Swissmas and Temple Square

We don't get up to Temple Square to see the lights very often but this year I vowed to make it happen. We met Craig and Eve in Midway to see the 700 nativities they have on display from all over the world(awesome) and the gingerbread house competition (sweet). We decided to keep up with tradition and eat dinner at the Spaghetti Factory at Trolley Square. We go to the Orem restaurant every now and then but it's just not the same. The place was packed as usual so we waited almost an hour and during the wait this little girl was walking toward one of the benches outside of the restaurant. She tripped in just the right spot and went headfirst into the sharp iron leg of the bench. I was standing right there so I helped her up. It took a few seconds but by the time I got her over to her mom blood was squirting out of her head, running down her face and all over her sweater. I felt so bad!!! It took about ten minutes to get it to stop bleeding and she had a huge goose-egg and a star shaped cut on her forehead. And probably a really bad headache to go along with it. Poor girl.

Santa was there so the girls got to sit on his lap but this is as close as Josie would get to him. Maybe next year.

We finally made it out of SF and went to Temple Square that was just packed with people!!! Downtown has changed so much that we didn't know where to park. It took about 30 more minutes to find a parking place and when we got out of the car it was close to 8:00 at night. Now, if we lived in SLC it wouldn't have been a big deal but having to drive 2 hours to get home it becomes a concern. We took a brief stroll through the crowds around Temple Square and headed back to the car because it had started to rain and the kids gloves were all wet from sticking them in the fountains. Lindsey said she had to test it to see if it was real water. Oh,it was real...and cold! We got home really late that night but had a good time and got to feel some Christmas cheer.

Thanksgiving

As you can tell, I'm trying to catch up on recent events from the past two weeks. Three days after Josie's birthday was Thanksgiving so the family got together again to eat lots of food. It was a pretty quiet Thanksgiving. We couldn't go outside for our annual rabbit hunt/target practice because it was about 5 degrees outside...okay, that's an exaggeration, it was 15. So we just hung out at home, played some games, watched movies, went to grandma's house. Kind of like a typical Sunday but without the church thing. Dinner consisted of us, gma and gpa and Dave and his kids although they showed up just as we were finishing dinner and the kids had already eaten.

After dinner we played a couple rousing games of Battleship. Emily and I beat Jaxton and Gpa (without cheating) and then I beat Gpa! That was probably the highlight of Thanksgiving. Wait, I just remembered what the real highlight of Thanksgiving was. I made my own pie crust for the first time ever and it turned out great. However, the process was nerve-racking and I was anxious the rest of the day. At the dinner table everyone was saying how much they were looking forward to eating the pies but I was dreading it. I didn't know if they were going to taste good, if they had cooked all the way through or if the crust was going to be soggy on the bottom. I waited for pops and Davy to take the first bites and they were a hit! Success!! The hardest part though, was trying to get the dough off the counter. Any tips from you pie makers out there?

Josie's Birthday

A few days after Emily's crazy friend party, we celebrated Josie's 3rd birthday. It was a more subdued event but fun just the same. She got little princess dolls, a Dora guitar, some clothes and a book. She hasn't put those dolls down in two weeks! It makes me feel so good to give a gift that gets used a lot. That doesn't seem to happen very often with toys but these are a big success! Yeah!

Emily's 9th Birthday

I haven't posted in awhile because nothing really blog-worthy has happened...until Emily's birthday hit. From then until Valentine's Day our lives will be one celebration after another. So I'm trying to take things one day at a time and not stress out too much. Emily turned nine and what I thought would be a small, simple birthday turned into a weeklong party. It started out with Emily and grandma going out to lunch and a shopping trip on Saturday. Em received a Webkins from her Nana Karen on Tues so her Webkins account wouldn't expire. She was so happy. I can't tell you how many tears were shed in the previous weeks because she was afraid her account (and her pets) would die. Wed. was her actual birthday so we went to dinner and then she got to open her "big" present...Emily the American Girl Doll!


