Sunday, May 27, 2012

Millions of Peaches

Every year I want to go to the Peach festival at Schnepff farms. Without saying "I don't want to go," Kent always is able to talk us out of going...I know what he's really saying though!

Lucky for me, it was Mother's Week (yes, in my house I get a whole week)! That meant we were going and he couldn't complain.

It was...alright...I guess. I don't know, $2/lb to pick your own? Eh. I could only bring myself to pick 4 (peaches, not pounds). It was also dreadfully hot at 9 am. It was certainly the place to be though! When we left, the line to get in was a mile up Rittenhouse Rd!

Kent would like to go back next year. I might be the one talking us out of it though ;)













I don't even remember last weekend...probably didn't do anything too exciting.

This weekend though, we went to the zoo! It was only 84 on Saturday and was the perfect day to go. The better part was that we got a culture pass, making it Free, FREE, fReE!!! We get culture passes A LOT, and we've been trying to get this one for 7 months! 

Braelynn is obsessed with Lion King, and was so excited to see the Lions. She also kept saying to she wanted to see the Elephants. 

Brooke is just still too little to quite get what's going on, but when I pointed out the Elephants to her, her entire face lit up and she just stared. She really had a good time too.

My favorite part was the splash pad. The girls went crazy! It was so fun watching them play in the water.

That was when we all hit the WALL of exhaustion. We still had to see the bears though. We were so delirious, that it took us some time to find them, but that area of the zoo was just beautiful.








As long as there is the Culture Pass, we'll be going there again :)

Summer has started, so that means that we are officially starting our "let's get outta here" lifestyle. Camping, California, and Utah are the usuals, and keep us pretty happy during these next few months.

Tuesday, May 8, 2012

Burtons' Visit

We just finished our week long visit from Kent's family, and had a total blast! We had so many things planned for their visit, and did just about everything. Now that it's over, I feel like I can't catch my breath! I can only imagine how everyone else feels that had traveled here.

So here's the recap...

Everyone arrived Tuesday night. We just enjoyed a nice evening at home, had dinner, and then the boys headed out for a little basketball.

The kids were up and ready at 5:30 the next morning (they are obviously related)! We packed up a picnic and headed to McCormick Stillman Railroad park. We all rode the train, carousel, and perused the model train building. Afterwards we enjoyed the cool breeze and had a picnic.











After some much needed R&R back at our place, we suited up and headed to Mesquite Groves pool. We were all...so...tired though. We only managed to stay for an hour. It was a fun-filled our though! Back at our house we had a Mexican dinner, played Wits and Wagers, and the kids watched movies.



Thursday finally came for Amy! I watched the kids, and everyone got to go to the Temple. It was so fun watching the 4 kids. Seth slept the ENTIRE time! Sakura even squeezed in a nap.



It was easy until it was time to go. It took me 30 minutes to load the kids up in the car...with 2 of them crying. We managed to get to ASU though.

Amy graduated in Mechanical Engineering! She is such a smart lady, and we are so proud of her hard work over the last 4 years. This is the point where my camera died though :(




Afterwards we went to Famous Dave's for dinner.

Friday morning Kent, Chad, and Amy went and hiked Camelback and toured the Phoenician Resort. In the evening we headed to Amy's for dinner, left the kids with a sitter, and headed to the Arizona Science Center. We had so much fun playing in the water exhibit, becoming mind-control masters, practicing brain surgery, getting sneezed on, and surviving a variety of natural disasters.

We all slept in on Saturday, and then geared up for Brooke's 1st birthday. It was so nice having everyone in town for it. My favorite part was having all the extra hands in the preparation! Lynn even cleaned a bathroom for me...my admiration for her went up a few notches that day...7 people were using that bathroom during the week...I can only imagine ;)








That night everyone slept at Amy's and we had a quiet house. My Aunt April came down from Sedona and spent the night. She was quiet as a mouse though.

The next morning we went to church with Amy in Mesa. We were invited to Amy's in-law's for dinner. We had so many leftovers from Brooke's party, so I was happy to have somewhere to unload everything. This is where the drama kicked in...

Greg and Braelynn were down in the basement playing. I then see Greg carrying Braelynn out and she is crying hysterically. She was clutching her hand and I assumed she was complaining about the blister on her thumb. I told her that she just wasn't going to be able to suck her thumb anymore and basically to suck it up (yup...I'm that sensitive). Kent tried to consoling her, but she did not want to be touched. I told him to just let her cry it out and that she was probably just tired. Greg then runs outside and announced that he went back down and found a scorpion. OH! My tune then changed ;)

I felt so bad for her. We called poison control (thanks to Enrichment 2 weeks ago, I learned that's what you do. No ER). They were so super helpful. Braelynn screamed for about 30 mins, with her hand under the cold faucet. She slept the whole way home, and then watched Lion King. She was still really shaken up, but eventually was able to go to bed. Monday morning her arm still hurt, she slept a lot, and by the evening she was back to normal.

Monday night Amy, Greg, and Kent's mom came for dinner and then went to see the Avengers. We said our goodbyes and Mary left this morning.

It was such a fun week! We are almost bummed that it came and went, and are very much looking forward to getting together with everyone again soon.

Congratulations Amy, and thanks for giving us a reason to party!

Now let's sleep :)