Ruby Lou

Ruby told Adam as he put her to bed, "I can't wait until I'm a mom because I can get people in trouble and have snacks and not have to sneak them." I must be setting a great example.

The Wright Weekend

We had a fantastic weekend with our dear friends the Wrights. They came up Friday afternoon and it was pure heaven for the Coxes. The kids played on the blow-up water slide, ate pizza and then had a movie/popcorn sleepover in the basement. Adam and I got to enjoy the wit and wisdom of Marie all evening and into Saturday. It was so nice to spend time with her again.
In the morning we had pancakes and french toast to fit the needs of all 9 children. After breakfast, we hung out around the house, and then went to the Town Day Fair. The Fair was OK but being with our good friends was AWESOME!

Sprinkler Park

Today we joined the ward playgroup at a local sprinkler park. The kids had lots of fun running through the water and playing with friends.

3D

We went to see Journey to the Center of the Earth in 3D today. Christy was here so she came along too. Aaron spent most of the time with his glasses off and his head hid in Adam's lap, but everyone else enjoyed it. (To be fair, Ruby got a little scared too).

Jump On It!

Today we got to see some of our best friends from Ma. To us, they are family. There are here visiting for almost a month. We have been counting the days until they got here and it was so fun to finally be together. It was their third daughter's birthday and we celebrated it at "Jump On It." It's a huge building with wall to wall trampolines - SO FUN!! We get to see them again at the end of the week and we can't wait!

Progress Report

My Mom asked for an update on the chores and school work. Isaac was right, I had piled on too much. I have scaled down the school work to 4 pages of math, 2o minutes of out loud reading (to me) and writing once a week. Plus, a chore of my choosing - everyday. It's working out well. The older two have already finished a half a years worth of math curriculum and are on track to finish the second half by the start of school. Aaron is half way through his reading lessons and we hope to be finished by the time he starts Kindergarten. Ruby and Aaron are also working on writing letters, numbers and basic math.

We've also read some great books. We finally finished reading The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane by Kate DiCamillo (I read it to them). We'll soon start From the Mixed up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E. L. Frankweiler. Caleb is reading Dragon Rider and Isaac has started the Narnia series. It is a little above his (Isaac's) reading level but since we read it together, it's fine. He LOVES them and it's the first time I have had him in books he is begging to read. They also have read books of their own choosing at night. Caleb is into the Hardy Boys and Isaac usually reads some kind of Star Wars book.

I would have like to have done more with writing but there simply isn't the time. I don't know if we will have made any real progress in that area . . . but I guess we can't do it all.

Homeward Bound

On Sunday we attended the local ward in Page, AZ. Afterwards, we packed up and headed out. On the way home we decided to drive home through an "off road vehicles only" national park road. It was a beautiful drive and put us back on the highway near Bryce Canyon. It also afforded us a chance to stop and get out for a variety of hikes. We were pressed for time so we only stopped at the Governors Arches hike. The drive was fantastic and certainly worth any extra time it cost. We rolled back into our driveway at 2:00am. Back to reality.

Happy 12th Family Birthday!

This was by far everyone's favorite day at Lake Powell. We canoed all over the Lake - exploring many of it's fingers and canyons. We got on the lake at 10:00am and didn't pull the canoe out until 7:00pm. The canoe was the perfect boat. It held all of us and our gear and allowed us the flexibility to explore where ever we wanted. We hiked, swam, snorkeled, picnicked and in every way thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. We were all sad when it was time to come in.

We ended the night with smore's over Stove In A Can. It was a fantastic family birthday!

Lake Powell I

eat

plan,

hike

dam,

Denny's

swam.

The four P's

Plan - I cooked all day Wednesday


Pack - We wanted to leave around 10:00am, we didn't finish getting packed until 1:00pm.


Persist - We had a great trip, but it took 8.5 hours


Perspire - In all my years I don't ever remember being as hot as I was when we arrived. At 1:00am it was still over 90 degrees. Thank heavens the camper had an AC. We had a scare when the AC stopped working in the middle of the night. Adam was worried we were going to have to pack up and go somewhere else to prevent me from going into heat stroke! But as usual, he figured it out and we had a great vacation with a nice cool AC. My hero.

Traditions

Almost all of my favorite family traditions have been stolen ideas from other cool families. I wish I could say we were clever and thought of these things on our own, but it's simply not so. One of my favorite is celebrating our family's birthday (known to most as an anniversary).

Several years ago I went to a fireside on strengthening the family and our bishop's wife shared with us a tradition where every year on their anniversary they celebrate their family's birthday. They took the kids out of school and they all went somewhere together. I loved the idea from the moment I heard it. I know it's not romantic and lacks the spouse getaway that is equally important (Adam and I also do something later to celebrate our anniversary). But isn't family what it's all about? What better way to celebrate one of the greatest things we have.

So this Saturday will be our 12th anniversary and our fourth time celebrating our "family birthday." It has been really nice having something planned that guarantees we spend time on a family trip with just us. Our trips have varied depending on budget and time. We have spent just one day somewhere and other times we have gone away for a couple of days. My favorite so far was probably our second trip (see picture below). We went to Maine for the day. We spent the morning swimming at the beach, ate fish and chips for lunch at a Light House, drove to another beach and hiked along the coast, had a picnic dinner, went into town and visited the candy shop and ended with two rides on a Ferris Wheel. It was a perfect day.


This year we are going to camp at Lake Powell for a few days. I'm looking forward to a couple days with my favorite people. Here's to 12 great years, Happy Birthday Adam, Caleb, Isaac, Aaron and Ruby!!

Hair Cuts

The kids were suppose to get hair cuts tonight. Adam is a pro and has always given them their haircuts. He was not feeling very well, so I thought this might be the opportune time for me to learn the trade. I told the kids that I was going to give them their haircuts. They all looked at Adam to see if this was true and then began screaming "NO!!!!!!!" Within a minute, they had grabbed their shoes and run out the front door yelling. Caleb yelling to practice on Issac first, Isaac yelling to practice on Aaron first and Aaron just booking it with Ruby close behind. Obviously, I warrant a lot of confidence and admiration from my kids. (I have to admit I'm not too confident myself that I could perform even a mediocre job.)

Rather than chase them home right away, I decided to finish the dinner dishes. After a few minutes, Adam conceded to do the haircuts himself. But then we looked outside and saw them all playing basketball across the street. Adam was so pleased that he decided to cancel the haircuts all together. The kids have previously been too shy to join in and play. Apparently the thought of a hair cut at mom's hand was all the push they needed.