Juggling it all...

This past weekend we ventured on a little camping trip with some very good friends and we had an absolute blast. It's so nice to be able to let the kids run free - unlike the caged animals they usually are - and explore and have fun just being kids! Dirt ... check! Bugs ... check! Good Memories ... check! These next two warm my heart like nothing ever before!!!

OK, so I was going through a slew of pictures that I had stored and filed away completely forgetting they existed. Low and behold I found a few gems... This next picture was fun... This is what happens when the 3 Sunday papers I get each week get stacked up and I procrastinate pulling the coupons from them... we have a newspaper party. This photo was taken after about half the mess was thrown in the garbage - it was really bad! Then last weekend we were invited up to Scott's sisters cabin in Forrest Lakes and we had an absolute blast. It was some much needed R&R. Sam and her other tree monkey cousins... Last but not least was this fantastic view from the rim...

So, it has been B-E-A-U-tiful lately here in AZ - in fact this may just go down as the best month of June EVER!! (knock on wood, fingers crossed, etc, etc.) We've been blessed with cloudy skies, highs in the 80's, low 90's and even a few early monsoon storms. Brooke and I took a few minutes the other day to water our grass and garden (you're welcome Scott :-) and she just couldn't resist getting wet in the sprinklers. As I was sitting watching her (snapping pictures, of course) I became overwhelmed by how lucky we were at that very minute to be outside playing in the water - it was around 3pm and on most average June days our skin would be melting off our bodies. However on this particular day it was beyond fantastic weather and I enjoyed every minute of it... as did Brooke. GARDEN UPDATE We actually no longer have watermelon... so sad! Those pesty critters ate all of the plants. We are, however, growing our own pumpkin patch! Can’t wait ‘til October. The Herric

A buzz word I've been hearing all over the news and in the media is 'stay-cation'. It's the poor mans version of a vacation - instead you end up staying around your home town and exploring new places and parts of your home state. That sounds PERFECT to us!! This week we took our first day trip stay-cation to Payson. The kids had a blast! We roamed around one of our favorite parks, fed some mean, angry ducks, ate a delicious lunch and had some yummy ice cream and enjoyed. Enjoy the pics...