Our Phoenix Trip

We decided to take a trip down to Phoenix to visit my sister Michelle in February. We headed down Wednesday the 17th and stayed in St. George for the night. The next day we left Ben and Todd, who had come with us, in St. George for the yearly golf trip my Dad is kind enough to put together. While they played, I headed south with two kids and a long drive ahead of us! They both did really well and we made it to Michelle's by dinner time. It was so fun to see her and Logan. Jack was on his way up to St. George to golf with everyone else so we missed him. They just moved into a new home and it was so cute! She was a way awesome hostess and we did lots of fun things.

On Friday we started by having a picnic in the park with my friend Emily and her kids. I didn't take any pics but we had a fun time talking, watching the kids play and most of all enjoying the beautiful weather! It was a gorgeous day! After nap time we headed over to Freestone Park. They had some fun rides for the kids.

Here's Logan, Michelle and Grace

Garett enjoyed his little ride too!
I got to ride on the train with the kids. It went all the way around the park and was a lot of fun!

After the park we headed to Joanne's to get some fabric for our weekend project. I haven't taken pictures, but we made lots of different fabric flowers that week. They turned out really cute!

On Saturday we had grand plans to go to the Renaissance fair, but got rained out. :( We ended up going to Toys R Us and wandering around for a while and then went home. After nap time we decided to do something totally different. We went to a pottery painting place and painted our own special plates! Growing up my family had an old blue plate the the birthday person got to eat off of. We called it the Blue Plate Special. I decided to continue the tradition and make an updated version.

Jack, Ben, and Todd got in late Saturday night. It was Todd's first time seeing Michelle's family since he got home from his mission. It was a great reunion!

Sunday it rained again, so after church we BBQ'd in the back yard instead of at the park. Then we played some games and sat around watching the Olympics.

Garett decided climbing in the pantry was a good rainy day activity.

Monday was still pretty rainy so we ended up at this really cool place. I'm not sure, but I think it was called Jack's Place. They had a pizza buffet that was pretty good. Then the fun part was picking which theme room you were going to eat your pizza in. We ate in the movie room and watched Night at the Museum. There were a few other options like the sports room, a cafe and a jungle room too. We then did some miniature golf there. It was a pretty shabby course but we had it mostly to ourselves, so it was fun!

Grace had fun the first few holes, but that quickly gave way to boredom.

She and Logan decided to create their own fun.

Then she got a few golf tips from Dad.

My sibling: Todd, me and Michelle.

We made poor Garett stay in the stroller the whole time! He finally fell asleep with 4 holes left.

Sweet Kid

I just love these two guys! Nothing in the world makes me happier!

Happy Valentines Day!

We had a really fun Valentines Day! We made heart-shaped envelopes and left each other love notes throughout the week. I made some really cute V-day decorations, like a heart-shaped wreath! We made some yummy sugar cookies! Garett and Nala especially enjoyed them.

See? What a happy boy!
Ben and I actually went on a wonderful date! We went to dinner with three other couples to Texas Roadhouse (our favorite!) and then went to the church for the Elders Quorum dance. It was fun to dance and hold each other for an evening. We haven't done that in years! We felt like we were at a throw-back region dance or something. It really made us feel youthful and strengthened our love. It was a wonderful Valentines Day!

The Aquarium

Thanks to Ben's Dad, we got to go to Legislative night at the Aquarium! We had so much fun being there with the family.

I was grateful for their help in keeping track of the kids since Ben was at a work thing that night. Our favorite thing was touching the Sting Rays! Garett just liked playing in the water, but Grace REALLY wanted to touch them. The problem was the Sting Rays kept swimming away from her. She ran around the exhibit like five times trying to get to the right spot. Finally, I grabbed and pushed her arm into one of the deepest spots and she got one! She came out dripping wet, but she touched it and was so proud!

We also got to touch some other sea creatures, which was fun!
The most exciting thing was when Grandpa showed up. He had a long day at the capitol and Grace made him feel very welcome!
Grace also discovered some puzzles they had there. She is sooo into puzzles lately! She is so smart and can figure them out by herself. It's a really great quiet time activity!

They had some photographers there taking pictures, so I got one of me and Garett in front of the sharks, except you can't see the sharks.

We were excited to see the new South America exhibit. This wasn't open last year when we went and we thought it was really cool!

Fieldtrip to Cabella's

Jan 27th was Grace's preschool Fieldtrip to Cabella's. We had a lot of fun looking at the fish in the aquariums and the stuffed animals.

The favorite thing was feeding the fish!Garett turned into a big kid on this trip. No more hanging out in the stroller for him! He wanted to be out and walking around with all the other kids. Where did my baby go!

Garett

Garett is full of mischief these days. He loves to climb, play in the pantry and throw things down the stairs. He LOVES Nala and goes for her kennel anytime the door is open. Ben discovered him one day like this. He was covered in hair by the time we got him out.

The poor boy has also been sick a lot. He had an ear infection from Christmas past Valentines Day. We finally cleared it up at the end of Feb, but has another one now. We'll be seeing the specialist for tubes the first week of April.

This is one of his favorite past times. If the pantry is open he's in it playing. Better for my house and my stomache to keep it closed!

He is so sweet and learning so much. I love to hear him say new words. My favorite was when he learned to say No. He would scrunch up his eyebrows, pout his lips and say, "no". He's become very posessive of me and anything he thinks is his. He started saying "mine". He also says, mama, dada, uh oh, nose, eye, Nala, vroom, and bye. I love you Garett!

Welcome Home Elder Hardy!

My brother got home from his mission on Monday! He served in the Spokane WA mission and did an awesome job! He even ended with TWO Baptisms on Saturday. Way to go Elder Hardy! We are soooo proud of you!