Happy 40th Birthday

Wow! Forty! Good thing Mario's grandparents lived into their 90's. So hopefully he has a long life ahead.

Eric decorated the cake. But he's upset that he didn't make it in any of the pictures. Sorry...he usually avoids the camera.

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Scout Camp and Pinetop

This week Eric and Mario were supposed to attend Scout camp at Mount Lemmon. The camp is within an hour of our house. Due to all the fires in AZ, the Mountain was closed and the boys had to travel 5 hours up to Flagstaff and join another council's camp.

My friend, Rachelle, has a timeshare up in Pinetop, so we decided to take the kids on a little vacation while Mario and Eric are away. But then Mario decided Pinetop sounded like more fun than boys camp and so he decided to bounce back and forth between the two. Pinetop is a nice break from Tucson. It's cooler and much prettier. The desert landscaping gets old quickly! Unfortunately, they have closed all hiking up here too because of fire fears. Mario called the front office and they gave him permission to walk in the wood behind the lodging. So the boys got to go on a little hike. Mario took the kids out on a John boat this morning. The battery died, so the owners upgraded them to a Pontoon boat and Erin and Zach stripped down to t-shirts and their underwear and went for a swim. Nate got pushed in so he got a little swim too. My kids are accustomed to ocean swimming so the lake was a little "dirty" for their liking.

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Erin and Mikki at the Piano

Erin decided to let Mikki sit on her shoulder while she practiced the piano yesterday. I thought for sure he would jump down since Erin was moving so much, but he just stayed there and chirped along happily to the music. Mikki loves his cage so if you take him out and stay near his cage, he will jump down from you, climb up the couch and hop back into his cage. His wings are clipped so he can't fly well. We are enjoying having a bird but I am not sure Buzz likes all the attention Mikki is getting.

Wind Tunnel

While deployed to Afghanistan, Mario made a list of things he wanted to do with the kids when he got home. Going to a wind tunnel was on the list. Fortunately we have one half-way between Tucson and Phoenix. They let you go one at a time for a minute each. They get to do it twice. The first time they are just teaching you how to position your body, the second time, they let you try to fly alone and then the last few seconds, the instructor hangs on to you and takes you high up in the air. Nathan opted out of going up high which was understandable. He did a flip (accidentally) and then looked like a rag doll being thrown against the wall during his first minute. Fortunately the instructor caught him. Going up high did look a bit scary. But the other kids said that was the best part. Now Zachary and Erin are asking to take one friend each and go for their birthdays. We'll see, it wasn't cheap.

The pictures I took were through a window so they are blurry. Fortunately we were given a good quality dvd of them flying. So that will be fun to watch over and over again, especially the part with poor Nathan being thrown up against the wall.

End of School Year

On Monday, Eric and Erin were honored along with about 80 other students at their middle school that earned straight A's for the entire school year. Mario kept tally of how many boys vs girls. Surprisingly, eleven were boys and the rest girls. We were shocked by the huge difference.

Erin in her braces that she got on May 12.

Today, my little baby graduated middle school. I cried when he walked into the ceremony. I realized that it won't be too long before I will be watching his high school graduation and then he will be leaving me. Depressing!

Unfortunately, I didn't get a good picture of him at graduation.

Mikki

Mario made a deal with Erin. If she did all her chores perfectly for a month, we would allow her to buy a bird and all the accessories. Yesterday was the end of the month so with all her money saved up (about $100) she and I went to Petco and she picked out Mikki. She is hoping a sibling will buy one too and name it Mouse. We don't know yet if Mikki is a boy or girl but the store employee told us that it is about 6 months old. She also told Erin how to train it so Erin would be able to hold it. She said it would take about a week. Apparently Mikki bonded quickly with Erin because she was holding him within a few hours. I am even becoming attached to Mikki. Maybe I will have to be the one to buy "Mouse."

"I Eat Stuff"

This is an assignment that Nathan completed in class. I love how when you are in first grade you don't have to really answer the essay question and they still give you a star. I try to put some of the boys' work on my blog because I feel bad that I throw all these cute little stories away. I was dusting the coffee table several months ago and found a drawer full of Nathan's schoolwork. He said he was tired of me throwing all his work in the recycle bin....oops.