Christopher Creek

July 19-21 was the 8th annual Goodman Family Christopher Creek Campout.  We used to go there all the time as kids with Grandma and Grandpa Taylor.  Then the tradition disappeared and in 2005, it was resurrected.  We only missed last year due to bears in the area.  But this year was as great as ever.
We got there on Friday with rain threatening.  It held off so we could set up camp, the kids could play in the creek,  Joe could make his horseshoe tournament brackets and we could eat dinner.  But unfortunately by 7:00, it started raining.  It rained through most of the night.  We were all done playing and in our tents for the night, kinda a bummer.  But I have to remember, I live in AZ where there is very little moisture and anytime we get some, I have to be grateful.
Saturday morning started off with the best breakfast of the year, bacon and other goods cooked in bacon grease.  It was artery-clogging goodness!  Then soon, the rest of the family showed up.  Thank goodness for that, because Joe was getting all antsy to get the First Annual Goodman Family Co-Ed Horseshoe Tournament underway.  The tourney was set up on the back of a Caprisun box and was a double elimination tourney.  It was definitely the highlight of the campout.  Jeremy and I made it to the final 3 and were knocked out by the eventual champs, Matt and Kyley, when Kyley topped my 2 points with a ringer.  It hurt, but the sun came up just the same! :)  Then it was off to the water hole for the big kids and dads.  Poor Abby started to feel crummy and by the time they got back, she was full on down with strep throat.  She slept for most of the rest of the trip.
We got more rain, then it finally calmed down so we could go out to the campfire for a mean game of "I have never" and for Joe's ghost stories.  My favorite was the Ghost of Christopher Creek.  You know the one, when a boy named Christopher Von Schmootz was killed in the creek by a falling branch.  He died crying for help.  Now the Von Schmootz paid to have the creek named after him and he haunts it still today.  He calls for help, gradually leading you away from your campsite, "help, help"  until you are so far away you can't see anyone, then BOOO!  It was a Joe classic.  I think the funniest part of his stories is that Hannah believes every single one of them and asks millions of questions to better understand the story.
Can't wait for next year!

Thank you to Julie, Dyan and Matt for taking pics.  I didn't pull out my camera even once.

  Claire straddling a log

 The four 5 year olds

 The boys at the water hole

Abby, Ella and Hannah at the water hole.

Yellowstone and other fabulous stops

Saturday June 29th our family headed out on our next adventure of our amazing summer of making dreams come true.  We headed up to Utah where we stayed with Jeremy's cousin Jon and and wife Julie Bridges.  They were fabulous hosts and made us feel so comfortable.  Sunday we headed to Salt Lake City and did Temple Square.  I wanted to hear the Mormon Tabernacle Choir do Music and the Spoken Word since it was a patriotic theme.  They didn't disappoint one bit.  But I do have to say that my favorite part of the production happened before the cameras were rolling.  They welcomed all the distinguished guests that were visiting from around the world.  They ended with a couple who lost their son in Afghanistan.  He was killed after a roadside bomb hit his team.  He wasn't hurt, so went in to help the others when another went off and killed him.  Truly a hero if you ask me.  The couple got a standing ovation and there was not one dry eye in the room (except for maybe Jake who swears he doesn't cry - ya right).  We spent the rest of the day touring the conference center, checking out the Tabernacle, playing on the lawn, going to the Visitor's Center and touring Brigham Young's home.  It was hot, but oh, so worth it.  I love the pioneers and early saints and all they did to bring the gospel to the world and all they endured.

Next stop, Bear Lake, Idaho.  After going there 4 years ago, we were excited to head back.  We had milkshakes and played in the water and the beach.  The water was quite warm and stayed shallow forever, so the kids could go out as far as they wanted.  Later in the day Jeremy rented a jet ski and everyone took turns on it.  Such a beautiful place.  Someday, I'm going to have a cabin there when I'm rich and a snow bird.

