Kylee goes to DC and NYC

Back at the beginning of 8th Grade Kylee's History teacher announced that they'd be doing a post-8th grade trip to DC and NYC the first week of June. Kylee really wanted to go, so we signed her up. We later learned that YW camp was the same week, and Kylee was disappointed to have to miss camp, but we'd already paid for her trip and she still really wanted to go. In mid-May they announced that the 8th Grade trip was delayed for 3 weeks, so it ended up working out perfectly. Kylee (and Andy as a Priesthood Leader) went to YW camp for a week in Arizona, and then two weeks later Kylee got to head out for her trip. We had to catch the bus at the Middle School at like 3:15am. Once we got there she got a little nervous, but was still excited to go.

The first night she was really homesick and her assigned roommates were a little rowdy. They kept using language Kylee doesn't use, so she felt a bit uncomfortable. The next day she talked to her teacher and he moved her to a different room with three 9th grade girls who had missed their 8th grade trip last year when it was canceled for Covid. Those girls (in the photo above) were AWESOME! They were super sweet and made sure Kylee felt comfortable and welcome. She had a great time being roommates with them for the rest of the trip.

They went to the National Zoo and saw a Giant Panda, which Kylee loves.

They also saw a bunch of monuments, the White House, the 9-11 Memorial, the Holocaust Museum a Space Museum, Times Square (and the new Harry Potter store), the Statue of Liberty, and a bunch of other really cool stuff. It was pretty much the trip of a lifetime for kids that age, and she was super glad she went.

On the way home their flight got delayed in Texas, so instead of arriving back at the school at 11:30pm like they were originally supposed to, they arrived around 2am. We were scheduled to drive to Colorado that morning, so it's a good thing Andy was coming with us! I could never have made the drive after being up that late!

Camping!

One of our friend families was getting ready to move back to Utah, so we all decided to make a quick camping trip up in Cloudcroft on the Friday night before Father's Day. We found a great spot, and Kylee volunteered to set up the tent all by herself. Andy actually brought our old tent, too, so they set that up as well and Kylee and Skyler got to sleep in their whole own tent. They thought they were so cool and grown up!

The weather up there was perfect. It's always so great to spend time out in nature!

Our friends brought glowsticks for all the kids, so when it got dark they had a great time playing with those.

Colby just got more and more dirty as the day went by. His face, his arms, his legs, his feet...he was like that kid on Charlie Brown who has a cloud of dirt following him everywhere he goes.

The kids found some really cool fossils in the rocks, and had fun talking about how they could have gotten there since this was way up in the mountains but they were ocean-like fossils.

It's always more fun to camp with friends!

Sugiyamas Come to Visit!

After school got out the Sugiyama family came to visit us! Sugi had actually never been to Las Cruces before (even though they own a few rental properties here), so it was a good chance for them to visit us and check out their future retirement! We all took a trip out to the slot canyon.

Ally hid her heart rock out there for someone else to find...

We found a baby horny toad and all the kids took turns holding it.

These crazy kids love the slot canyon. There are just so many fun places to climb and hide.

We also made a Memorial Day trip up to Elephant Butte with a few other families. It's always fun to spend a day at the lake! Connie caught on to paddle boarding pretty quickly. I guess she just has great balance!

After the lake the kiddos are always exhausted. They take a nice nap on the way home!

We also took Connie and Sugi out in the Ranger. We finally convinced Connie to take a turn driving, and she was a little scared.

After the Sugiyamas left our kids decided to make a huge fort in Skyler's room. They slept in there for a few nights before we finally made them take it down.

If you look really closely in the picture below you'll see that Ally is actually sleeping under the bed, and Skyler and Colby are under the cot. The used the bed and the cot and a bunch of barstools to put their blankets on (and held them up with trucks, books, and anything else they could find).