Summer 2017

I finally got all the pictures off my OneDrive and onto my computer so here come 10 post in the next week. 

This is our 5th summer in Arizona. I have hated every one of them until this year. Having a pool 30 feet away from the back door makes a huge moral difference in summer here. I like having a pool so much I didn't even go to the community center once this summer. Why get the kids into a hot car and go to a pool where they kick you out for ten minutes every hour when I can grab a beer and sit by my own pool late in the afternoon without sunblock?

This year the kids probably spent 3/4 of the summer with their cousins. We were back and forth between California all summer and my twin sister made a couple trips out here as well. These kids get to spend more time with their cousins than I did as a kid and we all lived within 30 miles of each other. 

It was a busy summer. Between work, school, family issues, and working on my yard in the heat it has been really hectic. 

This was at my niece and nephew's birthday party in Riverside. It felt very much like Arizona that afternoon.

That's much better.

I think this is right around the end of June. We had my sister's kids over while she went on an early anniversary trip with her husband. I bought so ladder ball which only lasted a day before the cheap pvc melted, busted out the Obama punching bag, and we played in the heat all day.

Swimming in underwear and pink floaties.

It was good while it lasted. I'm going to have to build my own. I went outside the next day and the pipe had melted and bent over.

Zachy got a paddle board so he can learn to swim. I was trying quick swimming lessons every day but he wasn't liking it.

The kids caught a gecko in the backyard.

We went to the wash behind the house to look for coyotes. I don't remember if we found them. There has only been one time I've walked to the wash in the afternoon and didn't see a coyote and I think this may have been that time.

In July we bought a new truck. We had five kids in the waiting room all afternoon. To my surprise they actually behaved well.

The new truck. Soon we are getting a trailer to pull around with this thing.

I made the kids Shirley Temples.

At the dinner table one night the word of the day was britches. Zach said he loves his "britches".

I made a redneck water slide. Then I decided instead of just putting the hose on the slide why not give the kids a hurricane experience. Water and electricity makes a good time.

She's probably going to regret these videos one day.