Happy Birthday Tannerman!!

Our youngest and most spoiled child(they go hand-in-hand) turns nine years old tomorrow and we are feeling quite old. We celebrated his b-day with a swim party on Saturday and we'll do a small family party tomorrow--since we are his only family around. The invite to visit is still WIDE open to anyone willing to make the trip, so we don't want to hear the excuse from anyone that they were never invited! Tanner invited many of his little buddies; several are as crazy as Tanner. They went 100% for 3 hours and it was great to see Tanner amongst his own kind. It was like letting a spider monkey go in a cage of other monkeys and watching the fun unfold for 3 hours. There was lots of throwing, catching, running, jumping, yelling, flipping, flopping, and no crying--cause no girls were invited. Tanner got an electric guitar from us as he always wants to be like Kyle; no complaints here. The girls arrived safely home from girls camp a few hours before the party on Saturday. They had a great time, but we'll let them fill you in. We did notice one thing....although our girls are not usually grumpy, they sure were cranky after girls camp. But, after a little nap they were back to their usual sweet selves; which was good since several families came over after the party to hang and swim and our girls are the best lifeguards/babysitters in Tucson.

Hot weather and hot chicks

We just finished a fun visit from Jeff, Jen, Jarrin, and Jaliece. It was great to have them. We spent most of the time swimming; as you can see from the pictures. The four adults dined at the golf course clubhouse and had a visit from a little rattler which was a good welcome to Tucson for the Donalsons. We’re grateful for all our friends and family and love visitors.

Kyle is now in full swing with JV football. He has weight training 3 times weekly and practice about every day with scrimmages thrown in now and then. Kyle also just received an award for his diligence in seminary last year. Amongst other things, he read the Old Testiment, memorized the Quorum or the 12 by seniority, and read scriptures 20 minutes each night. He’s a great example to his younger siblings and friends.

Kjirsten is very busy with the JV cheer schedule. She practices every day, but not at the same time as Kyle which makes for lots driving for Amy. It’s a little difficult dropping a 13 year-old off at high school cheer practice. But, if anyone can take on the challenge, KJ can. Although KJ is fine, we are having a hard time not being overly protective of our little girl.

Cicely is fitting in quite nicely in the young women’s program. She loves the support of her sister and making new friends is in her DNA. She’s excited to go to girl’s camp and will not stop talking about it. Her health is 100% now and with daily meds it will hopefully stay that way. Thanks again for all the prayers and support.

Alycia is 10 going on 13 and hates being the last girl while her Beehive sisters leave her behind. The 3 girls do spend most of their time together, but when Kjirsten and Cicely are off doing YW stuff Alycia is very vocal about the fact that she’s not 12 yet. I have a feeling it’s going to be a long year since Alycia only turns 11 on July 15th. Lee-she is our little fish in the family. She’s always first to get in the pool and last to get out. She has so much athletic ability it will be fun to see her in Junior high sports next year.

Tanner is half monkey and half ball of energy. Tanner loves to help dad BBQ and he is always tossing a ball in the air or shooting hoops in our 110 degree weather. Tanner just wrapped up his baseball season with a semi-final tie. Unfortunately, we didn’t advance, but it was a fun season watching Tanner pitching strikes and nailing more kids at bat than any other pitcher in the league (he got to be quite feared by the other teams). Tanner is definitely the baby of the family and plays the part quite well when necessary. Tanner became a trend-setter recently when Mom cut his hair into a mohawk. Now Mohawks are popping up all over the neighborhood much to our ward's delight(we get a lot of eye rolls at church, what else is new?).

Ell is still doing very well baptizing the hell out of everyone in Tucson. Seriously though, we have had a lot of success in doing missionary work as a family and the experiences we’ve had here are priceless. We are so grateful for the opportunity we have to preach the Gospel and welcome any chance we get to teach a lesson in our home. Work is going very well and we are so grateful to have such a good job despite liberal attempts to shut down our economy.

Amy keeps trying to leave on one-way flights to Utah. But, she can’t get the kids to go with her, so she stays. She loves being a mom to her kids and she enjoys being a mom to all the neighbor kids as long as she gets a little time to read. Amy is sick of all the focus and money paid to environmental issues so she drives very fast everywhere she goes in either of her 400+ HP cars. Seriously, she drives fast. Amy spends most of her waking time loving her kids and taking care of Elliot (and the dogs). She’s proud of the fact that she’s a stay-at-home mom and grateful that she gets the chance to spend time with her kids before they’re adults…….Kyle takes his driver’s permit test on Monday.

