Supplemental photo's

Here are a smattering of photo's that I took during this past week to add to the ones Rhi has posted.

Here is Zany and I dressed eerily similar for a day of shopping

Leave your camera out, its more crazy eyes for crazy times!

I don't have gel which is what the boys use for there hair, but I do have mousse. They loved it though.

What self-respecting pug owner doesn't have the obligatory picture of him wearing sunglasses

Ashamed to admit I ruined these eggs by over boiling. Least I shan't have to do them next time now :)

Sweet Nona with flowers at the Graveside

Don't let Rhiannon fool you she was bested by the whale. I especially love McCoy's face.

Did Quinton tame the beast?

Nope!!

Bucking Tiger on the Gila River!

Quite a few Arizona Rivers run only seasonally so you have to take advantage of them when they are running. We had another outing to the Gila River and noticed the level of water had dropped quite a bit since last we were there. When I was a high schooler, we would get old truck tire inner tubes inflate them and float from one bridge to another about a three mile trip. It was a lot of fun, but sadly I am told by my mother that car tires are now tube less.  In fact, my only scar from childhood comes from an adventure when I was tubing and hit some rapids where lost my tube and I was also separated from my party.  I began to walk back alone on foot and had to cross a barbed wire fence in so doing I sliced open my calf. I eventually made it back to civilization after a couple of hours but I never did find my tube. I have a small scar on my calf to remind me of the day.

During our outing we discovered a bucking tiger that threw quite a few unsuspecting riders.

Zany gets bucked off.

McCoy enjoying a nice float when . . .

he is tossed overboard.

Archy grabs the tiger by the tail! Watch out for Zany!

Zany and Archy fight over the tiger.

Archy gets away with the tiger (it was his turn) making Zany's very upset.

Archy goes for a wee ride until

Zany gets the tiger back.

Eddy takes Zany on the water which she didn't like at all and who can blame her you saw what happens when a tiger bucks in the water just ask McCoy. . . 

or Ashlee.

Just missed the picture of her getting bucked off but she did and was drenched.

Quinton floated on this whale while Declan preferred freestylin' it without a float.

McCoy got really good at balancing on this plane and he would float down the river get out walk back to the start and do it again.

Zany prefered the plane on the ground

Declan and Quinton enjoyed a few sword fights

River baseball

Quinton pitches to McCoy

To get a home run in river baseball you have to hit it in the water which adds an element of fun as you have to retrieve the ball before it gets downstream. Declan and Archy chase after it.

Zany on plane

Say your really talented at everything you try and you are sitting on a bank of a river with time on your hands what do you do?  Well if you are Pa you cut a few river willows peel them find a good size rock and make a tomahawk with just your bare hands.

Nona & Pa with tomahawk.

But as Pa will tell you if you want to make a tomahawk you can only do it in the spring when willows are green. If you go to the river watch out for those bucking tigers!

DIY: How to Set a Headstone--Part One

My amazingly kind Grandpa Agle passed away in November 2013 having lived a long wonderful life. Having buried his remains in a previous post we return to set his headstone on easter weekend. I didn't find a lot of directions online on how to set a headstone so I thought I would share how we did it here. 

His headstone was about four feet tall so we measured to see how deep we wanted to buried it. We decided fourteen inches would be best.

My Grandpa loved broadway musicals and his favorite was "Singing in the Rain" so the quote, "You were all the sweet things rolled up in one" comes from the song You Were Meant for Me sung by Gene Kelly. Dennis was such a kind, sweet man who we miss greatly.

We gather for a photo before we begin to dig the very hard rocky ground. We dug eighteen inches down.

Then we lined the bottom of hole with bricks to help keep headstone level and make sure it doesn't ever sink.

We measure to make sure the hole is deep enough.

We used a quick setting cement called Quikrete and mixed it in a wheelbarrow with a little water.

Pa showed us the proper technique of mixing the cement with a hoe: push forward, pull back. Archy did a good job mixing it.

Quinton takes a turn mixing the cement.

We let the cement set up a bit as we got ready to lower the headstone. This was the tricky part as the headstone weighed about 280 lbs and was awkwardly heavy. We backed the truck up to the hole and put straps around it for Eddy and I to hold while lowering it. Pa held a metal pole to brace and help lower the headstone carefully to the bricks. We were worried if it hit to hard on the landing it might crack. Thankfully all went well and we lowered it without incident. 

