Bye Bye Braces

Untitled, a photo by addie877 on Flickr.

Niko got the last of his braces off last week. He did so well with them. Kept them clean and never broke a bracket or wire or anything. He traded in all of his 'Dr. Jaw Point' for a Toys r' Us gift card and was able to get another lego set on our way home. He deserved it! Now he wears his retainer full time for a couple months.

Can't believe summer is winding to a close :(

July we completely blew it with birthday wishes-missed important phone calls, cards getting out, not even texts...we have a lot of making up to do :(

Kids start up school again on August 8th. Just when we get all settled into summer, it's going to be over.

Bethany- The Super Star

Bethany's picture got posted up on the wall of the Prescott Valley Library this past week. She is such a beautiful young lady and her smile definitely brightens up the place.

I am so proud of the lady she is becoming. She has her challenges, yes, and will continue to, as we all did when we were trying to figure out this whole 'growing into an adult' thing that happens in the teenage years. My heart weighs heavy for the frustrations and confusion she feels as she experiences the growing pains of life. But I have confidence in her innocence and purity of heart and her kindness and compassion and sensitivity and her boldness and determination to do right that she will come out on the other end a successful, happy, confident, smart, wise, and Godly woman.

We finished out Independence weekend with the Hose Cart Races and Bucket Brigade downtown on Sunday morning and then the Union Picnic on Sunday afternoon.

The Hose Cart Races are held at the downtown square. Teams from the area fire departments compete against each other. They race the hose cart down the street in either direction, un rolling the hose as they go.

Then they have a hose man at the nozzle, two guys run to anchor him down and the rest connect the line to the hydrant and turn it on. Once the line is charged, they spray at each other head on and knock down the cone on the other side. The first to complete wins...

Prescott FD won the overall competition and Central Yavapai came in second. The Forest Service did a pretty good job too (especially considering they don't work with water a whole lot-hehe)
The Bucket Brigade was a task of passing buckets along to fill up a barrel. Fun to be had by all.

All the kids played in the water with each other in the middle of it all. They used the buckets to dump water on each other, not so much in the barrel :)

At the Union Picnic, we were able to meet a lot of the families of our department as well as the area departments also. It was a great time of playing and acquainting.

After such a busy day on Sunday, by the time the 4th actually came on Monday, the kids and I headed to Tucson to finish up the apartment. We stayed overnight and managed to get it nearly ready to turn over at the end of the month-Literally just have wiped down kitchen floor and dust whatever dust accumulates in a month...Good feeling to be done with that and able to move forward...

While we were in Tucson, Niko had his ortho appointment. They removed his expander-finally! YAY!! and shortened his wire. He just has the four brackets on the front teeth to pull them all together and finish up. He goes this next week for new impressions and then one more appointment at the end of July to the brackets off and get his retainer, then he is done! It has been a quick process and his teeth look fantastic and feel great-so he says :)

It's been a rainy and buggy week around here. Though we missed the Haboob in Phoenix, we have had our share of thunderous downpours and hail storms. It has been lovely! The nice thing is that when it rains here, it actually cools down-unlike the desert where the heat stays and it just gets disgusting humid.

Mike was on his six days off this past week, but they went by so fast. He picked up a bit of overtime on Monday for a city event, then we were in Tucson, then on Wednesday he flew to California for the day to meet with the company he still works for in Culver City. It was a long day for him, leaving the house at 4 am and getting back home at midnight. But it was a productive day full of meetings. He was able to meet with the people he works with, have some face time, set goals, get on the same page...very productive.

In between the rain on Thursday, we all took our 'new' second hand wooden tennis rackets down to the tennis court and attempted to get a feel for the sport. We actually all had fun. Spent a lot of time chasing balls, but the kids laughed a lot and overall we really enjoyed it.

Mike and I were able to sneak away on a date last night. It was long overdue and nice to not have the distractions...We went to Garcia's for dinner (and happy hour), drove up into the hills and went house dreaming :) Stopped by the mall and checked it out. Found my new favorite fragrance from Bath and Body Works (Country Chic). Headed to Town Square. There was live music and dancing and it was hopping...Then we headed home, by 8:00 no less...We were greeted by a enormous toad at the garage. Mike caught it, showed it to the kids and then we watched it hop off into the night. :)

Bethany has been getting involved in the youth group at a church we've been going to. She goes Wednesday nights to the church and then they've had a couple of outings that she's done with them-bowling one time and then this place called Freedom Station that has games and mini golf and stuff like that and a movie afterwards. They are a good group of kids and the leadership is really good too. A lot of Mike's colleagues and their kids are involved with this group too. This week Bethany has also been learning to ride her 'new' second hand roller blades. The first day she feel A LOT! But by the second day she was rolling along and each day she gets better and better.

Niko is spending the weekend with Grandma-a much needed break for him too :) It's nice for each of them to be able to get some one on one, especially during the summer when it seems like they are on top of each other all the time. Haven't really made good enough friends to be able to arrange play dates and the sort. So Niko was very happy to get some space for a couple days.

Getting ready for another busy week that includes the library, Tucson, picnics, maybe some hikes :) and parks...and registering the kids for school :( Sad to be thinking about Summer being over already...

The Fourth around here is a pretty big deal. We've been to the parade before in years past. It is a lively and fun event, but so much more around town is going on. There is a overall festive mood. The Rodeo is going on, there are other summer activities such as movies under the stars in the park, family swimming nights at the pool, bbq's on the corner, live music everywhere you go...(here's a funny side thought-we were in Wally World yesterday and there were three guys at the checker in the media department standing at the counter taking turns singing old country, like Willy Nelson and the kind...They were really into it...it was funny)...so, everywhere is busy, the general mood is happy...

This week the kids and I tie-dyed t-shirts for this weekend. It was fun and definitely a learning experience, but they all did a great job. We wore them to the parade. We headed downtown to get a good spot at about 7 am-the parade started at 9 am- We ate breakfast, watched the people, took turns walking around the park looking at all the fun stuff, and we also did some face painting of our own. It all passe the time quickly and the parade started before we knew it. Fun times! It was just the four of us because Mike is on shift today helping keep our town safe :)

It was a great morning to kick off a fun weekend! Up next is tomorrows Hose Cart Races that Mike hopes to compete in and the Union Picnic afterwards...Stay tuned...