Halloween 17

It's Halloween again, which means it's time for the 7th annual MCC Red Mountain Halloween Extravaganza. My campus puts on a huge community trick or treat event each year, and it is always a huge hit. We had a TON of candy donated this year, like always. We are so lucky to have such a supportive campus that helps us collect all this candy each year. 

This is how I feel after a day of getting ready for this event, and again the next day. I'm always very glad when this event is over, even though it is a lot of fun (even if I don't always admit it).

Our student groups that did booths this year really went all out! This was probably the best year of booths--they all put a great deal of effort into having a fun booth with nice decorations and exciting activities for the kids.

Our Phi Theta Kappa group turned their booth into a Scooby Doo Mystery Machine! So creative!

Massive crowds all night long--we estimate over 1500 in attendance again this year, which is about normal. We expect this size crowd every year, and luckily it hasn't gotten much bigger. I don't know that we could accommodate many more!

This is the 4th year of having Ashley working with me in my office, so her kids have been grown up attending our event every Halloween night just like mine have. Here is Harper as Dorothy and Ava as Bat Girl. Side note, these two are the same age. Ava is about 2 months older....crazy!

It's always fun to see the crazy and fun costumes the kids and adults show up in. This little Beetle Juice was pretty good!

Here is my family of super heroes, minus Tyler who wasn't interested in dressing up. Too cool for Halloween already?? He also didn't want to get any candy until we reminded him that he could use it to hand out to kids who came to our door later that night. He ended up giving away all of the candy he collected (and then tried to take some of his sister's!).

It was fun to have Grandma here with us for Halloween again, and in her customary witch costume.

I like this picture because it gives you a good idea of how big our crowd gets. It's pretty cool that we've created this signature event for our community where families know they'll have a great time.

Here is my Superman with our student body president, Lorena, also repping the Superman/Clark Kent look.

This creepy guy, along with a couple of his creepy friends were in my conference room at the office for a couple days. Even though I knew they were there, they still startled me every time I walked in. The kids didn't seem too scared of him though.

 The Bat Girls!

It's not a party unless the T-Rex shows up....

We almost had our first year without any cousins! I managed to get the Dairmans to come over after they were done in their neighborhood. Ava and Lacy had fun dancing up a storm at the dance booth, which was a big hit. Dave and Tyler left a little earlier than Ava and Grandma. Tyler has lost interest in this event, and Dave wanted to go watch the baseball game.

We got some fun pictures in the photo booth before the boys left. It was another very successful Halloween event at MCC Red Mountain. Who would have thought 8 years ago with this event was originally being discussed (NOT by me, this was definitely not my idea) that we'd still be running it so many years later. It has become the signature event of our campus, and I would argue that it's the largest community event that MCC does all year. Nothing they do at the other campus compares to the numbers that we get each year on Halloween night. Red Mountain is such an awesome place to work. I'm always reminded of that after a fun night like this. 

Here is a link to all of the photoshttps://photos.app.goo.gl/tTRoa53sqAyD3FGU2 from the night.

Kristina is in town!

My cousin Kristina was in town over the weekend and we got to spend some time with her today up at Karen's. She moved to Dallas a couple years ago, so we don't see her as often anymore, with the last time being in ND for Grandma's 90th. Her boyfriend Thomas was here with her too. We had a nice lunch at Karen's house, and then went down to her community pool. My kids swam a little bit, while the rest of us visited. The other exciting thing about the day was that Kristina's half sister, April and her family were there too! 

April is the same age as me, and when her dad and my aunt were married, they came to visit us in ND when I was about 11 or 12 years old. When I moved out here in 1997, April was living with her dad just a few miles away, so she and I hung out quite a bit. We even worked together at Costco for a little while, which was where she met her first husband. She asked me to be a bridesmaid in her wedding back in about 1998 or 1999. It was an interesting experience because it was a Mormon wedding, which I had no experience with. I always tell the story about how shocked I was when I found out that as a bridesmaid, I wasn't actually going to get to go to the wedding since it was in the Temple. The dresses were the stereotypical pink and horrible (I don't think she'd disagree!), and it was just an overall odd experience. I'm sure she'd prefer to forget the whole thing--that marriage didn't last long. It's all good now though, she has 3 lovely kids with her husband and lives in Chandler. It was so fun to see her after many years! I think the last time I saw her I was pregnant with Ava. I'd love to see her more often, but I know she's super busy running her high school athlete kids around to their various games and practices. 

My mom is in town now too! Her flight arrived last night just after we got home from Mercado. It'll be nice having her here for a little while, although she unfortunately won't be here for Christmas this year. She's going to head back to ND and spend Christmas with my Grandma. It's been a few years since they've spent Christmas together. My dad will be here though, so we'll still have some of my family in town for the holiday. 

I'm so proud of my cousin. She is a successful teacher of children with severely special needs. She wasn't even 6 years old when I moved out here to live with her and her mom, and now she is this beautiful, accomplished woman living her own life! It was so good to see her! Love you Kristina (I know you still read this once in awhile--Hi!!).