Then it was on to Wyoming.  We stayed in Jackson, WY and played for the day.  Jeremy, Dyan, Ryan, Jake, Abby, Hannah, Jack and Jay all went river rafting down the Snake River.  I stayed back with the 3 littles - Claire, Annie and Kate.  The rafters said it was probably the coolest part of the trip.  The views were amazing, the rapids fun and the river guide was pretty cool too from what they said.  Me and the littles enjoyed a day at the Jackson Children's Museum, we ate ice cream and listened to street performers sing in the square.  When everyone got back, we headed back to the square for some relaxing, football and people watching at it's best.  I might also move to Jackson.  I guess I have some decisions to make with the fortune I don't have. (Bottom left picture is at the Tetons)

The next morning we headed off to the Grand Tetons.  I won't call them what we called them all week since this is a pg rated blog, but it was something my dad originated.  They were beautiful.  We took a hike around Jenny Lake until we found a spot for the kids to jump because no trip is complete unless you find water and a rock or cliff to jump off.  The Tetons were incredible.  Their height and majesty were awe inspiring.

The last stop and the one we took the trip for, Yellowstone.  This was another place we've been wanting to see for a long, long time.  I'm so glad we made it there.  We saw a lot of animals.  Our favorites were the bears, but we also saw some elk, coyotes, osprey, an eagle, wolves and a TON of buffalo.  The bison were very rude and crossed the road at their own will, we even saw them walking down the middle of the road, luckily it was in the other lane so we weren't the ones backed up.  

Two stories about the animals that I thought were great from our trip.  First, after a long and tiring day and a lot of rain, our family decided to take one more drive to Lamar Valley, the best place for viewing animal life, but way out of the way.  The kids were hungry and tired and we were all a little on burnout mode.  There was nothing forever, just the usual buffalo, a huge herd of them in fact.  Well as we were leaving we saw a bunch of cars, which means something is stirring and worthy of stopping.  There was a grizzly bear out there somewhere.  We barely had time to see it when all of a sudden, the buffalo took off like a shot!  There were 3 wolves coming after them.  I've never seen a herd move so fast.  We'd catch glimpses of the wolves and then they finally disappeared.  I'm not sure if they were able to take one out or not or if the bison all got away, but it was cool to see hundreds of buffalo on the move.  Also, while we were there we saw a bald eagle which was also very cool.  

OK, Second story.  On our last and final stop in the park, we were stopped by the traffic and pulled over to see a grizzly eating on a hill.  The crowd grew to well over a hundred people.  Jeremy went in closer for a better picture and was kind of close,  I looked up and Hannah and Jake had followed him.  I wanted to scream at them to come back, but didn't want to scare the bear, so I just hoped Jeremy was keeping an eye on them.  Then a bison wandered onto the hill out of the woods.  It suddenly stopped and saw the bear and so it took off in a sprint away from it, down the mountain right toward the spectators.  Everyone of them took off sprinting toward their cars.  I was worried about Hannah until I saw Jeremy carrying her under his armpit.  Once I realized they were safe I giggled at how funny all the humans looked running away from a buffalo.  

Yellowstone had some of the best views I have ever seen.  This picture below if of a rainbow, Lamar Valley, Old Faithful and some waterfall, possibly the Rapid Roaring Falls that Yogi Bear and the gang went over and got caught on a tree on.  I was amazed at how much water runs through Yellowstone, especially coming from AZ where every creek bed and river bed is dry.

No trip is complete with the Ricedorff's unless we find some water to play in.  Most of the below pictures are from Lamar River.  We stopped there and swam and jumped off the cliff, skipped rocks and waited for a bear to get us (that didn't ever happen).  The bottom picture is of the Lower Falls.  And, yes, Claire, you did go on this trip with us.  I even got you to smile for a picture.

Here are some pictures of our favorite hot spots.  Top left/bottom Right is at Old Faithful.  It was pretty cool.  There were geysers all throughout the park and I've just gotta say, I'm glad the volcano under Yellowstone didn't blow while we were there!  Top Right is at Morning Glory.  The water in that is super hot.  Apparently it used to be more vibrantly colored but there is litter in there clogging up the hole dulling the colors, shameful!  Bottom Left is our family at the Lower Falls in the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone.  They were beautiful and oh so white.

