We had a great summer with lots of fun at home and traveling. When we were in town we went to Kids Bowl Free on Fridays, Bookmans, the library, on bike rides, to the park, enjoyed dinners on our back deck and played with friends. We did a lot of hiking and day trips around Flagstaff. We also had visits from a lot of family.
(The boys at Hastings after Bookmans and bowling Fridays)
Video of Grant helping a magician at Bookmans:
Videos of bowling:
(Fishing at White Horse Lake - the drive to get here was a nightmare; we took the wrong fire road and it was a horribly unmaintained, washboard road. It took forever. At the lake, Cole lasted about 5 minutes fishing and Tyler even less than that. They hung out with me in the shade on a blanket eating our snacks. Grant was by Chad's side the entire time fishing with his new pole. No one caught anything. We did spy a water snake with a fish in his mouth. That was the highlight for Cole)
(Tyler loves his and his brothers' treats and trying to keep up with them)
(One morning at the library we saw Wild Man Phil the Reptile Man. He brought a boa constrictor, some cool lizards, a turtle named Stumpy with a wheel for a leg, creepy scorpions and a good solid hour of entertainment for the boys. They loved every second of it, especially holding and touching the reptiles at the end)
(We played at the mall a few times after bowling, listened to kid music by Chester Cheeseman and found ways to entertain ourselves at home)
Video of Tyler playing in the grass:
Video of Tyler bootie scooting:
Videos of Tyler learning to walk and climb:
(From June 29 until July 2, we stayed at Oma's for a short summer getaway. We went swimming, played, visited the Sarahs and their kids, watched movies and relaxed. On our first swim, Tyler fell asleep in his floatie within about 30 seconds of getting in it and slept for almost an hour. We tried out Organ Stop Pizza with Oma, Sarah W. and her kids and David, Melissa and Andrew.)
Videos of riding bikes at Oma's:
(On our way home from Phoenix, we picked up Grandma to bring her to our house for the 4th of July holiday. We had delicious food, a trip to the Grand Canyon for Grandma's first visit ever and played tourist to show Grandma our new hometown.)
(Hiking Secret Mountain Trail)
(Hiking Arizona Trail - Mormon Lake Railroad trail)
(Grant and Chad hiking Fat Man's Loop)
(Hiking with Papa - we were trying to hike Anderson Mesa but we didn't find the trailhead and ended up hiking on a cattle road. The boys both agreed it was still a fun hike.)
(We ate dinner outside almost every night until the monsoons started at the end of July. We were always blessed with views of beautiful wildlife like bald eagles, hawks and heron.)
(The boys always managed to find ways to have fun at home. Tyler discovered the dog water and learned to climb. The boys dressed up and got creative with things around the house.)
(Papa came for his 60th birthday. Grant tried out ice skating to see if he wanted to play hockey. We had swimming lessons all summer long and started bike riding once I bought our bike trailer and got my bike up and running. Grant became a great bike rider this summer. We did a 10 mile trail ride a couple of times and he was no more tired and worn out than I was.)
Video of Grant bike riding:
Video of Grant learning to ice skate:
Video of Cole climbing:
(One of our funnest weekends was when the Woodruffs came for the weekend to camp and go to the Celtic Festival. The boys rode motorcycles, got as dirty as they possibly could, ate way too much junk, made a second firepit and ran free in the woods. Our boys and their boys get along so well it was a weekend of peace, fun and a whole lot of nothing in the woods.)
Video of riding the motorcycle:
Videos from the hike:
(Our family vacation for the summer was a few days to Cedar City in August for a Mellen family reunion. We had a BBQ at the park, made reunion t-shirts, did some hiking, watched Brookie get baptized, took some family photos and let the kids become better and closer cousins.)
Video from the hike:
(The Mellen family fun continued when we brought Brooke and the Siebers family home with us for a few days. The cousins continued their endless playing. Chad took them to the Lava Tubes and on the Sandy Trail. We also hiked Red Mountain Trail. The saddest part was how short their visits were.)
(Grant played soccer all summer, with practices on Tuesday and games on Saturday. He played hard at every game and finally in the last minute of the last quarter of the last game of the season he scored his single goal of the season. His whole team had been working for the last several games to get him to score a goal. I won't lie, I teared up.)
(On mornings when we had nothing going on or needed to kill time we headed to Foxglenn Park for some playtime. Tyler is our climber. Cole is our monkey and Grant does a little of it all.)
Our summer was full and went fast. I was truly sad to see it come to an end. I love having my boys home. We worked and played hard all summer long. It's hard to be back in a grind and schedule.
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