Finally, on Friday, we had a friends party and invited 8 crazy, screaming girls over to celebrate by making pizza's, decorating cupcakes, playing games and watching Toy Story 3. I'm pretty used to the screaming and laughing with three girls and their friends but I have never heard that much high-pitched screaming and complete chaos in my life! Emily thought it was great. Next year...I'm shooting for low-key.

Love Note

Lindsey got this letter from a boy in her class yesterday. Her first Love Note!

Dear Lindsey,

I thenck you are beautiful and I Love you and i thick you are vere vere ckeut.

From,

J.(name withheld)

Are you serious?

Okay. I know it's been awhile since I last updated my blog but almost two months have gone by? Seriously, I thought it had been just a couple of weeks, maybe three. I'm a bag blogger! Well, here's a little of what's been going on since Aug. 31.

Mark's bro and sis came from SLC and Phoenix, respectfully, with their daughter and son, respectfully, and met us at Lake Powell over Labor Day weekend. It was just like summer...hot during the days but it cooled off so nicely at night we could actually sleep. We had a really good time waterskiing, wakeboarding, kneeboarding, riding waverunners, tubing, cliff jumping and swimming. And of course we hit the marina for ice cream and carp feeding.

A couple weeks after that we headed north for a trip to Lagoon during Frightmares. It's always been fun to take the kids there even when they were really little but this time was especially fun because Emily is tall enough to ride every ride. I was amazed when she got on The Rocket rides, Blast Off and Re-entry. This is a 217 ft tall tower that shoots you up in the air at 4.5G's. The re-entry is a 200 ft free fall. The last time I rode that ride I thought my entire stomach was going to come up my throat and I screamed so loud my voice was gone the rest ofthe day. Then she rode Wicked which again, shoots you straight up in the air only to drop you straight down the other side. She's a thrill-seeker! Yeah!

Josie had so much fun riding the kiddie rides and Lindsey was able to ride most of the rides. In a couple of years she will be able to ride all of them. That's going to be really fun. I miss my kids being little but it's sure fun to do big kid things with them.

This is a picture of Lindsey picking out her pumpkin at the local pumpkin patch.

That brings us to last weekend when we headed back to Lake Powell for one last trip of the year. It was Fall Break so we got a long weekend and the weather was beautiful. The water has started to cool down but it was still swimmable, the water was smooth and the sky was a deep blue that you'll only find in the fall.

We took a couple of friends this time and had a blast. Emily and Lindsey both got up on the kneeboard behind the boat for the first time. It was really funny because they were both pretty nervous about starting in water but as soon as we put the boat in gear, they popped up and got onto the board. It was the funniest thing to watch...the boat was barely moving but I guess it was just enough to get them up.



This picture is of a tarantula we found crossing the stream in Moki Canyon. I've never come across one of those in Lake Powell.

A couple days later was my dad's 71st bday and now it's time for Halloween. The fun never stops!

The Last Hoorah!

The last hoorah before school starts back up began on Friday with a trip to the pool with a bunch of moms and kids from our ward. It was a ton of fun as the mom's showed off their long-suppressed tricks on the diving board. I wish I would have taken my camera for proof but trust me, it was hilarious and the winners of the competition were:

Longest Dive goes to Marni (her facial expressions won this event for her).
Best Cannonball goes to Teresa and her sychronized diving partner, Dallin.
Best Back Dive goes to Amber...what form!
Best Toe Touch goes to Jana...STRETCH!
Highest Butt in the air goes to me...the pike will do it every time.
Best Flip...can't remember.
And Rebecca won the award for holding out the longest...15 years!!! Hopefully,it won't be another 15 years before she goes off the diving board again.

That night we took off for the mountains and the cool, crisp air. We rode horses, Mark went on a mountain bike ride and the kids just played and played.

 

This is me riding "Roy" on top of the world. What a view!

 

Josie and I went for a short ride. She loved it.

