Having fun in El Paso with some cute kids!

El Paso has been good to us so far.  We are loving it!  You should see all the looks we get when we take all the kids places.  And some of the comments are classic!  One person just stood in awe and quietly said, "I've never seen anyone with 7 kids before!"  We have never received so much attention before! 

The weather is cooler than the Phoenix area by a little bit and cools down at night.  We've enjoyed the monsoons every night and the thunder storms are beautiful!  We miss our family and friends, but we will be visiting soon!  Watch out!

We (meaning Caleb, Carson and myself) snapped a few pictures of Lacey playing in our backyard and some of the kids at the park.

Lacey has so much fun dressing up and loves to have her fingernails painted by some of her favorite people.  You know who you are!

She would sniff the flowers and then wipe her nose as fast as she should.  Funny girl!

Daisy is growing up so fast.  All the boys are so helpful with her, I don't know what I'm going to do when they all start school!

Here we have Ashton, Carson and Caleb.  They love having a good time!

Now look at that smile!  So precious!  How can you not smile back!  

You know you are...

Congratulations Dr. Richardson!

Congratulations are in order for Dr. Ben Richardson!  After many long years, he graduated from Medical School on June 3, 2011.  He worked so hard!  Here are pictures of the festivities.  We had a graduation party for him that evening, but I forgot to take pictures.  We all had so much fun and want to thank everyone who participated and helped in this journey.

All the adults that attended the graduation: Grandma Stanford, Ben's parents, my parents, Lacey, and Grandma and Grandpa Bear.

Calvin, Devin, Ashton, Carson, Caleb. (I held Daisy)

Ben was a part of the first graduating class of ATSU: SOMA.

Ben had some wonderful mentors.

Our family

Grandma Stanford and Ben

Ben and his parents

Ben and Briana

Ben with Grandma and Grandpa Bear

Ben with my parents

The kids being so patient.

How many people graduate from medical school with 7 kids?

And they are good kids and very helpful!

Our family

Ben with Grandma and Grandpa Richardson. They weren't able to come, so we went to them!

We are so proud of all that Ben has accomplished and the wonderful example he has set.  Now on to new adventures in El Paso!

Arizona Roadtrip-Last Day

After we left Mt. Graham, we debated on what to do: find another camping spot or get a hotel.  Hmmm...hindsight is always 20/20.  As we were driving and it got darker and darker, we managed to find a road and we took it.  Since it was dark, we didn't see that the road goes right through a wash...with lots of sand.  Now in the past we would have just put it in 4 wheel drive with our Yukon XL, but our party bus doesn't have that feature.

So all the kids were asleep in the van.  They were sleeping so peacefully that we didn't want to wake them up, so Ben and I worked and worked to get ourselves unstuck.  We tried everything we could think of.  We dug, put twigs and cardboard under the tire to get traction, forward, reverse, but we only got deeper and deeper.  Finally we retired to inside of the van.  Kids were everywhere!  On seats, the floor, on top of each other.  I found a spot to sleep by Daisy's carseat, half on the seat and half off.  Ben slept in the drivers seat for a while and then moved to that spot that you step on after you open the sliding door.  Yeah, I don't know how he slept there.

So we got some sleep. Not a very good sleep, but some.  And we tried again in the morning.  We weren't very far from the highway, inbetween Safford and Wilcox.  One nice man stopped by and tried to pull us out.  It didn't work.  He had a small blazer and we have a one ton.  So he left and came back again with more "equipment" and tried again.  That didn't work either, but it was really, really nice of him to stop and try.  In the meantime, we were able to get a hold of my brother, James, who lives in Safford.  (Funny thing is, he just pulled my sister out of the sand the week before.  Thank goodness for little brothers!)  

I wish I could have taken some pictures.  James was driving over bushes and small tress like they were nothing!  He hooked us up and pulled the van out like it was nothing!  He was a life saver!  

 

Here is the tire after we tried all night to get it unstuck.

The Van View.

It got deeper and deeper the more we tried!

We did a few things to keep us all entertained for the 12 hours we were stuck.  Obviously the first part of the 12 hours, we slept, or tried to.  When morning came around, Caleb and Carson practiced their photography skill and took a few pictures!  They took some good ones too!  Some boys made towns out of dirt and rocks and sticks.  And of course we ate lots of snacks!

Daisy

Cactus Flower

We watched the highway and all the cars.

So after we left our "camping spot", we headed to Tombstone.  On our way there, we stopped in St. David and visited the cemetery there.  We found lots of family graves there.  The boys had fun looking for the headstones.  It was like a treasure hunt.

Our Great-great Grandpa Calvin Reed.

