It's been pretty busy around here, and with changing over the securities on the blog, we've been giving people a chance to figure it out before moving ahead.

But it's time...or else we'll lose track of time and things will get lost in the business of life.

Last weekend was a blur. Mike worked a 72 hour shift, meaning, he went into work Saturday morning and came home Tuesday morning. It was a very looong weekend for everyone-Mike because he was hard at work, me because I didn't have his precious help and I missed my partner in crime, and the kids because they missed their daddy. But we made it through and were so happy when Tuesday came.

We are starting another Parents For Life class online. We are absolutely inspired by the material covered in the class. This time through we are co-teaching it. We are so excited for the 4 other families in the class, excited for the future generations that will be affected by the work and decisions made in the next several weeks.

Matthew has been doing so well in school. He is doing amazing with his reading and making progress by leaps and bounds. We celebrated with him on Wednesday for accomplishing his goal of staying on his 'green card' for a certain number of days in a row. He is so disappointed when he slips up, but he gets back on track quickly and does amazing. He also got a 100% on his spelling test on Friday.

Friday night we all went to the Harvest Festival at Coyote Springs, Matthew's school. The kids got to dress up in their costumes and play lots of fun games and see friends that they know-Matthew from school, Bethany from her school, and Niko from kids we know through the department. It was fun to spend an evening playing and enjoying friends and family.

Friday we also purchased our final 3 tickets for our trip to Hawaii in January. It was absolutely amazing how things worked out. We have been saving a little here and there as we watched the price of tickets go up and down. The prices had been staying at the same price for a couple weeks so we knew exactly how much we needed. We were looking forward to Friday when Mike got paid because we would finally have exactly enough to purchase them and have that goal accomplished. Thursday night, I double checked the prices so we would be ready first thing friday morning. As luck would have it, they went up!! I was pretty frustrated. Friday morning they had gone up AGAIN! A LOT!! I/we so wanted to just get the tickets purchased so we could move on and have it done, and i was so frustrated and disappointed that we were going to have to wait even longer. We could swing getting them by moving some numbers around, but we really didn't want to do that, so we made the decision to wait (albeit begrudgingly on my part) Mike and I went out to run some errands and poor Mike had to listen to my woes and disappointment all morning. That afternoon, I grumbled and just to wallow, I looked up the prices again. I noticed that the airline we had been watching had super low fairs for all the dates surrounding the time that we were going. Go figure. I complained further to Mike and he looked it up on Kayak just to confirm. Wouldn't you know it, the fairs came up and they had just opened, like at that moment, a flight sale with US Airways. They were lower than we had ever seen them, and we had been watching them since January. We were able to purchase the three tickets for 400 (FOUR HUNDRED) dollars LESS than what we were planning. We were amazed...and I was mad that I didn't trust and be patient. Everything worked out, all that worry for nothing. And now we are set to go, with 400 to jumpstart the rest of our savings for the fun we will have when we are there!!!

Saturday we went to a dear, dear friend's of ours daughter's wedding down in Gilbert. Jordan and Steven got married and it was so fun to celebrate with them and see them and be a part of their very special day. We love them so much and are excited to see the journey that their life will take them on.

Tomorrow begins a new week. We welcome it with excitement and anticipation. We have a feeling it will go by quickly, so we will be extra cognitive to appreciate the moments and not take them for granted.

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****Upcoming Changes to Privacy Controls****

We're considering tightening the security controls on our blog. You will need an invite to access it. For the people that we know for sure read it and check in, this wont be a problem to get an invite to you. For those people, be watching your email inbox for a message.

For those of you who do not receive an invite, no problemo! It's not because we don't like you, it's just because we don't know you are a reader and interested. We know there are several FFC people who check in and contacts from the past. There will be a way to request an invite when you arrive on this page after the changes are made. Don't be shy!!! Please just ask! We are totally cool with allowing you access.

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These changes will be taking place within the next month.

Thanks for understanding!

First football game...

Bethany played her flute in her first High School Football game on Friday night. It was freezing (already getting into the 40's at night) but we were prepared with jackets and blankets.

With the star player out and at the hospital before the game even started, our team lost :( but the boys enjoyed watching the game anyways. Matthew really liked the bands uniforms. We especially enjoyed watching Bethany and the rest of the band make the game fun and lively.

She did awesome!
She had a ton of fun...

She made new friends...but would you expect anything other from her??

The high school marching band said that she has officially been adopted into their band. They loved her!

Physical Education

With Niko's school, he is required to do 60 minutes of physical activity a day. I'm sure that riding his bike in the afternoon and running around outside with his brother would cover that, but just to be structured and official, we have been going on hikes three days a week. He has swimming Tuesdays and Thursdays, so we hike M/W/F. We drop off Matthew and head out to a trail. In the morning it is so peaceful and quiet. The weather has been beautiful too. We see a lot of wildlife. We have gone to places right up the street, like Iron Springs Trail and Fain Park...

