Raymond Circus

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

2009-12-23T21:51:00.001-07:00

We wish you the very merriest Christmas!

We will be enjoying ours,

and we hope you enjoy yours.

New Raymond Baby

2009-09-10T11:34:00.000-07:00

We are pleased to announce that our new baby coming in February will be a . . .

BOY!!!!

See for yourself below.

We are now accepting name suggestions . . .

Zzzzzzz

2009-09-07T22:06:00.004-07:00

Every now and then, Luke will fall asleep . . . right in the middle of whatever . . . and we can't help but grab the camera.

After some comotion and laughter from the rest of us, he will do his best to wake up . . . but he is unable to open his eyes . . . all he can do is give us a big smile.

Andrew Gets His Wolf Badge

2009-09-07T22:00:00.003-07:00

Congratulations to Andrew on earning his Wolf Badge.

Brown Family "Talent" Show

2009-09-07T21:44:00.004-07:00

The Brown family can really ham it up. At the cabin in May, each family put on a little show to some music for all the others to enjoy.

Kung Fu Fighting

Rubber Ducky
Who Let the Dogs Out

The Monster Mash

Happy Birthday Carter!

2009-05-11T22:30:00.002-07:00

On May 9th Carter turned 4 and we are thrilled to get him beyond the age of 3 (if you know what I mean).

Grand Canyon Hike

2009-05-11T21:53:00.007-07:00

Amy and I hiked the Grand Canyon with Jon Brown, and Lafe & Jaime Goeckeritz on May 8. Jon, Lafe, Amy and I all had visions of completing Rim to Rim to Rim. In short, Jon completed the full 48 miles, Lafe hiked 40 miles and Amy and I went the 24 miles across to the North Rim and had an adveture getting a ride back to the South Rim. Jaime hiked the 20 mile round trip to Phantom Ranch and back.

The Canyon never ceases to provide an adventure.

We started hiking at about 2:15 a.m.
Between Indian Gardens and Devil's Corkscrew we ran into some Grand Canyon riff-raff hiking out. Rick and Brian had come to the Canyon the night before with a group of guys from work that opted to start hiking right away rather than sleep for a few hours. We met up with them about 4:30ish as they were on their way to the South Rim from Phantom Ranch.

Crossing the bridge over the Colorado River along the bottom of the Canyon.

The trail along the bottom . . . if you look closely enough, you can see Lafe up ahead of Amy.

One of the many beautiful rock formation in the inner Canyon.

Inside of Supai Tunnel . . . smart enough to realize that we still had a long way to go before the top.

Happy Birthday Tim!

2009-05-11T21:47:00.003-07:00

April 23 was my 34th birthday. There is nothing more that I want then my family around me and a chocolate cake to eat . . . all my wishes and dreams came true.

Brown Family Reunion

2009-05-11T21:41:00.004-07:00

We got together with the Brown Family to enjoy an evening at the park in April. We love being around Grandpa and Grandma Brown.

Carter, Josie & Aiden

2009-05-11T21:37:00.002-07:00

Sometimes a picture comes out just right . . . we just love this one of the cousins on Easter.

Happy Birthday Amy!

2009-05-11T21:20:00.003-07:00

Amy turned 32 on April 11 . . . It was perfect, she went off to a bridal shower which gave us boys just enough time to get to the store and buy up everything pink we could find; table cloth, forks, balloons, streamers, rainbow chip cake & frosting . . . and get home and paint the house pink.

Spencer got busy making the cake (he is now able to do it all, start to finish . . . it is very nice), Andrew is the streamer master, and Ty and Carter made lots of noise.

She got home to a bunch of boys yelling SURPRISE and we enjoyed a nice afternoon together.

We sure love you Amy/Mom . . . we hope all you wishes and dreams come true.

Little League Opening Day

2009-04-14T21:39:00.005-07:00

Baseball season is here.

Our family dedicates the months of March, April & May to baseball each year. This year, Spencer and Andrew are on the same team, the D'Backs in the Rookie division and Ty is on the Cubs in the Farm division.

The boys participated in Opening Day ceremonies by marching on the field in front of the spectators.

The D'Backs played their first game on the afternoon of Opening Day.

Andrew is one of the catchers on the team.

. . . and the future of Little League baseball.

Chiricahua Mountains

2009-04-14T19:58:00.007-07:00

During Spring Break we snuck away camping to the Chiricahua Mountains with

the Farnsworths and Goeckeritzs.

After visiting just about every gas station between Phoenix & southern Arizona to fill up Lafe's tank, we arrived at the mountain range and located a fairly quiet, secluded campsite that was only occupied by two other parties upon our arrival. No sooner did we park our vehicles that 14 little kids went a scurrying around the campsite, kicking up dust and causing ruckus. We caused such a nuisance that one of the parties at the campsite packed up and moved to another campsite as soon as the sun came up the next morning.