So that's it for our big summer vacation.  It was long and I think we were all tired of being in the car, but I'd do it again for sure.  

I'm so grateful for this beautiful Earth we live on.  I know when I see these things that God definitely had an imagination when he created this world.  

Havasupai

I think the theme of this summer could very well be "The summer of dream vacations" or the "Summer to see God's beautiful creations."  Either title would be appropriate.  After 14 years of being married and 37 years of being and AZ resident - give or take a few years away for school- We finally made our vacation dreams come true, except for Machu Piccu, of course.   Our first vacation of the summer and the title of this post was to Havasupai.  We had heard from everyone how great it was, how beautiful it was...  Then we heard about the flood a few years ago that changed the landscape a bit and rerouted the water and some of the falls.  People who went before and after would say, "Oh, its just different."  Well since we had nothing to compare it to, we couldn't be disapppointed.
After a lot of discussion, we finally decided to allow Hannah to join our trip.  She could very well be the toughest 7 year old I know, except for her fear of Joe's ghost stories.
So, the trip was set, half the original group dropped out leaving a smaller, but super fun group of family to go with, namely - Jeremy, me, Jake, Abby, Hannah, Ty, Dyan, Jack, Matt, Joe, Cassie, Koe, Devon and CJ.  The falls were about as amazing a sight as I've ever seen.  The water was absolutely crystal blue and green.  The hikes were rugged, especially coming out in the heat of the day with little kids,  The weather was nice and warm making the water that much more refreshing (well, cold at times).  I overcame my fear of heights and climbed the face of a cliff to jump in the water.
So here are a few of the hilarious and super awesome highlights of the trip.

• The ride up with Joe scaring the kids with his "Blood River" story, making everyone in the car jump about a mile
• The hike down where Joe scared Hannah with his Legend of the Hualapai Wolfman.  The Hualapai Wolfman was a little Indian boy whose family was killed by the white man.  He was then raised by wolves until they were killed by wolves when he was grown.  He now haunts all white people, especially the whitest of them all - blond hair, blue-eyed people.  Hannah found the other whitest person on the trip, Dyan, and clung tight to her the rest of the hike.  Joe, that story could indeed become legendary.
• Koe and CJ making "new friends", with the tripped out Tiffany that invited them to be devil worshippers with her and telling them they were "making her hot"  We're still quoting that story all the time.
• Hiking down to Mooney Falls.  One of the most spectacular sights ever!  The falls were so powerful you didn't have to go in very far to get soaked.  It was well worth the fear of dying to get down there.  It was extremely steep and you got down there by hanging on to chains, stakes and climbing ladders straight down.
• Climbing the cliff at Havasu Falls and jumping in.  10 years ago, I would never have dreamed of doing something that daring.
• Going to Navajo falls and jumping off the top of the waterfall.  Frightening, but exhilarating at the same time.  I'm so proud of my girls for doing it, more than once even!
• Then going up river a ways to the lesser visited area.  I don't remember what it was called, but the water was green and clear with the bottom of the water lined with green vines.  We rode the current tubes and enjoyed some time with the locals.
• Eating breakfast burritos in the village.  Quite possibly the best $8 I've ever spent.  The village was not at all what I expected, much larger with homes all over the place and even an LDS church.  
• Koe distracting the girls on the hike out.  We greeted every passerby with "g'day mate" for a while then we pretended to be cowboys with "howdy"  Then it turned into a competition to see who could get passerby's to greet them with the same greeting they gave them.  She also told us stories of "surprise poops" and when she peed her pants in front of a cute boy.  She had us all rolling and the kids distracted during the worst part of the hike.  Thanks Koe!!!

So here are some pictures of the trip.  I don't think they do it justice how amazingly gorgeous it was, but here goes anyway...

