Colorado Visitors!

Katy and the boys flew down from Colorado for a visit! Thursday we went to the Sonoran Desert Museum. Katy and I were geared up in more ways than one to take a million pictures - the boys however, had other ideas. Jacob had just walked into the park when he started crying; "It's bright, it's bright!" Where on he grabbed his red blanket and covered his head. This didn't last long before Katy had to confiscate it, because he had run into one person and off the path, I'm sure that he was only inches from a cactus - you can't be anywhere in the desert museum without being a few inches from a cactus.
In the hummingbird aviary we caught some awesome pictures of a mother on her nest. Surprisingly for me this was one of the few pictures I took of the animals or plants. I had Jacob and Evan to entertain me, and let me tell you they are entertaining!

Jacob continued his quest for shade by trying to make a "cave" out of his stroller, the only problem was that Evan thought it great fun to pull from behind.

Plan C was to steal his mother's sunglasses, strange enough he refused to to wear his hat at this point - it took a lot of persuading which met with a lot of crying, but eventually Katy won out and Jacob wore a hat.

The one thing that Jacob was totally entertained by was the stamp book that Katy got him. At random stops along the trail stamp pads and track stamps. We got tracks of bunnies, frogs, and so much more.

We took a short break to get snacks and drinks, while Katy waited in line, I entertained the boys by taking pictures, we had a good time!

Once both boys were in the stroller and fed we moved on again - food makes us all happy! As you can see Katy is an extremely talented mother - taking pictures and holding a bottle at the same time!

What a cutie! Evan is such a happy bubbly slobber machine! Where Jacob wanted to be covered Evan tried to get out! He was always out the side pulling leaves or what ever he could.

By the end of our walk through Evan was asleep and Jacob was in Katy's arms, tired and hot.

We posed for a quick picture as we left.

Back at Katy's parents we found the boys would much rather play in the sand in the shade anyway - it doesn't take much to make kids happy!

Katy told me that when she was little here in Tucson she would sift in the sand for "sand rubies" which are garnets. We found a few in the boys sand box, but they were microscopic so we spent the rest of the afternoon in search of larger "sand rubies." We hit a few parks and a river, all of which Jacob enjoyed, but the funny thing was that the largest garnet we found was in the natural sand outside the kiddie pool sandbox at the house, which we found when we got back from our cross-Tucson search. I am going to continue looking though - Katy has me totally hooked- and when I find a good sized one it will be in the mail to Colorado! Katy and I always have such fun when we get together! Random crazy things can be a blast!

Katy's parents invited me to dinner - which was delicious and very kind of them, but I also got to spend more time with the boys.

We took a few evening pictures around the house - the sunset was really pretty! So was the cactus surrounded by flowers that Jake is posing in front of.

On Sunday Katy brought the boys over to Grandma and Grandpa's were I had my camera ready and got a ton of pictures, here are some of my favorite of Evan and Jacob.

When she got to the house Jake was still asleep - life is good for him when he can get a nap in with his red blanket and box of train cars.

While Jacob sleep we ate dinner and took some pictures of Evan with Grandma...

grandpa and Lego's!

And of course... mommy!

Once Jacob woke up - his memory surprised everyone as he headed strait for the organ and then to the jeep. Jacob in the jeep was the most hilarious thing I have ever seen. Grandma Louise started out by pushing him - but he didn't take long to learn the leavers and gas. What did take long was the constant stops that Jacob made saying, "It's broken, I need money." Then he would get out open the hood look inside and get back in the drivers seat. Sounds about like my life!

Evan enjoyed the ride from the passenger side - but the little monkey would start climbing all around and Jacob would say, "N N needs buckles." Which was completely true - but we didn't have any. As you can see from above Evan was either up, or down - where he found rocks to pop in his mouth. For some reason the boy has an affinity for rocks! He loves them! The sand he didn't worry about but a little rock goes straight to the mouth. You can see Katy trying to fish all the rocks out of the bottom of the jeep.

After about a million "repairs" we went for a walk down by the river to see if the sand there would produce the bigger "sand rubies." We were disappointed and didn't find any, however, that didn't stop Jacob from getting "down and dirty!"

A few more pictures back at the house - kisses and hugs and tears at goodbye (I'm sure that is why Evan is crying while I am holding him!) and Katy and the boys were out the door. Aunt Louise also left (she was down for just one night). It was a really fun week and I am so glad Katy came - now it is my turn to go up to Colorado!