AZ Trip Part 2

 At grandma and grandpa's house, there are fun shapes that the kids would play with over and over.  I'm thinking I may need to invest in some of these.  They loved making designs out of them.

 Here are some lovely flowers the girls made.  I had to promise to take pictures of their creations before they would put them away. 

 Finley loved playing with grandma especially when she let her wear her glasses!  

 One morning we went to the park to play racquetball and badminton. The kids had fun learning racquetball from the 2002-2004 first place racquetball champion of youth Olympics.  (that's me!)  ha ha.  They had fun I think but we kept losing balls left and right.  I guess we need to work on accuracy next time.  After the racquetball lesson, we drove over and found a park to play on.

 The kids had a blast.  They love all the playgrounds that have sand.  We only have wood chips at our parks, so it was fun to have lots of time to play in the sand.

 Grandma took Finley for a stroll and then kicked her off so she could have a turn.  Ha ha just kidding.  Finley had run off to the playground I think.

 We had to show the kids this huge mushroom growth.  My kids love finding mushrooms growing and then making a big deal about how we can DIE if we eat them.  

 After the park, we wandered over to the library where the peacocks hang out.  We were lucky and caught one with his feathers on display. 

 Sadie is such a helpful big sister.  She seriously loves it when Finley will let her carry her around.  And it is a nice break for Rob and I.  :)

 We checked out the cactus garden.  My kids were searching for jumping cactus.  Fortunately we never found any.  Ha ha.  My experience is, when you find jumping cactus, it's already jumped at you and is stuck in your leg.  

 Finley spent a lot of time looking at grandma's chickens.  She loved just sitting on the back porch and watching them wander the yard.

 Grandma let the kids feed them "treats".  Cut up tortillas or cooked spaghetti noodles.  

 They loved it.

 We made our trip to Cabella's to check out the animals there.  We also let the kids shoot the laser guns this time.  They had a blast, and Riley loved watching the talking deer head on the wall.  She showed everyone that would listen to her.  

My parents were nice and let Rob and I go to the temple and out to eat for lunch one day.  They watched the kids for us.  This was our late celebration of our double anniversary.  We call it our double anniversary now because it is the day we got married (12 years ago) and the day we found out about my brain tumor. (1 year ago)  It's still crazy to think back to that time.  It seems like a dream really.  We are so grateful that everything turned out as well as it did.  I have no real side affects (except when my "tubie"(shunt) hurts every once in a while.) and we are just so grateful that it wasn't anything more serious than it was.  Which is funny, because it was pretty serious.  Anywho. 

 The temple was amazing.  Crowded, but amazing.  

 All temples are just so beautiful.

 Then we went to eat somewhere where they served delicious onion rings.  It was so good!  I got a chicken sandwich the size of my head and Rob got some BBQ. 

 Grandma made us all matching jammies!  That definitely deserves a photo shoot!  And Finley loved the piano.  She could climb up there all by herself and play a song. 

 She often joined the other kids while they were trying to practice.  

 Grandma took us to the Legoland center.  It was tons of fun.  It was seriously perfect for our family.  There were a couple rides, and lots of activities to keep the kids busy. So so fun! 

 Right when we got there we were greeted with this smiling face.

 Then as we walked closer we saw this fun sculpture in the water fountain.

 Inside there were all sorts of Lego sculptures to look at and lots of Legos to build with.

 Then Mr. Lego himself made an appearance.  So we had to get a picture!

 Here is Sadie with the car she built to send down the ramp.  And Zac apparently about to punch this nice looking Lego guy.

 The kids raced their cars down the ramp.  I don't know if any of the cars survived.  Most of them broke.  Ha ha.

 Zac really was having a good time.  

 This was a joker guy that Sadie wanted a picture of.

 We watched 2 4D movies.  They were really fun.  

 Grandma had the magic touch and Finley fell asleep right in her arms.  Then Emery fell asleep on the couch when we got home. 

 Another outing to a park.  Finley face planted and wasn't very happy about it.

 Arizona has the best sunsets!

On our last night there, we met up with my cousins and their families and played 9 square.  If you haven't ever player 9 square, you should.  It's so fun.  It's like a mix between 4 square and volleyball.  Kinda.  But it was fun. And it was fun to catch up with my cousins who I hadn't seen in such a long time.

 9 square.  

 Finley made fast friends with my aunt and uncle.

