Down on Grandpa's Farm

The kids went to help feed the horses with Grandpa and Uncle Johnny

Aunty Tena found some new baby kittens too. They were so cute and Zina and Wilson loved them.

Wilson tried really really hard to be soft to the kitty's. :)

We also got to see a litter of puppies that were only hours old. They were so cute and the kids thought it was pretty neat. To bad I didn't have my camera then!

Canada overload

This is a bit much, so if your not in the mood don't bother. It's for me not you. :)

Our cancelled flight meant that we got into Calgary at midnight and then home to Grandpa's farm at 4am. The kids were troopers and were SO excited to see everyone at the airport. Zina did a flying run into Grandma's arms. Here she is with Uncle Johnny and Uncle Adam.

And even though we've been having a fabulous time we sure do miss our Papa. Here is Wilson talking to Mark all the way from Guatemala. (I'm hoping that Mark will update on that little trip - cross your fingers. He says he doesn't blog..)

The night after getting in at 4am we decided to make ourselves more tired by attending the Raymond 4th ward campout. This was the waterslide at it and even though it was obviously chilly outside Uncle Johnny and his friends sure made good use!

Grandpa and Wilson sharing a cup of hot chocolate.

Wilson and I had a rousing game of Rugby. He loved it.

It sure is nice to have all these people playing with my kids. I've read my fair share of books, slept in, and gone shopping!

Aunty Attena spent a 1/2 an hour playing with Wilson's hair before church. He looks so cute!

After church we headed over to visit Great Grandma Doris and Great Grandpa Shem. Zina wasn't shy at all. She just ran in and threw her arms around Grandma. I think it made Grandma's day.

Visiting in Grandma's cozy little sitting room.

Grandma and my cute little sister, Attena. She's amazing but more on that later. I think I might have to dedicate a whole post on Attena.

Attena, Grandma Doris, Me, Grandpa Shem

Grandpa. He's 99 and still fiesty. He didn't want us to take this picture because he was already dressed for bed in his bathrobe. He'll be 100 in December!

We had Great Grandma and Grandpa Keeler over for family home evening. I caught Grandpa reading to the kids. I somehow missed getting a picture of Grandma. Good thing I have four days left.

Zina and Attena dressed up and asked for a photo shoot. I have some pictures from about 10 years ago that are very similar - only it's Me, Attena and Liz dressing up. I'm going to try and dig them out and post them

This is my mom's wedding dress. I used to LOVE dressing up in it.

Cute Zina Zee

My mom's amazing - don't worry I returned the favor yesterday.

And while I was getting my feet rubbed my children ate raw noodles. I'm a good mom.

Here I am supervising the creation of....

Adam and Attena's masterpiece.

Litte boys love mud! Grandma's sandbox is quite the sandbox.

I like this picture because of the people in it but also because of the field behind the yard that stretches on forever. I really really love the prairies. Sorry Phoenix. I'm not sure you'll ever win my love.

Alberta Bound

We made it. And now I have room to breath.

Tonto Creek

This past weekend we headed up to the Mogollon Rim to do some camping. It was really fun despite all the many many things that went wrong. (I've been working on my attitude after Enrichment last tuesday - lets see if you can tell...) We left a little later than planned so we ended up not camping in one of the nicer campgrounds which was totally fine with us because that meant we didn't have to pay a fee. It also meant we couldn't build a fire. Say what! No worries, we brought our grill that we could hook up to our adapter in our car. That worked for about 0 seconds when it blew the fuse to our cigarette lighter. Oh my. Yep, cold hot dogs for dinner really hit the spot (not). The kids didn't complain though. They were super excited about the whole camping thing. Even Wilson who had about THE soggiest diaper I had ever seen because his brilliant mother forgot DIAPIERS!! Ha ha ha ha. It was so funny. He got to sleep in that diaper and then went commando all the next day without a single accident. We just kept making him pee in the bushes and he did great. Zina unfortunately decided that peeing in her sleeping bag was a better alternative then getting out in the cold night air to do her business. I'm sure it made things warmer for a little while. I think it happened in the morning so we just changed her clothes when we woke up and put her sleeping bag away. We ate chocolate puffed wheat squares for breakfast since scrambled eggs, flap jacks and sausage don't really hit the spot raw, and then packed up for a hike. The hike was so fun and absolutely beautiful. It was one of the 20 most hiked trails in AZ so we saw a lot of people but it really was beautiful. We had a little picnic on the banks of Tonto Creek, traversed logs over lava streams, swam down the trail singing, "Just around the River bend" over and over and got good and tired so we could sleep all the way home. (except for Mark of course who drove). Good times had by all and believe it or not we are actually really excited to go again! Here's to Camping!

