Meet Colin

This is my youngest brother Luke. I'm not sure how old he is here, 3 maybe 4.

Here is today's Luke (or last years Luke). He is currently serving a mission in Perth, Austrailia and will be 20 this summer.

This post is not about Luke, but I needed to show you who he is so I can make my way into this story...

About 2 1/2 years ago or so, we were on our way to Globe and Caden & Paxton started to fight and bicker. Spencer told them to stop or he was going to tie them to the grill of the truck, just like we used to do with their older brother Colin, when he was bad in the truck.

And although they never had an older brother Collin, that day, he was born. Since that time, when the kids are doing something naughty or boneheaded, Colins name comes up. Spencer will say, "that's how Collin died" (Collin has experience many different types of deaths). A new story is fabricated and the kids start to wonder. Depending on the details of the story, they start in with lots of questions, tell Spencer he's making it up or sit with big eyes trying to figure out if they believe him or not.

Now back to the first picture of Luke. This picture was in my computer desk drawer with some other very random pictures. A few days ago the kids got into the pile of pictures. Caden and Paxton brought that one to me and Paxton asks, very concerned and interested, "Mom, is this Colin?" I am a bad liar. I thought for a second weather to let this continue on or end it. So I just asked them who they thought it was, but they didn't know who it could be. So I told them no, it wasn't Colin, it was their Uncle Luke as a baby. They went about their way, while Caden was saying...."there is no Colin". He is always suspicious of Spencer, because he is always teasing.

The next day I was laying on the couch and Paxton comes up to me, again very serious and asks, "Mom, do you miss Colin?" I laugh and then very straight forward tell her there was no Colin. Dad is always teasing you about him. She then defends Spencer to me and says he doesn't tease.

So what can I do, I tried to come clean, yet she didn't want to hear it. So I guess we may hear more stories of Colin in the future!

Pioneering

This weekend was Pioneer Days in Kearny. It was a big one this year as they celebrated 50 years. It had all the usual things like the parade, copper basin idol, the carnival and other fun things going on.

The kids loved the carnival a bit more this year. They like it every year, but this year was better because they've grown and are now tall enough to ride the "fun" rides. The first one they went on was something where they were lying on their stomachs and went round and round, up and down, tilting and all, flying like they were Superman or something. I thought for sure they would freak out and not want to go on another one after that, but instead it fueled the fire and they were ready to hit them all! (No pictures, because I forgot the camera.)

This is their cousin Barrett (aka Bear). He and his dad were passing through Kearny and they stopped by our house, so we kept him for the night. He went to the carnival with us and the kids had a fun time with having him here.



Paxton was in the parade again with her baton group, Deb's Silver Spinners.


This parade was the longest Kearny has ever had (at least as long as we've been here). I guess it had to do with the 50th. Our neighbors girls always time them and the last one we were at, at the end she checked her watch and said, "22 minutes, it's a new record!" Well, this one went right up to an hour! I wonder what the long time residents were thinking?

Daisy and Bear collected a large pile of candy, which we sent all home with him, besides what she ate before we left town.

Caden missed being in the parade this year with the Stingray swim team. Instead, earlier Saturday morning we took him and Spencer out to Kelvin highway and dropped them off for their training ride.


Caden is riding the 25 mile distance this year in the Tour de Phoenix. This will be his longest ride yet. Kelvin highway is a mostly dirt road that will take you from Riverside (which is 7 miles outside of Kearny), to Florence. There is about 9 miles of paved road on the Florence side. They had planned to ride 20 miles, but instead got in a total of 24!


Spencer said Caden did great on the ride and seemed to enjoy it. Well all except for when he wrecked. They were going down a pretty good hill which this particular part of the road was the worst part. It was a bit washboardy and had some spots of thicker soft dirt. I was asking Caden if one of those things were the reason behind his wreck and he said, "No, just a little before that hill, Dad told me to 'just fly down the hills', so that is what I was doing. Spencer said he was a little way in front of Caden and he heard him yelling. He turned around just in time to see him out of control and then he went down. His face hit the road and he came up with a mouthful of dirt and some minor cuts on his arm and scrapes on his leg. He was able to shake it off and kept riding until we got there to pick them up just outside of Florence.

Oh yeah, guess who had their first oreo!

Out to Lunch

About a month ago we (Spencer and I) got together with his Mom & Dad and his siblings/spouses for a luncheon. It was nice. We all ditched our kids in honor of the lunch and had an adult only lunch. Well, with the exception of two sweet little newborns, Gemma & Brooks.

This was a little challenge for Spencer and I because when we go to do without the kids, it is usually his mom or his siblings in the valley who watch our kids for us. And our regular sitters here in K-town had a softball game. My sweet Grandma Peggie watched them for us with the backup help of Aunt Bev & Uncle Mel. My cousin Carrie also came by with her little boy Jack and they all had a great time.

Here are the kids with my Grandma.



And again with Jack added in.


Thank you grandma, uncle Mel and aunt Bev. We really appreciated it, the kids loved it. They have been asking when they can go back to play again!