 

Today was the first day of school and here are Em and Linds in their first day outfits. The drop off went well...no tears...much better than last year. Both girls really like their teachers and they're willing to go back tomorrow. Phew!

 

Mountains vs. Desert

Last week Mark and I took separate vacations. He went with a bunch of guys from our ward on what they called a "Scout backpacking trip" to the Uintahs. What they don't want everyone to know is there were 11 men and only 3 scouts. If they hadn't recruited those 3 scouts (and one of them was from a different stake) they would had to have called it a "Men's Only Trip" and none of their wives would have let them go. Mark is so lucky to have such a cool wife who encouraged him to go. he he he

He had a great time hiking, fishing and riding horses. The girls and I went to Lake Powell with my family for a few days and we had a blast. Mark had the camera so I don't have any pics of our trip but here are some from his trip.

 

 

 

My kids belong in the zoo!!!

So, I read all these mom-blogs where the authors sing the praises of their little angel children who are just the cutest kids in the universe and never do anything wrong. There is never a cross word spoken, kids just play all day while their mother's complete incredibly cute projects, and never, ever mess up the house that was just cleaned.

Let me tell you about a recent day I spent with my children at the zoo. To give you a little background, when I have to get up for some event in the morning, I will not sleep the night before. I'm going over lists in my head, what snacks to take, don't forget the stroller, things like that. And to make sure I don't sleep through the alarm, I won't sleep at all. So the day starts out really bad anyway and put on top of that 4 hours of driving, walking around a stinky zoo in 97 degrees, feeling like I'm melting, trying to keep wandering-Lindsey with the group. It just makes for a really long day. But I pride myself on being a pretty fun mom taking my kids to do all kinds of fun things most days of the week. Despite it all, we had a good day at the zoo and Josie was fascinated with all the new creatures she got to see up close. However, the kids favorite part of the zoo was this giant carved elephant that sneezed and spit water and air out of its trunk. The kids couldn't get enough!


We left the zoo around dinner time and headed for an old favorite restaurant of ours...Robintino's. This kids were pretty wound up but didn't make too much of a scene. Only one guy kept staring at them as they giggled and played with their food. We left the restaurant and drove to the mall where I wanted to get a shirt for my class reunion which was the next night. I don't normally go shopping with all three kids...let me rephrase that...I don't normally go shopping, period. But since it was a special occasion I had to stop while I was in the big city.

We got to the mall and as soon as we entered the only store I wanted to go to Josie said she needed to go potty. Arrggghhh! I figured she could hold it for a minutes while I looked around since she went less than an hour ago. Within two minutes of entering the packed store I had to get after the girls for messing around and being too noisy. I picked out some shirts and headed to the dressing room with the three girls in tow. I tried some things on and had to go back out into the store to get something else. All of sudden I hear glass-shattering squealing and Lindsey yelling at Emily in the dressing room. I went back in and scolded the kids, telling them to be quiet. Josie reminded me she needed to go potty. I said, "Ok. In just a minute." She said, "Ok, mommy."

Tried some more shirts on going as fast as I could, back out into the store, more squealing, yelling, crying and laughing coming from the dressing room. Hurrying as fast as I can, trying to pretend like they were someone else's kids. Went back to the dressing room and hear Josie say, "Mommy, peepee!" Looked down at her to see her peeing all over herself and the brand new stroller I had just bought that morning! Oh my gosh! What do I do? Got some paper towels from the store employee who offered to clean up the mess until I told her that my child had just peed all over the dressing floor. She said, "Oh" and handed me the paper towels. Good thing it was a concrete floor.

By the time I was done cleaning up the mess I was so angry with my kids I thought I was seriously going to hurt them. I was shaking and it took every ounce of my being not to lose control in the store. I decided I would save it for the car. I couldn't believe how selfish and inconsiderate they had been and how poorly they behaved in a public place after I had just spent an entire day with them at the zoo in the heat, spent a ton of money on them, bought them lunch and dinner and they couldn't give me 30 minutes to shop for a shirt without making complete fools out of all of us! I was sooo mad. I think I even let a few choice swear words fly as I was cleaning up the puddle on the floor. Did I feel bad after swearing at them and giving them a complete tongue lashing in the car? Heck no. They needed to understand the consequences of their behavior. What are the consequences? No more fun mommy. No more fun activities. At least not for a few days anyway.