And of course the pictures are in no order at all so enjoy. :)

Me and Zina making a giant leap over the creek. (We made it)

We found all kinds of fascinating caterpillars, crickets, grasshoppers, spiders, butterflies etc. Life is so fascinated through the eyes of a child.

Up the creek from our picnic spot.

Here's where we ate lunch. It was of course our castle where the evil stepmother couldn't find us.

You're supposed to smile Wilson!

Love those tall Ponderosa Pines

My hunk of burn'n love.

The kids did so great. They LOVED camping

Notice the bag beside me full of a urine stained sleeping bag and blanket

Good Morning Beautiful

Cheese!

My little baller

Yes, we couldn't blow up our air mattress either since our pump plugs into the blown cigarrette lighter. Guess we could of done it ourselves. Mmm no thanks.

Setting up the tent!

Funny story. On our way home Zina pipes up from the back seat and says, "Someday can we move? I really want to live somewhere with rain and snow. I don't like the desert it's too hot."

Well, I guess we won't make AZ our permanent home. Zina has spoken.

Let the Party Continue!

May 31, 2009

Sunday afternoon we had our car all packed up and ready to head home.  We were just getting a bite to eat when Mark looked at his Mom and said, "Hey you guys should come back with us.  Go pack your bags.  We'll wait for you."  So they did!  They brought Jade and Josie and spent the first week of June here with us.  We did a lot of firsts for me - like hit up the Sugarbowl in Scottsdale, which I totally recommend. I loved that little icecream parlor.  So fun.  We checked out the botanical gardens and the lookout on South Mountain, did our fair share of swimming, visited the Temple grounds and ate at Organ Stop Pizza (another must if you are ever in Mesa).  We also ate at Chino Bandido which I do not recommend, but Mark probably would.. :)

Jade and Josie! I loved watching them hang out together.  It reminded me of my sisters who I miss so much!  I hope they always remember that no one can replace sisters. They're the BEST!

After touring the Mesa temple visitors center we started having races up some the stairs on the temple grounds.  It was pretty funny.  Mark thinks he won, but he didn't.  :)

I think Jades got this one in the bag.  Can you see Judy back there?  If they were walking Judy would win hands down. :)

Mmm, this was my caramel cheesecake at the Sugarbowl.

Such a cute restaurant. It was the perfect place for Zina - ALL pink!

(Isn't she cute!)

Mmm, Grandpa's blackberry soda

Strawberry Icecream for Zina

I forget what Judy's was called but I'd say she's pretty excited about it. :)

Strawberry Cheesecake for Josie (can you tell I liked this place!)

Brownie Sunday for Mark and it was by far my favorite. Mmm so good!

These two were totally into the Desert Botanical Gardens. Can you tell?

Zina  being silly.  She absolutely insisted on wearing that wool skirt. She loves it. Even though it's a 5T and doesn't fit and wool happens to be very HOT here.

We managed to get a few sneak peaks at the Chihuly exhibit they were taking down.  I was sad I missed it, but that's what you get for being to cheap. 

And this one is out of order but I LOVE it.  I was trying to feed Wilson my caramel cheesecake and he was having a fit because I wouldn't let him hold his own spoon and drizzle caramel all over my lap. My sweet Zina watched us for a while and then piped up, "He can come eat mine.  It's not messy like yours."  So they sat together and ate all her strawberry ice cream.  I was so proud of her for sharing her most favorite dessert of all time.