It's a Date!

Jon and I decided to start our first official day of vacation with special Father/Son and Mommy/Daughter Dates! Jon took Aaron to see Up!, his first offical movie in the theater--so exciting!--while I took Sarah over to Build-a-Bear so she could create her very own teddy bear. Sarah, being the ultimate girly-girl that she is, picked a white bear covered in rainbows and decided to dress her bear in a frilly pink ballerina outfit. Of course, just as we were checking out, Sarah became quite adament that her bear also needed a purse, so she got a cute "make-up bag" purse with all sorts of teddy-bear appropriate make-up. Sarah was in heaven and spent the rest of our time at the mall applying her pretend makeup to "Rainbow" (her bear's name). In fact, she really hasn't stopped all day. =) It was such a fun day for us all, we'll have to make sure to make a tradition of these date-days! It's a date!

Summer Kickoff--Memorial Day!

Summer is here! Yaayy!! Jon finished his last day of school on Thursday, so we are officially "on vacation" now.

Summer really kicked off, however, on Memorial Day, the official starting day of Summer. Jon started the day by helping the Scouts put up flags for their fundraiser project throughout the neighborhood--it helped us all remember why we celebrate and all the extraordinary service men who sacrificed so much for us to have the freedoms and blessings we enjoy. Thank you to you all. Later, we celebrated with our friends at a pool party/BBQ at the Roses. It was a great relaxing day that reminded us that summer had officially begun!


Hilari, Rebekah, me, Kristen (Rebekah's sister from California), and Tami--just relaxing in the shade.


Jon enjoyed the pool as much as the kids.


Sarah and Aaron wax patriotic as they admire the flag in our front yard for Memorial Day.


The weather was so nice, we finished the night with a nice long walk through the neighborhood, admiring all the flags.

High Priest Jon

Yesterday, Jon was ordained a high priest in our church as he was called to be the Second Assistant in the High Priest Group Leadership. It was kind of an unexpected and weighty calling, but Jon has a willing and faithful heart eager to serve. Jon's dad came down from Utah to perform the ordination, and it was one of the most special blessings I have ever heard. Now that Jon is officially a high priest, though, I have loved teasing him about being so "old" and how he can now start sleeping in Sacrament Meeting. (Joking, of course!)

One of the things Jon was asked to do because of his leadership role within high priests was to shave off his goatie. I had to make sure I got one last picture right before he went to shave it off. While I was in mourning at first, I have to admit, I really like the new clean-shaven Jon!

Peach Pickin' at Schnepf Farms!

One of the best highlights about living out here in Queen Creek is our proximity to Schnepf Farms (think a 1950's pre-amusement park version of Knott's Berry Farm), especially during late Spring/early Summer, because that is when their peach trees start weighing down under the weight of the juiciest peaches ever and we get to go enjoy a morning picking our own peaches to take home and create various culinary delights.

So, Saturday we decided to go pick our annual peaches with the Roses, but when we got there, the place was PACKED. That's when we realized that it wasn't just pick-your-own peaches time, it was their annual Peach Festival, complete with hay rides to the peach orchards, a petting zoo, fun vendors, and yummy samples. Although the cost was $2.00 per person to get in (we hadn't planned on spending any admissions fees to pick our peaches), we decided to make a full morning of it and had a blast. Two hours later, with sticky faces and fingers and borderline sunburns, we left the farm with a huge box of delicious hand-picked peaches that later became an amazingly tasty peach cobbler that we shared with the Roses and Howards Sunday night.

Happy Birthday, Sarah!!

The end of April brought our last great event for the month--Sarah's 3rd Birthday! Sarah LOVES her birthday and couldn't wait to have a real birthday party this year, so we threw Sarah her very own Princess Party. Sarah invited 8 little girls (two came a little late, so they weren't in the pic above), who all came dressed up as their favorite princess. Not to be excluded, Aaron came dressed as a knight and I came dressed as the Queen, of course. We had a perfectly girly-girl party with princess games and crown-decorating and a flower-shaped pinata. Sarah specifically requested chocolate cupcakes with pink frosting, so I made sure she got them. All the girls got to leave with goody-bags filled with princess jewelery and their loot from the pinata. There were so many cute pictures I decided to post a slide show along with a few pics here. Overall, the party was a HUGE success and all the girls (myself included) had a great time. Sarah is still wondering why it's taking so long for her birthday to come around again!

Oh, and a little note to go along with my super-big girl--Sarah also was potty-trained back in March! No more diapers for me!! Yes, that's two for two. Life sure is good! =)

Master Jon!

Congratulations, Jon!! On Friday, April 17, Jon officially graduated with his Masters in Educational Counseling from Ottawa University. It was an amazing graduation ceremony and even Dad Coombs, who was very hesitant about going to a non-BYU graduation ceremony since he expected it to be a raucous and irreverant affair, was very impressed with the wise words of wisdom proffered by their University President. I was especially affected by his comments that we should all strive for a life of significance, not just success. I actually left feeling very inspired by some of the insightful comments made that night.

Anyway, we were all very proud of Master Jon. We even made up a cheer--"S-M-R-T--you are smart!" Okay, so the rest of us don't have our Masters, yet. =) The Roses, Howards, Browns, and Mom and Dad Coombs all came to celebrate the occasion with us, making the event even more special. After the ceremony we headed to Claim Jumper, where Jon and I got to share our favorite dessert--the chocolate chip calzone. That's when we knew it was a true event!

