Second day of School!

I'm not one of those moms that gets too caught up in all of the,

"First day back to school hoopla."

Instead, I take pictures on the

second day of school

It's less crazy and scary for the kids this way.

Plus, I plum forgot yesterday.

Too excited, I guess.

Once I sent the kids off,

I cleaned a bit and organized the house

then I took myself to the movies.

I was so giddy.

But then the movie turned out to be a stinker and I left after 45 minutes.

I came home and cleaned two of the bathrooms.

Doing that was better than seeing the movie!

Truman started his freshman year at

Desert Ridge High School.

So far he's gone from

football to

swimming back to

football

and it's only the second day of school.

His school day starts at 6:30 a.m.

I thought after Cole graduated, we'd get away from A hour.

I thought wrong!

Quinn started 4th grade yesterday.

May I say how strange it is that he's my only elementary school kid?

It is, it's weird.

I also have the belief that second day photos of school are well,

not that flattering.

I mean, really....

(Not pictured:  Cole Tipton)

Cole's first day doesn't start until August 24th.

He'll be attending

Scottsdale Community College

studying

Film.

He's a writer and quite a creative guy.

Childhood Friends.

The other night I met a couple of childhood friends for dinner.

Kristine is on the far left and Lauri is in the middle.

We met in 4th grade when I moved to 9th Place in Mesa, AZ.

Kristine just happened to be across the street and a few houses down from me.

We were instant best friends.

Lauri was in my ward, Mesa 25th.

Love that ward!

We all were in the same 4th, 5th and 6th grade classes.

We've kept in touch throughout the years.

Sometimes it's only a Christmas card.

Other times we get to see each other at birthday and Christmas lunches.

Lauri lives out of state so her appearances are more rare.

Kristine's mother was like my second mother.

She taught me everything I know about how to manage a home.

I love that woman!!

Amazing Jakes

Summer is winding down

Not the heat.

The free time.

School starts in two days.

On one hand I say, "Thank Goodness!!"

On the other hand, I say, "Man that went by so fast!"

It always does.

It seemes at the beginning of summer we have so much time

but by the end, we've run out of time.

Last Thursday I took Quinn and Truman and their friends to

Amazing Jakes.

We had a lot of fun!

Truman loves himself a challenging rock wall.

Bowling was a lot of fun!

It's a good thing there were bumpers on the gutters.

It made us all better bowlers.

Quinn & Koa

"A little piece of heaven"

Yesterday I was washing the Odyssey (that sounds cooler than "van", right?), inside and out.  This task hasn't been performed since our trip to the beach in June.  I know, I'm embarrassed to say but it's been a busy summer.  I've cleaned it up here and there but nothing like the deep cleaning that was performed on it yesterday.  Don't worry, it was totally worth it 'cause I found some treasures too.  They were located in the back, way back, of the van where I hardly ever venture.  Behind one of the seats were Quinn's new flip-flops that had mysteriously gone missing.  Hooray!  Also, one of the head rests had been completely filled with stickers from some fast food restaurant.  Along with those stickers was a new kids meal toy.  It was like Christmas for Quinn! 

However, the best treasure I found was this:

Truman put this little gem together of a water bottle with sand and ocean in it before we returned from Newport Beach.  On the bottle is written,

"Truman Tipton's little piece of heaven, Newport Beach, California." 

Unfortunately the original bottle was replaced with a larger, more secure model.  Truman got a hold of it before I could get a picture but you get the idea.

It's the most wonderful time of the year!

Honestly, what could be better than a July monsoon storm?

For weeks we've been having the threat of storms with little result.

A couple of nights ago we finally had victory,

a rain storm that lasted more than two minutes!

This is a view of the sky looking toward the Superstition Mountains.

I love them.

I love the summer monsoons.

There's nothing like them.

We're forcasted to have rain for the next week.

I say, "Bring it on!"

The smell of rain hitting the hot pavement brings me directly back to my childhood.

Watching the ginormous dark clouds roll in with rapturous thunder

and chatiotic lightenting makes me scared and excited at the same time.

Really, there's nothing better than an Arizona summer storm.

Hot enough for some Nachos!

This cheese melt was not intentional.

I went grocery shopping early enough, I thought.

However, when cheese is left under your back seat for a few hours

this is the result.

Two pounds of goo.

This is usually a taller brick of cheese.

Rick and I joked about having nachos for dinner.

Quinn thought it was a good idea.

Oh the fun things an Arizona summer brings!

Fourth of July!

What did we do for the Fourth?

The Tipton's went up to Show Low to participate in the Fourth of July parade.

Reason being, Rick's brother, Scott, is running for Constable in Show Low

and we wanted to support him.

I thought we were going to watch the parade,

instead, we were in it!

Emily and Steven are waiting on the float for our turn to begin.

The parade started at 9:00 a.m. and we didn't

get on the route until 10:15 or so.

Here are some of the cousins.

Scott on the parade route handing out flags to the crowd.

The kids handed out 70 pounds of candy but ran out

1/2 way through the 1.75 mile route.

Mimi or Janet Tipton stayed in the car and waved.

Quinn dressed up as a law enforcement officer.

Waving to the adoring public.

Truman with his bucket of candy

running to catch up to the float.

Jayden taking a ride on Truman's shoulders.

This really is the best picture.

We were lucky enouch to be behind

Katherine's Dance Studio.

Which was a belly dancing studio.

See the gals behind Heather & Rick?

They are the epitome of belly dancers!!

Don't you agree?