Picnic with the Millers

We had a picnic at Freestone Park with Scott's family on Monday. I forgot to take my camera, so I'll just have to steal my mother-in-law's pictures as she posts them to Facebook:

Group pic. We were facing the sun, so if everyone looks grumpy it's because we were being blinded. :)

Painting

Getting the condo ready to sell! The girls love to help. :)

Easter Pageant

We had a picnic at the Easter Pageant with Grandpa Miller last night:



LeiLani

We've had a lot of fun hanging out with LeiLani and her kids over the last couple months. We went over to their house for a few hours this week, and here's a picture from the drive home:

They were WORN OUT from all the fun. (The girls rarely fall asleep in the middle of the day, so they must have played really hard.)

Sunday Dinner

We sure love having Aunt Allison come over for Sunday dinner each week. We are going to miss her when we move to Texas!

Photo bomb

Random

Apparently Lizzie doesn't like the story very much. ;) (Just kidding. I think she poked her eye or something.)

A Blast from the Past

We were looking for something to do this afternoon, so on a whim we headed to the West Valley to relive a few memories, circa 2007 - 2009:


Emily taught at Imes Elementary for two years, from 2007 - 2009.

Heidi didn't really love this tour of Mom's past. (You can kind of see my classroom on the right in this picture.)

This is the Glendale apartment where Emily lived for a year (top unit on the right). This is where Scott and Emily had their first kiss, on the porch outside her apartment.

Scott and Emily lived in this ghetto Phoenix apartment for seven months as newlyweds. We moved out literally on the day that Emily's teaching contract ended. Emily was 6 or 7 months pregnant with Lizzie then.

Spark! Creativity Festival

This weekend there was a festival at the Mesa Arts Center. The theme was the four elements: earth, air, fire, and water. Yesterday evening we went and checked it out:

"Spun Chair." These fun chairs spin like tops and are supposed to replicate the Earth's rotational spin.

(We took family pictures here at the MAC four years ago, back in 2011.)

"Equinox." Daytime atmospheric theater performance.

"Water Light Graffiti." Large panel of LED lights responds to water on its surface--lets you write and draw in light.

"Sandboxes of Light." Brushes let you “paint” with light in the sand.

"In Dark Waters." Play music by touching the sculpture, and colored lights move across its body.

After checking out some of the exhibits, the kids played in the water.

... And guess who got all wet.

Main Street in Downtown Mesa

After checking out the festival, we went for a walk down Main Street and took pictures with all the statues. Here are some of the best ones:

(This statue is my favorite... A cowboy grandpa peeling an orange for his granddaughter.)

Then we stopped at Mango's for an al fresco Mexican dinner.

Happy Birthday, Grandma Lu!

Admittedly, these aren't the best or most representative pictures, but it's all I've got:

Grandma Lu gave Owen this bank

This picture is just random... But too cute not to include. (He had his shirt off after dinner because he made such a mess.) Scott says that Owen looks just like Grandpa Ellsworth in this picture.

Aunt Rachel and Uncle Cody

Uncle Cody and Aunt Rachel were in town today, so they came over for lunch--along with Uncle Jason, Aunt Kristi, and Ruby. Yay! (Aunt Allison had to work.) :(

Here's Owen, wearing his chalupa on his head.

I had to do a double take the first time I saw this picture because I thought Rachel was me. :)

Swimming

So it's 34 degrees in Toledo right now. And look what we did today... Three cheers for Arizona! :)

Daddy's Helper

The condo went back on the market this week, so Daddy freshened some paint and made some other improvements.

Night at the Movies

This week we went to the dollar theater for the second time ever with kids. Owen made it through the first half of the movie, but he and Mommy spent the second half walking the halls and "playing" in the arcade:

"A" Mountain (Hayden Butte)

Tempe Town Lake in the background (We parked at Tempe Town Lake and hiked over from there.)

Hayden Flour Mill... The historic flour mill is at the base of A Mountain. It was fun to read a little about the mill's history while we were there. The kids thought that this statue was specifically designed for them to play on.



Picnic lunch on the "tallest mountain"... You can sort of see the airport in the background

Mom: "Owen, say cheese!"
Owen: "No!" [Swats the camera away.]

Daddy and the girls hiking up to the A

You can kind of make out Lizzie getting in trouble for trying to climb to the top of the A after Daddy told her not to. They're at the base on the right.

Fun at Grandma and Grandpa's House

I had to include this one, because you can see a little bit of annoyance in Owen's face. I don't know why, but he got annoyed with Jimmy an awful lot. (Cousin rivalry?) Jimmy was such a good sport about it too. I'm glad Jimmy's so laid back! He was super nice to put up with all of Owen's crankiness this week.