Flashback July: A final trip to the AZ Science Center

Among the things we had to do before we left AZ was go to the Science Center one last time. I had to really work to make this happen because it was the one thing Chap had told me he really wanted to do before we moved. On the very last day that we would have a chance to go we went to the museum with some of our good friends who were also going to be moving. I will share our fun with these pics...

That's Robby and Evie. Evie and her family lived just a few doors away from us and the kids loved to get together and play a lot. We are really going to miss them!

Here are all the kids together... Evie, her baby brother Gideon, Robby, Olivia, Jamis (Evie's other brother), and Jenna

Flashback July: Roses for my 30th!

I had to post this one. Here was my big surprise on my birthday. Robby bought me 30 roses! I had told him before that some day I would love to get 2 dozen roses and he did half a dozen better! (Olivia and Jenna benefited from the bouquet too because they got the extra 6 roses that he got because he actually bought three dozen.) So Robby made his three girls very happy on my birthday!

Flashback July: Little Robby's Farewell Party

You know, when you miss a lot of posts it can be a very daunting task to catch up. I truly want to catch up all of my posts, but it is becoming increasingly more difficult since Olivia has reached the 2 nap stage and Jenna has reached the no nap stage (or rather the occasional nap that does not correspond with Olivia's nap), so I have a sitaution that I haven't had in a while which is there's always an awake little one needing attention. Okay, yes, it's a challenge, but of course I would never change it. So in the meantime, my blog suffers. Just know that for my lack of posts, I am doing good work.

Here's another one from July... but first we have to jump back to Novemeber, with Robby's birthday coming up we were going to let Chap have a party. Unfortunately for him I did not have my act together at the time (as you will recall we were preparing for our Grand Canyon Hike) and we missed planning his birthday party. Since his birthday is almost always Thanksgiving week, we have to plan for his party to happen before Thanksgiving because after Thanksgiving most people are very busy with Christmas activities. Well, as consolation for no birthday party, we promised Robby that we would let him have a going away party this summer before we left.

Now back to July, a couple weeks before the move we agreed to let Robby select a few close friends to take to Amazing Jake's (an indoor restaurant and play place with rides and games like you would find at Chuck E. Cheese's). Robby picked 4 of his closests friends (although one was unable to come that night) and we had a grand time...

While the boys played Jenna and Dad took a ride around the merry go-round.

Olivia observed most of the festivities from the comfort of her car seat.

Robby's friend Cole showed us how to climb the rock climb. (I had tried this one the last time we came to Amazing Jake's and couldn't even get half way up!)

Robby's friend Cole was tall enough to drive the go-karts. Unfortunately for Robby, he is going to have to wait a while longer before his short height genes will be tall enough for him to drive.

Another horsey ride, but this time for Olivia!

And here we have Zack

and Casjen

and Casjen and Zack being goofy

And here's my big kid playing one of his favorites... Pac Man (or rather, Ms. Pac Man).


And the highlight of the night was Chap getting a hole in one on the putt-putt course.

And here we have them all - Zack, Cole, Casjen, and Robby

We really miss you all!

Flashback July: Sweet Sisters

Flashback July: A Scorching Sunday Walk

Before we left Arizona the temperatures reached their usual extreme highs in the 105-115 range. With church getting out at 2pm, that meant that Jenna's carseat was unbelievably hot after cooking in the car for 3 hours in the sun. As the summer months continued, Jenna decided that she had had enough of being strapped into her child sized oven, er, car seat. Who can blame her?! Anyhow, for several weeks after church we fought to get her to cooperate and go into the seat. We would try to reason with her that the sooner she got strapped in, the sooner we got home where it was cool. Finally, one Sunday early in July she wouldn't budge and we resorted to threats. Robby told her that if she didn't get strapped in she would have to walk the 2/3rds mile home. That didn't sound so bad to Jenna, and she happily chose the latter. (Don't you love it when parental threats backfire?!) Well, I quickly informed Robby that he would get the honors of walking her home since it was his brillant idea and off they plodded. At first, I followed closely in the car because I thought for sure she would change her mind after the first few minutes walking down the sidewalk with the unrelenting sun beating down on her head. Oh no, not Jenna. She was just fine, thank you very much! Robby told me to go home and wait for them there and that they would be okay. Well, 10 or 15 minutes later they showed up at the door...

hot, sweaty, and in Jenna's case, very proud of her accomplishment. "That was fun!" she said. In fact, she was so proud of herself that she tried (unsuccessfully) to convince Daddy to do it again next week, and the next week, and the next week...

Jump to the present... she still complains that her car seat is hot when we get in the car here in Indiana. I have a hard time convincing her that it is just fine. I can even touch the metal without burning my fingers!

