There is a life outside of the computer?!? Documenting this strange occurance...

I know, I know, I haven't posted about all the hiking and other fun stuff we've done... okey dokey, here goes-

A little over a week ago (before school started for the kids), we decided to have a fun-packed weekend before school started. 

(not our limo. Lawl)

We went to GameWorks and I had so much fun romping all over Aaron in Dance Dance Revolution! I've never really been that great at it, but all of a sudden it clicked and I could do it-I had a blast. Then we went for a midnight swim in our friends' pool (they were out of town, but we had permission :) 

The following morning at 5 we did our routine Saturday hike but it was just Aaron and I and the Wilsons. It was like a fun double date. We planned to go to the Willow Springs Canyon hike, but since we woke up late we just hiked Hieroglyphics Springs again. The guys liked it (and so did Josefina and I, but we've already been there).  There were no more frogs; instead there were little tadpoles and a bunch of the tiniest little black frogs I've ever seen! soo cute! Sorry, no pics of them! Just to give you and idea-they were about the size of my thumbnail. Some of them were halfway changed from tadpole to frog and had long tails.

We picked up the kids from the Downey's house (they had had a sleepover [if you dont have an overnight bbsitting exchange with some friends, I highly recommend it!!]) and then packed our lunches and went to the Salt River to go riverboarding.  Now, this riverboarding was MUCH different than what we used to do in HS- we used to get a large board and anchor it to the shore so it stayed in one spot and skimmed the water, then you'd swim to it and get on and ride it on the rapids back and forth, jumping the waves and what not with your body weight.  What we did on on Saturday was a lot more exhilerating and much more difficult. You hook a Banshee Bungee to your board and then hold your board perpendicular to the current so it pushes you down river, then when you think the bungee is stretched enough you lean forward and it bolts you forward on the surface upstream. lots of fun!  The first time I tried, I ended up letting go of the board cause I realized that with the water pushing the board back, it also pushed my swimmingsuit into a nice wedgie. I didn't want to lean up out of the water and have everyone see my tush!  I donned the shorts and did it a few more times.  It was pretty challenging, swimming across the strong current to the other side of the river but was tons'o'fun!  The kids played in the river trying to catch fish with cups and skip rocks. (thanks, Dopps, for arranging it!) Oh and I should mention here that Bryce is a stud for taking bee infested garbage to the trash bin. Go Bryce. now pay up :)

After the river we decided to go see Inception- good movie, BTW.  I thought they rushed through the concept and plot a little too much, but I'm a sucker for Sci-fi, so whatevs.

School Started during the week.  My little Matthew is in Kindergarten now! boo hoo! He seems too young to be in kindergarten :(  He seemed fine when we took him to his class and he stood in line during the morning assembly (every day thing)  but when his class filed past us to go inside he looked like he was going to throw up- I asked him if anything was wrong and he just frowned and looked at me with the saddest eyes ever.. I said "Matthew, was someone mean to you?" and he burst into tears and said "No, I just don't want to miss you!!!" and flung his arms around my neck. Awwwww... poor little guy. I walked with him in line and held his hand. Then we seperated and he went to class and I had to still my throbbing heart. what a sweety. 

After i picked him up I asked him, "You didn't miss me at all, did you?"  "Nope!" he said...and that's that. He's officially too grown up. 

Matt and his teacher, Mrs. McKinney

 I told him we could eat lunch wherever he wanted since it was his first day of school ever- he picked Ono Hawaiian BBQ- A boy after my own heart. We shared the Chicken Katsu as usual.

i have to say though, later I was in the bathroom and he walked in.. I told him to get out, I was in the bathroom, but he wouldn't leave. He said "I'll plug my nose and close my eyes. I just want to be in here with you..." he stayed in the bathroom crouched in the corner like that. ha ha.. so he did miss me a little. cute.

.....a few posts later and we are at this last weekend.... Friday was Aaron's and my 11th anniversary.  Our ACTUAL anniversary.  We were married on Friday the thirteenth of August and as far as I know, this is the first time since we married that it's been on a Friday again. 11 years. sheeeoooot!  I KNOW, right?! We're old!  We celebrated by dining at Liberty Market, of course! Aaron got the burger of the day which was actually not a burger at all, but a salmon patty with dill cream cheese, capers and greens. 

I got the mussels and artichokes in a butter/white wine/garlic sauce with grilled semolina toast. ummm YUM.

And again we shared their perfection in a cup bread pudding. nom.

We went and saw Scott Pilgrim VS the World (cool movie) and then headed home to bed for our early morning trip. woot!

In the morning we threw on our raggedy clothes, packed some snacks/water, and got the kids headlamps, Aaron's cap light and extra batteries for my maglite and caravaned with brother in law, Brian, and neice, Jessie, to Oracle, AZ (about 2 hours away).  Yay Spelunking!

Peppersauce Cave was nice and cool and very very very slippery with mud. We named it peanutbutter cave- at one point my foot was stuck so good that my foot came out of it when I tried to walk. ha ha.  Megan was so afraid at first. she was on her hands and knees crawling along was blubbering "I'm so scared!! I dont want to do it"..etc. I told her, "Megan, we are all here with you- you're safe! Just get up and walk!" She said, "But mom... I'm TERRIFIED!"  I started laughing and just helped her along- she was happy and singing in no time. She just had to get used to it. At one point we stopped and took pictures and told everyone to turn off their lights so we could see how dark it was.  You will never be in a darker place than a cave. Couldn't see ANYTHING. it was awesome.  What WASN'T awesome is that my flashlight led bulb went out. BOOO! Extra batteries dont do you much good if the dang bulb is on the fritz! I ended up using the flashlight setting on Aaron's droid and it worked great!

Sorry about the quality! This was taken in pitch black with a droid- and no, that's not Aaron. He's taking the picture.

Brian, Jessie, Megan, Matthew, Me

Me in front of the crawl space we had to squeeze through. fun fun!

Me crawling through- are you looking at my bum?? ;) I guess I shouldn't have worn muddy camo if I wanted to be seen in this pic!

Coming out the way we came in..

We aren't THAT dirty......are we?

When we got home I made everyone strip before they entered the front door- we had our pile of clothes and shoes by the front door for a couple days :) ha ha I'm such a slacker- luckily the only things that were ruined were our white socks. other than that we came out unscathed!

BTW Matthew LOVES the headlamp. He took it to show and tell on Tuesday along with prints of these pictures and told his class all about spelunking in Peppersauce Cave :)

What a fun adventure!