These are taken at Mooney Falls.  I don't have a picture in the collage of the terrifying climb down, but let's just say it was awful!

These pictures were taken at Navajo Falls.  I don't have a picture of Abby jumping (she went after the camera battery died), but she was horrified and was a champ to jump.  She took a long time to get the courage, but she succeeded.  Jake, Jack and Ty were fearless and jumped a ton.

These pictures were taken at Havasu Falls.  This is where we spent the most time.  The kids did tricks off the small fall and this is where I first got the courage to climb the cliff and jump.

And just a few more pictures, including a picture I was able to find of the Climb in and out to Mooney Falls. 

1.Hannah and Abby 2. Jack, Abby and Jake 3.  Jeremy at Havasu Falls 4.  Mooney Falls climb  5.  Chillin' at Havasu Falls - Karrie, Matt and Dyan  6.  Jake jumping at Havasu Falls

p.s.  for the record, I hate that I'm so computer illiterate.  These collages took me hours to figure out and I'm about to throw my computer out the window.  Hopefully I get better and the collages come faster, or I may never blog again!

Hiatus

I've heard that if you stop something for a while and then try to restart it, you can become discouraged trying to play catch up.  Like if you don't pay your tithing for years then feel like you have to try to catch up for all those lost months of not paying it, then you can get to feeling very discouraged and overwhelmed. I've been told that you just need to start today, move forward and not look back at all the lost months, just begin anew.  Well, I believe the same thing goes for blogging or journal writing.  Though I don't want the past months lost forever, I feel like if I keep putting it off because the task is getting bigger and bigger I will never get back on the horse.  So here I am today vowing to start anew, with just a few highlights from the past few months.
First, We survived softball and baseball season.  I coached Hannah's team which was a treat. It was her first time playing softball and she did so well.  She got to where she could rip the ball pretty hard.  She was aggressive and fun to watch.  Abby played minor's and improved so much as the season went on.  She got stronger and more confident.  She decided to be a pitcher and made me play a lot of catch with her so she could work on her form.  She got to be pretty accurate and much faster.  Jake played his first year of Major's and his team was awesome.  They went undefeated and won the tournament of champions.  He was a starting infielder, batted second and got to where he could lay down a bunt anytime and get on.  He was the king of the infield single.  Annie and Claire were champion supporters.  The kids loved being at the ball park.  They knew we would be there nearly every night of the week and they all found friends they could count on being there too.

This is the only picture I have from this ball season.  I didn't order any packages and I forgot my camera all season.

Second, I ran my second ever race.  The Whiskey Row 10K.  I beat my goal of 60 min by running it in 55 min and change.  It was fun and a great challenge training for all the hills.  The whole family came out to support me.  Hannah, Abby and Jake all ran the 2 mile fun run.  The Browns were up - Kelli ran the half and her girls all ran the fun run too, so it was fun for my kids to have friends to run with.

That's it for this post.   I have all these amazing memories with my family and they're all sure to be lost or forgotten if I don't document them.  So wish me luck in my future blogging efforts.

11 Months Old

Claire is 11 months old today.  Time has been just flying by!  She is such a fun little baby.  Claire likes to talk.  She can say Uh-oh, Abby (but it sounds like Avvy), Daddy, and a lot of other loud words that get interpreted differently each time.    I love that Claire has 7 teeth.  She cut her first 3 bottom teeth together, then her poor gums suffered while her 4 top teeth came in.  And she's been standing pat there for a while. That 4th bottom tooth has no desire to join her others (I only had 3 bottom teeth too for a while).
Just last night she started to stand by herself.  She pulls up on something, then gets busy doing other things and doesn't realize she's not holding on anymore.  She figures it out when she gets all wobbly.  Its pretty cute to see such a little peanut be such a big girl.
Claire is still the joy of the whole family and even our ward. The kids fight over who gets to hold her at church and the YW fight over who gets to try to steal her and take her to class.  We have to veto it, cause she's kinda a distraction.
 I also love that she likes to share. Just say Aaahh, and she'll give you her pacifier, bottle, cheerios, spoon, anything, and it cracks her up.
Also, I learned last night that she doesn't like olives.  How do I know?  Well, I found every single olive slice under her high chair after dinner.  Then today when I tried again, she just smiled, flashed her dimples, but kept her lips tightly closed.
But my very very favorite thing about my little ClayBay is that no matter what she's doing, if I come lay on the floor anywhere in the same room, she'll light up and do a crawling sprint for me.  Then she climbs all over me and is about as content as can be.  I love you little Claire!

