Holiday Photos

Our good friends the Dayleys shot these photos for us. 

Happy Halloween!!

Sydney won "The Best Costume" at a friends Halloween Party!

They each got 2 HUGE bowls of candy trick-or-treating!!!

Happy 11th Birthday Ethan!!

Ethan celebrated his 11th Birthday today.  He went to Amazing Jakes with some of his friends and had a great time.  He especially loves climbing the rock wall.  He is an awesome climber.

Bobcat in the back yard

Thaddeus was able to get a picture of a bobcat that was in our yard today!  Click on the photo to see it better.

Home Sweet AZ

ARIZONA

So its official.  We're back home!  The kids are back at their old school and loving it.  The house is in Red Mountain Ranch in North Mesa and we think it is the ideal location.  We live about a mile from Tonto National Forest.  There is fishing, mountain biking, ATV riding, hiking all sorts of recreation less than 5 minutes away.  Only 15minutes to the airport and ASU.  

The backyard of the house has a cliff that drops about 30-40 feet.  Javelinas, coyotes and rattlesnakes all live in the backyard along with rabbits, lizards, our pet chipmunk Alvin and a lot of quail and cardinals.  We enjoy sitting on the back deck and using flashlights to spot the wildlife.

We also saw a bobcat crossing the street behind our house.  The wildlife is exciting, for now.

Saguaro Lake

We went to Saguaro lake last weekend and took the kids fishing.  We didn't catch anything, but thats beside the point.  The kids had a lot of fun.  The lake is 12 miles from our house. It is a really big lake and the kids (thaddeus and I) are anxious to get a boat. The water is so pretty and it is so relaxing.  The best part is it is close enough to go to on a whim any day.

Salt River

We also went to the Salt River and the kids went wading and swimming.  This is about 5 minutes from our house.

This is a little picknick and fishing area about 1.5 miles from the house.

And some other pictures just minutes from the house on the way to the lake.

Sydney

Sydney is in the Accelerated Learning Program at Riverton Elementary. Her class was recently featured in the Salt Lake Tribune. Apple did an Apple i-movie of the class to show at its Utah Apple Store. She thinks she is famous.

This is the link to the article. Click through the photos on the right of the article and you will see one of Sydney (photo#3) .

http://www.sltrib.com/ci_9778089?IADID=Search-www.sltrib.com-www.sltrib.com

July 4th Vacation to Yellowstone

We went to Yellowstone over the 4th of July with Grandpa Richards and Grandma Susan.
We saw a lot of Bison. The bison, in this picture with Sydney, cut in front of us as we were going down the road and we had to follow him at a snails pace.



This is a tree that has been uprooted. It was an amazing sculptural piece. The picture doesn't do it justice.


The kids had a great time spotting animals and seeing sights they've never seen. There were a lot of questions!



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We watched Old Faithful BLOW!