Monday, August 14, 2017

Amazing Race Part 13

Before I begin to recap the rest of the race I need to document some more recent memories.

We started Kinder, 2nd and 7th grade on Thursday. Its honestly not as huge a day for us as it is for most families. We practically live at school year round and my kids have been there since Pre K3. The only difference on Thursday was a schedule, a new teacher and having to wear uniforms again. I felt the same way..new kiddos (including my own 7th grader), back to the bell schedule and I had to look decent. Don't get me wrong, we were all excited but there were hardly any nerves or the need to make a big spectacle out of things!
Meet the Teacher Night...meet her? WE LOVE HER!! We hung out with her this summer....MRS. NEIMEYER!!!

Meet her? We go to church with her and she taught my Goober two years ago! MRS. WHITE

These are mock first day pictures. We go the night before (pays to have a key card!) and take pictures without everyone else on campus! 2nd grade desk!

Kindergarten classroom. Same one as Ribbit but different teacher!

We take one picture in these two spots every year!

At the end of her actual first day....they celebrated summer birthdays!

Other funny memories-
We were playing Uno the other night and Little Man got so excited to finally have UNO that he yelled it and then showed us all his one card left....we died laughing.
During the same Uno card game Ribbit put down a Draw 2 card against me, looked at me and said "its personal"....bwa ha haha.
Goober was so excited to start 7th grade....honestly, its the most ready he has ever been for school. Except for the part where you have to remember to bring in your summer reviews on the first day....yup, he left all of those at home on the first day and thankfully his really nice dad came to his rescue.

Ok, on to the race. We left Tuba City and drove towards Page, AZ. The clue told us to find Horseshoe Bend. When we got there the parking lot was full of cars and tour buses. There were many Asians there dressed in church clothes and I felt so bad for the women in pantyhose, skirts and long sleeve shirts. I was soaking through my short and t-shirt so I knew they were HOT and UNCOMFORTABLE! You know that old saying of "uphill both ways"...well its true at Horseshoe Bend..you have to hike uphill both ways up and down a sand dune and dang its hard. BUT SO WORTH IT. The view is amazing, the water is soooo blue. BUT, there are NO GUARDRAILS...none, and people were once again doing crazy things to get pictures. Don't worry, our Edge Nazi (Adam) kept us all from getting too close and we enjoyed the scenery in the safest way possible! On the hike back Adam and I both carried a child....we looked like we had just stepped out of the shower after that climb!
I mean come on....what kind of God do we serve that he can create such beauty like this? PRETTY STINKIN AWESOME

I'm surprised Adam took this picture....he was pretty upset at us for even being this close...hehe...love you babe!

When we got our next clue it said to Head to our Pit Stop for the night and we all cheered. We were exhausted and our campsite was at Lake Powell. Lake Powell also looks like a different planet with its beautiful water and mountains and rock formations. The kids loved the actual lake...even though it was brown and muddy. They would reach down and find treasures of rocks and chunks of cement. They were able to build sand castles and cover themselves with mud. We even had our first experience with a French topless swimmer....lots of education on this road trip! We had to convince the kids to come get out and come eat dinner..they could have swam all night long!
Panoramic view of the lake!

HI MOM! I got in up to my knees but I don't swim where I can't see the bottom!

Just lovely!

Me and the hubs enjoying the view of our littles splashing and bringing us treasures!

You would have thought we had bought each kid their own Toys R Us store by the way they acted when we told them they they were going to get a 15 minute hot shower each...and for only $2 a pop!!! Ribbit and I shared one and had plenty of time to clean off, actually shampoo and condition our hair, scrub our bodies and I got to shave my legs (GLORY). BUT, we had no clean towels since all of the washers and dryers were being used. So we got real resourceful....Ribbit and I used paper towels after we drip dried. The boys were just happy to have clean clothes so they put those on and then stood underneath the hand dryers...heheh...I feel a good "you might be from Alabama" joke coming on! Ribbit said "this has been the weirdest day of my life!".

Back at camp the guys got started on dinner..you can see the lake from our spot!

We thoroughly enjoyed some pineapple popsicles while at the lake! YUM
The showers relaxed us and after we all read in our tent we watched the stars and found many constellations before falling asleep. We knew there was no chance of rain so we left the tarp of. Unfortunately our final clue of the day reminded us that we hadn't done a great job at "loving God, honoring our family and showing kindness to our siblings". We were told that we may be penalized for not following the rules in the future. It was a good reminder to all that we were on the race as a family and that our words and actions reflect whats in our hearts.




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