We had a blast shooting arrows, playing with fire, riding bikes, and enjoying the beautiful country and weather.

We hike several trails that took us along some of the unique rock formations that have made the Chiricahuas famous.

Pinewood Derby 2009

2009-04-13T21:56:00.006-07:00

This year's Pinewood Derby was one to remember. Both Spencer and Andrew participated. Hours were spent designing, cutting, machining, lubricating and polishing every part possible to maximize the speed of the car. This was Spencer's final race and he was hungry for VICTORY!

Spencer decided on a sleek design for minimal wind resistance.

Andrew opted for a car with a little more character.

On the 2nd race of the night and the first race for each of the boys, the luck of the draw paired Spencer and Andrew head to head (someone should have known better than to do that to poor old Dad).

The cars had a photo finish.

Andrew's car is on the outside lane, and Spencer's was in the middle lane. I figured Spencer's car would be somewhat speedy; however, I was pleasantly surprised that Andrew's showed some heart.

In the end, out of a field of 36 race cars, Spencer's finished runner-up to Zack Farnsworth (Spencer's cousin). Zack's dad, Dan Farnsworth, was a new comer to the race track and since I felt sorry for him, I took him under my wing and taught him several of the speed tricks. A classic case of the apprentice outdoing the master.

Andrew's car finished a respectable 6th place.

Happy 12th Anniversary

2009-04-13T21:49:00.002-07:00

Every year that Amy agrees to stay married, she earns another flower. This year marks our 12th anniversary (February 22) and she received a beautiful bouquet of a dozen different colored roses.

Valentine's Day in the Snow

2009-04-13T21:35:00.005-07:00

For Valentine's Day, we took a family trip to the snow just north of Stawberry with the Judds and the Brewsters. The snow was as thick as I had ever seen it and we had a blast.

Cardinals Rock

2009-04-13T21:28:00.005-07:00

So the Cardinals didn't win the Super Bowl. We still took advantage of creating the memory of watching the team get off the airplane at Sky Harbor airport when they arrived home.

2009-01-28T22:01:00.008-07:00

GO CARDINALS!

I show up to my house the other day with this picture of me drawn by Andrew taped to the front door. Notice the details (the Cardinals hat, the thumb turned down, the "BOO STEELERS" bubble, and I am pretty sure that is my butt chin).

It was one of my proudest moments as a father.

Merry Christmas 2008

2009-01-28T21:37:00.012-07:00

We were awoken at 5:30 Christmas morning to Andrew throwing up all over our bathroom floor. Being sick may have put a little damper on the day; however, he wasn't about to let it ruin it. Shortly after 6 o'clock the whole house was anxious to get down stairs to see the surprises from Santa Claus. The boys were thrilled to find that Santa didn't forget them.

Amy and I received a few nice gifts from the boys.

When it was all over, Andrew and I enjoyed a nice rest on the couch . . . for I do not know how many hours.

Anthem Triathlon

2008-12-07T23:32:00.006-07:00

Yesterday we had a fun day supporting Amy at the Anthem Sprint Triathlon.

Amy competed in the event with Jaime Goeckeritz and Julianne Heywood.

As spectators we had a blast cheering for the girls and the kids had fun making signs.

Here is a picture of the enthusiastic support crew.

And the kids with their signs.

400 Meter Swim

20 Kilometer Bike Ride

5 Kilometer Run

Amy finishing (with Andrew by her side and Ty behind her)

Julianne finishing

Jaime finishingOur Mom Rocks!

Andrew's Baptism

2008-12-07T22:35:00.004-07:00

We had a very special day on November 15 as Andrew got baptized. We are very proud of the young man he is becoming. We had many family and friends that showed up in support.

Superstition Ridgeline Hike

2008-11-25T22:22:00.020-07:00

Amy and I had been wanting to hike the Superstition Ridgeline "Trail" all year. In fact, we attempted to hike it back in April and after getting lost, we had to turn back. So we waited through the hot summer and decided to give it another try in November. This time we were able to convince a few of our gullable friends (Heywoods & Goeckeritz) to go with us. We pitched it to them as a nice 10 mile hike up one side of the mountain range, across the top and down the other side. . .

. . . Anyways, after a shaky start, early in the morning, we finally located the trailhead and we were on our way. It was a beautiful morning . . . and luckily we ran into James who helped us get on the right path.

We climbed to the top of the mountian where we could finally see the other side (overlooking the Valley) and our GPS told us we had gone a little less than 3 miles. I announced that we were about a quarter of the way to our desitnation. The group wasn't all that excited about the news; however, we were still in pretty good spirits. After all we were having a gay old time walking on a designated trail and slurping water/Gatorade at our leisure.