Pa rocks it back and forth it to get it centered and we had to adjust the bricks a bit (putting more dirt under one) to get it leveled.

Once it was level, one person held the headstone while the cement was carefully shoveled in around it and then the handle of the hoe punched holes in the cement to make sure there wasn't any air pockets. Then we set some fist sized rocks in the cement all around the headstone to make it really firm. After that we shoveled the dirt back on top of the cement. 

The headstone is set.

After the cement has dried, we will go back to pour the footer around the base of the headstone and add a pair of vases for flowers.

Everyone helped with various parts of the process and it all went very smoothly. Pa was the mastermind behind the all the steps to setting the headstone. Usually the funeral home sets the headstone but we wanted to do it for our dear grandpa.  I am glad my kids could help with it as it was a really lovely experience!

Easter Egg Hunt--AZ style!

The boys got to stay overnight in Duncan for Easter Eve and so just Eddy, Zaynzley and I went to Stake Conference for church. I wanted to get a picture of Zany in her dress and she kept insisting I take a picture of her back. I finally cooperated with her so she cooperated with me. 

Zany's back.

Zany finally turns around for a photo.

Eddy and Zany

After our stake conference, we changed and loaded up and went to the Germaine Homestead where we did the Easter baskets. Since I always had a chocolate easter bunny when I was a kid I feel like I have to have one for all of my kids.

McCoy to chocolate bunny: I am going to demolish you!

We have always gone to the Germaine's for Easter.  Our tradition is to dye eggs and then hide them on their large property.

The light was terrible for a photo but everyone colors on and dyes the eggs.

Pre-Hunt Group Shot

We hide them all over the desert so it takes quite a while to find them all.

Nona usually provides a few eggs with a $5 bill in it and they are hidden with the other regular eggs. Last year one of the five dollar eggs was never found. Ashlee went to hide an egg this year and in the hiding place she was going to use she found the five dollar egg from last year. She left it for the lucky finder. See Quinton  in the top of the photo that's him finding the $5 egg. Nona gave them a clue to it's location and Quinton raced off ignoring the other eggs. He was pretty happy to get a money egg (he actually got two $10 bucks baby!). 

Archy finds a egg by himself.

Declan counts his eggs to see if he reached the limit. We divide the number of eggs by hunters so each hunter got five real eggs and twelve plastic eggs.

Eddy tells Archy: No really Archy, I just want to look in your basket. Bwah ha ha ha!

Quinton was sporting the basket either Ashlee or I used  as kids; we both think this basket was ours. It has these little Avon basket ornaments that we fought over as kids.

Zany finds a egg in the Irises 

I believe in the Easter Bunny with the baskets of candy and small gifts, egg dying and hunt as a fun element of Easter but I also want to include the more important spiritual aspect of the Savior, Jesus Christ. I like to do a program for Christmas and I decided to do one for Easter since we really hadn't had much in the way of spiritual FHE's leading up to Easter. I found a pinterest Easter activity that suited my needs. Using twelve plastic eggs you place things in them (for example a small stone, thorn and red fabric) that refer to the last week of Jesus's life and then read small paragraphs about them as you open them. It was really neat and got the kids involved since they couldn't open their egg until it was their egg number.

Gathered for the Easter Program

I also had the kids earn their Reese's Peanut Butter Eggs this year. In our clan, the Reese's Peanut Butter Egg is the most desired Easter treat we don't even do Cadbury Eggs. I made special eggs that had various tasks they had to perform relative to their age. Zany held pictures of Jesus as we talked about him. Archer sang "Jesus Wants Me for a Sunbeam," McCoy read some scriptures, Declan read an Easter poem, Quinton read a story and gave his testimony. Frankly, I just cut things out of the April Friend Magazine and put them in Easter eggs with instructions. They were all happy to have parts in the program; it was really casual.

Declan reads his Easter poem.

We had a lovely time spending the day together. Ashlee will keep her eye out to see how many eggs we missed finding as she goes about the homestead. Don't worry all the money eggs were found this year.