So to all you mommy-bloggers who tell everyone in cyberspace how wonderful your kids are, I have one word for you...LIAR!!!!

Pres Uchdorf Rocks!!

Last week we had a great experience at Young Women's. We attended the Castle Valley Pageant in Emery County. We got a tip from one of the girl's friends who was in the cast that Pres. Uchdorf was going to be there so we were really excited that we might get to see him and get a picture. Apparently everyone in Carbon and Emery Counties had heard the same thing because the place was packed! We got off the bus and immediately started looking for a tall, white haired man with a crowd of people following close behind.

We didn't see him right off the bat so we decided to walk around the pioneer village when we heard an announcement that the cast meeting was starting. Being the wannabe groupie that I am, I figured the cast meeting would be the place where Pres. Uchdorf was hiding out and I was right! We decided to wait just outside the tent and be the first ones to get at him. My counselor thought I was crazy but it's not everyday that girls from small town Utah get to meet a general authority. So we waited and waited and he finally came out. You could tell he was trying to avoid the crowd of people who had gathered but we snagged him anyway and him and his wife were somewhat happy to take a picture with us.

As we walked away he said, "Goodbye, Princesses!" That was so cool because we had gone to the General YW Meeting where he had given his famous "Happily Ever After" talk so the girls knew what he was referring to. Yeah! It was better than meeting a rock star.

International Days!

Karen says I need to update my blog but for the first time this summer we've had about a 10 days where nothing has been going on. It's been kind of nice to lounge around the house, go swimming, do some chores here and there but have no real obligations. The girls have been attending a science camp through 4H and have had a really good time. Luka came down and went to the Slimy, Gooey, Gross camp with Lindsey. They had a great time making snot, mold, gloop, glow in the dark bats and exploding Diet Coke using Mentos.

International Days finally came around again and the kids had a great time watching the parade and collecting candy.

Josie didn't like the sirens on the firetrucks so much.

Lindsey got to ride in the Dance Technica float during the parade. After the parade we headed up the park so I kids could ride the carnival rides and I could get my annual Funnel Cake fix. Yummy!

Huntington Triathlon

Mark and Emily ran the San Rafael Classic Triathlon at the Huntington State Park today. This was Mark's second time running this triathlon and he finished 9th overall and third in his age group. Last year was quite an interesting experience. He finished second in his age group...right behind my ex-boyfriend from high school (Mike from Emery County for those of you who might remember) and the guy I broke up with probably 4 different times! Boy, was that awkward. I was really hoping he would be there today because Mark has gotten much faster but he wasn't. Oh well, maybe next time.

Emily did great finishing 10th in the girls division. It was a blast watching her. She got right in on the swim and Mark helped her with the transition to the bike where she got passed up by quite a few racers because she was on a Huffy bike from WalMart with no gears. She did really good on the run and after she finished I asked her how she felt. She said, "I feel GREAT! That was so fun!" Oh, to be young again. Mark is hurting pretty bad tonight but Emily went throughout the day completely unphased.

Emily is the in middle of the picture in the black life jacket.

The girls had a great time playing the water while we waited for Emily's race to start. I think next year Lindsey will do it too.

Girls Camp

I've been at Girl's Camp all week where I had the great pleasure of celebrating my 29th birthday...again. I've been 29 for a few years now and maybe next year I'll turn 30...depends on how I feel. I would post some pics of my cute young women but I don't think their parents would appreciate that. We had a great time up at Flaming Gorge where we ran the river twice and went on a beautiful hike along the rim trail overlooking the lake.


The day we got there was hot and sunny so we decided to run the river the next day in the afternoon instead of in the morning as we had planned. We hung out all morning and headed down to the river after lunch.


