84 degrees!

That is the perfect temperature for a swimming pool to be and we have finally gotten there this summer. It is a wonderful temperature for getting in without "hvaing to get used to the water" and staying in without your teeth starting to chatter. Reese agrees with me - she loved the water this time.

About Town

When we lived in Logan, we were forever saying "we need to do...." or "we need to see..." and never did many of the things right around us. You know how it goes? You think you have all the time in the world to do those things nearby. Well, we didn't do them and then we decided to move, so we tried to cram them all in in the last few months we were there and, of course did not get to it all.

This summer, we are doing somethings about town that we have heard about since we moved here and have not done yet. Some of them we did many, many years ago when we would visit Dave's parents at Thanksgiving each year and play tourist. But now we are doing them as real live citizens of Tucson.

Last week we went to see Biospere 2. The remains of a scientific project that was done in the early 90's to see if a group of people could live totally sealed inside a bubble/dome/community for 3 years with no help form the outside world. They are now conducting many research projects having to do with weather, erosion, water, tempurature, etc. on plants and soil. We did not get any pictures that day (typical of me). We went with our friends from the Simpson family.

A few days later, we went to Bisbee, AZ to see the Copper Queen Mine. We donned mining gear, road and old mine train down underground and learned about mining copper, lead, and zinc. We did this activity with some very good friends from the neightborhood - Kimber, Tyler and Aiden. Thanks to Kimber we got lots of great pictures of our adventure. Reese did great - she loved the bumpy train ride. The kids found a fun park to play in while we waited for our table at lunch. It was a wonderful day, except for the part where I thought we were going to have to push the car to Bisbee because we were running on empty for quite some time. At least there were a lot of us that could help push. Bisbee is a neat little town - it would be fun to explore it more when we have some time again. I love this picture of Reese at lunch - she was hungry and on the verge of getting mad.

Today we went to the Pima Air and Space Museum with Kimber and boys where we saw many, many, many different forms of flight. I was amazed at all the shapes and sizes that aircraft come in! The biggest hit of the day was the hands on area where the kids could get into cockpits and pretend to fly. Maybe we have a future pilot among us. I forgot my camera (typical) so here is a crappy picture I took with my phone.

I look forward to seeing many more sight about town as we live our years here.

The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything

That was the theme for the first VBS partially sponsored by Community Christian since Dave has been there. It was a joint venture with another church and held in a local elementary school. It was a great success. Dave was Pirate Bumpo for the week and I was running the mad science pirate lab. It was limited to 40 kids and filled up fast. Much smaller than the one at First Pres in Logan, but still a huge amount of work.

My parents came to stay with us for the week and brought my nieces. This was their idea of a summer vacation - some vacation?! They worked hard all week, but we had a good time, however exhausting. We did VBS each morning, swam every afternoon and did crafts and went for walks to the park.

First time

We were able to get Reese in the pool for the first time this past week. We have been swimming for awhile, but the water has not been warm enough for Reese. She did not quit know what to make of it, but definitely did not dislike it (she is not shy about letting us know when she is unhappy). I am so excited to do lots more swimming with her!

First giggle

We have thought for awhile that Reese would start laughing anyday. She has been trying for quite some time to get it out. It fianlly came out today - here is her first laugh. (Actually, it is her second. I did not have the camera on her for her first).

Annual picture

Every year, my mother has taken all her grandkids to get professional pictures done. She usually has purchased all the outfits and taken them all by herself so that it would be a surprise for us and my brother and wife. I was always amazed that she managed by herself getting all three kids ready for a picture appointment. With the addition of Reese this year, she finally decided that she probably could not do it by herself and she let me help. The kids all did so well - this is probably the first year where no one started crying - which is amazing. We were saying, however, that it would be nice if we could have super-imposed each child's best facial expression onto one picture. With four of them, it was hard to get them all at their best at the same time. The pictures turned out precious anyway, of course. I'm sure it;s nice for my mother to have another year out of the way though. After we got home, the girls wanted to both get their pictures taken holding Reese in their matching outfits. Her cousins really love her.

Nightly walk

Around 7pm every night possible, the dogs, Reese and I have been going for a walk. Reese loves to get outside and it gives us something to do to kill time before bed. Recently, we were staying in Phoenix with my parents and everyone wanted to go for a walk. We had the three dogs, all 4 kids, and 4 of us adults. We concluded our walks there with a stop in the park to ride on hte swings. It was fun to have everyone come with me. I am looking forward to walks next week while the girls and my parents are staying with us.