Hello from Indiana

Well, we are mostly settled in and really lovin' it here in Indiana. We came at the perfect season. The days have been beautiful! The people are so nice from our neighbors to our fellow ward members to the other people I have interacted with. The pace is a little slower here, but it's nice because it feels more relaxed. We have loved Chap's school so far, and I think he has one amazing teacher. I can't wait to see how the year unfolds. One interesting fact about our neighborhood is that there are 4 member families (including ourselves) and 3 of the families have adopted! How cool is that?! We have already had lots of great experiences that I would love to share, but first I have to catch you up on the last month of our lives. I will probably do this one blog every day or so. I have lots to share! Before I flashback though, I will share a taste of our new home with this blog post...

It was THIS BIG!!!

I know I have mentioned it before, but we have a very lovely pond that is behind our house. Within days of moving in, Li'l Robby couldn't wait to use his fishing gear and test out his skills. On the two fishing trips that he took in Arizona he never caught anything. Our neighbor behind us is also from Arizona and is really nice. He showed Robby how best to bait his hook and gave him some pointers on casting, and off Robby went.

The first day Robby went out to fish, Jenna and I followed him to watch. Cast after cast, his hook came up empty or dragging seaweed (I'm not sure if that really is what it is, but that's what the stuff looks like.) I sat there watching him and thinking, poor boy, he's probably going to spend most of an afternoon out there and not catch anything... and then to my surprise his rod jiggled and line became tight. He pulled and reeled it in carefully. He had caught himself a largemouth bass!

So we both stood there shocked and I said, "Okay, take it off the hook and throw it back now!"

He looked at me and said, "But, I don't want to touch it! Will you?!"

"It was your idea, Robby! You caught it, you touch it!"

"Please Mom, I promise I will do the next one!"

I looked in disgust at this fish hanging by a hook stuck through its cheek. I must say that part of me felt bad for this fish to be so unfortunate as to be caught by a fishing hook. I realized that for every moment I argued with Robby about who was going to unhook the fish, this fish was probably in agony.

The fish hung calmly from the line as I reached over to grab it, almost as if the fish was resigned to whatever fate it received. I fully expected it to start wriggling and flopping around when I took hold of it, but to my relief it remained still. It only started flopping when I tossed it back in the water.

Robby was so proud that he caught a fish, and I was happy, too, but quickly retreated to the house to wash my hands and also to escape from having to save another fish from the line.

The next fish Robby caught that day he managed to get a neighbor who was nearby to unhook and toss back. He did say that he tried to get the hook out, but it was stuck in there pretty good. Yuck! I'm glad I'm not a fish!

To his credit, he did catch 3 more fish over that day and the next and he did unhook the last three by himself.

Did I get a picture of the fish? No, I didn't have my camera with me because I didn't really believe he was actually going to catch something. Of course it makes the story that much better because no one will ever know how big that fish really was! I would say it was about 10 - 12 inches, but Robby claimed it was bigger. He said that one of the fish he caught the next day was probably 16 inches. Pretty good for a novice fisherman if you ask me.

The pictures I took were taken after he caught the first fish. I did go back out for a little in hopes of capturing a picture of him with a fish, but it didn't work out.

Instead I got pictures of Jenna picking weeds to throw in the pond.

And a few pics of our little fisherman.

She didn't want to look at the camera.
One other thing that Robby really likes about the pond is looking for the bullfrogs like the one above.


The other thing I really like outside is watching the Canadian geese fly over. They fly so low that you can hear their wings flapping. Very cool!

And lastly, for your viewing pleasure... Baby O!

Olivia turned 7 months old a few days ago.

My baby is growing too fast!

Is there a doctor in the house?!

Not yet... he is still in Arizona and we are in Indiana now, but there will be when he gets home on the 13th! Yes folks, I am married to a doctor! HOORAY!!! Can you believe it?! I thought the day would never come! Robby finished his course work yesterday, and according to his transcript he is FINISHED!!! (How many exclamation points can I use to express my excitement??!!!!!!!!!!!)

Let's see, how long have I been waiting for this? We have been married for ten years and he has been in school the whole time! This completes 13 years of college for him (7 years for his bachelor and master degrees and 6 years for his doctorate). It was so weird for us to think that he is now a doctor. I am married to a doctor! (It's about time!)

I realize our blog has been neglected as of recent, but it has taken a bit longer to get settled as I am unpacking the house all by myself. We arrived in IN on July 31st and Robby flew back to AZ to defend his dissertation on Aug 1st. Setting up house with three little ones is a bit more challenging than I had anticipated, but little by little we are getting there. I will be so glad when Dr. Robby gets back on the 13th. Hopefully after he gets back next week I will be able to update you with pics and stories from the last several weeks of our life. For now, I go to find what's contained in the pile of boxes behind me.