at the Riparian Preserve

Fountain Hills - Evan's birthday was spent here riding bikes, having a picnic and playing in the spraygrounds!

The pizza place...Buono's

Birthday presents from Grandma, Papa, Nicki and Tyler! He LOVES the books and the puzzle!

 

Proof that we ride our bikes even when it's 100 degrees! This was a 3.5 mile one-way trip from our house to the coolest park on the planet! Tumbleweed

Boys being...well, boys!

Another trip to the Riparian Preserve (read the sign Evan is standing by)

Feeding Getting bit by ducks...

Notice Evan's attire...this is very typical! He's either a "fixer guy" or a "fireman guy", depends on the day.

A gift from Aunt Connie. I actually think Evan wears them more than Caitlin!

So, remember that sweet, quiet little thing that used to be our daughter? She's still sweet but replace quiet with VERY loud, goofy and a definite attitude sense of who she is and what she wants and you've got the new and improved version of our little Caitie-bug!

Uh...where's the audio???

And...we're done!                      

Superstition Mountains, The Lost Dutchman Mine, Tortilla Flats and a few Geocaches...

We had a busy day today. I picked up this week's veggie and fruit order from a local food coop (a great way to get quality, organic produce for about half the cost of buying it at the store!) and then we packed up the kids with lunch and headed to the Superstition Mountains.

Danny and I made this same trip when we were here visiting Tracy 4 years ago. Oddly enough it was Sept 22nd of 2004! Just a few days earlier than this time...and of course two kids lighter!

Here is a picture of us then...Sept 22, 2004 

And of Superstition...the same morning

And now...

You'll notice we're not actually in the picture this time! That's what happens when you have kids - it's all or none - either one of us, with child(ren), or just some scenery as we are chasing one of them down!

Our first stop was actually the Goldfield Mine Ghost Town. When were here in 2004 this place was literally a Ghost Town. Today there were quite a few people around.

The Ghost Town is a replica on the site of a mining town that went bust several times in the late 1800's and early 1900's. (Read more)

We explored a bit and took a train ride, which Evan LOVED!

 

The photo above is actually from the train on the back side of the ghost town.

Next we headed to Canyon Lake and Tortilla Flats

Again, here are the photos from 2004

Canyon Lake (above)

Tortilla Flats Restaurant. I'm incriminating myself here but - along with 50k+ other people so...

When you visit the restaurant at Tortilla Flats you have to add a dollar bill to the wall. You can deface it any way you choose and they post them up at the end of each day. We tried to find ours today but it's impossible! We should have taken a photo of the inside.

Today's visit to Canyon Lake

 

Then we headed to find some geocaches (with not much luck). Evan had our only actual find of the day despite a lot of effort!

Danny went out for several but only ended up with cactus needles in his arm and leg! He discovered the legendary "jumping cactus" and now knows why they call it that!

Here I am trying to find one...we discovered later that it's actually in a crack in the rock - you have to crawl down inside the crack and I guess we weren't feeling that adventurous!

While I was climbing around on these rocks a Merchant Marine stopped to ask for a jump for his Harley...we got to be good Samaritans and he was VERY happy to not be leaving his bike on the side of the road.

There were lots of beautiful views along the way. Here just a few...

Danny and the kids at Tortilla Flats in front of the Lost Dutchman Mine (it's not really the mine!)

Danny and Caitlin eating at the restaurant

These are Ocotillos...we live just off Ocotillo Rd. This whole mountain was covered with them

  

We had a great time!

On the way home poor Caitlin was sick to her stomach...I think it was all the windy roads - a little bit carsick!

So, we spent the evening cleaning up the carseats!

We're Back!

So, so, sorry it's been such a long time since we posted anything. We have lots to catch up on.

I'm also going to update the slide show so be sure to check it out!

I'm finally getting caught up with our blog (BeCentsable)! It was a slow couple of weeks and I'm trying to make up for it now!

We've been busy with Preschool stuff (Adventures In Preschooling), too! Evan is picking up on his colors really quickly now!

We've also started two new bible studies. One is a Mom's bible study on Wednesday Mornings and the other is a toddler bible study on Friday mornings. Evan will be going to Sunday School for the first time tomorrow and I'm really nervous about it. I know he's going to be upset that we are leaving him and I feel bad for the poor teacher. The good news is she knows him from the church nursery and bible study so I HOPE that will help him enjoy himself!

Okay, okay, I'll stop...

You might have noticed that I've been playing around with the design of the blog a little. We lost a couple of things that I will put back up as soon as our computer is fixed (the slideshow of photos and the links to track the kids' geocoins!).

Sorry for all of the changes. I'll leave it alone for a while :)

Happy 3rd Birthday Evan!

Oh, we did so much for Evan's birthday already and it's still one day away!



I'm at Danny's office using his computer before the guys head to the Arizona Diamondbacks game this afternoon so I'm a little short on time but I wanted to post up some photos of our weekend so far.



We still have his cake to eat and family presents to open tomorrow afternoon!


Starting Friday, we have celebrated all weekend! We went to the Arizona Children's Museum (I'll post these later since they are on a different memory card and I'm running out of time FAST!


Here are some photos of him opening presents Saturday morning. After this we headed off to Fountain Hills (about 40 mins northeast) to see the world's tallest fountain, have a picnic lunch and let him ride around the lake!

The kids also played in the spraypad but I'll put thos pictures up in a separate post!

After a much needed nap, we went to have dinner at Buono's pizza! It's a tiny little place but it was a lot of fun and the pizza is awesome!! Evan has NO FEAR of spicy foods - which he absolutely gets from Danny...he ate 4 or 5 jalapenos while we were waiting for dinner and didn't even bat an eye. He was so quick I barely got photos!

Changes in our plans for the fall!

After MUCH consideration, three in-person visits and a whole lot of back and forth (not to mention several thousand prayers asking for help in making the best decision) we have decided NOT to enroll Evan in preschool this fall but rather do it at home!

Thanks to my lovely friend (and BeCentsAble partner) Chrissy, who used to be a preschool teacher, we have lesson plans for the full school year and best of all...we will be tracking his (and April's) progress at Adventures in Preschooling!

We (Chrissy and I) have discussed MANY times how there is so much we can do for our families if only the resources were easier to track down! So, viola! We are providing this resource for everyone! You'll notice a lot of the conversation is directed to other stay-at-home moms who might want to do this but just don't know where to start.

For you, our family and friends, we will also have pictures of the kiddos and some progress reports!

Now, since we won't be spending all that money on preschool, we're planning to enroll the kids in Gymboree! More on that next week!

Where on Earth??

I know, it's been a while since I posted anything...let me assure you it's NOT for a lack fo trying!

First, our camera quite working!! Thank goodness for Sam's club! We bough our lovelt Kodak digital camera there over 4 years ago and it was a great purchase! Sam's Club has the most amazing return policy. We took that camera back to the location here in Chandler and got a brand spankin' new one (waaaay better that the old one) for just $3 out of pocket and that's only because we purchased a new membership that cost $40.

So, after that fiasco, our computer quit! That's a nightmare since I do so much work on the PC. We are using Tracy's now but it's slow going and of course we can't download photos and all of our personal files are on our pc. Hopefully it will be up and running in a few days.

Bear with us, we'll be back in time to post Evan's Birthday bash photos!