The minute we got on the water, the clouds came in and the temperature dropped 10 degrees. The water in the river is 55 degrees but that didn't stop us from jumping/falling in and having water fights with the other boats. Our ward had brought very few "weapons" so I decided to jump from our boat to another and steal some weapons because we were getting killed (soaked). I made it to the other boat but on my way back with their water cannon in hand, they pushed me overboard and I fell into the freezing cold water. I got back into the boat barely able to breathe because of the shock of the cold water and then it started raining...hard...and it rained pretty much the rest of the 2 1/2 hour trip.


We had a blast despite our feet being numb and our bodies shivering the whole trip. We turned the oars over the young women and proceeded down the river in circles, going down rapids backwards and hitting every rock in the river. It was hilarious. We laughed so hard our sides hurt. When we finally reached the take out, the clouds parted and the sun came out. We all laid out on the concrete and warmed up. It felt so good. When I tried to get out of the boat, though, I almost fell on my face. My body had stiffened into a sitting position from being so cold and shivering for so long. I had to lay down to stretch out and I was chilled to the bone the rest of the day.


The next day we ran the river in the morning and had sun most of the time. Sure enough, when we pulled the boats out just after noon the clouds rolled in and the second we got back to camp it started hailing and then rained for the next four hours.

This is the view from our hike. The weather was perfect for the hike but again, just after noon and at the end of our hike, another storm rolled in. The clouds were dark and the wind blew and blew but it didn't rain that time.

This is me hiding from the freezing cold wind trying to eat my sandwich after the hike. We had a great time and it was nice to get away for a few days and not have to wipe anyone's nose or bum or cut anybody's food for them and nobody got in a fight...at least not in our ward. Good times!

Summertime...and the livin's easy!

I thought that once summer hit, I would have all kinds of time to update my blog, clean the house, and work on unfinished projects that I didn't have time to do during the school year. I thought that with Em and Linds home, they would be able to entertain Josie so I could get some things done. But, no, that isn't the case at all. In fact, it's quite the opposite. Between holding Josie because the girls hurt her feelings by not letting her play with them, or breaking up fights between EmiLinds or making sure they aren't hiding downstairs watching TV all day, I have hardly had a free moment. Until this morning...when I decided I wasn't going to sleep in. That I would get up and work on the computer before the kids woke up. So, literally two minutes after I sat down at the computer in my nice, quiet house, I heard coughing from downstairs, then mumblings and rumblings..oh, no..the kids are waking up! I'm still not going to get anything done! And now, Emily is beside me complaining that her sister and her cousin woke her up. Is that Josie I hear waking up? Now they want breakfast. When does school start?









We made it to Lake Powell last week for an overnighter. Had to make sure the lake hadn't forgotten us. And it hadn't. It welcomed us with 100 degree temperatures and nice refreshing water. We packed up the boat and tried to head down river to find a nice secluded, shady canyon to camp in but the boat was giving us trouble so we turned around and camped closer to the marina in Hall's Creek Bay which was overloaded with houseboats. But it was all good.








I like these two pictures of the Queen Cleopatras on their river barges.








The nearly-full moon rising between two sandstone bluffs behind our camp. We left Lake Powell at 4pm, stopped at Stans, got home at 8pm and unpacked. Mark took a shower to freshen up and headed downtown to run Price's 1st annual Lunatic Triathlon that he has been training for for months. I thought he was insane but he did it and did quite well finishing 18th out of 150 people/teams. Go Mark!

This is one of the songs from Emily and Lindsey's last singing performance. As you will note, Emily found her groove on this one. Maybe next year she will take break dancing. :) Sorry if the camera is a little shaky, we couldn't stop laughing.

School's out for summer...

I haven't written in the last couple of weeks because things have been incredibly busy with the end of school but here's a brief update of what we've been doing along with some pictures.

