4th of July week

We had a great 4th of July week. We woke up Monday and got the rest of our laundry washed (we had no clean clothes after the family reunion!). We packed, yet again, and ran a couple of errands before we headed out of town. We got to Thatcher and met with my sister Emily and her husband Sam to eat dinner at Pizza Hut. My parents were at a movie, they didn't know we were going to get there on Monday. We like surprising them :o).

Anyway, Tuesday, we didn't do much. We hung out at my moms house, went to Water Depot for a snow cone and then went to dinner. We went to a Mexican restaurant that my sister-in-law's parents own called Casa Manana. We went there to celebrate my grandma's birthday. Four of us ended up getting free fried ice cream for our birthdays. Anthon's birthday was the 29th, Hailey's was the 30th, Grandma's was the 1st and mine was the 5th. It was fun. My kids loved their chips and salsa!

On Wednesday we went to the Safford public pool. It was really nice getting in the pool. It was SO hot down there!

Anthon was busy taking the kids down the slide the whole time. They wouldn't let the kids go down by themselves.
Our children LOVED it!

On Thursday we took the kids and Aubrey and Austin to watch Wall E. They loved it! It was a pretty cute movie. I was mad though. We went to the Family Dollar to get some candy to sneak in to the movie. We waited in line for a while and when we finally got to the cashier there was a tiny little sign that said 'Cash only'!!! You would think they'd have a bigger sign and in a place that can be seen BEFORE you get to the register. So we had to wait in the other line which took forever!! We finally paid for our treats and went to buy our tickets for the movie and guess what......Cash only!!! They won't take a debit card or anything! At a movie theater!! Can you believe it?! So we pile the kids back in the car and ran to the Bank of America in Safford and made it back just in time! We sat in our seats and the movie started like 30 seconds later. Anyway, it was still fun to watch the kids watch the movie.

When we were done, we got ready to go to Hailey's birthday party at my sister's house. They just got an above ground swimming pool so we all swam and had lots of fun.

McKay loved being in this little floaty. It was nice because it kept the sun off him. He burns as easily as I do.

This is Hailey opening her present from us. She is kissing the shirts! So cute!

Friday morning we woke up and got the kids bathed. We got ready and went to Pace Gardens (the nursery that my sister and bro-in-law own) and kind of helped finish getting the float ready. We were all in the parade. We didn't get to see many other floats but it was a lot faster being in the parade than watching it.

This is the float we were on. Makenna, Aubrey and Austin were in the spa and Anthon and I and Sarah and Matt were sitting on the benches behind it. My parents and my sister decorated their Arctic Cats with flowers and stuff too and McKay was sitting with my mom in that.

After the parade, we went to Sarah's house and swam and had a BBQ. We were swimming for at least 3 hours. It was really fun. McKay got really tired and fell asleep in the little floaty thing he was in.

So cute.
Sarah let Makenna use this bathing suit they had. It's one of those progressive swim suits. You can take out the floaty things one at a time so they learn how to swim. Anyway, Makenna REALLY enjoyed it. She spent the 3 hours in the pool jumping from the ladder into the water and swimming back. She wouldn't let anyone help her. She LOVED it! McKay saw her swimming so he wanted to also. He wanted to get out of the floaty thing but didn't want anyone to hold him. He kept trying to swim away. It was really funny.

After we went swimming, we went home and showered and went to watch the fireworks at the fairgrounds. They had a little show there and stuff.

Our little family watching the fireworks

Mom took out some Sparklers that she bought when we got home and we played with those for a while. They don't make them as long as they used to.

McKay was a little scared of them. He wasn't too sure about holding it but he loved watching them.

Makenna really enjoyed them. She doesn't look too happy in this picture but I promise, she enjoyed it :o). She was tired after such a long day and as you can see, she got burned from all the time we spent outside that day.

On Saturday we went and got some snow cones from Water Depot and got ready for a little party that my mom was having for me for my birthday. I can't believe I'm 25!! Holy cow! All of my family came over and we had a big lunch and some cake. My sisters got me the movie Benchwarmers and some candy and popcorn. My mom and dad got me this beautiful picture

We got home at 9:30 that night. It took us a while to get home because we were pulling a trailer full of stuff. My sister Julie moved down this weekend and she needed our Suburban to pull it. We helped her unload it on Sunday after church.

