I know, I am way behind before I even get started! We've been gone a lot so rather than devote a whole blog to each of our trips (since I am just learning how to do this and still mess up a lot, I have decided to share a few photos from some of our recent trips. I have tons of pictures so if you want more ....just contact me.

In April we took our first ever cruise with the Kellers to the Mexican Riviera. We had all the kids and that made it even more fun. Other than a few bad days from food poisoning (ugh) it was heavenly. :)
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In July we went to Oceanside, CA and had a fun family trip. We just had fun being together after so long even though not everyone could make it. We had some good game nights. The little ones played at the beach, in the hot tub, and ate snacks all day.
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Next Blair and I went on a jeep trip through Flagstaff and spent a fun day with Bruce and Jody. Then we went to Canyon Dechelly and drove the bottom of the Canyon with a Native American guide. Then onto to Durango Colorado and met up with my two favorite cousins - Trice (and John) Kezer and Tim (and his new wife Jenny) Turner. We walked around the lake, (Blair even tried fishing) we played games, laughed and talked and remembered how important these extended family connections are.



In Sept we went to Georgia to see Josh and Heidi and stay with their kids while they went on a well deserved "holiday" to London. Blair and Lindy went for the weekend then I stayed for a week. We also got to meet Denise, a darling foreign exchange student from Sweden and Lissie, their new tiny dog. We went to ballet and soccer, had a sleep over, and visited Isabel's massage parlor. And sweet Grace patiently helped me with my blog again since I had forgotten most of my first lesson with Annie. (She made it cute too.) Thanks darlin! I'm trying...




And finally, in Oct. we made another trip to Colorado by jeep. Blair had a PT conference in Denver and received an award for his contributions to the profession. (he doesn't talk about it). Lindy had fall break so we stayed two nights in Teluride and saw the beautiful fall colors and "the lake of shining water", an old mining town etc. In Denver we went to the zoo with Trice's daughter Linzeej, her cute husband Tom and their 3 boys, Clive, Miles and Wes.





And that is the end - for now. We do stay home MOST of the time .... so I'll try to post some "at home life" pictures next time ....(if I find the courage to tackle this time consuming project again!)

Grandpa Rob's 95th!

Yea for Grandpa Rob!! He turned the ripe ol age of 95 on August 11th. We had a little party for him at the "Springs" where he lives. It was a fun celebration. The grandkid sang a song (It's Always Fun When Grandpa comes) and Olivia sang "L is for the Way you Look At Me" (which was the song our girls sang at Gramma Annie and Rob's wedding 20+ years ago) Stephen Phelps played some of Rob's favorites, we played a fun trivia game, and my brother Rick (aka Bubba)told some funny Rob golf stories. Rick and Sandra and Jami came down from Utah for the occasion. Emily and Annie put together a darling video of his life. We had some yummy food and many well wishers. We love our Grampa and are so glad he's near us now .......and still going strong!

Jami and Grandpa

Cute great grand daughters and Isaac

Rob's buddies Ruth, Carma, Donna (Gramma Packard)

Grandkids song

Little Girls

You only get to be a little girls once! Realizing this Aimee suggested we take our little girls to have a tea party at the American Girl Doll store in LA. So for Spring Break we loaded up Eliza, Lindy (and Luke -who is his Moma's baby dol) and headed for LA. We had so much fun and made some great memories. We spent the entire next day at Disneyland doing just what we (and they) wanted to do. We watched the fireworks from our hotel window. It was a little girl's dream come true. Now if we could just figure out how to keep them 8 and 10! ( so I am suppose to be learning how to do a blog by doing it! and I just got all the pictures in reverse order and the text on the bottom but don't know how to fix it and it's too late to call my tutor -Annie - so I'll just save it and keep learning ...I hope!)

What's This??

Annie talked me into setting up a blog. She is here helping me do this .....therefore this may be my only post!?? But I will give it a try. The purpose of this endeavor is to keep us all somewhat updated on what is going on in our family since we are all busy and spread far and wide (that is not a reference to body shapes). So here is a good reason to talk to your Mom (or Grammie) and let me know what's going on with you - or update your own blog - even better.

Bees!!!

Yesterday we were invaded by a swarm of bees. They clustered around the garbage can and were all over the back porch. We had a lot of little ones here so we decided to call the bee-be-gone man. He came right out and when he opened the garbage can we had tons more in there - he said around 3,000! We all sat in the window seat and watched him so it was very interesting. (the pics are bad because they are through the window).

Here is the dead bees in the bottom of the garbage can. The bee man said they landed here because their queen did and they follow her. He said they might leave in a day or two -but we didn't want to take the risk. It did make me sad to see they all had to die. I was hoping he could just remove them. Oh well ...... a few made it out alive and they will find a new hive to join.

Day at the Train Park

Today we went to the Train Park in Scottsdale. The kids are on Spring Break. We rode the carousel and the little train, played on the awesome playground and ate our picnic lunch. We toured the train museum and I told the kids how I used to ride the train and sleep in the pullman cars when I was a little girl and we traveled to Denver to see our cousins. We'd leave in the late afternoon and travel all night - making stops along the way. We'd eat dinner in the dining cars too. Fun Day!!