Cousins Visit!

All of the Utah cousins came down for a visit at the beginning of June. It was great to watch the kids get reacquainted with each other after a long time apart. My sister Allison has 4 kids and my sister Sommer also has 4, so my kids were in Heaven with so many cousins to play with.

Allison's family stayed at my house for the week. It was my first time EVER having out of town visitors at our house. I really liked the nights, after the younger kids went to bed and having breakfast with everybody in the morning.

We had a really weird cold front move in while they were here, which was extremely nice, but it spoiled the kids' fun on the day we went to the splash pad at the park. They all stayed wrapped up in towels. Sorry, no photos of that.

I did get some photos of our lunch with Granny at Pedro's in Glendale.


Gavin dealing with stretchy cheese


Granny eating by the little girls

Gavin and Amelia sharing a knuckle bump? Mom and Katelyn looking awkward.

Luke and his cheese crisp

Gillain and Jane

Allison, Henry and Elliot

Lucy doesn't like having her picture taken so she always acts like a dork. She's like her mom. Except I don't act like a dork on purpose. It's inherent.

After lunch we took Granny home and then treated the kids (ok, and the moms) to a visit at our favorite candy shop, Smeeks, in central Phoenix.

Allison considers Elliot's candy selection

Jane and Lily play with a wind-up toy.

These glasses are part of a disguise basket that is there for kids to play with.

Lucy is thrilled to be here, as you can see.

Mom with Reese and her gum ball.

Psshooo! Psshooo! Psshooo!

Time to plunk down a bunch of money for not that much treats, but it's the experience, right? At least there's free gum.

The rest of the week was filled up with playing at Grandma's, a birthday party for Henry, an adult date to Kona Grill and Gelato Spot in Scottsdale, and lots of chaos. We also passed around the stomach flu all week. I wish we could get together more often, so we don't have to cram everything into one week, but I'm glad we had the chance to get together!

New Temple and Roper Lake

The Gila Valley Temple in Thatcher, AZ began giving its open house this weekend. We took the kids over to see it and to camp at nearby Roper Lake. The tour guides and hosts at the temple were obviously so proud of their new temple and were happy to show it off. It made me excited for when we will get to show off our own new temple near our home.

Roper Lake was serene and quiet. I think because it's so flat there and Mount Graham towers next to it, the area has a strange peaceful atmosphere. It was really windy when we were there. We got to go with some of our friends from the ward.

Michael and Michelle's family

Fishing, but not catching

Sometimes Lucy takes pictures

Luke tags along with Maxnmyles

Snowy Mt. Graham is in the background

My Blog Nags Me

Blog: You should say something.

Me: I don't know what to say.

B: It's been 2 months since you posted anything.

M: No it hasn't.

Oh I do see that. Hmm.

Well I wouldn't know what to start with, it's like not talking to someone for a long time and then calling them up to tell them something little and dumb.

B: Well you really should say SOMETHING. What makes you think anybody even checks anymore. There's never anything new.

M: I write the blog for me. I don't need anyone to check my blog.

B: Yes you do.

M: OK fine I do. But I don't even have any new pictures to post. Everyone knows that nobody likes to read a blog with no pictures.

B: What do you mean? What about all those pictures you took at Disneyland?

M: Oh yeah. Well I haven't even taken them off the camera yet.

B: Yeah you did.

M: Oh right, I did.

I forgot.

Maybe I could just post one good one and that could be like the "ice breaker" post and I could blog about something regular and dumb after that.

B: Good. That would at least be SOMETHING!

You could write about the garden. Write about how the kids actually did a good job of helping get the weeds out of the garden so it could be planted. And how they each picked something that they wanted to plant in the garden and that Luke picked bananas. And how Lucy loved her strawberry plant way too much and it nearly died, and how Jane chose to plant four watermelon plants and named each one and how Jingleheimer is still clinging to life, but John, Jacob and Schmitt died almost immediately.

M: Huh. That's kind of not bad. What else?

B: You could write just a little about Disneyland.

M: That's boring. Everyone has been to Disneyland.

B: But not everyone gets in free. For 3 Days!

M: Yeah, that was pretty lucky. It sure is nice having a sister-in-law who works there. And it was pretty fun showing Disneyland to Luke and Lucy for the first time. Luke about freaked when he saw Buzz and Woody, and I love how seriously he took his driving on Autopia. And who knew Lucy was a roller coaster lover? I couldn't believe she loved Space Mountain. She wouldn't even go on Splash Mountain.

B: There was that so bad?

M: No.

B: Will you be better about updating your blog from now on?

M: Yes

B: Promise?

M: Well...

No.

Can I be done now?

B: Where's the photo?

M: Oh yeah. Here.


click it big. It's cute.

Photos of My Own Kids

I'm always photographing other people's kids, but I hardly ever take the time to get mine dressed up and cute for some photos. I was testing a new location and my only test subjects were Luke and Lucy. I figured as long as they had to be in the pictures, they might as well look nice. You like? Me too!

Rootbeer makes a good photo prop/distraction

He's not mad, just silly

Making Lemonade

You know what they say about life, and what to do when it gives you lemons - or a kid who is adamantly against potty training.

I was looking in the fridge for a tempting beverage to give to Luke so that I could flood his system and thereby provide plenty of opportunities for using the toilet today. I spied a big bag of lemons that I had bought on sale and decided to make lots of lemonade. Luke loves it, and needless to say, the bathroom has been busy today, but so has my washing machine.

Anyway, you know what they say about potty training. Practice makes piles of laundry.

Okay I made that up.

Christmas

Here are some photos from Christmas. We spent most of the day at Nate's parents' house where we had exchanged gifts and had lots of food.


Luke opens a tee ball set


Jake and Lucy open matching paint sets




Playing with toys in their Christmas hats.


Tired Kristene


Lucy is so happy with her new bike from Santa

Allison and Nathan's family came down from Utah after Christmas. We had so much fun at our After-Christmas party when all the kids exchanged gifts. We had Sommer and Jeremy on the computer too using Skype so they could see everyone who opened gifts from them. In my memories of that day, it's like they were there! I love technology.

Grandma and Grandpa gave all the kids hiking sticks with their name engraved on it for Christmas. It's a thing between Grandpa and the kids to have hiking sticks when they go camping, so they liked them. We all went on a hike up Waterfall Trail at the White Tanks while Allison's family was here. It was fun to seen Jane enjoying her cousin Gillian so much. Luke and Lucy especially love having Henry and Elliot here too.





Grandpa, Henry, Nate, Luke

Lily and Grandma

A slippery climb just to see a tiny pool of water where the waterfall wasn't falling. All the kids wanted a turn, so of course Luke had to go up there too.

Pals Jane and Gillian

Katelyn was there

Allison was there too. I think I was there, but I'm not sure because there are no photos of me.

Henry and Lucy follow the rule of holding hands to cross the street

A bunch of kids

Luke and his aunt Allison saying their goodbyes.