Uncle Jon's Visit

We are downhill for sure now towards school starting -- with less than 2 weeks to go. Scary....nah, exciting, humm...not sure how I'm feeling.

It was a busy weekend for us with Steve's "little" brother, Jon visiting us from Ephrata, Washington. He came down to attend his graduation from Univ. of Phoenix -- why else would a sane person be visiting this place in July? Did I say sane...hummmm....anyway, the guys stayed busy while I tried to keep the kiddoes entertained. Let's just say we swam alot -- and I won't bore you with anymore swimming pictures, however, I will say of the kids all have a nice tans this summer.

They went the 2 Diamondback games, played video games, movies, and more. Not to worry, it will be payback for Steve when my family comes down in 2 weeks.










I forgot to mention, Jon flew back this morning, taking with him Starr and Jeff to spend time with Steve's parents until School starts. Starr is excited about spending quality time with her grammie and Jeff is looking foward to attending another week long scout camp - the same one his dad grew up attending. My life should be interesting with 3 kids under 8 -- I'll miss my babysitters, but on the plus side, my grocery bill should go down (sorry grammie - yes, those 2 are quite the eaters).

Stike a Pose!

For lack of anything else to post, we were at the Love's pool this weekend and the kids wanted me to take some action shots of them jumping off the water fall. It was too fun, but will be even more fun when the Love's are back in town next week.

Swimming Kids

We've hit a new milestone. At least Joseph has...he can finally swim WITHOUT his floaties. So that means 4 down 1 to go. Steve and I told the kids a few years ago that when ALL of them can swim, we would consider a pool -- shoot, it's happening too quickly. We may have to slow Josh down some and not allow him near water.

These pictures were taken on Saturday. Our old friends, the Stradlings, moved into our ward recently and invited us over for lunch and to swim. We spent all afternoon there -- and I have the sunburn to prove it! And really, Joseph can swim without all of these noodles...just more fun this way!
You people not from Arizona probably wonder if that's all we do here in Arizona during the summer is swim. Ya, pretty much.

4th of July

Since our family is just about the biggest Arizona Diamondback fans ever (well, maybe not ever), we thought it would be appropriate to celebrate Independence Day watching a D-Backs game -- after all, what's more American that that....along with 50,000 other fans! This was my first "sold out" game and it was nuts. We had a good time, especially since we were able to meet up with some good friends of ours, the Munroes, from the old Brighton Ward. They moved half-way to California (okay, maybe not halfway, but to Goodyear) several years ago and we used to know eachother during our pre-children days.
My Joshua...just the cutest thing ever...he was so good during the game.


















Steve with Mike Munroe...opps, I mean BISHOP Munroe.














Starr with Marrin













Teresa and Kathleen -- it was great to do some "catching up" while watching baseball.














Kellen and Jeff - ate their way through the game like boys do.














Last but not least, tired girls -- Starr wasn't happy at the end because our view of the fireworks show was rotten. Although we did go outside to watch the ending, it wasn't enough for her. Maybe next year, Starr.

Rock Band!

Some of you are asking if we've been able to purchase Rock Band for our Wii yet. Aaaaa, NO. Come on, times are slow in the building industry. However, we do have a jar for the collection that the kids have started. I think it has a whole $15 dollars in it -- only $165 to go! And the kids have suggested to me we add it as a budget item in our household budget so we can contribute to it there also each month. Good things take time -- this will be a good learning experience for the kids.

Half-Way Point!

We'll, we're 5 weeks into our summer, with 5 weeks to go...can you believe it? We almost went camping this weekend -- but we only had 2 days and one night to do it-- and too much work for such a short time. Instead, we packed up swimsuits and pjs and headed up to a resort in Scottsdale and swam and played until we could swim no more. "Camping" at the Hilton, who could resist that! (One great perk of living in AZ during the summer is all the resort summer special prices they have - and think of the gas we saved). Here are some fun pics we took.
Sunbathing beauties...














Steve showing how STRONG he his!


















My boys...














Loved this shot!

The Joys of a 2 Year Old!

Just another example of what you are missing out on when you don't have a toddler into EVERYTHING! Seems Joshua found the black permanent marker and decided to color all over himself yesterday. Not good. I googled how to remove it, and the best answer I found said just to let it wear off. So, needless to say, I've had some strange looks when I've taken him out in public...but I've had enough children now not to let the looks even phase me - it' just part of having kids!These are his legs...there's also some on his arms and his whole entire palm of his hand is black.