I included the first picture below, even though you really can't see Jon (he's in it, though!), just to give you an idea of what the ceremony looked like. I still get teary every time I hear Pomp and Circumstance play!

Grandma and Grandpa at the Zoo

Mom and Dad Coombs came down from St. George to help celebrate Jon's graduation, so we decided to enjoy a day at the Phoenix Zoo with them while they were here! The kids LOVED being with their grandparents, and the weather was perfect for a fun trip to the zoo. Grandpa had a great time stopping at every snack stand he saw buying a new treat every 25 minutes--from sno cones to churros, our kids were quite happy during the trip. I think Grandma and Grandpa were quite happy, too, since being "on vacation" gave them a few more cheats from their normal uber-strict diet restrictions.

The only damper to the day was that we broke our beloved camera, so these were the last pics with our old camera. In fact, the last pic I posted (the really dark one) was the very last picture our camera ever took. Word to the wise--be VERY careful when handing your camera to someone else, especially when the camera is on. Open lenses are not very forgiving when dropped on hard cement. (Don't worry, we have since that time replaced our camera, so the pics will still keep coming!)

Happy Easter!!!

Happy Easter! I know it's already May, but I'm just trying to catch you all up on some of the exciting things that happened in April. It was a very busy month for us, but lots and lots of fun. Easter was a great this year--it was the first year our kids actually received a visit from the Easter Bunny, although I have to admit, I'm not sure I approve of all the treats he bought. I've often wondered if the Easter Bunny and the Tooth Fairy have any kind of shady deals worked out for getting the kids teeth to fall out faster. Hmmm....

Anyway, we all had a wonderful time dying Easter eggs, having a wonderful Easter dinner with the Roses (man, we know how to plan a good meal!), and having a great Easter Egg Hunt and dessert at the Howard's home. We certainly love holidays!

Brian Head was AWESOME!

Here we are Sunday night enjoying our hot chocolate and a fun game of Settlers. Jon and I won, by the way!


Monday we all went tubing in the snow storm. It was cold, but so much fun!


Aahhh, aren't we cute? Tuesday was perfect ski conditions--look at that blue sky!


The whole group getting ready to conquer the mountain! Okay, Darice and I were heading to ski lessons on the bunny slope, but the rest of the group did a pretty good job conquering anyway.

This Trip was AWESOME!!

Okay, according to our new resort friend, Bob, everything in Brian Head is AWESOME, but, ya know, he was right! Our 4 day/3 night adventure with the Roses and the Bosleys couldn't have been more perfect! Thanks to some great grandparents all around (and Darice's sister, Vanessa), we enjoyed a kids-free vacation filled with lots of games (where everyone won enough to make sure no one felt too jilted), great food (we brought most of our own food and made meals together, including delicious spaghetti and pot roast with Ranch mashed potatoes, yum!!!), and absolutely perfect ski conditions!

Monday morning we took a resort tour (with Bob) that gave all three couples $100 vouchers for the ski resort (nice!), and then we headed off to do some tubing. It was pretty cold and snowy, but the conditions certainly didn't diminish our great time racing down the hill, narrowly avoiding being launched over the barrier below. We actually did see one man catch some serious air and disappear in the snow drift behind the barrier, but since such antics got him kicked out of the tubing area, we decided to play it a little safer, thoroughly enjoying seeing how close we could get without actually touching the end of the ramp. We headed back to our resort after to warm up in the hot tubs and saunas, and then enjoyed playing games the rest of the night.

Monday's cold snow storm gave way to perfect blue skies and 8 inches of fresh powder on the slopes for our ski day Tuesday. Not only were the conditions unbelievable, but the resort was practically empty, leaving us to enjoy the day almost undisturbed. PERFECT!!!! Darice (who had never gone skiing before) and I (who had only been twice, quite some time ago) took some ski lessons while the others headed up the mountain to conquer the black diamond slopes. We hear Ryan is quite the daredevil, but it sounded like everyone was able to at least kinda keep up, minus a few face plants. (Just so you know, I only fell once the whole day, and that was only when I had stopped to help another ski class member.) We met for lunch, then I headed to the second level of slopes while Darice practiced her newly-learned skills closer to the lodge and the others ventured back to the top of the mountain to carve their way through the untouched powder above. After we all got back to our resort, we headed back for another dip in the hot tub to soothe our achy bodies. All in all, it couldn't have been a more perfect time!

I just have to say...I love the Roses and the Bosleys! Our trip was so much fun and having them with us just made it all the more AWESOME!!! I can't wait to get all of our pictures posted! We'll just have to start planning for next year!

Shooby Dooby at our 50's Sock Hop!

The one nice thing about being released from Primary is the opportunity to try out some other exciting callings in the ward. With Rebekah and Derek being called as the new Activities Coordinators in the ward, it was a given the Jon and I would be a part of their team. Our first great event? A 50's Sock Hop, complete with a real soda fountain (and my own Jon as a "soda jerk" serving root beer floats and Orange Cremes) and make-your-own ice cream sundaes, and of course, plenty of fun dancing to classic 50's tunes. I got to be the emcee for the events, which included a hula hoop, limbo, and costume contest, and a "drag racing" competition. Even Sarah got into the limbo contest. The event was a huge success and tons of step-back-in-time fun. Stay tuned for the rest of the pics--they're classics, too!