Crazy Fun Summer

Crazy Fun Summer 2010

As a family we did so much this summer its hard to narrow down the pictures to post. First, we moved, so here are some moving pictures:


Our last night in Biloxi, MS, we went to the beach, and flew Kayla's kite.  It was on her to do list.  You can see the moon shining in the background.

This is what our house looked likeall packed up.

This also gives you a good idea of the colors. 

Michael loved playing hide and seek with the boxes.  And then they were gone.

Here is our home in Arizona. Jumping ahead a little, this was the first day of school.

But before school started, the kids were part of the cast of "Once Upon A Princess" directed by Aunt Lauren. Here the boys are making their costumes and props.

Princess Fred, Queen Kim, Princess Karina, Jester/sheep Matthew and Jester/sheep Michael. Kimberley designed and painted the sign.

Everyone got to paint the backdrops.  Aunt Lauren now has pink and grey spots on her garage floor.

Two jesters.

Queen Kim on her throne.

Princess Karina auditioning for the chance to marry Prince Dauntless.

Queen Kim positioning the pea under the mattress.

Prince Dauntless packing every sharp object he could find under the mattresss.

Princess Fred and Prince Dauntless high fiving. (They are, after all, cousins.) 

And then, of course, there was swimming.  But that is going to have to be another post!

Finally: Matthew's April Birthday Party

Matthew had a birthday in April.  He'd been planning his birthday for over a year as last year we'd collected all the cool party stuff for his birthday, but then we never actually had the party. Nice little kid that he is, Matthew decided to postpone his space party to this year's birthday. 

Here's the cake that Matthew designed, and mom baked.

In keeping with the space theme, everyone got to do scientific experiments.

What's a party without streamers?

And here we have blastoff!  If you look carefully, you'll see I caught the very beginning of the bottle eruption on camera.  More important was the pure joy on two little boy's faces.

And what is a scientific space party without a little milk art? The two black things are raisins, from the bouncing raisin experiment.

What a fun time.  Matthew said it was worth the wait. 

Here's Dad lighting the moom/rocket ship cake.

Very, very cool.

Leaving Biloxi...

Leaving Biloxi...
Our last day in Biloxi was designed to keep us there until the last possible minute!  A long story, but it involoved a last minute trip to the car dealer, to fix a broken window.....Here's two cuties, waiting with Dad for the car to be fixed.

Finally, however, we captured our last Biloxi sunset in our rearview mirror.  We left at 3pm, and drove to Texas.

The second night we drove to Lubbock, Texas, and visited with good friends. We also revisited some good memories of our years spent in Lubbock.  Kayla mentioned that the elementary school had shrunk! Our old house still has the best yard on the block.

The next night, we visited Grandma Lucile.  We spent a couple of nights and went to church in Las Cruces. The kids collected memories, pecans, and home made cookies from Grandma's cookie jar. We enjoyed every moment of our visit.

Finally, after four days of travelling, we drove into Tucson.  We spent our first night with the Bells, our Tucson cousins (Delwyn's sister.)  Our new home was ready for us the next day, and our boxes began arriving at around 10 am.Our old Biloxi sunsets are quite a bit different from our new sunsets--we couldn't have moved somewhere more different from the Gulf Coast if we'd tried! 

Life is good.

Spring Break--The rest of the story

This was a continuation of Day Two of Spring Break:

Our trip to the Kennedy Space Center was amazing.  Here's Karina and Matthew driving on the moon.

Kimberley, as the "experienced" driver, helped Michael.  I don't think you need a learner's permit on the moon.

Trying to take pictures that captured the sheer size is difficult. At least these prove that we were there.

In the background, is the shuttle that launched a few days after we were there.  We could see the tracks in the road where the shuttle was transported to the launchpad.

Here's a closer picture.  The orange part is the shuttle that launched into space. Uncle Scott and his family woke up early to watch the launch from their home.

Again, the sizes are hard to show in pictures.

Day Three:

The next day we drove to Clearwater Beach, and went shelling, and castle building.

The castle was pretty sweet. It had a moat, and shells decorating the walls.

