Freedom!!

For me :)

Not for Anna (5th grade) and Jonathan (2nd grade) who were going back to school and Tyler who started Full-day Kindergarten. Brendon is in his last year at the junior high, and he goes to school earlier than the other kids this year, so we missed him for our picture. I'm sure he's so sad about that.

The kids are all loving school and their teachers this year, and things are going great for me at home!! When asked what I do with my time now that they're all in school, I get to reply "whatever I want" with a smile. But really I'm just as busy as ever, and it's nice to have time alone during the day to keep up with all I have going on. Otherwise I would be much crazier than I already am :)

24th of July

Fun ward pioneer breakfast complete with sack race:

Three leg race:

Visiting cousin: (Spencer is on the far right)

and Bike parade:

Phoenix Fun

All summer long we made trips to and from Phoenix to meet grandma and exchange kids so that each of our kids could have some one on one time in Thatcher. Whenever we could, we met up with old friends and had fun while we were in town. Our favorite spot was meeting up at Centennial Pool.

Tenth

We celebrated Suzanna's tenth birthday with a barbecue lunch in the Hualapai Mountains with her friends Rachel and Kendra.

Then headed to Kendra's amazing pool house for swimming.

Anna was excited to finally figure out the rope swing, and we all had a fabulous time!!

Five

We celebrated Ty's fifth birthday a little late. All of his friends were out of town for his actual birthday, and only one in town for his "party," so we kept the celebration simple.

The Trip Home

We drove home through Wyoming so that we could see more of the gorgeous country. I thought Idaho was beautiful, but Wyoming was even better!! Too bad it's so cold there in the winter :)

We stayed at a hotel in Utah to break up the drive, and spent most of our time in the pool. Tyler jumped in and swam back out to tell me he'd forgotten to put on his floaties. I said maybe you don't need them then!! And now he's an official swimmer :)

Idaho Trip: Mesa Falls

After Harriman State Park, we headed over to Mesa Falls, which my kids absolutely loved: gorgeous scenery and...no bugs!!

The weather was perfect, the view amazing, and the kids loved all of it!

Idaho Trip: Harrimon State Park

Cheryl and Robert helped us plan some spots to visit while in Idaho and suggested we go to this beautiful park built by one of the railroad owners as a vacation spot long ago. It was gorgeous!! So green and peaceful. But also filled with bugs.

Our scenic hike around this little lake started out good, but then my kids started freaking out. We're just not used to a billion fireflies buzzing around since we've always lived in the barren dessert :)

We ended up trying to finish the hike as quickly as possible. Brendon carried Ty, Phil helped Jonathan, and I tried to help Suzanna. It wasn't the peaceful communing with nature that we were going for...but it will be a funny memory later on.

Maybe our kids need a little more exposure to the outdoors!!

Idaho Trip: Water Parks

I'm going to start off by saying how jealous I am of all the fun water parks Cheryl has minutes from her house. I don't have a single one in my whole stinkin town!!

Ok, rant over :)

The kids loved the free water park we took them to while Phil and Robert golfed.

It was a little cold for their Arizona skins, but still lots of fun.

And the carousel at the end was fun, but not so much for Tyler who was super worried about his loose tooth. He fell pretty hard at the water park and knocked a tooth loose, and was very upset about it all. I wasn't too worried since he's almost ready to start loosing them anyway, but after a few weeks it was all back to normal. Getting delicious snow cones on the way home helped cheer him up.

Then the next night we took the kids to another water park with a lazy river, huge slides and a fun kid area almost exactly like the free park. They were in complete heaven!! We stayed until dark and had a fabulous time together.

Idaho Trip: Fourth of July

We started the day with some shopping (yea!!) and Sonic (we had to reward the reluctant shoppers!).

Had a delicious bar-be-cue back at Cheryl & Robert's

And finished the day off with some fireworks, of course!

It was crazy to be cold waiting for the fireworks to begin! Don't think that's ever happened to us Arizona natives before :)

Idaho Trip: Idaho Falls

Our first tourist stop was the Idaho Falls. The falls are gorgeous, and so is the grassy path surrounding them. It was a beautiful cool evening, and we loved just being outside in the summertime!! I loved that you could see the beautiful temple in the distance!

Cousin Elizabeth loved the waterfalls :)

And my kids were fascinated with the ducks and water, too. Mostly wondering how the ducks don't go over the edge!!