December

        This Christmas season was one of the best!  I'm not quite sure why -maybe it was that we didn't stress out with any big ticket presents (tramp or Wii that sort of thing), maybe it was the chill in the air all December, maybe it was the amazing Nativity play done by our primary, or maybe it was all the botched doorbell ditching (We were miserable at it this year, got kinda caught a few times, had a few kids trip, had treats stepped on... but the elfing was fun and the mishaps made it all the funnier).

        We began the month with a trip to Mesa for Jake's soccer tournament, Chet's first birthday party and to cap off the day a trip to see the play The Best Christmas Pageant Ever.  It was our second year going and it didn't disappoint.  The Herdman's are my favorite naughty family.

(The Platt's and Ricedorff's with a few of the Herdman's)

       We made another trip down to Mesa for the Platt family Christmas party.  The soups were rich and delicious, the company was fun, the pajamas were adorable, the nativity play was awesome and the icing on the cake is that every single Platt was there and we got a family snapshot (which I don't have downloaded yet).

 (The Platt grandkids with Grandma and Grandpa)

 (The Platt grandkids doing the Nativity)

       We even made time to make a gingerbread house.  It wasn't the prettiest house you ever saw, but it didn't matter because the candy was gobbled up by the next day.  

The Sunday before Christmas was beautiful. The singing was gorgeous, as was my family, all dolled up in new beautiful dresses.  Also, as mentioned before, the primary did a Nativity.  Abby was Mary, Jake was an innkeeper (I think), Hannah was a shepherd and Annie was an angel.  So cute!

(What a good looking family!)

(The kiddos in their Sunday best)      

 Christmas was fun at our house.  Christmas Eve was spent at home with the Hawkins and Sister Tieman.  We had ham and potatoes, decorated cookies for Santa and then said good-bye to our guests.  Then Jeremy read the Christmas story from Luke 2, I read Twas the Night Before Christmas and then it was off to bed.  

Christmas morning was a blur.  I had wrapped the kids gifts and labeled them with reindeer names so they couldn't snoop.  It worked.   They were all surprised and all came away with a good haul.  We hung out for the day and then headed down to Mesa for the Goodman Christmas party.  The white elephant exchange was great and the Mexican food was heavenly.  And the company was a lot of fun.  The next day was spent playing Blokus, doing a puzzle where I won top honors as MVP (most valuable puzzler), and hanging with the Ricedorff's, Goodman's and Chesley's.  

 (All the kids in their new garb - except Claire who didn't get any new clothes)

(The crew in the mess of Christmas morning)

(Claire snooping under the tree.  For the longest time there was just one present wrapped and it happened to be for her and she had it opened in a matter of minutes.  It sat ripped under the tree for most of December.)

It's been a while...

It's been way too long.  Life has been busy - soccer, Relief Society, my history class and 5 kiddos have really eaten up my time.  But today I vow to update, and use this as an excuse to post our new family pictures.  These are not necessarily in chronological order...

Halloween came and went.  We had Reyoldo (the soccer player), but to make it less like what Jake looks like everyday in his soccer gear, we made him a zombie.  We also had Effie Trinket from the Hunger Games.  I must say that Abby's costume was the best to put together.  Hannah was Katniss Everdeen from Hunger Games, but her costume didn't turn out quite how we wanted, but she was still awesome.  Annie was a little princess and sassy at that.  And finally we had our traditional baby pumpkin.  Claire hated the costume so bad that we didn't even get a pic with her little hat on.  Oh well.  The kids trick or treated hard and brought in quite a load.