The boys didn't want to leave their castle, so we took a picture.

This was the scene in the back seat on the way home.  The girls looked like little sleeping kittens.

We ended our wonderful trip with Uncle Scott, Paul, and Aunt Marcie with a cookout in one of the camping areas that Paul built for his Eagle project. 

Just to make sure that our trip balanced out, and that we experienced all things....

So here we're on the freeway, unpacking the car to get the spare.

But that didn't take away anything from our trip.  What a wonderful, wonderful spring break. 

Spring Break in Florida

For Spring Break we climbed into our minivan and drove to Harmony to visit Uncle Scott and Aunt Marcie and Paul (and had a wonderful home cooked meal waiting!)

On Day One we went to SeaWorld.  Note the dolphins in the background.

The trainers no longer get into the water with Shamu, and the show has been cut a little shorter, but the whales are still amazing.

Proof that Kayla and Kimberley went on the Manta Ride (by themselves).  Kimberley (bottom row) is the second last on the right behind the hair, and Kayla is the last on the right, in the green shirt.

Here are the Farnsworth kids on display at Seaworld, thinking fishy thoughts:

Day Two: Uncle Scott came with us on an airboat ride to see the alligators.

 

The kids couldn't decide if Florida aligators were bigger and better than Mississippi alligators.

Kayla and Kimberley were brave enough to hold the critter. 

Michael didn't want to hold it, but did touch. (And then washed his hands.)

Matthew and Karina weren't too sure about the huge lizard. 

So they decided to share holding it.  Karina called the tail.

Stay tuned for pictures on the rest of our trip....

March Already?

As I'm hip deep in pirates for the stake Cub Scout activity coming up, it suddenly dawned on me that its already March! And in less than three months we'll have a major move on our hands!  Kimberley will be done with 9th grade, Kayla with 6th, Karina with 3rd and Matthew with 1st.  I'm enjoying Michael's last few months at home before Kindergarten, and lamenting "When did time suddenly start moving so fast?"

Answer:  When you're busy, you NEVER have enough time.

Churchwise (and don't my boys look handsome in their suits?) Brent is still teaching early morning seminary every morning, and on the high council, and playing piano for priesthood meetings.  Delwyn is still playing the organ, and the Activity Days leader, and the Stake Primary President.  (The reason she's hip deep in pirates! There are only two weeks until our stake Cub Scout activity, Harrr Mateys! (Said with a Mississippi/South African accent.) Want to walk on this nice little plank, anyone?)

Everyday-life wise, Brent is still working full time at Keesler, and juggling kids schedules during the evenings and on weekends.  We have the three youngest in soccer, and have one to two make up games a week EACH because of all the rained out games.  Luckily the two in swimming are having a little break because short season ended. But still, only Monday nights are "free" because that's our family rule.

My life still consists of trying to come up with the perfect meal that everyone eats, juggling dusting and laundry, and spending an hour or so in the car each day driving kids around. And explaining that "I'm sorry, I never learned that in school.  Do you think your older sister can help you with your homework?"  Huh.

Kimberley is thinking of taking up guitar.  (Her drums were great to get her rythms right for piano.)  She is nice enough to play the organ for church sometimes.

Kayla's oboe playing is taking off, as well as the piano. She's growing about three feet every time she takes a nap. And she has amazing taste in Superbowl picks.

Karina is still the cutest curly haired blonde you'll ever meet. Unless, of course, she's disguised as Elvis.  She sang and danced a "blue" Christmas number at a rest home in Biloxi.

Matthew won the spelling bee for first grade.  Smart little kid. Takes after my side of the family.

Michael is a killer wii player.  He keeps explaining that he can drive now, and doesn't understand why I don't hand over my car keys.

Here's some pictures out and about, taking in the sights.

 If you look closely past Kimberley's shoulder, you can see our local friendly alligator munching on something. We couldn't figure out what, exactly.  I counted kids and they're all accounted for.

This month we get to visit Scott and Marcy for spring break, and we're looking forward to the visit.

March already?  Amazing.