Karate Advancements

Once again we had karate testing a couple of weeks ago. This time we had the fun of having Grandma, Grandpa, Uncle Logan, and cousin Matthew come to watch us do our stuff. Here are the highlight videos.

I am the lowest belt in the older group, so I get to go first at all of the tests. These two videos are of us doing our forms. The forms are choreographed movement that you have to memorize. There is a lot more to testing than the forms, but this is the only thing that we do by ourselves during testing.

And here we are with our new belts! (We had a hard time getting Robby to smile for this one. He was trying to have a Calvin and Hobbes moment where he makes a funny face right as Dad clicked the picture.)

What we did on our day off

So I have some blogging to catch up on! Between the Grand Canyon trip, my parents visiting this past weekend, and Christmas shopping I haven't had the time to sit down and do this. So here it goes...

This is from our day off around Veterans Day. Since we didn't want to sit around the house bored, we decided to take a day at the museum. The kids really enjoyed checking out the new exhibit called "Strange Matter." There were substances like this liquid iron mixture that when it was magnetized would be come more like a solid. Very interesting.

Jenna is finally old enough to enjoy pressing buttons and trying to interact a lot of the exhibits.

I thought this was a cute pic. We were waiting to see the IMAX film, and he took Jenna over to see this aquarium of sea creatures. What a sweet big brother!

Here we are in the IMAX theater before the movie started. I thought Jenna would really get a kick out of it, but some of the images were a little too "larger than life" for her. She got scared with all of the loud sounds and some of the visual effects. So much so, that she crawled into my lap and shut everything out and went to sleep! I couldn't see how she could have possibly slept with the sound!


Later she recovered and enjoyed checking out the xylophone made of different materials so you could hear the differences in sound.

Working together!

And lastly, Robby loves this part of the museum. Here you can make sand barriers and see if you can direct a flow of water. I think he just likes the fact that it is almost like playing in mud!

Backpacking the Grand Canyon

NOTE: All of the pictures and some of the text for this blog were taken from Andra's blog. Robby and I didn't take a camera down with us so our memories will be preserved by pictures taken by Andra, Forrest, and Tommy. Thanks guys for taking some great pics! I just wanted to post something here for my family to see, so there probably isn't anything new for Robby's family to see unless you want to read my perspective which wasn't that different.



This past week we fulfilled one of Robby's long time desires to hike to the bottom of the Grand Canyon and back. It was even better because we were able to make this trip with Robby's 3 brothers and 2 of his 4 sisters. Little Robby and I both joined the expedition and Jenna stayed behind (on account of being too young for this trip) at Aunt Andra's house with Grandma, Grandpa, Uncle David and her three cousins.

This trip was a year in planning, and ended up being a great success. We all had a very memorable journey. I will share some of the highlights through these pictures.

Here are the boys, trekking poles in hand, standing at the top of the South Rim ready for the adventure to begin. (L to R - Robby, Logan, Forrest, Tommy, and in front Little Robby)

Okay, this isn't the best picture since the sun was very bright, but here are the girls excited to start the adventure. (L to R - Summer, Andra, and Sharon)

Here is our little adventurer near the beginning of the hike. Before we left, we were a little worried about how well he would be able to keep up with the adults on the hike, but instead he was just about always right behind the leader wishing he could blaze the trail.

Along the way we were careful to stay hydrated.

As we neared the last couple miles of the seven mile hike to the bottom, we were glad to see this view of the river and part of the campground because it meant we were close.

This was a view of the river taken from the black suspension bridge near Bright Angel Campground. Beautiful!

Here Robby demonstrates how we all felt after that first day of hiking - Dead!

Andra and I looked like twinkies during much of the trip because we shopped together at REI before the trip. When we bought the shirts Andra's husband convinced us both to buy the same color shirt (to be honest there was a limited selection of colors and none of the other choices were very flattering on either of us.)

