One More Week!

Looking forward.....

• To visits with family. Parents, grandparents, cousins, siblings. I can't wait!
• To visits with friends that I haven't seen for years! Reminiscing about the good old days!
• To going camping! My dad's dutch oven stew, mmmm!
• To enjoying the cooler summer temperatures!
• To Cafe Rio, Ab's, and Leatherbys! (lets hope we make it to all three!)
• To family picnics and enjoying grandma's cooking! Potato salad and homemade pie!
• To seeing my kids' excitement while they play with their cousins!
• To Fourth of July festivities! More yummy food and fireworks!
• To walking through soft, thick, green grass!
• To a trip to "Magoon." I know it is no Disneyland, but the kids love it just the same! It's what fun is!
• To swimming at the Nick Hotel (this is the Kearns Oquirrh Park swimming pool. Connor thinks it is one of those cool Nickelodeon family resort places.)
• Sitting around the table playing "Phase Ten," "Skipbo," and "Scum." Laughing and having fun!

Well, it is that time of year again when we make the 12 hour trek to Salt Lake! As hard as it can be, to spend this long in the car with 3 kids and a dog, it is all worth it at the end! These are some of my favorite things about our visit home. It isn't surprising at all how a lot of them have to do with food! We are looking forward to some good times!

Here We Go Again!

If there is one good thing about living in the far west valley of Phoenix, it is the relatively quick drive to southern California. In April, we were able to get a really great deal on annual passes to Disneyland (thank you Mindy for the sweet find!) Kelly's sister was taking her family on a trip there, so we thought we would put those passes to some good use! We met up with them for a few days and had a great time. The kids were so excited to see their cousins, but questioned where the others, including grandma and grandpa were!

Here are some of my favorite pictures from our getaway!

Connor wouldn't let Tanner out of his sight! He held his hand nearly the whole time. He also comforted him while we waited in line for The Tower of Terror. Promising him that it was not scary! Tanner didn't quite take to Connor's consoling!

These two are like peas in a pod! As long as they have their blankets and juice, they are good to go! Oh, and having a map doesn't hurt!

My kids haven't ever really been that into the characters, as far as waiting in line to see them goes. They are generally happy with "hey look, over there is Mickey." However this time, Carson really wanted to see Pluto. He was so excited!

We spent one day at the beach, which is always on Kelly's wish list!

Katelyn loved the "pool" as she called it. She was also quite fond of the sand. In fact, she spent a lot of her time rolling around in it or dumping buckets of it on her head. I will probably be scraping sand out of her hair for a few more days!

After the beach, we went to Downtown Disney. The kids all got some fun balloon swords and helmets. Well, Carson didn't want a helmet so he go a shield.

We had a fun time with Kelly's sister and her family. We did miss the rest of the family though. But I will tell them this, if ever any of them need someone to meet them in Disneyland, we will greatly oblige (as long as our good luck with Priceline continues!)

Guess This Will Have To Do!

If there is one thing living in Arizona for nearly 5 years has done to me, it's made me become envious of those with swimming pools!


My kids are well, lets just say, little FISHIES! Everyday they want to swim and they could spend forever in the pool. Katelyn will bring me her suit and say "sim" "sim."

Connor also makes regular wishes that one day we can have our very own real swimming pool.

Sorry kiddos, this is it for now!

It does manage to occupy their time for a while. They also have a lot of fun doing so! If only they made them bigger for mommies! We need a way to cool off too!

Here's to many more days in the 3 ring blow up pool!