Summer vs School

We’ve had a pretty nice summer around here. Most of our time away from home and the heat of July has been spent at the cabin. What a blast! We were so glad to get away for a week at 4th of July and a week in the end of July.  We loved being with the Andersons, Kings, and Mamama 4th of July week. McKay, James, and Ashlyn were so good at playing with and taking care of Jackson and Lacey. I thought it was so cute last week when we saw McKay (after not seeing them for 3 or 4 weeks) Lacey went right up to Kay kay and gave him a big hug. Kay Kay was like the best big brother we could ask for at the cabin. Jackson hasn’t quit talking about him and looks up to him so much! Jackson loved the fireworks and the rest of the week they played hard every day outside, inside, at the lake and anywhere else we happened to be.The last week of July we were there with Mamama and the Woods and we always have a blast with them. Jackson always loves to be with them and Lacey’s pretty sure he has the right idea about things like that! Jackson and Max played a lot, but its not just Max-donal that makes that family great. He loves all of them… Wizzy, Shakob, Daniol, Muri, Bacca, and of course Worwi. Lacey is just so happy to play with any and all of them that will play with her.What great cousins!

Lacey got very attached to her aunts there… Robyn and Lori. She could just cuddle them all day! Does it mean you’re a bad mom if your daughter would rather go to one of them instead of you for just about everything? I’ve come to the conclusion that it doesn’t… but sometimes I just wish she just loved me MORE! J/K ! I definitely appreciate my good sisters who are so sweet to my kids.  They love YOU!

We also had other visitors up at the cabin… a few deer, foxes, and BEARS! They mostly came at night to check out the garbage. I was glad I didn’t run into any of them…I guess I’m just not friendly like that.

This weekend, we got to attend Daniel’s baptism. Jackson loved it. It was great for us to talk to Jackson about the decisions you make when you decide to be baptized. He was so excited that he can be baptized just like Daniel, and I know that the examples of his sweet cousins are making a difference in his life!

In other news, Jackson started preschool today. He loved, and I mean LOVED, it! It was the highlight of his life! His excitement was overflowing as I picked him up today. We met his teacher yesterday and he was able to get familiar with the “school.” Today when I dropped him off, I took him up to the door and he rang the doorbell, he held my hand as we waited for someone to answer, I felt him get a little nervous. As they opened the door he snuggled closer to me at first in his shy little way and then one of the little girls from our ward yelled, “Jackson!” and came and gave him a big hug and took him in. Then he saw the other kids that he knew and he didn’t look back! It was perfect. Thanks to Keilah for the kind greeting! Sweet little Lacey was sad at first in the car. She wasn’t quite sure what was happening. Usually if Jackson gets out, she does too. We had a great time at the store together though. I think she’s going to get used to this one on one time with Mom! When we got home she was very happy to have my attention! She is such a sweet girl… she is so kind and loving and adores Jackson and she cracks us up!

Family Reunion

Last week was the Stubblefield Family Reunion in Soda Springs, CA. We had a lot of fun. It was a long drive but the kids did really well. Lacey slept most of the way there and back and Jackson was very pleasant and watch videos most of the time. It was great to spend some time with family and see some new faces. The place where my parents rent the cabins is beautiful. Here are some highlights from the reunion.

The day we left was our 4th anniversary so I decorated our car for the drive. We got a few honks and thumbs up along the way.

We had a rocket launching competition with Grandpa’s homemade air compressor launcher and our rocket went the highest (I estimate about 377 yards – hang time was 8.4 seconds).

On the July 4th we went out on the lake in a canoe with the Runyans and had a blast chasing a bald eagle all over. We managed to get a couple good shots of it. I thought it was fitting to have a sighting of the national bird on independence day.

Did I mention the lake was beautiful? Here is a shot I took one morning as I was eaten alive by mosquitos.

more photos

Washington DC

Sarah and I took Lacey with us to Washington DC the other week to attend Sarah’s brother Steve’s wedding. I had never been there before so it was a treat to be able to go and we stayed for a few days to see some of the sights. Sarah been about 10 years ago or more so it was good for her to see things again. Here is a run down of our trip.

Wednesday – arrived in DC, checked into hotel. Went to dinner with the group then took the metro to the national mall and walked to the Lincoln Memorial. Saw Washington monument, WW2 memorial, Vietnam memorial and Korean memorial. In the process I was reminded why dry heat is not so bad compared to humid heat.

Thursday – took tour to the top of the Washington monument with awesome view of the city. We then went to the national archive and saw the declaration of independence, constitution, and other founding documents. We then drove to the temple which is actually in Chevy Chase, MD. After the sealing we all drove down to VA to Mount Vernon where there was a small reception/dinner. We planned on taking a tour of the mansion and property but got there just as it was closing.

The next day, Friday, was a wild one. We were woken up early in the morning to sirens and alerts and a message from the hallway that there was a fire in the building (we were on the 15th floor) and that we need to leave through the stair wells. We quickly found out that the power was out and we had no water in our room. A little panicked we started to get shoes on and pull ourselves together. A littler later another voice comes on and tells us there is no fire and that the elevators were working on the backup generator. Phew, we don’t have to leave and can let Lacey sleep a little longer. We then had to get ready for our tour of the senate offices and capitol ( no shower mind you). We get to the elevator and it doesn’t work. The backup generator ran out of juice so we had to go down 15 floors in an unlit stairwell with only our cell phone back light to see where we were going. We make it down stairs to find out the metro was also not working so a few of us decided to walk to the senate offices. The rest of the group stayed to wait for my brother-in-law who was actually stuck on the elevator at the hotel when the power went out. We all made it to the tour covered in sweat from the long walk and half of us with no shower (come to find out, those on the 7th floor had water. it was just the upper floors that didn’t have water because there was an electric pump providing water for the upper floors). The tour was good and we even got to go into Senator Kyl’s Minority Whip office in the capitol.

After seeing the capitol I got to see the Supreme Court and Library of Congress. After lunch I went to the Holocaust Museum and Air and Space Museum. After dinner met up with everyone and went to the Marine barracks for their weekly concert/parade. That was a lot of fun

Saturday – we went to Arlington Cemetery (much bigger than I expected) and then I hurried to see the white house real quick before we had to catch our flight back to Phoenix. It was a busy and fun trip and we were glad to get back home to Jackson, who did very well with the babysitter.