Picture Problem

Blogger is giving me fits right now. First it wouldn't let me post a picture, now it will let me download only 2. I have a post just waiting for a few more pictures, so bear with me and hopefully it will be ready tomorrow.

Vacation- Day Eight: Off to Flagstaff

This was a really busy day. We got up in the morning and took pictures with all of the cousins. We drove up through Cliff, then Luna. We waved to Kris's mom as we drove through St. Johns, Arizona. We made our first stop at the Petrified Forest and Painted Desert. I had never been to them before and was so glad we stopped. The kids got their Jr. Ranger badges and liked learning about the Indians and how the petrified wood was made. Joshua thought it was "Awesome".

A chunk of petrified wood

The forest today

Look at all the neat dinosaurs we could've had as pets

I'm too little for this to think about eating, right Mom?

Maybe not living with the dinosaurs is a good thing

The Painted Desert

I was really amazed at both the Painted Desert and the Petrified Forest. I wasn't expecting much from them, truth be told. There were some really neat petroglyphs- one looked like a giant bird eating a person while another person was yelling. It was really weird to look out and see these little bumps on the ground and then realize that they were parts of trees. It was really neat at the Jasper Forest to see the logs still in the cliff walls, just waiting for erosion to expose them. The Painted Desert was more rock layers than sand, so that was more interesting to me.

Vacation- Day Seven: A Day of Rest in New Mexico

We spend Sunday in Silver City. We spent most of Sunday School in the halls with people, catching up. We were told the great news about a friend of ours- when we left, her husband was not going to church at all. They were sealed in the temple in June. We came home and caught up on laundry and packed for the next day. Again, we stayed up too late, but I wouldn't have had it any other way.

Vacation- Day Six: Off to New Mexico

We left Saturday morning to head on over to Silver City, New Mexico. We were on a little bit of a time crunch, since our nephew was getting baptized at 3:00. We met up with some friends in Superior- they live in Miami and we had planned to stop and see them for just a few minutes, but they were on their way to the Valley to be there for their daughter's ultrasound. We chatted for about 20 minutes with Mark and Brenda, their two sons (who have grown about 3 feet since I last saw them), and their oldest grandson. Then it was off to the baptism. It was really great seeing everyone from our old ward again. It was amazing the difference 3 years makes in a kid's look- I hardly recognized everyone! After the baptism, we ran to Wal-Mart to get some batteries for the digital camera and to test our theory- you can't walk into the Wal-Mart in Silver City without running into someone you know. We ended up seeing 3 people we knew before we got to the first aisle, and added one more person as we walked the store. It was really fun getting all of our kids together at Pat and Kris's house. They had never met Anneliese and we had never met Bam-Bam. Lucy and Josh were really little when we left. Angel-Face is missing in the above photo (I don't think I got one of him with the digital), so you'll have to go to the above link to see him. We stayed up too late and had a lot of fun catching up.

Vacation- Day Five- Phoenix

Everyone is feeling all better. We decide to go to Waterworld for the day, since the kids have been talking about a waterpark since they found out we were going to Phoenix. Liesie wasn't too sure about it at first, but she really liked the lazy river. Mischa liked the lazy river, too. Caleb really, really, really wanted to go on all of the slides, even the one that pretty much goes straight down. He was really upset when I told him no. After a fun day of splashing around, we got dressed and went to see Grandma and Aunt Nancy. My digital camera's batteries decided to die here, so only have undeveloped pictures of them. After seeing them, we went off to Chuck E. Cheese's.

Vacation- Day Four- Phoenix

Mischa is sick. Running a fever and can't keep anything down. So Mom and I left everyone and went shopping, lol. We had a nice lunch and went to get an outfit for my birthday present. I got a pretty skirt and a few tops. The kids all got an outfit, too. We had a great dinner of grilled steak, lamb chops, and asparagus (well, great for Perry and my mom, lol). In the evening, Caleb and Josh started running fevers, too.

Vacation- Day Three: Phoenix

Happy Fourth of July!

Today was spent getting set for going over to my cousin's. She lives really close to the Peoria Sports Complex and they have great fireworks every year. I made my deviled eggs, and my mom barbecued some cranberry orange chicken wings (very yummy). My cousin has a pool, and she rented a Spongebob jump house for all of the kids. She also has a misting system, so it's really nice to be outside. Liesie was really loving the pool. We put the arm floaties on her and she didn't want to be held anymore. She was even trying to jump into the pool. Caleb was a little bummed, though, because my cousin's daughter and friends wouldn't play with him. Things were going well, until we gathered in the driveway to watch the fireworks. Mischa said she wasn't feeling well, and in a few minutes threw up. The fireworks were great, and it was good catching up with everybody again.

Vacation- Day Two: Phoenix

Welcome to Phoenix during the hottest week of the year. Yes, 117 degrees this week. I think it was just for me.

We got up to run to Wal-Mart to get some supplies (car seats, diapers, etc.) while my mom ran to the grocery store to get groceries. We arrived home at about the same time. We went swimming at the subdivision's pool. Joshua liked to be on the stairs and Anneliese was slowly getting used to the water.

And We're Off!

Our start of 2 weeks of family togetherness started on Monday, July 2nd. Our flight was at 9:30 p.m., but due to the fun Atlanta traffic, we left the house at 5:30 to insure getting there on time. We hit absolutely no traffic, so we were at the airport around 6:30-7. We had a quick dinner and let the kids play on a little playcenter that was conveniently located right across from our gate. Anneliese loved the bathrooms, with their automatic soap and water dispensers. The flight was nice. Caleb stayed awake the entire time, Mischa was awake most of the time, and Anneliese was nice enough to sleep through most of the flight. My mom thought that we were arriving on Tuesday, so I'm glad I called her at the gate before we left. We arrived in Phoenix, and the thing I really hate about that airport is that the rental car area is accessible only by shuttle bus. We got our car, no problem, and zoomed off to my mom's.

Recovery

We just returned from 2 weeks of family fun. I'll be blogging about it, but as usual, there is the requisite unpacking and laundry to do. I should be done today with it all, so I'll start tomorrow.

And a quick funny-

From a previous post, you know that the Backyardigans are big at our house. I like to kid the kids about some of the episodes. I switch the words of the Ghost and Pirate episodes (the Ghosts favourite word is Arrr and the Pirates say Boo). I like to do this particularly to Joshua because he gets the biggest laugh in correcting me. So Perry decided to ask him what a pirate ghost says. After he got the concept, his answer was:













Window!