Everything is almost back to normal now. I still have TONS of laundry to do and a little bit of cleaning but it's nice to be home.

Rogers Reunion 2008

Family Reunion

My dad's side of the family used to have reunions quite often when my grandma was alive. We usually got together for Thanksgiving in Snowflake. My grandma died in 1990 from cancer and my family never got together for an actual reunion after that.

Well, after going to Anthon's family reunion last summer I decided that I wanted to try to do one myself with my dad's side of the family. It had been years since I had seen some of them. Probably more than a decade. Anyway, after lots of phone calls and emails and planning, I got it all put together and we had our reunion this past weekend. We had it up in Strawberry, Az. Anthon's grandma let us use her cabin and her brother let us use his HUGE piece of land for the reunion. My family stayed in the cabin since nobody else wanted to. Everyone else camped in the open field.

It was SO nice to see everyone again! We all got along so well and laughed and talked like we were all best friends. It was exactly what we needed.

The reunion started on Friday and ended Sunday. Most of my family when up Thursday night. Anthon and I went up Thursday night so we could put up signs and stuff and how to get to the campsite.









My parents and my sister brought their Arctic Cats and I'm so glad they did. It was a lot easier than taking our huge Suburban everywhere! My children love riding on them. Anytime we DID take the Sub McKay would say "I wanna ride that one" and point to the Cat. He LOVED it! Makenna loves them too. She wanted to ride the green Cat all the time.

There were 11 of grandma's great grandkids there and they all got along SO well. They were like a little gang. It was so cute. Makenna especially got along with Conner and Sierra.












This is Makenna and Conner.














Saturday morning, we all headed over to Fossil Creek to go swimming. It was a huge relief! It was really hot that day and the water was nice and cold. Too cold actually but no one seemed to care.

Even McKay liked the water. He doesn't usually do well when the water is too cold. It has to be the temp. of a bath and then he enjoys it but not on Saturday. He had a blast!


This was our little "kitchen" area. My brother-in-law, Sam, is the most prepared guy you will ever meet! He has EVERYTHING! He brought little stoves for people to cook on and stuff. It was very convenient.

Anyway, we had lots of fun and glad so many people showed up. It still wasn't even half the family but there were enough. I am very glad to be home and showered!!! I put a slide show up above so you can see all of the pictures.

We got home today at about 4:00pm. We got showered and bathed and got ready and headed over to Anthon's parents' house for a little birthday party for Anthon. Today (Sunday) is Anthon's birthday!

Happy 26th Birthday Anthon!!!!

It's tradition for us to get DQ ice cream cake for our B-days because we both love them. Just spent quite a bit a money on the reunion so we decided to share the cake instead. My birthday is this Saturday. Anyway, that's why the cake says Anthon & Jennifer. We weren't about to spent $50 in one week on birthday cakes!

Anthon got a couple of CDs from his parents. On of them was a Gladys Knight church CD and the other was a CD of the play 1856. His Uncle wrote the play. In fact, it is playing this week in Mesa if you want to go see it. It is an amazing play about the Pioneers!

Anyway, Anthon's parents also got me a present.

I LOVE this movie! I could watch it every day! Not the one with the Knightly girl :oP. It was the one made in the 90's. It is really long but VERY good. It follows the book very well.

Thank you Dorne and Nancy for the wonderful presents!

Our fun Wednesday

My parents came down yesterday so my dad could take Anthon to a Diamondbacks vs Oakland game. My dad is an A's fan and Anthon is a D-backs fan. They were sitting right next to third base. Did you know there is a little restaurant under the seats by third base? I had no idea! Anyway, Anthon had lots of fun. I'm sure it's a lot more fun talking to my dad, rather than me, about sports. I just sit there and nod my head.

To the right is my daddy-o (in the center) waiting for the game to start. They got there early so they could watch batting practice. I feel bad for them because some lady came and stood right in front of them with all her kids and they could barely see anything. They were both too polite to say anything. Thanks for taking Anthon to the game dad!

