Pitt Trip!

I took off to spend a couple of days in Pittsburgh. While I was there, the weather was actually warming up, so we took some walks down to "Grandma's Decision". That is a favorite secret spot of Connor, Carson and Grandma. We found it last year on a walk and needed to find a name for our special place. Connor came up with the name! All of us went out to play in the yard one afternoon because the weather was so nice. It was Cameron's first experience with the great outdoors since he had been walking because of the snow and cold weather. He had a great time! He pushed and pulled and rode everything he could fine. He hated to go back inside. It was so cute!

Merry Christmas and After!

For Christmas, Marc and Laura were able to fly in for a couple of days. It was so good to see them. we went to a Sun's game together and enjoyed Christmas afternoon with them and Erik's family. Gary and I were alone Christmas Eve and Christmas morning, so that was very strange for us. I don't think we liked it very much, but didn't have much choice! It was good to have some family over later in the day.

The next day, Gary and I flew to Cleveland to visit with Matthew and Kasey. They showed us a really good time! Matt made us LOTS of good food and then showed us around the town. We opened Christmas presents together. We gave Matt and Kasey some Cutco knives and he gave Kasey one of his demonstrations. It was hilarious. We drove to Pittsburgh to visit the kids there and open presents. The boys loved their new Pottery Barn animal towels.

Afterwards, we drove back up to Cleveland. Kevin came up on New Year's Eve. Jen and the boys drove back to Philadelphia. Matt and Kasey were the perfect hosts with TONS of food, movies, DisneyWorld home videos and entertainment. We drove to Kirtland on Sunday to see the sights. It was freezing, so we didn't stay very long. We went back to Matthew's and he fixed us a wonderful dinner.

Matt and Kasey in Arizona

Matthew and Kasey came to Arizona a couple of weeks after their wedding. They wanted to visit with friends and family, so we had a small Open House for them at the house. It was a whirlwind trip as they were only in town for 3 short days. Kasey's parents also came. We tried to do a little sightseeing, but the temperatures were very high, so we stayed inside most of the time. It was great to see all of them and don't know when they will be back to Arizona!

Simmon's Farm

While we were in Pittsburgh, we had ONE day that it didn't rain, so we took the boys to Simmon's Farm. We took a hayride, picked pumpkins, rode a huge slide, took silly pictures with Halloween cutouts, went through a corn maze, picked Indian corn, picked apples, went to the petting zoo, drank apple cider and just had a great time. There were dozens of apple trees to pick from, but I wanted to find my favorite - honeycrisp. So, Connor went to every tree looking to see if it had honeycrisp apples. He was so disappointed that we didn't find any. He had worked so hard to help grandma! He was rewarded with an extra glass of cider and extra play time in the cornbox (a sandbox with toys, but instead of sand it had hard corn kernels). Thanks anyway, Connor! We still bought some at $2.99 lb. Ouch!

Matthew and Kasey's Wedding

Congratulations! Matthew and Kasey were married on a beautiful fall day. It was held on the anniversary of their first meeting, last year. The weather couldn't have been more perfect. After the wedding, a dinner/reception was held at an Italian restaurant downtown right on the river. The scenery was breath-taking. Jen and Laura helped me with the flowers and table decorations at the dinner.

All of the "brothers" were able to come, so that made it even more special. We all stayed in a hotel suite for 2 nights and had a lot of catching up to do. It was great to be together, again. That doesn't happen very often.

Matthew and Kasey looked so good together and they were so happy. Her dress was gorgeous and Matthew looked so handsome. On the way back up to Pittsburgh, Matthew wanted all of us to stop by their bed and breakfast honeymoon location to see it. It was really neat and reminded all of us of a haunted house on the river.

It was a great weekend. Far to short. . .

Staying at Grandma's

Jen and Cameron went to Hawaii for a week, so Carson and Connor stayed at our house. Carson was sick for the first 4 days, so we had a lot of playing to make up for once he felt better. We had lots of activities, including candy tractors that were a big hit. We went out to eat and made special meals, even though Carson seemed to be stuck on turkey and cheese sandwiches with mustard (yum!?) We made peach ice cream and ate it with cute new animal spoons.
Grandpa bought lots of new legos, especially while Carson was sick and they spent alot of time building planes, trains, helicopters and buildings.

When Carson felt better, we were able to go to Sonic and get a quarter pound coney and then spend the day at Stapley Pool. All of us went down the big slide many times, including Connor.

Because of the heat, we filled up the small pool and played in the backyard while grilling hot dogs outside. They spent hours filling up buckets and shooting me with water guns! My plants also got a good watering!

We read books and slept together everynight, usually laughing ourselves to sleep. On Tuesdays and Wednesdays, I had to get up at 3:20 to go to the temple and that didn't set well with Connor. He kept trying to convince me not to go and didn't understand why I had to.

We had a great time together and the week went by way too fast!

Stranded at the Lake!

Jen and the boys arrived in Arizona and one of the first things we wanted to do was to go to Canyon Lake and rent a boat. We took our lunch, life jackets, plenty of water and were looking forward to an exciting time. We got a little more than we bargained for! We had rented the boat for an hour. We drove for about 15 minutes to a cove and decided to stop, eat lunch and let the boys swim in the lake. We were there for about half an hour.
Cameron was doing well, despite the life jacket that we bought that morning for him to wear. He tried the water, but wasn't too crazy about it. As long as he had food and shade, he was happy.
The boys were having such a great time swimming, I hated to return back to the Marina. So, I decided to stay out longer. When we were drifting into the coastline, I told the boys to get in so that I could start the boat and move it out. Well. . . the motor would not start. We tried for a long time. Jen had to get the paddle out and try to keep us from hitting the bank. We tried to start the boat for at least 30-45 minutes and nothing happened.
Thank heavens the boys were very, very good. They thought it was a real adventure. Carson was blowing the horn on the boat and I was waving orange life vests yelling "help" at anyone that would come by. Jet skiis just kept ignoring us. Finally, a boat with some skiers drove by and asked if we could use some help! After they tried to start the engine and failed, we all figured we needed to be towed in. So, they tied a rope to us and took us back to the Marina. Of course, you can guess what happened when we arrived!! Yes, the boat started right up!! At least I was only charged for 1 hour. Because the boys were so good, we drove to Tortilla Flats and got an ice cream cone. No worse for the wear! Actually, it was a very fun day!