Reading beauty

We are very fortunate that both of our kids enjoy reading. If Tyler has a good book, he has a hard time shutting his light off at night. He'll re-read books he's read multiple times, and actually prefers that sometimes to starting a new book that he doesn't know he'll like. Ava and I still read together every night, but she reads on her own on the way to and from school and other times in the car. She and I have recently read the Ramona Quimby series, Fablehaven, and the first Harry Potter book. She's now reading the Fudge series by Judy Blume, and we're reading a fun book called The Magic Half, which she's also hearing in school. She thought it was so good that she wanted me to read it too. One of my favorite things to do on weekend mornings before anyone else gets up is to sit on my sunny patio with a cup of coffee and something to read. Ava joined me today, with her bed head, her book and the sun shining on her beautiful skin.

Mercado time again

You've read about many Mercados over the years that our kids have attended Montessori Education Center. They have the event each semester, once around Halloween, and again in March or April. The kids work together to come up with activities or food items to serve at their booths, and guests can buy their item or play their game with fake money. They changed things up a little bit this year and made this event a fundraiser, which was a great idea in my opinion! They did it on a Friday night, which allowed many more family members to attend, and they charged $1 per ticket. They also sold burgers and hot dogs. When I talked to Ms. Shelly about it, she said they weren't sure if it was a good idea, and that they didn't know if people would come. It seemed to me that there were more people than usually attend, and they were all spending money. I'm sure it was a great fundraiser for their school.

Ava's booth was a fruit stand, where they sold plates of Halloween themed fruit items--Cutie oranges that looked like pumpkins, bananas with chocolate chip eyes like ghosts, watermelon brains, and mouth made out of apples and marshmallows. It was super cute and they sold a ton of plates of fruit!

This was Tyler's first time back to MEC since he left and he enjoyed seeing a few friends (there aren't many of his friends left who are still there), and his teachers. I had him take a picture with Ms. Shelly and Ms. Mylene to compare it to when he was in their class. Look how much he's grown! In the top pictures, he was a second grader, and now he's as tall as Ms. Mylene!

This might be one of the last Mercado events we attend at MEC. If all goes as we hope, Ava will be at Mesa Academy with her brother next year. We'll be able to apply in February, so we'll be crossing our fingers that they have a spot for her! MEC has been a great school for our kids, and it's prepared them both to be successful at a school like MAAS.

A great 2 weeks of trapeze

I don't even know where to begin to describe how great these last two weeks of trapeze have been. Brian Flint has been here coaching our group nearly every day or the past 15 days. Out of 15 days, I flew 11, including 4 days in a row this week. I am so grateful to Dave for being so supportive of me being gone so much, and for recognizing how important and worthwhile it is to me to have this coaching time. My dad has also been in town, so I haven't exactly been the best daughter or mom either. My priority these last two weeks have definitely been trapeze.

The main thing we did while he was here was change our swing. The swing is one of those things that is always changing, much like a golf swing. It's never perfect, and we're always trying to improve our swing. Little changes here and there, but never anything drastic. Well, with Brian's influence, we all worked on more drastic changes to our swing that will make a big difference if we keep it up. I know that it won't mean much to you, but the main thing that he's changed is that he's added a "full body hollow" to our swing instead of a traditional hollow. The normal progression of a swing is this --kick back, force up and out, hollow, sweep, seven. Now it's changed to kick back, force up (straight legged instead of bent, which was another big change), angle down, LEVER, big sweep, seven. We've also all changed our warm our routine as directed by Brian too. We all do two "tick tock" swings before doing a full swing. These are such good changes. Experienced coaching...what a concept! Here is a video of my new swing with Brian making the calls for me. I wanted a video of it with his voice in the background to refer back to later on.

One of my worst habits is that I bend my legs on my sweep back (and on my break for breaking tricks). It's ugly and it causes me to lose power. Brian tried really hard to break me of that nasty habit. He had us all go through what he calls "tight school." He had us lay on the ground and essentially tighten every muscle of our body and hold it as long as we could, repeatedly. The point of it is to tighten everything up just like that when we're in the air. Mainly, butt, quads, core (but tighten it a certain way, in and then up), pointed toes, shoulders engaged. Try it. Lay on the ground and squeeze all those things as long as you can. You'll be sore the next day like I was. We are all going to have to keep reminding each other to "stay tight!" Anyway, the funny comment of the week was after one of my swings when Brian was complementing me on some aspect of it but then said "your bent legs made me throw up in my mouth a little bit, but the timing was good." Tough love right there!

I was excited to get some catching help from Brian too. He worked on my locks a little bit, getting me to force up with my legs instead of out, start my lock a little earlier, keep my back flat, and pull up on the bar. The other big fix was in coming out of the lock to sit back on the bar after the trick; he adjusted the timing on that to make it much easier. I also kept some video of him coaching me on catching which will be helpful.

We have a couple of pretty new flyers who have been with us for just a couple of months--Grant and Brenda. We were commenting on how lucky they are to be getting this amazing coaching so early into their flying "career" when they can learn to do their swings the right way before learning too many bad habits. I always joke that all of us in our group have the same bad habits because we're all just figuring this out together. Brenda and Grant were both able to get their swing looking really good, and Brenda even took hers out of lines (Grant had already gone out).

