Madison's new favorite recess activity. She is becoming a bit of a daredevil, and totally stressing me out. She wants to hang upside down like the rest of the girls. She doesn't do that when I am there but I would guess she does when I'm not there. I worry about her falling and getting really hurt, but at the same time I want her to have fun. I can just hope she is making "good decisions". (the only rule on the playground is to make good decisions, this school is all about kids being kids)

1st grade picture preview

Today is picture day. Here's a preview.
Pictures I took - not the school picture professionals
Mad had fun taking these pictures this morning

pose all hers - where does she get this stuff

there's my sweet girl

Madison thought it would be great if she could wear her
vampire teeth in her school pictures

our 1st grader

The barrette was made by my sister Angela. Madison has a few of them and she loves them. They are easy for her to put in by herself. I need to get a better picture of them, they are adorable.

A-1 Mountain Road

Our Saturday adventure was on Sunday this week. Sunday morning Madison decided she wanted to go for a drive to see if she could spot some deer. Unfortunately it was already 8am, and I've heard it best to go out before sunrise. But we thought why not, it was a good day to get out as a family.

A-1 Mountain Road
a forest road not far from where we live
we have to come back here - it's so beautiful

we pulled off the road and went exploring
so fun
such a change from summer days back in phoenix

I absolutely love wild purple flowers

we all climbed around on these rock piles for a while
don't worry J stayed close to Madison
she was never in any danger

these two are so close
they are almost always holding hands
J is her protector
Madison brings out the fun kid in him

J helping Madison down from one of the rock piles
i like how he lets her be brave - but is always there to catch her

the kids

Me and Madison
thank you Austin for taking a few pictures

another thing I love about forest roads
bumpy dirt road + no traffic = kids in back
(J is very careful, they are safe. I promise)

me and Madison
taking fun pics together

2nd stop further down the road
deep in the forest
we saw deer here - in the distance
Madison decided we were going to follow them
so we hiked up the mountain

about half way up we had to take a quick break

finally at the top
"top of the world"
we could see our whole little town

and back down
this was the fun part

my typical picture of J and Madison
they alway joke that I am taking pictures of their bottoms
actually i just love seeing them holding hands
i love Madison's choice of shoes - rain boots

J and Madison jumping down the mountain
they were having so much fun

Austin - thankfully he lets me sneek in a few pictures of him

these 2 are so done having their pictures taken
I promised them that they would be thankful for all the pictures someday

Fun Run

For the past couple weeks Madison has been calling our family asking everyone to pledge her in the Fun Run at her school. She ended up being pledged a total of $16/lap. She's quite the little sales lady.

Today was the Fun Run and she did so amazing, beyond amazing. She ran, or jogged as she keeps telling everyone, all 36 laps. I could tell it was really hard for her, 36 laps is just over 2 miles. She worked so hard and really pushed herself today.

I'm so proud of her.

another book

good book, quick read.
i enjoy james patterson books - not too thought provoking, just a good escape for a few hours