There were lots of pictures I took.  After we visited the town of Tombstone, we went to the town cemetery.   I'm not talking about the Boothill Graveyard, but the actual town cemetery.   Here we found Tom Brandt's Gravestone.  He owned the town bank and was the first one shot and killed in a bank robbery in Tombstone.  He is my Grandpa Reed's (Pa) uncle.

Tom Brandt's Gravestone

Then in the same cemetery, Lillian Reed is buried.  I believe that she is Pa's cousin who died in an automoblie accident (when cars were first coming out).  I was honored to participate in sealing her to her parents in the Temple.

Lillian Mrytle Reed  1909-1926

We had a great time on our Roadtrip and hope to do it again.  Next time, we will avoid the sand and get a hotel.  :)  It's the trips that don't go as planned that you will always remember.

Arizona Roadtrip-Mt. Graham

On our roadtrip, we stayed in Thatcher for a day or so with Wes and Brittany.  We had fun visiting with them and our kids loved visiting and playing with their kids.  Then we took off to go camping on Mount Graham.  We drove to the top of the mountain.  It was so beautiful up there!  We went up at the beginning of the week, so no one else was up there!

Ben took the boys shooting and we had a fun lunch.  But the closer it got to the evening, the colder it got!  Pretty soon all the kids were in the van just to keep warm with blankets.  It really wouldn't have been so bad, but it was a "no burn" weekend.  Ben and I discussed what we should do because it wasn't even dark yet.  So Ben, being the A/C guy that he is and never leaves home without his tools, took out his thermometer.  It was in the high 30's!  So no wonder why we were so cold!  That was too cold, especially with a baby!  So we took down the tents and loaded up everything as quick as we could before the sun went down.  We barely made it!  

We had to change plans and quick!  This is probably why Ben and I don't plan very often, it's because the plans don't go as planned!  This was definitely one of those times.  No one could have predicted what would come next...but that is for another day.  (How's that for a cliffhanger!)

The following pictures are courtesy of Caleb.

The boy's BB guns. Apparently two of them are missing.

We had a lot to load back up into the van and fast!

We had to put our jackets before starting.

Daisy stayed nice and warm in the van, bundled in blankets.

We barely made it before nightfall, and it was COLD! (For an Arizonan family)

Arizona Roadtrip-Day 1

Towards the end of May, we decided to take a road trip to some places around southern Arizona.  We started out by heading towards Thatcher, AZ.  For those of you who don't know, we love stopping by old cemeteries.  There are so many stories left untold and histories waiting to be read.  So we stopped by the little town of Eden.  They have a little cemetery there and we didn't realize the relatives that we would find there!

We first found Ben's Grandpa Richardson's brother.  Ben was able to call Grandpa Richardson and he told us that his brother died of diphtheria.  

This is Great-Grandpa Richardson's brother.  I believe he died of diphtheria.

Outside of Old Church in Eden, AZ.

There were a few old buildings in Eden that we stopped by and took a few pictures of.  So while Ben was on the phone, he asked Grandpa about the history of the buildings.  The biggest of the buildings was an old LDS Church building.  Grandpa lived there and said that it was brand new when he was a boy.  Right by the Church building is a round building that I never took a picture of, but it says MerryLand on the front of it.  Grandpa said that was the building that they had church dances and parties in.

Old Church

Inside of Church. Half of the ceiling has fallen.

Eden Store.

These two buildings are right across the street from each other and Grandpa Richardson's Uncle ran both of the stores.  The Eden Store is easy to spot, but we almost missed the General Store.  Luckily Ben was on the phone with Grandpa and he told us about it.

General Store across from the Eden Store.

This is Calvin Reed's brother-in-law, Moses Curtis.  Calvin married Moses' sister, Mary. If I have my story right.

We found some more family names.

Long Days

Lacey and one of her many babies.

Haven't we all had one of those days.  The kind of day where you can't keep your eyes open one more second.   I'm sure that's how Ben feels everyday.  

Welcome to the life of OB/GYN Resident.  Poor guy works about 13 to 14 hours a day.  Although, he is so excited because he gets this weekend off. He hasn't had a day off for 2 weeks!  He doesn't even have time for a lunch break! 

Some people will ask me how I like being a single mom.  I don't feel like that in any way.  Ben and I are very much a team.  We always have been.  He is such a great father and husband and I feel very blessed!

Calvin's Birthday

In May, Calvin celebrated his 9th birthday!  He is a wonderful boy and we are so glad that he is a part of our family!  His favorite toy was a sling shot.

Calvin's Treasure

As many of you know, we love going to yard sale.  If fact, our kids save their money and find their own little treasures to buy.  Calvin found this k'nex roller coaster set and bought it for a couple bucks.  He worked diligently and followed all the instructions, and before we knew it...a huge roller coaster was sitting on the kitchen table!  He can really put those things together!

The roller coaster was about 3 feet high!

Super job Calvin!