Ten!

 Haleigh is double-digits! It's so hard to believe...she was just 4 months old when we moved from California to Washington!

She is silly, happy, and has her own fun sense of humor. She takes things in quietly and impresses us with the questions that she asks. Haleigh processes things and thinks about things in such a different way than either Kyle or I do!

I interrupted their hard work with cookies for a birthday treat!

On the way to the bus!

She loves gymnastics, legos, cats, reading and taking care of babies. She likes playing piano but hates to practice. School is fun, she likes math and does a great job learning her Bible verses each week. 

New flare leg pants!!

Favorite Dinner Food: Hamburgers

Favorite Color: Red

Favorite Bible Verse: Ephesians 1:7

Favorite Subject at School: Math

Best Friends: Mallory and Sawyer

For her birthday party, we invited all the girls from her class at school over for a sleepover. They played some games, made their own pizzas, and watched a movie. They weren't all able to spend the night, but for those who could, we had pancakes for breakfast the next morning.

Lydia, Mallory, Sawyer, and Noelle working on a puzzle

Putting toppings on their pizzas

Macy, Taylor, and Haleigh

Happy Birthday!!

Watching Haleigh grow up and learn new things is so fun! She is so special and I just love that she's ours!! Happy Birthday Haleigh! I'm excited to see what great things your future holds, to see how God works in your life and uses you, and how you grow into the gifts, talents, and passions that He has given you!

Mid-Winter Break

 Despite it actually being a fairly nice start to the year, by the time mid-winter break rolls around, we are in desperate need of some warm sunshine. 

This year, Kim, Kelsey, and I hopped on a plane to Tucson, AZ and surprised Dad for his 70th birthday! It's been in the works since December and started with figuring out where Mom and Dad would be camping and how close to an airport they would be. This was followed by some secret planning and letting Mom in on the plan. After a stressful, snowy/slushy drive with limited visibility, we were glad to arrive at the airport and head to the sun!

Flying over the Grand Canyon

It worked wonderfully! They picked us up at the airport on Thursday. Mom doesn't drive the truck, so she told Dad they had someplace to be at 12:30 and then proceeded to give him directions to the cell phone lot at the airport. So by the time he saw us, he knew somebody was coming to visit, but wasn't quite sure who. Given that it was just us and no grandkids, we thought we should have have shirts that said "Sorry, it's just us" or "The Next Best Thing" (that one was Auntie Donna's suggestion!)

Waiting for them to pull up to the curb (Sign made by Annaliese, Haleigh, and Lydia)

They had talked about going to Old Tuscan so that's where we headed! Old Tuscan was an old western movie set originally built for the movie Arizona, and since then has been used in over 500 movies and T.V. shows. They do a few little shows and stunts throughout the day, so we watched a few of them, including the Annie Can Can-Can Show, and a how they do stunts/fights show. They also had a train, a mine, and other movie sets to check out.

Target Practice

Stuntman falling from the top ledge

Watching a show on how they do some of the stunts and fights

Movie set of a jail

We rode a train around the property!

This show was a robbery/fight between Jesse James and Wyatt Earp!

Huge brisket sandwich for lunch!

By the time it closed at 5:00, we were the only people left! We took a few more pictures and headed back to the campsite (after a quick trip to Walmart for some groceries.)

Friday was beautiful and there are so many trails right from their campground (Catalina State Park.) We chose Alamo Canyon, which was about 5 miles. 

Poppies- this picture doesn't do it justice. The colors were so vibrant!

There's a waterfall in this picture (to the left of the big cactus)

The rest of the day was spent drinking coffee, playing cards, and going for another hike. We happened upon a group of about 80 RoadTrek Camper Vans. Apparently, they were all at a four-day 'convention' and were just wrapping up their open house. This meant that everyone had their van doors wide open and were checking out all the other ways people set up their vans! Kim has a camper van (maybe a RoadTrek?) and was eager to see how people keep them organized!

Kim...all bundled up and ready for bed

Saturday we went for another hike. This turned into about 7 1/2 miles (we decided to make a big loop instead of doing an out-and-back trail.) Again, it was such a beautiful day! The temps were upper 60's to low 70's during the day, but dropped during the night to the low 40's! 

Saturday afternoon, Auntie Donna, Auntie Sherry and Uncle Glenn drove out to the campsite from Phoenix. We hung out at the campsite for a little while and then went to a Mexican restaurant for dinner to celebrate Dad's birthday. They even sang him Happy Birthday!

Sunday was our last day, so we fit in one last morning hike before we had to pack up. Mom and Dad had to be out of their campsite by noon and wanted to bring us to the airport first (no one wants to pull a trailer through the airport!)

Soaking up as much sunshine as possible!

We spend most of Sunday at the airport. Our flight was delayed due to mechanical problems, and it is a very small airport, so there wasn't much to do. We did a lot of people-watching. We made it back to Everett by 8:20ish and I was home in bed by 10:20! It was such a quick trip but it was so fun!

Happy Birthday, Dad! Thanks for giving us a place to go to celebrate:)