Anthon was very nice and took some pictures of Chad Tracy for me! YAY Chad!!

While Anthon and my dad were at the game, my mom took me to

She knows that Anthon HATES Seafood and I LOVE it. So, she figured we should take advantage of Anthon not being there to eat with us :o). On my plate, I had a Garlic grilled shrimp kabob with about seven pieces of shrimp. Makenna ate all of them and four of my moms! This was AFTER she had a double cheese burger. She also ate some fries. DANG!

On Saturday, we spent the day swimming and eating pizza with the Barneys at Darren's parents' house. The kids had lots of fun. Every time Anthon took McKay down the slide McKay would make this really cute pouty face and he would look like he was going to cry but then he would start talking after a few second and get all excited. Makenna loved jumping off the diving board.

In the picture to the right we have Savannah, Makenna and McKay. I tried to get their faces but they all turned away as I tried to take the picture.

Thanks to the Barneys for a great Saturday!

So, my mom told me that she was disappointed that I didn't put more pictures of our sisters trip on my post. I just figured that most of the pictures would be boring for those of you who didn't go. But, here are the rest of the pictures from our trip. Enjoy!

Sisters Trip 2008

Happy Father's Day!

Anthon, father of 2

Anthon has been such a wonderful husband and father. He loves our children so much! And they love him. Any time McKay hears something that sounds like the front door, he runs to the door screaming DADDY!!. It makes me sad when it's not Anthon though because McKay looks so disappointed :o(. Anthon LOVES reading books to them. He tries to read them at least one book a day. He is very patient with our children and is always willing to help me out with them. He can tell when I have had a stressful day and volunteers to watch them if I need to get out of the house for a little while. I'm so thankful that I have such a loving husband and that my children have such a wonderful daddy! We love you Anthon! Happy Father's Day!

Larry, father of 6

This is my wonderful dad! I am so blessed to have him as my father. He is such a kind and caring person. He is always having fun and joking around. He is the guy to go to when you want to watch a comedy. He is so funny to watch them with! He is awesome at everything he does. Seriously! He has bowled a 300 and a 299 and his average was over 200 for a LONG time! He also almost became a pro baseball player. He made it to one of the last tryouts. He was also REALLY good in Track in High School. He is one of those dads that know EVERYTHING! Everyone that knows him, loves him. I love my dad VERY much. He and my mom have sacrificed so much for their children and I am more grateful every day for them. I love you dad! You are a great grandpa to my children. They LOVE you! Happy Father's Day!

Dorne, father of 3

This is my amazing father-in-law. I seriously couldn't have asked for a better one! He is SO SO sweet! He is very content with whatever is going on. He just sits and smiles. He loves watching his grandchildren play and is always willing to watch them for us when we need time away from the screaming :o). He did a wonderful job raising his children and I can't thank him enough for being such a good example to Anthon. He is the kind of guy you could NEVER think ill of. He is perfect! Thank you so much for being such a great father, father-in-law and Papa! Happy father's Day Dorne! We love you!

(And yes, that's Makenna in Dorne's arms. Crazy, huh?!)

Oops

So, I forgot to mention a couple of things in my last post.
The first thing I forgot to mention was, when we were at Coronado Island, we were eating at some 50's diner and some guy came up to us and asked if he could take our picture for a magazine. They were doing a story on the diner and he needed some pics. Don't worry, it was a good story. I thought it was pretty cool. I would look for the magazine but I think it was just a local one. If anyone happens to see it though, let me know!
Now, the most important. I forgot to thank my husband for watching the kids. People were leaving comments about it and I realized I totally forgot to thank him! He has always been so good about watching the kids for me while I'm gone. He is a great daddy! The only thing he complained about was not being able to see me for so long. Awww! But I mean, come on, who can blame him? HAHAHAHAHA! Just kidding. Thank you TONS for watching our children Anthon! You're the greatest!
Also, Anthon couldn't take Tuesday off so Dorne and Nancy watched our kids. I really appreciate that! :o) Thank you so much you guys!