Central Arizona College

Well we are starting to brainwash our kids while they are still young- that the CAC is a perfect place for them to attend college when they finish high school. The tuition will be free and it is only a 10 minute drive from our house. Not to mention the fact that it really is a phenomenal college.
We went to the 40th year anniversary celebration today and it was just so enjoyable. There were lots of inflatable obstacle courses, face painting and crafts for the kids. We also sat through art and pottery demonstrations, looked at Jupiter real close in the astronomy center and sat through a jazz band concert. Oh, and~ Dan and I got to enjoy free ten minute back massages.
There was a country music concert right before the fireworks which was kind of awful but I enjoyed watching the kids dance in circles, gigling and having fun. The fireworks were really fantastic, they were set off to the loud speakers playing patriotic songs. There was a wonderful feeling there.

We didn't take a whole lot of pictures today except for face painting. The kids LOVE doing that.

There was free food, free family fun, I was very impressed by the whole ordeal. Maybe, just maybe we can go again in ten years for the 50th anniversary when Elena is attending classes there...... :)

Emerald Cove Resort

Since being on the beach is my first favorite thing to do and blogging is my second you are in for a post the size of double XL. We had such a fun weekend at the Emerald Cove resort with our friends from Vegas. This resort is located along the Colorado river with a mile of beautiful clean sand and lovely clear water. The river is dammed aways up so it is just like a lake. This river actually connects to Lake Havasu. It was average highs of 95 the whole trip so you guessed it, we spent 90 percent of the time in water. Either enjoying one of the pools, hottubs or just swimming at the beach. So pardon my over usage of the camera this weekend, I simply couldn't help myself. There was too much fun to be had!



I have to say this is the most relaxed I've been for ages. I read my book and watched the kids make sand castles for hours. They just never tire of it and neither do I!

The sunsets here were so beautiful, the picture speaks for itself I suppose.

Someone had deposited hundreds of sea shells along the shore. Sierra was mesmorized by the collection she worked so hard for.

Dan and Elena are fish in human bodies. They didn't care that the water was cold cold.

This picture shows how clear and clean the water is. Of course it also shows Dan's cheesy grin in his favorite place to be.

Relaxing, eating grapes, eating junk, eating, swimming, eating, swimming. Thats about it. What could be more fun. This was the first time we've ever stayed in an RV. I wouldn't call it camping cause it was just too comfortable. I'll say one thing though, my days in a tent are officially OVER!

There was a kids club at the resort open from 9 to 9. The kids did all sorts of crafts, games, bingo, movies, ect. They loved it. Parents could leave the kids there with the older couple supervising. This was one of my favorite things I liked about the resort.

Every night we partied in the hot tub. The kids would jump in the cold pool and then come running back in the hottub. On the last night they were hosting karaoke night at the pool side bar so what did we do?! Dan and I sang our wedding song "When you say nothing at all" in front of all the drunk snow birds. They clapped and cheered for us. That was a blast.

They had free mini golf so Megan and Elena had fun doing that.

Here is a picture of our good friends from Vegas. Dan has been best friends with Russel since they were just little kids so we have kept in very good contact with his family throughout the years. Their kids and our kids are similar in age so they just partied it up all weekend. We love them!



Russel was the camp cook and I have to say we ate some of the best steaks I've ever had. Can you believe it, a dad that LIKES to cook!


Maysa and Lauren spent all weekend playing together. They laughed and giggled and built little sand castles, then dumped the sand on eachother's heads.


Here is the river rats club showing off their beautiful sand creation. They played in the sand every night till way after sunset. It just didn't get cold, we loved it!


Sierra's collection of sea shells. She told me after the trip that she would rather come back here than disneyland! Imagine that. We'll definetly be coming back.

I have a yard!!!!

I'm happy to let it be known to all mankind (or just my two faithful readers) that I have a back yard!!! And it is so wonderful and so beautiful. Its is everything I've always wanted and MORE! Fenced, play structure, garden beds, grass, fire pit, swing, patio furniture and flowers!! I am so excited, I spend more time making my yard tidy than I do my house these days. I can't take much of the credit except for planting the flowers and washing windows. I was happy to sit back with my lemonade and watch the hired help sweat it out this time. I have laid sod before and it is not easy work. Dan did alot of the sweat labor as well but the company that is responsible for this beautiful work is Rusty Riggs' Capital R Construction. http://www.capitalrinc.com/ It only took them about two weeks total. The workers were very polite and hardworking people. I would definetly recommend them for any thing. So here are the pictures:

This is a garden box, in the shadows. We planted all sorts of seeds. This is somewhat of an experiment for us. We've never planted a garden in the desert so we'll see what pops up in the next few weeks here. The tree on the left is an Australian bottle nose which we chose because it will keep leaves year long. The tree on the right is navel orange.

Dang those shadows. This play set, Dan took 4 days to set up. The kids were just bouncing off the walls with excitement. Thank heavens it was done right on time for the start of fall break!

I let the girls help plant the petunias and snapdragons. They'll be on a fool proof watering drip system so hopefully even I won't kill them.

We did hotdogs and marshmellows last night for fun. This little firepit was left behind by the previous owners, so we were happy to put it to use.

Dan and Rusty thought it would be a good idea to transplant some of the palm trees out front and put them beside the flower box. It looks so grand, I love it!

I've been wanting to do petunias in pedestals since I saw them at my sister's house in Canada last summer. I thought it just looked so beautiful, so I went to Lowes and bought the pedestals and filled them up. I hope they catch enough sun during the day.

We were so glad to have the rose curbing installed around the sod. I think the loopy look is really clever.

So there it is!

House Updates

We've been so busy with house and yard renovations that we just haven't had time for anything else. This is my kitchen with the new shiny black sink and bigger island deck. We also replaced a countertop with a burn beside the stove.

Dan installed this cherry wood laminate floor. We took out the carpet which was literally saturated with dog or cat pee. It was so nice to tear that out. Dan worked very hard on this , he did an excellent job.

This is my office. I painted it blue and Dan installed the cherry wood floor in here as well. Actually I helped install quite a bit as well, and I will vouch to say that it is back breaking work, but worth the effort! I think its beautiful. :)

This is the project that has taken the most time and effort. Rusty Riggs and his Capital R construction crew have worked hard to get the yard even to this point. They had to rip out dead palm trees, alot of weeds and some dead grass, and move rocks to the fence. Dan helped out considerably to install this underground watering system. I'll be so thrilled to see it when all the sod is laid. They are also installing rose curbing to match the fence, two garden boxes and navel orange trees!

Future site of a large and beautiful play structure, complete with monkey bars!! The kids can't stand waiting so they enjoy playing in the pea gravel. I have a feeling once the structure is all set up, they'll still spend more time playing in the rocks anyway. Such is life.