July Happenings

 July was a busy month with Megan and Matthew starting high school!

Celebrating the 4th of July in downtown Chandler.

Fireworks!

Matthew sporting a mullet partway through his haircut.

We went to Tucson to celebrate Lionheart's 1st birthday! (His actual birthday is June 29th; we celebrated the first weekend in July.) Here he is opening his gifts.

Playing with his new popper.

Megan helping Lionheart walk.

Megan, Lionheart and U

Grandpa and Lionheart with his cake.

Grandma holding Lionheart while he practices his piano skills.

Matthew loved playing with all the nerf guns.

Lionheart and Grandpa

Champion, Sarah, Lionheart, Me, U, Megan and Matthew

Megan shows off her braiding skills.

Bumblebee! (The Transformer)

Megan and Matthew had marching band camp the week before school started. It was long 10 hour days where they met a lot of friends and learned lots about marching band. This picture is from the performance they did for the parents at the end of the week.

We went to Feed My Starving Children with some friends.

Megan, Matthew, Vanessa and Jacob worked in the warehouse (hence the red hairnets).

Megan, Jacob, Colton and Matthew with the session stats.

Megan on her 1st day of 9th grade.

Matthew on his 1st day of 9th grade.

Megan and Matthew with the Marching Huskies sign that the band put in our yard.

We were able to watch them practice marching one evening. Here are a couple of pictures of Megan. She is marching the clarinet and also plays clarinet in symphonic band.

Here are some pictures of Matthew. He is playing the baritone for marching band as they do not march trombones. He is playing the trombone in jazz maroon. And, yes, he is wearing a jacket in 100+ degree weather. We even got him a white one since he is supposed to wear a white top.

We did a new magic puzzle. Here's the initial completed puzzle.

And here's the puzzle (and Matthew's hand) after the magic.

We did the Colombia Yum Box.

Tombstone

 Matthew and Me headed down to Tombstone for a few days of fun.

Our first stop was the Courthouse which is a state park.

Many types of barbed wire.

Recreation of the gallows where 5 men were hung.

Matthew enjoyed practicing his shooting skills. He got 20 shots and, if he got all 20, which he usually did, he got an extra five.

Looking at the range.

Matthew shooting at a target.

We went to a shooting show. 

We played historical mini golf where we learned something about Tombstone at each of the holes. It was a nice course.

We went on the Good Enough Mine Tour. Yes, "Good Enough" is actually the name of the mine. It was the second mine of Ed Schieffelin, the founder of Tombstone, and he said the silver was "good enough." It was nice to get down into the cool mine for a bit. The lights were turned off at one point during the tour and it was very dark. The guide shone a blacklight flashlight around the mine and the old candle wax glowed. It was all over!

Cool formation

Me and Matthew with our hard hats.

We went on a stagecoach ride.

Matthew on the ride.

Me

We picked up dinner at a delicious sandwich shop (Mom and Pop's) and watched some shows in the hotel room.

The next morning, we headed to the OK Corral and explored its grounds.

A staging of the famous gunfight.

We watched a reenactment of the gunfight. It is interesting how they frame "good guys" and "bad guys." I don't think it was so clear cut.

Statue of Ed Schieffelin. He had been warned that the only stone he was likely to find was his tombstone so that is what he named his first claim and the town.

We went on a trolley tour. It was interesting and we learned a lot including that there were 5 Earp brothers living in Tombstone. We learned about Nellie Cashman who did many positive things for Tombstone.

After eating some ice cream, we headed down to Bisbee.

Me and Matthew on the Queen Mine copper tour in Bisbee. The mine was in operation for almost 100 years.

A drill

We stopped by the lavender pit, which is a former open air copper mine.

We picked up dinner at Mom and Pop's again. We also got some dessert :)

Strawberry rhubarb pie

Tombstone Sarsaparilla

We had a nice time in Tombstone.