Fain Park is in an area of an old mine. They have a lot of old mine equipment on display...
We intended to do the trail right around the lake, but ended up way up the creek and on a different trail altogether. We did run into some people panning for gold. They still do that here...and are still finding enough to make it worthwhile.

And we have also gone hiking to places a little further into Prescott (10-15 minutes away)

Such as Watson Lake...

So peaceful...
Such an interesting lake...We love watching the kayakers at all the different lakes, too...
And there is Lynx Lake...

We saw a turtle that surprised us. Didn't know that the lake had turtles...

This tree top was upside down and sticking straight up out of the lake...
We think we found the tree it came from...
So, our imagination painted a picture of the top of this tree flying off during a nasty storm, flying through the air at such a speed to enter the lake with enough force to anchor itself in the lake bottom vertically. We decided we were glad we weren't around when it went flying.

The Forest Service was doing a controlled burn the day we went to Lynx. The animals were very active that morning. I think they were confused and a bit on edge wondering what was going on...

Love our morning hikes! Gets our blood going so we're ready for a good day in the classroom!

Odds and Ends

The weather has been beautiful! Rain, followed by fresh sunny days. Mornings like this...

The boys started up with Royal Rangers again this past week. They are so excited to be back involved with something familiar that they have loved doing in the past.

Mike has been busy doing shift trades for our trip in January since we got back from CA two weeks ago. We soak in the time that he's home and try to keep busy while he's working. But we know "work now, play later". And we are all definitely looking forward to the ''playing" we'll be doing later :)

Finally made some progress with the kitchen decor. Yes, we've been here 4 months, but we still have yet to unpack several things, including some decor. I'm never too sure about how to do plant-shelve decor, but I'm pretty happy with the arrangement of things this time around. Maybe sometime in the next several years I'll figure out how and what to do with the shelves in the living rooms and bedrooms :)

And I think I forgot to share the craigslist deal we got for our living room. We have been needing a couch for the front room. We found not only a couch but a coffee table and two end tables....for 75.00...for everything! Craigslist is awesome! The set was in the front room of an older couple, non-smoking, no pets, clean house. Hardly sat on. In excellent condition. The tables are solid wood, not that coated poly-board stuff. Great deal! And I even got the sellers son to deliver it!
Next...this photo...
It has been on our bookshelf for a week now. Matthew just noticed it the other day. He grabbed it and studied it with his mouth hanging open wide. He walks into the kitchen where I was. "And where am I in this picture??!!!....No fair! Why am I not in this picture?" HAHA. It was so cute and funny and sad all at the same time. He knew we went to Knotts. I guess it just didn't click until he saw the photo. Niko and Bethany were really good about not bragging or flaunting the fact that we went without him. But His reaction to the picture made me laugh. I, of course reminded him that he will be taking a trip to D-land in the near future by himself with Mom and Dad. That put the 'unfairness' of it at bay and he went on to laughing and reacting to everyone in the photo. He cracks me up (And where am I in this picture?-haha)

And finally...OUR GARDEN!! It is amazing. We have been saying over and over, we need to clean out the garden, get a fresh start. We knew there were herbs in it, we just don't know what kind-sage, rosemary, mint, thyme maybe?-but other bushes we had no clue. I was out working in the yard and discovered a tomato plant covered in baby green tomatoes. So cool! Yes, it still needs some major help, but fun surprise right there. Kind of like finding out we had a peach and pear tree.

Just Keep Swimming, Swimming, Swimming...

The kids finished out their swimming lessons/classes for the month. Niko may take one more class that will prepare him for the pre-team class. The one he just finished reviewed strokes and taught him the breast stroke. The next one will teach him the butterfly and entry dives. He could pick that up in pre-team, but taking the time for that extra class may payoff in the long run.

Bethany is doing one more month of pre-team in October.

Matthew will be taking a class to learn some breathing techniques and strokes so he can be on his way to pre-team too by the first of the year.

So fun and such a good workout.

Field Trip

Niko and I have been very busy exploring the trails of Prescott (that will be another post). But we also got a chance to head up to Flagstaff for a field trip with his school. We went to the Arboretum of Flagstaff.

We learned the history of the Arboretum itself and found out about a lot of plants an animals. There is always more to learn. I think the coolest plant we saw was a low-growing plant called lambs ears. They are super-duper soft, like those microfiber blankets, and pioneers use to use them as cushion in their shoes and also as toilet paper. go figure.

Niko took a few pictures while we were waiting for the tour.

Beginning our walk...
Our very nice tour guide...The San Francisco Peaks in the background...
A squirrels nest high in a tree...Something learned-squirrels build nests in trees.
Pretty garden...
Learning about the local animals-preditor/prey...
Animal discussion...Hawk...

It was good to get out of the classroom for a day, see some other kids, learn some cool stuff.