Pieloch. Arizona.

Tanya says I have to get blogging. I don't always do what people tell me, but I've been meaning to start blogging again.

Stu and Stuart arrived in Phoenix on Thursday.  Stuart took some pictures with Stu's phone, and that's all the pictures we have.


 


My moving experiences was less about taking pictures and more about getting rid of stuff, painting, and cleaning.  Here's another of Stuart's pictures.


 

Friday morning, I was dragging stuff out to the dumpster in the cold, hard Oregon rain.  On September 6, which is unseasonable and downright unfriendly.  Marcus, Spike and I flew out Friday afternoon.  That was blessedly uneventful, except they swabbed my hands in airport security.  Because I carried the cat in my arms through the metal detector.  Huh?  Friday evening, we ran to the car in an even heavier rain, but it was about 90 degrees and it ended quickly.

Being homeschoolers, and fitting the stereotype in some ways, our first real non-food outing was to the park and to get library cards.  Our local library branch is about three times the size of our branch back in Portland.  Larry Correia and Sarah Hoyt on the shelf! A wide selection of Terry Pratchett!  Disney movies, just sitting on the DVD rack in the kids' section!  Ten books on the Constitution and the Bill of Rights in kids' nonfiction!

The kids had been getting a bit wild this morning, so it was nice to resume our post-library book-zombie reading party tradition.

Anyway, we are so glad to finally be here.  We have soooooo many things to do, boring things like buying trash cans and getting drivers' licenses and figuring out how to get to church tomorrow.  And finding doctors and a vet and zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Spike is now old and blind.  He's having a harder time adjusting to the move, obviously.  Right now he's walking a circle in our living room/dining room, unable to find the litter box or his food bowl.  In a minute he'll meow and I'll pick him up and take him to each location until he stops meowing.

We aren't going to start school until after the truck comes, because all the school stuff went on the truck.  I will be SO GLAD to get back to school.  The boys learn nonstop anyway, but it will be nice to get back to a routine.

We managed to find townhome apartments, so at least we're not disturbing other residents below us when the kids stomp around.  I hope.  I haven't been to the pool yet, but I hear it's lovely.

Smith Rock camping, 4th of July at the beach

These first pictures are taken by Stu.  He took the kids camping (again) while I was at the OHEN homeschool conference at the end of June.

 

Stu printed this next one and put it up in his office.

             

These next pictures are from the 4th of July.  We were both taking pictures, so I don't know who took each picture.  We went to the beach and it was about five degrees too cold to be comfortable.  But the kids still managed to have a good time!

               

Boys' Camping Weekend

Last month, Stu took the boys camping while I went to the OHEN Homeschool Conference.  Here are a few of the great pictures he took.

                     

Picture dump from the last two weeks.

We have been busy, and we have been with friends.  That makes posting pictures on the blog more difficult, as not everyone wants their kids' pictures all over the Internet.  So here's the best I can do with cropping non-family-members out of pictures.

Crown Point:

 

Running down the ramp at Crown Point, as all good boys should do.


 

Stuart's happy that he and his friends discovered a mud hole.

 

How happy?  Pretty happy.

 

Marcus was happy until he got mud all over his face.

 

Marcus making a sign during school...

 

...Stuart doing his math...
 

...Marcus and his responsibility chart...

 

...and with his "magnet guy", the best toy ever during school time.

 

Everyone was mugging for the camera on this homeschool field trip, but I'm only sharing my own kids' crazy faces.

 

Rubber ducky race.  After I took the picture I did move the duck so that the water would hit it.

 

Stuart dancing in his seat during a talk on bees.
 

Marcus geeking out over his yellow hands during a color class.


Stuart building a castle/volcano with friends, friends removed from picture.

 

Stuart trying to juggle.  We were camping with friends at a house in the country.

 

Climbing just outside the Mosier Twin Tunnels.

 

Sitting and looking cute, also outside Mosier Twin Tunnels.

 

Showing off new homeschool group shirts that they were allowed to print for themselves.  We have some really great and generous families in our homeschool group.

 

Because I love taking pictures of Stuart in midair.

 

Marcus just relaxing and enjoying the day.



We have had many, many good days lately.