The next morning we made the long drive back home.  This time we did it all in one day. It was a long day, but the kids seriously did amazing in the car.  I'm always surprised at how well they do.  My parents actually drove down too because towed a car to bring to my brother in South Dakota.  So they met us at our house a little after we got home.

 The kids enjoying their new activity books for the ride home.

 Riley fell asleep and kept falling over.  Sadie had to keep pushing her back up.

 We stopped in Leeds to use the bathroom.  The kids were excited because our good friends Hyrum and Tessa Lefler used to live there.  Hyrum was actually the Mayer of this little town for a while.  Pretty fun.

We got home safe and sound.  The the kids got to help unwrap the cedar chest with grandpa.  Fun times!

Such a great trip but also very exhausting.  Traveling in general is exhausting, but add kids in the mix and you just get so TIRED.  But it is so worth it. 

AZ trip in Janurary Part 1

 Back in January we drove down to AZ to visit my family and to see my brother Scott get married.  It was such a fun trip.  I love going to AZ in the winter time.  It's a great break from the snow and cold temperatures.  We were loving the 70 degree weather.  So nice!  We left after Rob got home from work on a Wednesday and drove to St. George.  We stopped at a hotel that was so new that the pool wasn't even opened yet.  The kids were kinda disappointed about that because the two reasons they love staying at hotels are 1. The TV, and 2. Swimming at the pool.  Oh well.  We left early the next morning and made it to AZ in good time.  The kids did amazing in the car.  It's the first time we have driven half way and taken a break in the middle, and I loved it!  It made the trip seem so much faster.

We got to grandma and grandpa's house and made ourselves at home. (the kids started exploring and pulling all the toys out immediately.) We got ourselves settled and bathed because early the next morning we had to be at the temple for Scott's wedding.

 Heading out of Utah.  It was pretty much rush hour, but we didn't get slowed down too much.

 And we got to see this beautiful sunset.

 The kids found our room.  The funny thing was that the hotel was brand new.  There were hardly any cars in the parking lot so we know they weren't even close to full.  They decided to put our family right next to another family that obviously had kids, but they all were up partying and making TONS of noise until like 11 or so.  We were all in bed trying to get to sleep, but it was impossible.  Finally they quieted down.  You'd think if the hotel was practically empty, they would space us out a bit, but no.  Oh well.

 Finley snuggled with us in bed for a bit before we put her in the pack and play.

 Welcome to AZ!!

 Grandma has the best toys!  The Sesame Street record player is always a favorite!

 Here we are at the Gilrbert Temple.

 The kids got to wait outside with my cousin Shannon while we went in to the ceremony.  I think they were pretty well behaved.  That was the report anyway.

 Finley just loved being with grandma and grandpa.  

 Cheese!  Trying to keep the kids entertained while we waited for Scott and Christie to come out of the temple.

 

 They both looked great.  

 After the pictures were taken, we all just hung out and then headed over to a yummy pizza place for lunch and dessert.  Finley was in a really good mood surprisingly.  (she hadn't taken a nap)

 Full of smiles!

 Then we went and hung out at Scott's place where we all just rested and relaxed for a while.  Finley had fallen asleep about 2 seconds after we put her in her carseat and then woke up when we got to Scott's house about 7 minutes later.  Then of course she was up and ready to play.  Silly goose.

That night, we went to a reception and had fun socializing and seeing my cousins and other family.  The next morning, we went on a hike that is right by the Phoenix temple.  We had done the hike before but it's a good one for kids.  So we went again.  The kids all did great.  Sadie and Zac led the way the entire time with grandma.

 Ready to hike.

 

 Made it to the top!

 Emery got a surprise when she lifted this rock.  A scorpion.  It scared her so bad that she cried for a long while after that.  She was finally able to shake it off and continue on down the mountain.  

 Rob was carrying Finley on the way down and the girl in the blue sweatshirt asked if she could take a picture because his shirt said "shoulder angel goes here" and Finley's head was popping out right where the arrow was.  She thought it was funny.  Rob asked her if she knew of Studio C.  She didn't.  She just thought the shirt was funny with Finley's head sticking out like that.  ha ha.

 I stuck with Riley on the way down.  She was getting a bit tired, but we made it as long as we stopped and took a few pictures.

 See the temple in the background??

 We made it to the bottom!  

I'll continue with part 2 soon...