Playing in Payson!

Labor Day weekend snuck up on us this year and we didn't really have time to get a campout planned as we had hoped. We instead settled for a day trip to Payson and had an absolute blast (being able to return to a shower and comfortable bed at the end of it all was a bonus!). We hit the road at 7 am, car packed and ready for a day of adventure. What an adventure we had! Brayden couldn't stop exclaiming about the fact that "we're at a real cave, I've always wanted to explore a cave, I can't believe we are at a cave". The "cave" he was talking about was Tonto Natural Bridge our first stop of the day. It is truly an astounding natural wonder. We enjoyed a short hike down, the kids got down without skipping a beat, just the kind of hike we like. Once we got down there the boys could hardly be constrained and were filled with pure glee when Junior took them under the bridge to explore. It was really wet and slippery so I decided it would be best to stay back with the baby rather then risking a fall with him strapped to me (falling is something I do well). Kalei walked about 5 feet off the path and decided it was a little too treacherous for her so she hung back with me. We made good friends with the park ranger that was down supervising and enjoyed exploring around us.
Standing on top of the bridge

Hiking down. Brayden and Tavita were so excited we had to stop them from running out of fear of them going over the cliff.

As usual, Taiven was sooo good and just enjoyed going along for the ride

Making the final trek to get to the bridge. It was breathtaking!

Getting ready to go in

The boys had tons of fun exploring. They saw all sorts of caves and even bats!

Family picture (and yes, Kalei pulls this face for EVERY picture)

Kalei's little friend

I told her not to make a silly face this time, that I wanted a nice picture. So she craddled her face in her hands.

Our little fish going out for a swim

Our family of "warriors" (so named by another dad that was amazed at our fearles kids swimming all over the place and cannonballing off the cliffs while all the other swimmers were a little hesitant to do much of anything)

I just can't get over this cute little face!

Kings of the Rock!

Self portrait of one handsome fella!

Daddy can't resist her big brown eyes so he took her swimming despite the fact that meant having to walk back up in soaking wet shoes (we brought water shoes for the kids, forgot ours!)

Kalei doing her "cliff" jumping!

Brayden mid jump (I didn't get the rock he jumped off of, but it's about as hich as the one behind him) Pretty brave for a little guy!

That splash was my attempt to get Tavita jumping off the same cliff. I was eiteher to slow or too quick to get a good picture. But they were very brave!

May not look too comfortable, but he was snoring the last leg of the trip!

Enjoying a yummy picnic after a good hike. The kids had a lot of fun playing in the little creeks that were around as well as picking the giant reeds.

After the hike we headed into Pine, grabbed a banana split and some HEAVENLY fudge from the Fudge Factory. Then we walked down to the Honey Stand to get some local, raw honey, some honey straws and the yummiest peach whipped honey ever!

The GIANT beetle Brayden found on our walk

After filling up on enough sweets to last us a lifetime we headed over to the fish hatchery. The kids couldn't stop squealing and screeching in awe of all the fish that they saw. The fish down at the bottom were just about ready to be released into the lakes and they got progressively smaller as we made our way up to the visitor center.

Junior thought it was hillarious to tell the kids to look closely at the water then through a piece of fish food right next to them at watch the fish jump up at their faces. It was pretty funny every time and the kids fell for it every time and would jump up screaming.

Playing in a littel creek looking at the fish and searching for crawdads.

We ended the day at a beautiful park with a giant lake, super soft grass, big hills and a killer playground. The kids were in heaven! Taiven and I had a nice heart to heart on the finer things of life!

The rolled and rolled and rolled! (pay no mind to the random ice blocker that accidentally side busted into the picture)

All the rolling made for a few collisions!

Finsih the day with some yummy Mexican food and it was a trip for the record books! It was a wonderful day and we loved getting out and enjoying the beautiful state we live in!

Park Fun

We have one thing on our to-do list this Labor Day weekend....PLAY! We kicked off the weekend Friday by going to a neighborhood splashpad/park. One thing AZ does well around here are splashpads, and they are in abundant supply. This particular one was a lot of fun with a great playground, only one other little boy was there playing and he left shortly after we got there so they had it all to themselves. The downside, the bums love the park a lot too, we had to keep an extra close eye on the kiddos. It was a little hard to enjoy ourselves while listening to a couple having a shouting match swearing up a storm. Luckily the kids were having so much fun they were totally oblivious so Junior and I just ignored it best we could and had a good

time laughing at the kids playing.

Brayden having fun in the twirly whirly seat

Another twirly whirly toy!

 Splash Pad Fun!

 Taiven wasn't sure what to make of it. He kept grabbing at the water trying to catch it.

 Someone please tell me what to do with a child who has a public urination problem!

 Loving having free reign of the whole place!

 Whose bucket will tip first????

 Hard to see, but these guns shot with some serious power, the kids were loving playing fireman!

 Their sandcastle/tunnel they proudly built.

 Since starting school Brayden and Tavita have learned the tried and true tradition of leaping from the swings while at their pinnacle of height. Sadly, Brayden didn't score a 10 on his landing!

