Tonto Natural Bridge

There had been a little too much time at home with everyone on the last week of our Fall Break and Big Daddy and I thought that maybe we needed to spend a little time enjoying our beautiful state.

We decided to take a day-trip to the Tonto Natural Bridge.

It was a beautiful day for a little hike.

Look how cute we are…

We spent a little time up at the overview to get a nice look at where we were headed.

This little stream doesn’t look like much…

But it sure makes a pretty waterfall.

I am so glad the rainbow from the mist showed up in the pictures.

They are checking out the trail we are going to hike down. Grandma Jo was smart and decided she would wait at the top for us.

The trail doesn’t look too bad…see the nice steps.

And off we go to the trailhead.

I didn’t take any pictures of the actual trail because I couldn’t focus the camera and breathe at the same time.

The actual trail was only 1/2 a mile, but to give you an idea of how far we hiked down into the canyon that’s the overview we were just at up on that rocky ledge.

My first sight of the underside of the Bridge. That’s the Man-Child standing at the top of the stairs.

Then you see the enormity of it. The pictures don’t even come close to capturing how big this arch is. Those little dots at the bottom of the picture are people.

As soon as we got to the bottom these two took off to explore.

Here is part of the stream that started on the top.

Big Daddy took the two Littles to explore.

Roo was going to wait at the bottom with me, but soon decided she wanted to explore with everyone else.

The rocks beyond this point were more than I thought my ankle could take, so while everyone else was hiking under the bridge I took pictures.

I finally spotted some people I recognized.

This girly was so proud of herself.

Man-Child and Einstein finally came back from where they had hiked to.

I love that Ham stopped and posed so I could take his picture.

Slowly but surely they were making their way back to where I was waiting.

Ham looks a little concerned about leading the way.

Finally they made it past the last rough patch.

My cute little hikers.

La familia de Chaos and the Tonto Natural Bridge.

Check out Ham striking a pose.

The hike out was breath-taking…literally.

At one point the Man-Child grabbed my arm and was pulling me up the trail. I was amazed at how much easier it was to climb when I had a 14 yr old boy dragging me!

We were very happy to see Grandma Jo waiting for us at the top.

This is the closest we came to finding fall colors while we were there.

Does it count if the trees are always that color?

We made a quick stop in Payson for some lunch then headed home.

On the way home Big Daddy spotted two birds in a tree.

We turned around to get a better look.

They weren’t just any birds.

There is a Bald Eagle nesting area along the Verde Valley River, but it’s pretty unusual to see them this far south.

As an added bonus on our drive home the fountain at Fountain Hills was going when we drove by there.

It was such a fun day that the kidlets decided we should go back once a month.

As long as the Man-Child is willing to pull me up the trail every time I’m game…

Beyond Well Pleased

***Warning: This post is completely filled with BRAGGING. I am nothing if not an extremely proud Momma***

Yesterday was the last day of school for the kidlets. They decided that they would all wear shirts from the schools the will be going to next year since four out of the five kidlets are moving to different schools.

They all had an amazing year at school and I look forward to spending as much time as possible with them this summer.

I’m going to start my bragging with the youngest and work my way up.

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Ham had an great year in pre-school. When the first letter came home about the scheduled Kindergarten Transition Meeting I wasn’t sure if I was ready for my baby to be in Kindergarten. The progress he made this year was mind-boggling and he is more than ready to be a Kindergartener.

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On Wednesday the girlies had their award assemblies.

LaLa got perfect attendance this quarter. This child loves going to school. I took her out of school a few minutes early one day to go see a movie and I didn’t think she would be able to relax and enjoy the movie because she was so worried about missing school…for a few minutes.

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It’s Roo’s last year at elementary school and she had a great year.

She had perfect attendance for this quarter also. (when did I turn into that Mom?)

She also got student of the month for April. The letter that her teacher wrote was so nice, I can only imagine how great it had to be for Roo to hear the principal read it during announcements for the whole school to hear.

And she isn’t just another pretty face, she has the brains to back up her beauty and she made the Principal’s Honor Roll.

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Einstein had a remarkable year. He is such an amazing young man.

His band teacher gave out two Outstanding Musician awards and he earned one of them.

He also made the Principal’s Honor Roll.

And since he made the Principal’s Honor Roll all 4 quarters he also received the President’s Award for Outstanding Academic Excellence. He maintained a 4.0 average all year long.

And to finish off his awards his ELP teacher gave out three ELP MVP awards and he earned one of them.

When his ELP teacher was talking about what an awesome kid he is and then the band teacher got up and said not only was he everything the other teacher said, but also a very talented musician I couldn’t help but cry. You know that your kids are amazing, but when you have other adults in their lives acknowledge it it just hits that Proud Momma spot.

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And finally Big J…

He was given the Outstanding Musician Award at the last concert of the year.

He also earned Principal’s Honor Roll for the year, which for the Jr. High means he had to have over a 4.0 average. Pretty impressive with a schedule filled with honors classes.

They weren’t able to give out the certificates at the award assembly because the school had printed out the certificates with Principle’s List…DOH. Maybe they should have had one of the kids from the list spell-check them.

And then to top off all the other awards he got his Certificate of Promotion

and will be moving to High School next year.

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I hope they are able to relax and have a little bit of fun this summer, they earned it.

For some reason I don’t think they will have a problem with that.