Happy Birthday Matthew

What a day for Matthew, it is amazing how much birthday parties take out of you. I want to first say how blessed I am to have such an amazing little boy like Matthew. He is just so sweet and full of love. He tried to make it an all dayer without any naps but he didn't make it. Everyone showed up and we played some games and ate a lot of food. Bill grilled up the hot dogs and I tried to make a killer cake. Sorry to say but we didn't get a picture of it. It was chocolate icing, chocolate cake and chocolate filling...topped with rasberries. Oh it was so good, well I liked it. Matthew got a lot of nice stuff and we are just so blessed to have such wonderful family and friends. Matthew waited till everyone had left and sat on the floor and dug into his cake. He stood up and I could see the look in his face....cake on floor...Matthew standing in front of it...I didn't think so. I snatched that boy up before he could think twice about it. Thank you all for being there and sharing that special time with us. We love you all and appreciate all the gifts Matthew received. Here are some pics of the party!!

If you look at how close Ben is throwing the water balloon at Kiera in the water balloon toss

Matthew showing off his teeth and laughing at his Papa Bill.

He had to wait until everyone left to dig into his cake.

Cruising the house on his new quad...he is just too cute.

Day trips...

We have taken a couple of day trips, last week we went to Prescott and this week we went to Sedona. Just trying to get out of the heat and just enjoying time with each other.

Prescott was beautiful of course. We first found Heritage Park Zoo that was pretty cool, it is in rough shape. We did get to see some animals that the boys have never seen like a badger, all sorts of snakes, coyotes, peacock, racoons, emu, and I can't remember what else that he hasn't seen. We loved it though, the peacock had its feathers all spread out and beautiful. That was the greatest part of this trip, that and Ben getting to see the deer. He loves animals and wildlife, we took home a snake and a giraffe. We then took off to the Yavapai Downs where the horse racing takes place. We really enjoyed that too, those horses are so beautiful and you get an adrenaline rush just watching them run so fast. Benjamin and Matthew really loved watching the horses. We ended our trip in downtown Prescott on Whiskey Row, they had a little garage sale type thing going on with a bunch of antiques. They were closing shop when we got there though. So we had some chocolates, ate dinner and headed home.

On our latest trip on Sunday the 14th of June, we visited Sedona, AZ. If you have never been there it is quite a sight. The mountains and rocks that surround the area are all bright red. It is just gorgeous, especially with all of the beautiful green trees and rivers that are there. We went through Oak Creek that is right by there and took the boys to the Rainbow Trout Farm. You can rent poles and catch fish there. You have a pond with hundrends of fish, so the boys chances of catching a fish was great. Both Justice and Ben caught a fish, we got them cleaned, took them home and ate them. Ben and Justice both loved the fish too, I was so proud of both of them. Boy Benjamin is just too excited about his fish too, he couldn't stop talking about it. He wanted to tell everyone. We went across the street to the water company today and out of nowhere he started telling the ladies and guy about his fish. He was asked if it was big or small, he told them small. They all were nice size since they are fed all the time. We had a good time though and so did the kiddos. These trips aren't much time away but we sure do enjoy them. We love getting to spend that extra time with each other. We are also trying to get the kids prepared for our long road trip coming up...we are traveling everywhere in the van so we will see.