I Passed!

I've been studying karate as a white belt at Morningstar Karate in Surprise, AZ since May 2009. I joined after watching Jase and Jonah's great examples for 1-1/2 years and it's been a family hobby ever since. So, last night was my first official testing session to receive my yellow belt and....I passed! [In case you couldn't guess from the title of this post.] It was 2-1/2 hours of grueling Kata (Won-shu), Wazas (1 & 2) and Basics over and over and over again---oh, not to mention that at the very end Sensei asked us to finish off with 100 push-ups--yah, right! I survived, but barely :) Jase & Jonah were there for me through it all to offer loving support and take lots of pictures. PS. I love you. [HAHA I rote that] I love you. [Written by Jonah when I stepped away from my computer--need I say more?!) KEE-YAH!

Jonah's Turn

Asher spent Sept. 23rd and 24th with a fever...and then it was Jonah's turn today!! So, he spent a lot of the day in his bed. At one point this afternoon he called for me to "come see," so I came running with my camera and captured this sweet moment! I'm so grateful to have sons who love each other...well, when they're not fighting, teasing, yelling, screaming, yeah...

Newest Family Member

The Elsberry family is proud to present the newest member of our little family, Ben, the Gerbil. He is peach in color, small, cute, friendly and male...in case you were confused by the pink cage. He likes to sit on Jonah's desk during the day, entertaining him with his burrowing habits, eating with his cute shrunken front claws, and persistently trying to scurry behind his wheel instead of inside it. He's a bit odd, but super sweet which makes him a perfect fit into the Elsberry household!

Spontaneous Pillow Fight!

So, because Ash has had a fever this week he got to take a break from his typical routine of therapies and habilitation. Yesterday, what started off as straightening up the family room for Mommy turned into all out "war!" Ash was trying to cover Jonah up with as many pillows as he could find and then, later, wanted to be covered up himself. It was all too cute and I had to take pictures of all the excitement.

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Summer is Over

It was a happy time...it was a sad time...it was our last swimming excursion at the Marley Park pool! As you can tell from the pictures, it was already too cold for Mommy to want to dive in even though it was only September 18th! We definitely had a short summer this year in Arizona--mostly July, August, and the 1st half of September were hot. Now, it is quite cool and breezy in the mornings and evenings--only feeling warm during the day. Anyway, the boys had so much fun together splashing around, jumping into the pool and just relaxing and posing for me (there was NObody else there!) Good-bye swimming pool---we'll miss you!

Fishing, anyone?

Jase left on September 12th to go deep sea fishing with his dad, Gary. They drove together to the San Diego harbor Saturday afternoon and boarded the boat that night. After contending with a small case of sea sickness Jase was able to keep some food down (fun!) Sunday afternoon and was finally able to fish for a bit...coming home triumphant with 3 large Tunas (yum!). They got back into harbor Monday morning, the 14th, and came home to us Monday afternoon. It was fun to see his catches and BBQ Tuna last night. He has totally spoiled us in that I don't know if I can buy the frozen Tuna steaks from Trader Joe's anymore after this :)

Jay's Adventure

This photo of Jase and I was taken as he was rushing out the door-so to speak-to embark on an exciting, adventurous 2 day trip with Gary deep-sea fishing off the coast of San Diego. It was kind of a spontaneous idea, but Jase couldn't resist! He and Gary drove to San Diego right after our Elsberry family "ward" campout (see previous post) and left the dock late Saturday night. He'll be arriving home sometime Monday afternoon (hopefully) with a chest full of salt-water fish. Jonah prayed that he'd catch at least "one"...oh, and not drown in the sea, or get attacked by sharks, or...

Attempted Ward Campout

Well, we had our Copper Canyon Ward Campout last Friday, Sept. 11th. It was to be held at Marshall Lake (which is just south of Flagstaff). As we usually opt-out of Ward campouts due to various reasons (too far away, lack of sleep, kids too young, etc.), we decided to be adventurous and supportive and actually attend this one! So, we get everything ready, make sure we've got good directions, and drive for 3 hours up to Flagstaff. By the time we got close, it was dark and so we didn't see even one sign directing us to the campgrounds. But we continued on and managed to get to our destination...with one little hiccup---NO WARD! Yes, that's right, there wasn't anyone to be found ANYWHERE! We drove higher, we drove lower, we "off-roaded" in our little Saturn. Finally, it was around 8:30 and Asher started screaming his head off--his patience having finally run out (poor kid!). So, we decided that our Ward Campout was going to be the Elsberry Family Campout and we pulled off the road to a little secluded spot of Earth with an already-made firepit. We were so happy to finally be somewhere-anywhere-that we were practically jumping for joy. Jase was such a good sport and set up our tent in the dark while Jonah happily searched for wood scraps to use to start a fire. So, we had Oreos by the fire and enjoyed ourselves with our one good chair and 3 man tent. The stars were incredible to behold and we felt grateful to just be together. Because the "Ward" was providing breakfast, we packed up early and headed over to McDonalds--the perfect end to an unexpectedly great campout experience. P.S. We never did see anyone or the promised "signs" telling us where to go---next year? We're carpooling with the Bishop :)

Roughing It

Heading Home

9/11

I'm sure we all stopped, if even for a brief moment, last Friday to remember those affected by 9/11. My thoughts always turn back to a time when Jonah was only 6 months old and I was watching it from my T.V. set in Spanish Fork, UT...watching the towers falling...and a mother running through the dust and debris with her young baby about Jonah's age...and my heart broke. We were all changed that day and realized what it meant to come together as Americans...to grieve together...to fight together.

The Church has put together an amazing documentary regarding 9/11 that touched my heart. Please view it at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mkWc_EKLs4E.

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2nd Grade Graduation!

This post is about 1 1/2 weeks late, but I wanted to officially announce that Jonah finally finished his 2nd grade homeschooled year--yeah!! He took Mon, Aug. 31st off as his "graduation day" and enjoyed watching endless cartoons, swimming, and eating his favorite breakfast cereal Cream-of-Wheat. Ash joined in the fun as well by playing on his favorite online website, Starfall--an ABC learning site. We're so proud of all that Jonah accomplished last year. We began 3rd grade officially last week on Sept. 1st. His curriculum consists of part Christian Light Education, a workbook based program we use for Math and Language Arts, and part Robinson Curriculum, a literature-based program we use for Reading, Spelling, Vocabulary, History, etc.
Jonah is currently learning self-teaching and to manage his time/schedule independantly, spending about 5 hours/day on Math, Writing, and Reading and learning to love the Great Books and classics of the 19th and 20th centuries. He is also continuing to practice piano, karate, and is learning Latin. Further, he just auditioned for the Phoenix Boys' Choir and was accepted! He will starting in the training choir this week. We're very proud of him!