Also, this picture was taken in front of the canteen at Phantom Ranch. I think what saved me was the fact that Andra was able to reserve dorm room beds for the three girls during both nights of our stay at the bottom of the canyon. I was so sore the next morning I could hardly walk, and I think it would have been worse if I had slept in a sleeping bag on the cold hard ground.

Here are the boys' accommodations at the Bright Angel Campground.

On our day of rest at the bottom of the canyon, Andra and I walked over to the Boat Beach together. While there she captured my special moment touching the water of the Colorado River. This is my proof that I really was at the bottom of the Grand Canyon!

Also during that day, Andra and I had to doctor some massive blisters that Robby developed on his heels during the hike down. Everyone had to stand around and watch because they had never seen blisters so large! (I will spare you from seeing the actual blisters themselves.)

This is Robby's sister Summer loading up for the two day hike back to the top. What a cutie!

I love this shot! This is seven of us on the trail hiking back to the top (Robby was taking the picture.)

Robby and I enjoy a breather break together along the trail.

After a 2 day and total of 9.8 mile hike we made it to the top! Here are the six brothers and sisters who went (L to R, in order of youngest to oldest - Logan, Summer, Forrest, Tommy, Andra, and Robby -- Robby has two more sisters who couldn't make it.) It felt like we had just finished a marathon (not that I've ever run a marathon, but it's like completing something incredibly momentous.) I realize people have accomplished much greater things, but for me this was big! We did get a big group picture, but it was on one of the brothers' cameras, so I will have to post it later.

We're ahead! (Date #3)

And here's date #3... We had a great time going out to dinner and a local comedy club called Jester'z with Andra and David. I haven't laughed so much in a long time. Jester'z is a clean improv comedy club. They use audience suggestions to set up absurd improv scenes. It was hilarious seeing what sort of crazy things they would do. Maybe we could take some of you when you come to town some time.

And here's our picture of proof!

A trip to the railroad park

The Families Supporting Adoption organization that we are a part of had a fun picnic at a railroad park close to our house. We had never been there before, and afterwards I wished I had gone sooner. The day was so nice. We are in November now, and we have finally gotten to the weather that won't make you sweat the first two minutes you are outside.

Not to long after we arrived, we had a surprise. Robby's best friend was also at the park celebrating a birthday of a cousin. Robby thought that was great, and they went back and forth between the two parties eating food in both places.

Jenna enjoyed running and playing on the playground...

and sliding down the slide.

But, her favorite part was riding on the carousel. "I want to ride the Horseys!" she would say.

Ahhh, the life of a little girl.

The main attraction at this park is the scale model of a steam engine train that people can ride. In fact, it even has a cattle car, which is where Robby and Jenna insisted on riding. (I opted for a gondola seat - open topped box car.)

Here we are coming into the station.

"Bye, bye Horseys!"

Goldilocks gets her first haircut!

I know, I know... you're thinking, "Why in the world did they wait so long to get her haircut?!" She has such pretty golden locks that we had a hard time cutting it. Not to mention the fact that we wanted it to still be long enough to be able to put her hair in pony tails even after the haircut. So look below for the before, during, and after shots.

Jenna before, this was taken right after her nap so her hair was still a little crazy.

Before again, look at her long hair!

During... she didn't want to sit in the chair by herself so we gave her a choice of sitting in Mom's lap or Dad's lap. She chose Daddy (which was fine with me because I really was not "picture material" that day.)

And finally, after... She cut about 1 - 1 1/2 inches off in the back just to even it up with the sides and then she trimmed the ends off the hair in the front. All in all, her haircut took about 5-10 minutes!

Jenna is so happy to talk about her haircut now. If you ask she will say, "I got haircut and then I got candy!" She'll do just about anything for candy.

Little Robby's 2nd Comment Survey

If you haven't seen it you should check out Little Robby's blog to see the "2nd Comprehensive Survey of Family Blog Comments." Go see who wins the title of the Comment King/Queen!