We then ended the night with a fun movie night and early bed so we could be up for our fun trip to Payson the next day.

Brayden turns 7!!!

Will someone please tell me when I became old enough to have a 7 year old! I keep telling him to slow down and he won't. He is very quickly gaining on me as far as height goes and I'm pretty sure he already has in strength. It's a good thing he's such a good kid because I don't think I could physically make him do anything! Brayden is my right hand man! I can count on him to help me with just about anything around the house. He full on taught himself how to change Taiven's diaper and has done so on many occasions. I'm not just talking about wet ones either. One day (while still in Utah so Taiven was still very little) Brayden came down with a dirty diaper in hand to take out to the trash. I asked him where he got in from and he nonchalantly replied "I just changed Taiven's diaper" I ran upstairs expecting a mess but there lay Taiven clean, diapered and happy as a clam!

Brayden is a wonderful friend to all and very quick to make people feel comfortable around him. He views everyone as a lifelong friend and magically skips the "we just met, not sure how to act around each other" phase and goes straight into the running around screaming, having the time of their life phase.

Brayden tries very hard in school and his teachers love having him in class. Last week he was Table Captain in his class and this week he was Teachers Helper. He took both roles very seriously and loved every minute of it!

For his birthday dinner he chose to go to Organ Stop Pizza. We of course forgot our camera and my phone so we had no way of taking any pictures. The kids absolutely loved it though and had a great time get down to the music as it blasted from all around them.

Brayden has been saying he wants to learn more sports and spend more time playing with us. So for his birthday we got him some sporting equipment and a promise of many family trips to the park to put them to use (if only it would cool down enough to do so! We have had some fun batting practice in our backyard though). Junior also took him for a special date to Gameworks, the ultimate arcade experience. Our little gamer of a 7 year old was in absolute heaven!

Brayden was a little worried for his birthday this year as his birthday was on the 1st day of school and there aren't too many kids in the ward. He was worried he wouldn't have anyone to invite to his party. In the end we had a great group of kids and Brayden declared it was one of his best birthday's ever!

He specifically chose for us to make this cake because he wanted an excuse to by Megatron and Optimus Prime! He sat there drooling over them for 2 weeks until the big day finally came to open them, then he just stared at his cake dying to rip them off and play with them

We did let him arrange them in battle mode.

As his friend first arrived the practiced transforming by transforming eachother into mummies.

Then they had to knock over the decepticons, but the decepticons had immobilized their arms so the could only fight with their heads.

Next they had to fish through the murky waters, find their color energon crystal, run and sit on it in order to absorb the energy.

Some were a little put out to have this dainty, very unrushed tranformer on their team!

Everyone ran their hardest and absorbed a lot of energy.

Next they had to battle through several decepticons to ice Megatron in order to ensure he stayed frozen at the bottom of Hoover dam. First they had to take out some deceptions in car form. They had to limbo under lasers (streams of water) the decepticons were shooting at them. Then they had to bomb barricade. Grab the ice, slip and slide to the Hoover Dam and freeze Megatron. I sat back and watched the 100 water balloons I rubbed my finger raw tying disappear in 3 minutes flat! Oh well!

They had to complete their final mission by taking the Matrix back from the deceptions, After a long journey they were elated to finally find the matirx but then dumbfounded as to how they would ever get it down.

They put their heads together, used some teamwork and got it down. Inside they found energon crystals to keep around their necks for sustained energy and robot arms to make them true robots. Here's most of the party crew with their crystals and arms!

We didn't get very good pictures because it was a little chaotic, but each of the kids made their own pizzas. We had some very creative pizzas.

While the pizza baked, we sang happy birthday to Optimus Prime

While the pizza baked, we sang Happy Birthday to Optimus Prime

He transformed into Brayden so he could blow the candles out

 We also opened presents. Man did these guys know Brayden well. He was in Transformer/Lego heaven!

Then the kids gorged themselves on pizza, watermelon. soda, and cake while watching the original Transformer cartoons. And as always, just as the sugar rush kicked in we sent them home to their parents (at 8 o'clock at night and a dare to any parent to get their kid to actually go to sleep!)

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All about Brayden:

Height: 4 ft 3 inches (95th %)

Weight: 61lbs 95th%)

What is your favorite color? red

What is your favorite toy? legos
What is your favorite fruit? strawberries
What is your favorite tv show? Transformers
What is your favorite thing to eat for lunch? Mac and Cheese
What is your favorite game? Transformers
What is your favorite snack? green smoothies
What is your favorite animal? Cheetah
What is your favorite song? This is Halloween
What is your favorite book? Chronicles of Narnia
Who is your best friend? Colton Andreas, Isaiah Fa, Carson Shorts, Jeremy Hall
What is your favorite cereal? Captain Crunch
What is your favorite thing to do outside? Swing
What is your favorite drink? Root Beer
What is your favorite holiday? Christmas
What do you like to take to bed with you at night? My cheetah
What is your favorite thing to eat for breakfast? Soaked Oatmeal Squares
What do you want for dinner on your birthday? Chicken and Rice
What do you want to be when you grow up? Palentologist