Idaho Trip: Hannah's Blessing

For the Fourth of July weekend, we traveled to Idaho to visit Phil's sister Cheryl and her family, and to be there for her new baby Hannah's blessing.

All of the family (minus me, the photographer) in Cheryl & Robert's beautiful green backyard.

Phil & I, with Suzanna as our photographer

Cheryl & Hannah, looking beautiful!!

We're so glad we got to be there for this fun event and to meet Hannah, of course!!

Superhero Sisters

2011 Girls Camp

Camp Theme: Superhero Sisters

Pre-camp Task: Capes for each girl (didn't they turn out amazing?!? I'm pretty proud!!)

Camp Conditions: Rustic: tents, campfires, port-a-potties, cooking all our own food, and the most FREEZING water to take a shower in. I have never, EVER been so cold in my life. It was painful!!

Camp Experience: I had a fabulous time being there with the girls and other leaders, and thanks to an awesome camp director, things went so smoothly for the week. Our girls got along so well, and there was little to no drama going on. Amazing!!

Thank You's: First, to my superhero mom who drove all the way here to watch my wild kids for the week. Knowing she was there make it easy for me to enjoy the week without worrying. Second, to my husband and kids, not only for living with my craziness beforehand and without me for a week, but for moving houses in a hurry so that we could be done before I left for camp. That was a huge adventure in itself!! And to all the friends and ward members who made that move possible...we were so blessed!

Kingman Kids Day

So there's not much to do in Kingman, and yet our kids were still unimpressed with the KRMC kids day we attended. They got to sit in an ambulance and helicopter, but most importantly....they signed up for soccer! Yep. All four kids. It's going to be a crazy fall :)

A Teenager ?!?

So somehow I became old enough to be the mother of a teenager this past summer :)

Brendon turned 13 and we celebrated with some ice cream cake, dutch oven pizza, and moving!! It's his favorite thing to do for his birthday, so we decided to make it an annual tradition. Uh...not really.

We actually didn't choose to move so much as had to move. We loved the house we rented last year, but not enough to buy it, so when the owners had to foreclose, we had to find a new place to live. It just happened to be around Brendon's birthday again. Poor kid!!

Family Picture for Memorial Day

Here is my whole "Flake" family at the cabin in Payson.

So...I don't know if it's me, my computer, or blogger, but I cannot seem to edit a post after I have posted it, so it will NOT let me add this picture to my Memorial Day post. Well, it lets me add it, but then will not save or publish it. I'm not a frequent blogger :), so is this just a new fun quirk of blogging??

Memorial Day

For the holiday weekend my parents, my brother and his family and our family met at a cabin in Payson, AZ. The cabin was beautiful, and the kids loved exploring it all, and especially throwing airplanes or whatever they could find off the second story :)

We played lots of games, and made a craft or two...

and loved being together despite a few injuries, a lost kid, and some sickness. We were having so much fun I didn't get the camera out much, but I'm glad for a few pictures!!

Anna & Mrs. C

So I should have chosen a better moment than right after field day for a picture, but Suzanna loved her fourth grade teacher, Mrs. Cabonovich, and we are so glad she had such a great year!!

School Awards

Jonathan was one of 10 finalists in his class Spelling Bee. He wasn't that excited about the actual spelling bee, but a lot more excited about the medals his teacher got for them!

An action shot of the "event"

The spelling bee was in May...but it was still cold enough for sweaters. Crazy!! We thought we'd never get summer weather. Now we wish it would go away.

And then after the spelling bee, Jonathan's teacher surprised him with a trophy for winning the District math competition. She kept telling me all year that she expected him to take first place, and I kept thinking, don't get his hopes up. But she was right! He did great, and was so excited about the trophy.

He got this medal from the district, too. Ms. Berg was such a great first grade teacher for Jonathan. I was a little worried when we first met her because of her heavy accent, and even more worried when I helped out in the classroom and there was so much yelling! But she really pushed those kids and really brought out the best in them. We feel so lucky that Jonathan was in her class!!

Mother's Day

When Phil was in Vegas, he also got to pick up some new dutch ovens and treated us to some amazing peach cobbler for Mother's Day. Ty may be looking doubtful about the cobbler in this picture, but he was definitely a fan after tasting the deliciousness!! Phil and the kids cooked and cleaned and spoiled me all day in so many ways...but I've forgotten most of them :)

But I do remember having time to relax and enjoy being with my fabulous husband and kids, which made for an absolutely perfect Mother's Day!!