Scott, Lafe and I left our ladies while we took a detour and hiked to the highest peak on the trail.

Once we got to the peak and could see in front of us what we were up against, we became a little concerned that we underestimated our little day hike. The "trail" seemed to have disappeared dor the middle third of the hike. Instead of a nice designated path, we found ourselves spotting cairns and hoping we would see another one in the short distance. There was more than once that we lost our way and had to re-locate the cairns. The ground was loose rocks at best and spotted with cacti and yucca, of which each of us fell victim at least once. I think Jaime wins the award for the best poke (seen here with her's and Lafe's matching stab wounds, how sweet!) as it is now 4 weeks later and there is still something in her leg.

About the half way point we decided to stop for a rest and eat some of our food, and we assessed our liquid situation. We discovered that we had depleted our liquid supply by about 80%. This was not good as the route was becoming increasingly more difficult to navigate, our muscles were wearing, and the weather was warming and other than our new friend James, we hadn't seen any other hikers all day. Needless to say we all began to ration our fluids, which meant that we basically stopped eating our food, as we didn't have much to wash it down. Those "good spirits" we had the first 1/3 of the hike were now gone and our moral was pretty well depleted like our water.

After we were able to struggle through the middle section of the hike, we were able to locate a nice trail, that led us over to Flatiron and down the Siphon Draw Trail.

This was a beautiful part of the trail towards the end, where it looked like the spikey back of a dinosaur. Here are some other pictures taken towards the end of the hike.

We were dehydrated, and our muscles and feet hurt. This being said, it was a fantastic experience. If you ever plan on going on this hike, believe what you read about it. And take about twice as much water as you think you might need. It ended up being about 12 miles and and it took us about 10 hours (total time from trailhead to trailhead) to complete it.

Happy Halloween

2008-11-25T21:55:00.012-07:00

We had a blast this Halloween . . . The boys each had a good time dressing up and collecting candy. There are very few things I enjoy more than going through my kids' candy stash and picking out the Whoppers and Reese's Peanut Butter Cups.

Ty as Napolean Dynamite

Spencer as Pedro (with his buddy Napolean)

Andrew as Nacho Libre

Luke as Elmo

Carter as a pirate

With the cousins (Jackson, Andrew, Spencer, Ty, Katie, Jett in background)

Luke, Jacob & Zachary

Jace, Bradyn, Luke, Jacob & Zachary

St. George Marathon

2008-11-25T21:37:00.005-07:00

Back in October Amy got us into another marathon in St. George. This one was a lot of fun because Amy's siblings, Audrey, Jon & Cody ran it as well. I have been able to stay within striking distance from Amy in the previous marathons we have run together; however, this time she left me in the dust. Amy finished in 4 hours and 3 minutes, while I crawled across the finish line in 4 hours 19 minutes. Jon stole the show with a time around 3 and a half hours. Cody and Audrey had a solid finish just a few minutes behind me.

Here we are pre-race in the condo

Here we are post race with medals and shirts (the best thing about a race is the t-shirt)

One of the Best Things Ever

2008-09-25T20:16:00.007-07:00

One of the best things we ever did was wheel barrow in 10 tons of sand into our back yard. The boys (and cousins/friends) have spent countless hours digging in it, eating it, throwing it and what ever else their mischevious imaginations can think of.

Here are Spencer, Andrew and Ty with the Farnsworth boys enjoying a hard days work . . .

It Is Good To Be Home

2008-09-15T09:22:00.003-07:00

The front door opens.

Ty runs toward the couch yelling "Mom watch! Mom watch!", he does a perfect sommersalt, landing with his head resting on the seat of the chair, his body inverted, with his feet slamming against the wall. The picture he hits, clanks around and barely holds on.

Spencer has Andrew pinned face down on the floor. Spencer's knees are firmly pressing into Andrew's back. Andrew is yelling "I can't breathe, I can't breathe." Spencer knows that if he gives up his position, Andrew's strong legs will swing around and turn into a swift kick to his face.

Luke comes in from the back yard smiling with his feet covered in sand, chunks of sand in his diaper, wet sand on his hands, a ring of sand around his mouth from the yummy ball he was just tasting. And now the sand is getting everywhere he steps and touches.

Carter is screaming, as only a three year old can, "I want chocolate milk! I want chocolate milk! I want chocolate milk! I want chocolate milk! I WANT CHOCOLATE MILK!!!"

And there standing in the midst of it all is the most beautiful sight human eyes have ever had the enjoyment of beholding . . . the Mother.

Welcome to the Raymond Circus . . . It is good to be home!

2008-07-15T22:07:00.000-07:00

Welcome to the Raymond family circus. We are glad you have stopped by for a visit . . .