Fly Me To The Moon!

Luna NM is the best place on earth! I love going there! Every year we have a couple family reunions there and I like to make at least one. I spent time there every summer camping out when I was a kid, and then when my grandparents moved back there I got to spend even more time there. I love it! I love it! I love it! The mountains are so beautiful, the grass is so green, the air is so fresh and the water is so pure. I would live there permanently if it wasn't so cut off from the rest of the world, but that's what makes it such a wonderful place to visit.



These are my grandparents, George and Lillie. They are two of the best people I'm ever likely to meet. They're like my own parents, I love them so much. They both grew up and met in Luna and even though life and kids took them away from it for a while, they always new it was home and so they came back (lucky for the rest of the family!).

Auralee and Taryn had a blast! They got to go outside whenever they wanted. Auralee ran around barefoot all week long! She was so free and happy! Taryn was introduced to a whole new world of animals. Shes never really been around animals, so in the beginning, she was terrified. There were dogs, cats, horses and pigs and after being around them for a week, she became quite comfortable around them and would even touch them.

Mechelle and I stayed for a week with our kids and one day, while the babies stayed at home, we took Auralee and Kaleb down to Trout Creek. Every year since I was a kid, there was water in the creek, but its been empty for the past few years Ive been there. It was so exciting to see, we had to take the kids. They had a blast "fishing", throwing rocks and just playing in the water. One of these pictures had a picture of Mechelle in it, but when I collaged it, it cut her off, sorry Mechelle.

We were there for two weekends for two separate reunions. One was during the 24th celebration. Luna does it big. They have a parade, a big lunch a rodeo and a dance, and people come from all over to attend. I didn't get any pictures of those things, but Ill try next year. My mom got to come one weekend and it was nice to see her. Auralee had spent 3 weeks with my parents and it was really convenient to get her back in Luna. I know some of you might be looking at that picture of Taryn and saying "poor child, look at all that hair in her cute little face. Why doesn't her mother do something about that?" Well Mechelle took pity on her and gave her bangs a cut. She looks much better now and can see where shes going :).

This is one of my favorite pictures EVER! I loved seeing my grandpa and my daughter just sittin' on the front porch talkin'. It made my heart feel good. That's what Luna does to you.

Failure or Learning Experience?

My garden failed :( I watered it almost every day and I thought I had prepared the soil enough, but the hot Arizona sun took some casualties.



I don't know what happened to my tomatoes. I'm sad about them the most. The ones I tried to eat were sour. Some of them split at the stem and two of my plants' leaves just shriveled up.


This strange thing happened to a lot of my tomatoes. This one wasn't even sitting on the ground, it was hanging deceivingly luscious, and then I turned it over. I didn't even try to eat those. I don't want to make myself sick.


Poor droopy tomato plants!

My corn never grew very high. The cobs started growing anyway and didn't turn out either.

The kernels were sporadic and strange looking. That made me sad too, I was looking forward to some good ole corn on the cob right out of my own back yard.

My jalapenos didn't grow very big. I was afraid they would be too hot, so I didn't even try them. I was really looking forward to some great salsa too.

When my parents were here, my mom helped me try to save my garden. We put some mulch down to try to protect the roots of my plants. It seemed to help my jalapenos because the plants grew twice as big and they are flowering again.

I'm not sure if it will help my tomatoes at all, but its worth a try.

I started my own mulch pile with my failed crops and other fruit and veggie remnants from my kitchen. I know it needs some help. I would love to find a mulch container for it and I need some manure to break it down, but Walmart is out. Hopefully next year will be better and Ill have learned from all my mistakes. Its just too bad that Ill have to wait another year to try again.

Recycle

I recycled today. That might sound funny to some of you because you do it all the time, but here in little old Coolidge, we don't have recycle pick up. Ive been wanting to do it for a while, but I never got around to finding where I could take it. Its been piling up out in my garage making my husband mad. Finally I looked up drop off locations on the Internet and I went and did it.

I found out some things, they don't take glass and you have to sort it yourself. I got pretty lazy with the ease of recycling in Mesa. Its really hot here, so if you don't have it presorted, you have to stand out in the sweltering heat and do it. Now I need to get different bins for everything so I don't have to do that.

Im a big kid now

My baby is getting so big! While auntie Nadine was here, she took care of Taryn's "mullet". It was her first official hair cut. She has had her bangs trimmed before, but never inches off the back. It wasn't as hard for me to let go as it was with Auralee, but I was still a little sad. Her hair isn't as curly as it used to be.

She did pretty good. She didn't cry at all, and she barely fussed. She also didn't wiggle as much as I thought she might. She was a little apprehensive, but it didn't take too long, so everything was alright.

They grow up so fast. Just this weekend we moved her into Auralee's room to the bottom bunk. She rolled off a couple times onto a pillow I put on the floor, so I put another one on the edge of the bed and she was fine the rest of the night. Auralee is gone to my moms house for three weeks, so we took this opportunity to get Taryn used to sleeping in a big girl bed. Man, it seems like just yesterday that we did the same thing with Auralee, and now she'll be starting kindergarten next month!

Karma

If you'll remember an earlier post, Auralee had put Taryn under the toy bin and in a dress up trunk and locked her in. This time Auralee was playing in the bin and Taryn took the opportunity to climb on top and rest a while :) Its not so fun when the shoe is on the other foot.

Water Babies

This summer my girls had swim lessons. Because of such a great price I was able to sign them up for two sessions. It was really great for them. At first they were both scared, but they gained a lot of confidence and ended up enjoying themselves.

It wasnt until the end of the four weeks that Auralee was brave enough to jump off the diving board. After some practice at grandmas and some bribery from her instructor, she finally did it. Then she wanted to do it over and over again. I am so proud of her!

For the first couple of weeks, Taryn clung to me with her head pressed into my neck. After a while I was able to get her to relax her arms and then later her legs. By the fourth week, she was doing the monky crawl (along the side of the pool) by herself and wanting our instructor more than me. It was great to see her improvement.


The first time Auralee went off the diving board, her instructor dropped her off, but after that she did it all by herself every time.

Taryn loved her instructor Amanda. They had lots of fun together. When Amanda asked Taryn if she wanted to go see mommy, Taryn would push me away and say "NO!" It was pretty funny.

My Brothers

A couple weeks ago, my brothers came to visit for a couple days. It was so fun to have them around. The visit was definitely too short. They both stayed a night at my house and we had lots of fun visiting and playing games.

We all got together at my house for dinner and took a few pictures. All of my siblings were there except Brianne. She was definitely missed. From L to R is Mechelle holding her new baby Raeleigh, Marc, Me, Alisha and Brant. As you can see, my brothers are mutants. Brant is 6'4" and Marc is 6'8". None of us girls are over 5'6". Crazy.

This is Marc with my girls. Hes a nuclear engineer. Most kids love Marc. Hes very funny and hes lots of fun to climb on and he can put kids up to the ceiling. Even so, he couldn't even get close to Taryn until about 10 min before he left, and she was still a little wary. Marc came without his wonderful wife Candace, sob. She had to work and didn't have the time off. Shes a special ed teacher specializing in autism.

My brother Brant is great. Hes one of the nicest guys you'll ever meet, and hes got male model looks and style to go along with it. Hes going to school to become a counselor for kids. He married one of the best girls out there. Nadine is fabulous and shes a great hairstylist. They have two of the cutest kids ever!

This is Eli. Hes very shy, but you can tell hes really smart! I think it runs in the family :)

This is LillyAnne. She is one of the prettiest babies Ive ever seen. She is so cuddly and she'll let anyone hold her.