   We went to Slide Rock during October break ( a few days after General Conference).  We wanted to see something we haven't gotten a chance to see or do before.  They kids swore that they'd go in the water and not be sissies.  And, lo and behold, they touched the water and were immediately turned off.  They were all good sports and went down the slide at least once, some even went twice, except Claire and I.  We held down the fort and stayed warm and dry.

On our hike out there was an older man struggling to hike out.  His daughter was helping him, but it was still too hard going up those rocks and steps.  Jeremy took notice and immediately started helping this woman help her dad out.  When the kids and I got out, Jake asked where Dad was and I told him what he was doing. Jake's response, "Dad observed then served!"  It melted my heart.  I was so proud that Jake had payed attention to the conference talks enough to quote one and proud that his dad is a living example of service to his kids.  Way to go boys!

Jeremy aced his Grand Canyon hike - day 1.  His cruised south to north.  He had enough in the tank to trek across that big hole the next day.  Plans changed for day 2 as he, Matt and my dad decided to extend the hike a bit due to the full moon and perfect weather (oh and my dad's dehydration issues).  They spent an extra night at the bottom of the Canyon admiring the gorgeous moon light reflecting off the canyon walls.  My dad got rehydrated and flown out and Jeremy and Matt finished the hike Sunday morning.  Really though, we're grateful that my dad is okay and very grateful for the priesthood power that Jeremy and Matt honor.

I have been cruising along quite busy.  My history class is a lot more time intensive than I thought.  But the work has been paying off as I'm currently getting a 98% in the class.  And my new calling as RS pres is very busy at times and not so much at others. I hear that once I finally get the hang of it I'll get released, so I'm trying really hard to figure things out.

Abby has become quite the little soccer player.  She is very technical and an great defender.  In fact she got to play goalie toward the end of the season and was so aggressive and reacted well.  I think only a few goals got scored on her.  She was selected to the All-star team for an end of the season game and now wants to play Select like her big brother Jake.  We'll have to think about that time committment before we decide.  She is also cruising through her reading levels and I'm so proud of her.

A few Sundays ago, Hannah was asking me questions "How do yous spell Jesus?  How do you spell church?"  Stuff like that.  I didn't think much of it until she showed me what she had written.  I'm so glad I took a picture of it because for the life of me, I can't find it in any of the notebooks kicking around the house.  I'm proud of her little testimony and I hope I can be so bold as to proclaim my love of Christ to those around me.

After a few years of not growing, we finally got Annie diagnosed.  She has hypothyroidism or Hashimoto's.  Her poor little thyroid was just not working right.  Her levels that should have been around the 1-5 range were about 1000.  Her other number should have been around 4 and it was at 1.6.  One is the T4 the other is TSH, and I can't remember which is which.  She is now on a little pill for the rest of her life and she should start growing again.  Her endocrinologist said that as far as autoimmune diseases, that is the one you want.  We'll take it and get her better now!  It's funny because I always tell my kids that they can't grow or get any older and that they have to stay little.  I take that back.  I'll give anything to see her get bigger!

Sweet little Claire is growing way too fast (though I don't want her to stop, I just want time to freeze for a while).  I swear I just had her.  She is the joy of our entire family.  She has begun to crawl and nothing is safe anymore, especially since everything goes straight to her mouth.  She has also learned to pull up on things and gets herself up and is stuck because she hasn't quite learned how to get down.  Ironically, we can't get her to sit for anything.  She stiffens up and either lays down or stands up.  She simply doesn't want to sit.  She is the busiest little girl I have ever seen.  She is a little obsessed with her hands.  We tease her that she's either milking cows or conducting music all the time.  The kids all fight over who gets to hold her and I don't blame them.  Sometimes I throw around my motherly authority and take her for myself.  

So that is our family in a nutshell lately.  And I vow now to update more regularly (well maybe after my class ends).

Happy Thanksgiving! I have so much to be thankful for!