My Plea!!

Hello All- So here is my official first ever blog post in my entire life. Pretty exciting eh? Okay so it's not that great. My reason for writing to everyone is to make a public plea for people to come VISIT US!!!! Not to say we are desperate or anything( although I will get down on hands and knees and beg upon request) we do tend to get kinda lonely down here in good ol' Tucson. If you do come visit I can promise you all of these great ammenities which will be included with your stay:
1- We will give you your own room complete with clean sheets and towels ( you have to share a bathroom with the boys but your welcome to use the girls bathroom also!).
2-All the food in our pantry. Just so you know, we are not hippies and therefore do not have anything organic. If you are a hippie, you may want to bring your own food.
3- Unlimited access to our super cool swimming pool. Bring your own sunscreen though, that crap costs an arm and a leg(highway robbery if you ask me).
4- Great conversation and some astute political views from my incredibly intelligent (and good looking)husband.
5- Five wonderful kids who love to play with all their cousins!
Seriously, we would love to have family and friends come visit anytime you can get away. I realize gas costs a lot of money right now but can you really put a price on good memories?

Cruise was great

We just got back from the cruise to Cabo and Ensenada. The trip was great. We had no problems, sickness, or injuries. With 7 people, including Tanner, that is a huge blessing.

We found that a cruise is good for adults and not that great for the kids. I know the kids would disagree and rate this as one of the best vacations, but I think we spent too much time on a ship that is really geared more towards drunken gamblers. Tanner had a hard time going 5 days without baseball or football. He asked to play mini-golf every few minutes. But, he gave us all some respite by asking to play ping-pong every so often. The girls made some friends but mostly hung with the fam. Kyle never ventured out since the talent was super low. Kyle and I hit the gym once, which was very fun. We played lots of skip-bo, go-fish, and Dalmuti. The girls really wanted to see the evening show one night. So, I took all the girls and Tanner—Kyle would rather have jumped off the side, and Amy was asleep by 7. The show was the biggest waste of 1 hour in my entire life. Think disco costumes and crappy dancers. Even the girls looked very confused at the end. I could tell they were wondering if the show was a bad joke or if that is what a “show” is all about. The food was crappy but plentiful, so I was cool. The deserts were very tasty. I had some good bonding experiences with each of the kids which made the trip worth while. The stop in Cabo san lucas was fantastic. 97 degrees and sunny. We took a little glass-bottom boat tour and spent the rest of the day on this great beach. The beach is at the end of the Baja. On one side was the calm, fish-filled sea of Cortez. On the other side, about a 200 meter walk across nice sand, is the rough pacific. The kids loved the big pacific waves while Amy and I loved the still sea of Cortez. As we do at all beaches, we set up some rely races across the sand. My kids are starting to beat me at everything. I love it. You should see Kyle bear crawl. I’ll try to get some video on youtube soon. It’s all in HD, so I’ll have to figure out how to post HD or convert the footage. Our next stop was Ensenada. I haven’t been to Ensenada for about 15 years. It’s a real nice town. Very clean, nice streets, markets, restaurants, people. My buddy, who served in Sonora, tells me that’s how you know the drug lords have taken over. Anyway, I enjoyed the shopping—which is all we did. Kyle is not a shopper and bought nothing. The girls wanted to buy everything and made off with some serious booty. Tanner also got some cool stuff. Amy doesn’t really like knockoff Mexican wares…..so she bought nothing. I love cheap crap, but couldn’t find anything I liked that day—you can’t bring sweet Katanas back on the ship. It was great to be away from everything for a week and just have every minute with the family.

Cicy's health is 100% at this point. She has some tests scheduled for the 16th to make sure she's fine; and she has to stay on this medicine for about 6 months.

Tanner just had his baseball tourney and played like a madman. He pitched nearly perfectly and scored the go-ahead run in the top of the last inning. Unfortunately, the opposing team turned a grounder into a run which tied the game. Tanner was extremely distraught since we will not be advancing to the championship tomorrow. He had some great plays which I will try to get on youtube.