Alapaca Adventure

Today's day after Thanksgiving adventure was to an Alpaca Farm.
The farm had a variety of alpacas. These animals are raised for their very soft and very warm fleece (similar to wool).

Can't you tell from this picture that their fur/hair/fleece is super clean, and soft? Grant loves all animals and started a trend of kissing the alpaca.

William followed Grant's lead.

Jessica, an animal lover too, also kissed the alpacas. (I wonder if their mouths are cleaner than humans like a dog's mouth is supposedly cleaner???)

Brittney was the last one to kiss the alpaca.

Mitchell liked petting the pig. I don't know why he was fascinated with this creature.

The farm was also home to three very large marina dogs. I've never heard of this breed before but the dogs were HUGE. Thankfully, they were very friendly.

Camber takes a turn feeding a hungry alpaca.

Justin and Joshua find plenty of hay to give to the animals.

The baby alpacas in this picture are two months old and very curious of their visitors.

After checking out the interesting alpacas, we went inside the small gift shop. Inside the shop we were able to feel how soft and warm the alpaca fleece is.

Brent ended up purchasing me this lovely alpaca hat. It has super soft baby alpaca fleece inside and extra warm adult alpaca fleece on the outside.

Presley's Picnic Party

Today was an extra special day. Today was the day that Presley received her blessing in church. It was a beautiful blessing and very special. After church was over, the Robles clan went to a fantastic park in Flagstaff for some lunch and activities. This is our hungry crowd. Everyone was loving the sub sandwiches and desserts!

Jordan was a real help in making sandwiches. I lost count of how many sub buns he loaded up with mayo, mustard and meat. We are so glad Julie married him!

Taylor is never far from her Daddy or Mommy. She looks a little worried that I'm going to try and pick her up.

Madi has the dreamiest blue eyes. Try not to get distracted by the cookie crumbs covering her lips. Her eyes just lure you in.

I asked Camber if she wanted me to delete this picture and re-take it. She laughed and said she liked the picture :)

Heidi, of course, posed for the camera holding tightly to her sub sandwich. With her hungry dad close by, I'm sure she is guarding her food!

The newly weds....ahhhhh.....they are so cute together!

Great-Grandma loved Madi's company as they tried all of the fancy desserts.

Aunt Brenda loves to have her hair blowing in the wind. We are so glad that her and Chad didn't get lost forever on their way to the church building.

Like mother, like son. They both refused to remove their glasses or look at the camera.

Grant was surprised to find out that I had a shirt made to show my love for him. Its hard to find ways to let your teenager know you care. I've decided to advertise it :)

Okay, remember the like mother, like son comment...here is another son with the same attribute. It's great to see though that Cayden likes to show his mauchoness to the camera!

Finally, a picture with the handsome Chad in it.

Play time in the park! Andrew was all over this jungle gym. He especially liked driving it.

Madi and Colby have a swinging race. Colby won because Madi is still learning how to swing herself.

Camber brought her blue princess "my little (overgrown) pony" with her to the park. Here she is seen giving her pony a ride in the toddler swing. She is such a good pony care-taker.

Robby did great climbing up and down the jungle gym. Once I even caught him voluntarily sliding down the slide on his stomach. Way to be adventurous Robby!

The one-year-old girls, Cyrene and Taylor. So very cute! Neither of these girls' preferred way of sitting is on their bottom :)

The men took advantage of the green field and challenged another group of men to a football game. These guys were intense as they played. It was fun to watch the interceptions and great passes down the field.

What you see in the shadow of this picture is a pole with a spinning wheel on it. Grant held onto the wheel while hanging upside down and let it spin him incessantly. By the time I made it over to him to take a picture of the strange contraption and how he looked, he let go and splattered on the ground. He laid on the ground for a good minute before he got up to do something else. WEIRD!!!

Heidi and Andrew having fun on the swings. Andrew wanted to go higher and faster the entire time. Its a good thing he held on tight or he would have flown off the swing and into the parking lot!

Okay, here is the shocker, Payten hung out with her Uncle Brent. She wouldn't even acknowledge his existence at church and hid from his glance, but as soon as she saw him teaching the little ladies how to catch a ball, she was in.

Sometimes the ball magically landed in Payten's glove. This time it didn't. She did have a pretty good throw back to Brent.

Madi kept her eye on the ball, I think. It should be in the glove, right? Darn it missed again. It was fun to watch the girls play catch. They were positive the entire time and didn't get discouraged by continually missing the ball. If they keep practicing everyday, they will be ready for a family softball game for sure next year!

Christmas in August

I know we haven't even had Halloween or Thanksgiving yet, but some of you are so good at getting Christmas shopping done early that I thought I should post our family Christmas list. I am so envious of all of you who get your shopping done early!

Last year we set up an organized list of how we can exchange gifts between families. I still feel the urge to get something for everyone, and although you wouldn't object to more pretty gifts, with 20 husbands and wives and 23 kids between all of us, it is just too much :( So in-case you forgot about the gift giving list and who you would have this year or if you never told your new spouse about it, here is a little reminder. Look below for this year's list.