Because of budget cuts the field trips at our school are pretty lame so we skipped school one day and went to the aquarium in SLC. The kids had a great time and Josie was just flabbergasted at all the colorful fish. And I only lost her two times!!! I really need to get a leash for that girl.

We headed to Goblin Valley for a couple of days and about got blown off the face of the earth. I've been in a lot of storms in southern Utah but this one took the cake. Sustained winds of 30 mph with gusts of 50-60 mph ALL NIGHT LONG!!! It was just fine until we left our awesome camp (Angie, you know the one) to go to The Valley of the Goblins. When we got out of the car the wind was blowing pretty hard so we only spent about 15 minutes there and decided to head to Little Wild Horse Canyon to seek shelter.

We had a great time in this beautiful slot canyon. The kids did great and although we didn't make it to the end we figured we hiked about 7 miles round trip!

This picture was taken inside our trailer the morning we left and the winds were probably blowing 25 mph. Our trailer was shaking so bad I couldn't even steady the camera to take this picture.

Lindsey, the explorer, looking for goblins.

The girls got all done up for Crazy Hair Day at school. It was the easiest hair do's we've done all year. No combing, no screaming, no crying. They just got out of bed and I put a bunch of loops in their hair. Both girls had a great year and came home with excellent report cards. Lindsey had a goal of passing off 1000 sight words and she reached it just a couple of days before school got out. She was so excited! We're glad school is out so we can all sleep in...now it just needs to warm up so we can go swimming and hit Lake Powell.

The girls finished up their dance and singing seasons. Lindsey is so cute on stage and really seems to have a knack for dancing. She catches on to the routine quickly and knows just what to do without relying on her teacher the whole time. Both of the girls had a final singing performance at the civic auditorium and Emily wowed the crowd with some unchoreographed breakdancing during one of her solos!!! Our friend who was sitting across the aisle from me asked, "Is she breakdancing?" It was the funniest thing I have ever seen. I was laughing so hard I couldn't hold the camera still. I thought it was hilarious but I made her apologize to her teacher after the show. The teacher's daughter was also on one and had some antics of her own. It was the best show ever...and the singing was good, too! I might have to enroll Emily in a hip-hop dance class so she can perfect her moves.

Day Trip to Provo

All my friends take frequent trips to Provo and when I say frequent, I mean almost weekly. They go for various reasons: need to pick up something they can't get in small town Utah, want to go somewhere different for lunch, change of scenery, need to do some shopping, visit relatives, etc. Our week was going to be pretty slow and I needed a new swimsuit. I didn't want to buy one here or every time we go the pool someone else will have my same swimsuit...it's a small town thing.

So we took a trip up to Provo the other day and hit the Kohl's store for some great swimsuit shopping. Within 20 minutes I remembered why I try to avoid shopping with kids as much as I can and why I never buy anything for myself. As I was trying to pick out swimsuits off the rack Josie climbed out of the stroller and wandered into the endless sea of clothing racks. I called her name but she prefers not to answer. It's a little game she likes to play. I found her not too far off just walking around or looking at some boy, scolded her and put her back in the stroller. She continued to do this 5 more times but I was determined to get a swimsuit that day. I did not drive all that way for nothing.

We headed to the dressing room with a whole bunch of swimsuits to try on and Josie was intrigued by the new surroundings for about 30 seconds. Just as I had finished trying on the first swimsuit, she took off out the door. Oh yeah, here I go, out of the dressing room in a swimsuit that's a little too tight on top to chase Josie around this huge store. The dressing room is smack dab in the middle of the store so when you walk out you can go left or right and which way did Josie go? Who knows! I'm in this swimsuit, hunched over walking through racks and calling my little girls name and people are looking at me like I'm crazy! I was so embarrassed. I finally found her on the opposite side of the store from where the swimsuits are and hauled her back to the dressing room. She thought it was pretty funny and she did it several more times. So, a shopping trip that would have taken me 30 minutes if I had been by myself ended up taking almost an hour and a half with Josie in tow.