Here's one more catch video for you, in case you needed more....Ashley and I had a really smooth layout catch that's worth sharing. I love Brian's comments at the end too...pretty rocking "all girls team!"

I can't say enough great things about our time with Brian. He's the best coach I've ever worked with (I know my selection is limited, but he has quite a reputation for being one of the best) and we learned and grew so much. It's truly amazing how much difference a little bit of good coaching can do--and in this case, a lot of good coaching--two straight weeks! I took advantage of every opportunity to be out there, only missing a couple days. I said it before but it's worth saying again--I am so grateful to George for getting Brian out here and making this happen. He is one of the most generous people I have ever known. I'm truly blown away by this amazing opportunity I have. I could go on and on, but I'll leave you with these last two pictures we took on our last night with our awesome coach. Thanks for everything Brian. Come back soon! We'll keep up the levers and I promise to work on staying tight and keeping my legs straight so you don't throw up in your mouth.

Wordless Wednesday

Fall in Flag

After the ropes course, we went into Flagstaff and had a good lunch. I can't go up north in October and not try to find fall colors for some photos! There was a little cluster of trees near the restaurant that seemed like it would work, and the kids humored me long enough to take a few pictures. We have some beautiful children! 

I can't believe how grown up Tyler is starting to look! Where did our little boy go? He's growing into such a handsome, smart, kind young man. We love you Ty!

Our Extreme 13th anniversary

We wanted to do something fun for our 13th anniversary. We weren't exactly sure what we were going to do until about 10 pm the night before. We were thinking of going somewhere on Saturday, but I was a little torn about our plans. Selfishly, I hated the thought of missing the last Saturday morning practice with Brian. Dave was getting over a bit of a cold, so we decided we'd go on Sunday (our actual anniversary), which worked for me!

One of the ideas we were tossing around was to drive up north for the day. We decided to go to take the kids with us and go to Flagstaff to do the Flagstaff Extreme Adventure Course. It's been something I've been wanting to do for awhile now, and we figured it would be fun for the kids too. It would make for a fun day trip and a nice 13th anniversary.

This is a 5 stage rope obstacle course built into the pine trees just outside of Flagstaff. You have to be 12 years old to participate in the main course, but there is a kids course for ages 7-11. For the adult course, you have to complete one stage before you move on the the next, and you can quit at any time. The last course is called the Black course, and that's the hardest and highest. The kids just had the one course, but there were able to go through it three times. Since we were on different courses, we took turns. The kids did theirs, and they watched and followed us around as we did ours. They were pretty bummed that they couldn't do the same one as us, but rules are rules! Ava wouldn't have been tall enough anyway, and Tyler would have only been able to do some of it if he was old enough.

The kids course was definitely too easy and not at all scary for them. They both did great, and only wished it was harder and higher. We'll have to go again when everyone is old enough in about 4 years. They also have a zip line only course, which would be fun for all ages.

They had very strict rules about staying clipped in to the safety lines at all times when you're off the ground. They had us in harnesses, and there were two carabiners that connected to the obstacle. You had to have on clipped at all times while transitioning from one place to another (up ladders, around corners, etc.).

The adult courses got progressively harder, but they didn't seem like much of a challenge for Dave and I until the last couple of obstacles of the black course. I can see that if you are at all scared of heights or aren't very strong, it might be a tough activity. The first couple courses are pretty simple though. I feel like almost anyone could do those--except of course if you're scared of heights!

This definitely lost it's appeal to the kids after the first or second time through. They really wanted more of a challenge!

Here I'm crossing a wall that only had rock climbing handles to get across. There were some pretty unique obstacles, especially as we progressed through the course. I didn't mention before but there were also several zip lines throughout the course (and on the kid's course too). Those were pretty fun.

Her shirt is appropriate--"This girl can!"

Happy anniversary to us!

Here is Tyler cruising down one of his zip lines.

Here are a couple views from our courses. You can't really tell by the picture but there are hanging swings to step on, rings to put your foot through to step, and they're all swinging like crazy. You really have to try to hold them steady and have a strong grip on the rope above your head. The hardest obstacle of the black course didn't have anything to put your feet on. It was just various handles to swing across, sort of like monkey bars.

All of a sudden, I got to this tree that said we did it! I waited there for Dave to get to me so we could get a picture together by the sign. I thought it was an appropriate sign that could be taken two different ways--you made it to the end of the black course, and you made it to 13 years of wedded bliss! Both challenges have been fun, adventure filled and well worth it. 

We've celebrated our anniversary in a couple of pretty awesome places. I'm not sure this quite compares with our October trips to Turks & Caicos, but for a fun day with our kids, this was definitely a good way to celebrate. 

Happy 13th anniversary to us, Dave! I can't believe how quickly these years have passed by, and how old our kids are getting! We're not getting old, of course, just them. I feel so very lucky to have found such an amazing partner to spend this life with, and to share the responsibility of raising these little humans. Life is most definitely good.

Cheers to many more happy years! 

Here is a link to the album of photos and videos from our day at Flagstaff Extreme.