The GIVER.............Who you get to get a gift for...
The McKinleys............David & Jacque
The Jensens ................The Baldwins
Michael & Amy............The McKinleys
Joe & Kami .................The Jensens
Daniel & Jana...............Michael & Amy's family
The Shupes...................Joe & Kami's family
The Padillas .................Daniel & Jana's family
Jacob & Natalie............The Shupes
David & Jacque............The Padillas
The Baldwins................Jacob & Natalie

As a reminder, next year we will just move column two down one space and the person at the bottom of the list will move to the top. I think someone mentioned a $20 limit so try not to go overboard and get wild and crazy.

Mom and Dad are exempt from the family gift exchange list because everyone loves to get mom and dad gifts! Plus, they want to do a little something for all of their twenty-something grandchildren.

I know we will see everyone at the big Thanksgiving Dinner in Kingman! I'm excited to see you all and anxious to watch the Family Talent Show!

Happy Birthday Grandma Sweeney!

On Monday it will be Grandma's 78th Birthday! What a lucky lady! Today she passed her drivers test and had a birthday lunch at Swenson's Ice Cream Parlor. You can probably tell by the name of the restaurant why I chose it :0 This is the party crowd: Brandon, Haley, Julie, Madi, Robby, Amy and the guest of honor Grandma. She loved wearing the birthday crown the entire time we were there. We just couldn't get her to take it off! By the way, lunch was so yummy! For $9.99 you can get a hamburger (or chicken sandwich), fries, a soda and an ice cream sundae!!! Love it!

Grandma sporting her birthday crown!

Grandma received a beautiful plant from Amy in a gorgeous greenish-brown pot. From me she received glacier blue earrings that I picked up in Alaska.

After lunch we all went to the Senior Center to say hi to some of Grandma's friends. Its always fun to go there and visit. Madi made good friends with Josie. Josie loaded her up with candy and all kind of little toys. Then Josie made a list of whatever Madi would want the next time she came. So Madi will probably be begging her mom to come back to the Senior Center!!!

Jordan and Julie's Food Fight

Jacob took this great video of Jordan and Julie feeding each other cake. It was so great I thought everyone should see it! Enjoy....

Julie & Jordan are Married!!!

Mr. & Mrs. Jordan Baldwin! Julie and Jordan were married in the Mesa, Arizona Temple on Friday, June 18th, 2010.

Julie was a stunning bride! She was having fun working the camera!

Natural beauty!

Julie's dress was absolutely perfect. She looked like a princess!

Here are all of the Robles clan that could make it to the temple for this historic event. It's pretty incredible to think the last of the Robles 10 kids are now married!

This is the Baldwin Family. Jordan is the 2nd child to be married in their family. They have many more weddings in their future. Have fun!

Sarah (due in 4 weeks!), Amy(Body for Life Champion), Julie(stunning bride), and Haley(thinks she should chop off the yellow ends of her hair).

The proud parents!

Jakey-poo, Michael (everyone's too afraid to give him a nick-name), Julie-bug(or Poopster depending on who you talk to), Dandy, and Joey.

The amazing hairstylist Auntie Brenda spent the night at Amy & Bob's house so she would be available during the wee hours of the morning to do Julie's hair. She did a spectacular job!

After we took pictures at the temple, we all decided to crash Michael & Amy's romantic lunch date at the Olive Garden. It was difficult to convince Daniel to come with us. He kept trying to change our lunch location to the Bass Pro Shop Cafeteria (YUCK!) I'm sure Mom and Dad were glad they weren't paying for all of these meals :) The food was fabulous and the company was hilarious as usual!

Jordan & Julie's reception was incredible. The church gym was decorated beautifully. The backdrop behind Jordan's parents, Jordan, Julie and Dad & Mom, was built by Jordan's uncle for his daughter's wedding. It's HUGE! It comes apart in pieces so it can be transported. Two of these wonderful arch set-ups were on opposite sides of the gym.

Julie and Jordan danced their first dance as a married couple to Tim McGraw's "Its Your Love." These guys are so mushy-in-love!

Julie and Dad and the special Father -Daughter dance to the song "Keeper of the Stars" by Tracy Bird. Dad didn't even try to embarrass her with his quirky dance moves. They looked pretty smooth!

This is a picture of Julie and her 7 Thatcher roommates! It is so cool that all these hot single ladies came to support their roomy on her marriage day. The second gal from the left is Amy, Jordan's sister. She is a super amazing volleyball player!

This is the decked out cake table. The table is not only adorned with scrumptious cakes but diamonds have also been carelessly tossed onto the table to add sparkle.

Julie and Jordan took their time to cut the cake. They were careful to get their special piece into a perfect equilateral triangle so it would look great for the pictures.

Then they went CRAZY with the cake. It was an all out WAR of cake between the two of them. If someone hadn't of interrupted them, they may have wrestled to the ground to give each other more cake. I believe the crowd picked Julie as the winner of this match!

The bride and groom quickly escaped through a sea of bubbles promptly at 8:30 so they could start their married life together. Poor Mom couldn't hold back the tears :(

Have fun in Mexico!!! We will see you two love birds soon!