I made sure we went to the bathroom each time we entered and left a store to prevent any accidents with my potty-training toddler. She had done really well so far so we headed to Bajio for lunch before heading home. The place was nearly deserted so we picked a table by the windows and sat down to eat our lunch that I had been looking forward to for the last four days. I started into my lunch and she had a couple bites of rice when all of a sudden she opens the flood gates and pees all over the chair! Even better, there are slats on the seat of the chair so all the pee immediately runs all over the floor! FOR THE LOVE! I had prepared for just such as incident so I cleaned up the mess and grabbed the extra outfit I had brought. We headed into the bathroom and cleaned up as fast as we could and when we walked back out they had cleared our lunch from our table! Over $10 worth of food was now sitting in the garbage. I had had enough, time to go home. It's going to be a long time before we go to Provo for a day trip again.

Daddy!!!!

I really shouldn't post this but it's too funny not to. One of those parenting moments that you just have to write down.

A couple of weeks ago I wrote about Josie potty training. She's doing so well with the #1 aspect but having a little trouble with #2. She's been holding it for a couple of days but a bath last night helped loosen things up. I was at a Relief Society thing so Mark had the girls for the night. He put Josie to bed in a pull-up and her favorite footie pajamas. A few minutes later Josie was screaming "Daddy! Daddy!" He went to see what she needed and saw that she was buck-naked and holding something in her hand. She said, "Daddy...poop...here" and held out a nice little brown package for him to dispose of!!! OMG(osh)!!! I laughed till I cried when I got home and he told me what happened. I'm still laughing! There was no sign of the poop landing on her blankets, sheet, pajamas or pull-up. I think she caught it! Ahhhhhhhhhhh!

Spring break in Phoenix

For the last 2 years Karen has been hounding us to come visit her in Phoenix. We told her that when we had successfully turned Josie into a movie-watching zombie we would tackle the 12 hour drive and come visit. Josie finally hit that milestone so we took a road trip to Phoenix for Spring Break. What a drive! Holy cow, next time we'll fly.

The second we got out of the car we headed for the backyard pool. The girls stripped down and jumped in and were quite shocked to find out the water was only 68 degrees! They immediately jumped out...and got their swimsuits. The water was cold but they didn't care. They had waited for this moment for months and they weren't going to let the cold water ruin their long-anticipated swim. They didn't brave the pool again until a few days later when their beloved Nana Karen drug them out of the house and threw them in!! You wait Karen, it won't be long until they are bigger than you and revenge will be theirs! Wah-ah-ah-ah.

After such a long, cold winter and a spring that hasn't been much better, it was so nice to sit by the pool and soak up the sun. The flowers were blooming and the air smelled so sweet.

We checked out a huge park in Anthem which "is a planned community developed by Dell Webb in 1989..." Karen told us after Googling "Anthem, AZ" on her iPhone. It was hilarious. Anytime we had a question about the area whether it was size or population or history Karen was all over it on her iPhone. I think she may have given Apple it's "There's an app for that." tagline.

We hiked the Thunderbird trail. I think that was the first time Karen had done this since living there and her house is about two blocks away.

Interactive art in downtown Mesa.

The girls got cooking lessons from Nana Karen. They made homemade OREO cookies, Jello jelly beans and eggs, chocolate eggs and Chex white chocolate snack mix to name just a few. One of my favorite parts of the trip was all the fresh squeezed lemonade, OJ and grapefruit juice that we enjoyed everyday. Some of it even came from Karen's own backyard and it was soooo good.

On our way home, we braved the wind and made a detour to the Grand Canyon. That was the first time Mark and I had been there and it was pretty spectacular.

The picture below cracks me up. Emily and I were checking out the view from the guard rail and I turned around and saw a group of Japanese tourists snapping pictures of Lindsey and Josie. Those two thought they were in a magazine photo shoot. The group couldn't get enough of them and Josie and Lindsey hammed it up pretty good for the camera. Forget the huge hole in the ground. Look at these cute American girls! Click, click, click.