A Few Days Shy Of Fall!

Today is the first day of fall, I took these pictures in the mountain just a few days ago. The little yellow flowers are everywhere giving a hazy glow to the land! Happy Fall everyone!

The house with the early morning sun just peeking over the hill.

Home sweet home - for me this is it the embodiment of almost every good memory I have!

Weekend Away!

I spent the weekend away from Tucson, and it was a busy one! First I drove to Mesa to see the invalid Tim, had dinner with him and Rosa, then out to Daniel and Amanda's where I drove in the same second they did. Kia kept saying; "Hi, Mary!" over and over.
After the boys went to bed we watched a movie - then went to bed ourselves. I woke up when Calvin opened my door and just stared at me, he didn't come in, Amanda had told him not too, but when Kia joined him at the door, I knew I couldn't keep them both waiting, so I got out of bed. Isn't it nice to be wanted? We had a super fun morning, making sand castles and watching Daniel metal machine in action. We drove over to Tim's house where we had Costa Vida for lunch! Yummm! I can't get enough of it since my first time a few months ago, but I have only had it twice, each time I've come to Mesa. That sweet pork it the best. After hanging out with Tim for a bit, I headed up the mountain. On Saturday Ian and Jaden had soccer games. They were just about the funniest thing you could ever see. Ian’s team was playing on a huge field and by the third quarter they were dragging themselves across the field and I doubt they even cared where the ball was. At one point the teams were set up like red rover and the ball was just going back and forth between the lines!

Ian running hard!

Jaden was just as much a crack-up, he said all the way to the game that he didn’t want to go, but then when the whistle blew he zipped through the other kids, came from behind and was the first to kick the ball, so much for a kick-off. When they blew the whistle to stop a second latter, Jaden and another boy just kept kicking the ball and a ref had to intervene.

Then Jaden was made goalie and he loved it! His idea of goalie was to stand inside the goal and wrap himself in the ropes, he stopped one ball this way, but the other team got a goal because he was inside the box. So Jon came to the rescue. He was the goalie coach of the game. He explained to J what his job was.

Jaden's job... get the ball, kick it, give dad five!

Kicking a soccer ball around and playing at the park during J's game.

The freedom of a dirt road! (I didn't let J ride that way all the way home, but who can deny a child the right to stick his head out a window just once to feel the wind?)

Dad on his new favorite thing: a riding lawn mower with a trailer. If I hadn't seen the lawn cut so nicely, I would have thought he got it just to give rides to the grand kids ( I got a ride too - and let me tell you - it was exciting).

We ate dinner at the Pinedale park, it was great to see everyone from the ward and as always the food was delicious! I woke up Sunday morning and headed down to Tucson, my weekend over.

Snakes, Death and Cutting

Bo.

A week ago Monday I went to work and came home, having an ordinary day, only to find that in my absence Bo (One of Grandma and Grandpa's dogs) had been bitten and died of a rattle snake bite. The thing is they hadn't seen the snake. They both thought it was something else but the vet diagnosed it as a bite. We got all sorts of advice on what to do so Grandpa and I went out and cut the bushes back, Grandma cried and keep a close eye on the little dog. Well we thought we were doing pretty well until two days ago, again I was gone and the snake came back. Lady or Daisy, whatever you feel like calling her, was barking and Grandpa went outside to see what the problem was. Right there by his bare feet was the snake slithering away. This time the fire department came because they had seen the snake, but they couldn't find anything. So yesterday Grandma and Grandpa met with a snake expert and he said that all snake sprays and traps were useless. that what we had, from the description and the bite was a Mohave Rattler, which we found out was the worst you can have. He has a territory probably of a square mile and you might not see him for years, but he is still in the area. Well, the best thing to do with a snake is take away its reason for being there, make sure you don't have mice anywhere, and cut back all the bushes, to take away hiding spots, and put a finer wire mesh on the fence and gate. He told us that snakes are lazy and wont work to get into your yard if there isn't any food and it is hard to get there. So we have our work cut out for us.

You can see by the top two photos, we were busy, but by the bottom two that we still have a ways to go.

Here is a picture of the Mohave Rattler, not one I took, thank goodness.

Last Leg of My Journey

The last day of my trip was a fun and busy one. Kori and I went to the planetarium with Kenzie and Carson, here Kenzie is walking on the moon! It was some place! Next we went to lunch at the county building with Rachel, afterward we walked around a bit in the beautiful old building and Carson posed for a picture. Then in the afternoon I said goodbye as they dropped me off at the airport and I flew back to the heat of Arizona, enjoying my window seat as much as Jacob!

Family Home Evening In Utah!

A special treat: miniature golf for FHE!
Who can putt better? Rachel or Me? Well the score card said Rachel but you can't tell from these pictures!

Ben tried to help Carson, but Carson wasn't too impressed, he's independent and wanted to do it on his own!

And this is what you get when he does it on his own, a nice sweeping action, and a lot of entertainment for us as we watch!

One Long Day!

August 3, 2008
Getting up at 3:30 a.m. for our flight, we got into Colorado, said hello to Dave and took of in Rachel's new car, while Jacob cried that Daddy's car was leaving. We headed up to Wyoming, then over to Utah. It was a great drive, we saw elk, deer and antelope, storms and sunny skies.
For this one day we started out in California, landed in Colorado, drove through Wyoming and Utah. Not bad for one day, especially if you add the fact that Rachel was learning to drive stick to boot. You can see Wyoming's openness and Rachel's smile in her new car.

Airplane Windows!

Back on the airplane, Jacob and I take the time to see the clouds in California and Colorado mountains on our flight back.

We found taking pictures and looking at them to be very entertaining to a strapped in two-year-old.

Backyarding it in Bakersfield

Backyarding it in Bakersfield proved to be a great birthday celebration for Dad!
August 1, 2008




Cameras ready, Set...

SMILE!!!

Dad and Sarah looking at Sarah's creations for Dad's birthday!

Ring-Around-the-Rosies

And they all fell down!