Quick Weekend in Mesa

The last weekend in March, we signed up for a 5k fun run in Chandler, so off to Mesa we went! I think Grandma was pretty tickled that Olive willingly went to her for hugs. We've decided she's a cat. Seriously. She is so territorial. She scratches a lot. (Like we were in the living room once and heard a long scratching noise so we turned around and saw Olive, just running her nails along the hallway wall as she walked in.) And finally, she is very funny about how she shows affection. SHE has to choose you. If you get all excited over her, gobble her up or try to force it, she will NOT allow it. My poor Mom has learned this on many an occasion. But if she's in the right mood and she feels like she's in control, she'll throw ya a shoulder snuggle.

An hour after getting there, we were at our fav spot, Gecko. I'm sure everyone in this picture will hate me for posting this. I should have announced my intentions. ;) We ran into my late Aunt Lisa (what do you call an aunt that is technically no longer an aunt??) and cousin Hilary. Cuz when you're at Gecko, you just plan on seeing someone you know.

The next morning, Trav, Aubrey and I drove out to Wild Horse Pass in Chandler for our "5k Thrill Seeker Run"! It's basically 3 miles interspersed with obstacles that are reminiscent of that show WipeOut. I was excited! You start the race on these bouncy balls. So funny to watch a swarm of adults bounce their way across the threshold! 

We haven't done many races but this one made us laugh... I don't think we saw anyone else running! Apparently this is the run for lazy people that just want to jump off things onto blowup pads, haha!

My back makes me nervous, so I was pretty cautious on most things. Not this guy! He'll throw a back flip wherever he can!

This is the only one I bypassed. I headed out one step then turned and jumped into the water. Get punched in the face?? Um, no thanks.

When I saw the bowling pins from a distance I thought maybe you jump on one and swing around. Nope, there are running mats stretching across water and you have to time it just right to run across them without getting taken out by a swinging pin! It totally got my heart rate jumping and made me scream, haha.

I was proud of myself on this one. You climb up a rock wall pretty high, then grab that swinging bar and lean back to get leverage. Then, while holding onto it, you run out on a short diving board type thing and swing across a long gap to hopefully make it onto the slide. If you don't make it, you land on a blow up pad, quite a bit lower. People were freaking out. The girl in front of me was literally having a baby. It's true, after you get up there, your realize how high you are and my stomach did tighten a bit. But after listening to pansy girl drop a plethora of swear words I decided to not hesitate and just go for it. It was awesome!  

Travis rocked this one. Aubrey and I did a lot of swimming! ;)

Slip in slide time! I think I made it halfway across. 

There were a lot more obstacles that I didn't get pictures of. The second to last one was one of the highest slide I've ever been on. It took your breath away, then there was just enough water at the bottom that you flew through as you came shooting up and out of the last stretch. Soooo fun!

 

You can sort of see the last one behind us. Just a zip line that you hoped to finish on the slide and not fall off on the pad before it.

We had a good time! I don't see any point in signing up for the Warrior Dash again. This run beat the pants off any of the others I've done!

We had to get our swim on, of course. It may have been March, but we have some crazy boys still willing to jump in that water!

David, the trendsetter. 

That night was women's conference. My mom had to be in the Easter pageant so she couldn't come. But since my dad is bishop, he went with me and my sisters. Now, how many sisters get to go to women's conference with their father?! ;) It was really fun. Even more fun was China King afterward. Walnut shrimp, get in my belly!!!! Ohhh, my mouth is watering, looking at this. This place knows how to do Chinese food. I think we got one of everything. 

 Concrete's go well with chow mein. Seriously. David met up with us for our dessert. Lots of eating and talking this night. Add in my family and my life doesn't get any better.

On Sunday morning we took the kids and visited Grandmother. She got pneumonia and was hospitalized for a week while I was in  They discharged her into my Aunt Marcia's care. So she is all set up at the Montague's house with her chair, lamp and oxygen tank! She wasn't able to think very clearly during our visit, which made me sad. She didn't remember anything, short term or otherwise. My aunt said she'll have times of perfect memory then moments of confusion. The boys gave her hugs and pictures, then went outside to play. Half an hour later she didn't remember they had been there and acted surprised that they were there and hadn't given her hugs yet. When it was time to leave, she really wanted to give them something, but obviously didn't have her normal arsenal of soda or shortbread cookies. So she got into her purse and handed them each 2, $1 bills. I didn't want them to accept them, but recognized it was her "Sprite can". It's hard watching people you love, decline in health. 

The next day was my Mom's birthday, and two days later, my dad's, so we celebrated Sunday night! Taco salad and hot fudge sundaes. Yum and yum.

Doesn't this picture do them justice?!! Mom's groovin' and Dad's doing his amped up happy face, for our benefit. :)



I'm not sure why, but Olive was really happy about all of it.

Piñata time!

Arriba arriba!!

I found this monster of a piñata at Frys. I was thinking the grandkids would love the balls. The first person to notice was Craig... "Sweet! Those balls will be fun!" Haha. One and the same, I guess.

Multi-tasking.

All worthwhile things can be done with a thumb in the mouth.

 

 All sorts of spunk. I think it got him more than he got it.

Again, this picture captures my mother so well! Put some leg into it! ;)

And Dad was very methodical and precise about his swings. I wonder if we all could be categorized based on how we hit a piñata??!

David serenaded us with some awesome mariachi music from his truck for all of it! We had a true, blue fiesta that night! Olive's swingin' hips don't lie.

 

We just couldn't drag ourselves away from the party, so it was 8pm by the time we
drove away. That translates into 1am for getting home. Ugh. Poor Trav. What would it be like to just live in Mesa??! It was all completely worth it though. We squeezed so much into 2 1/2 days! Family. is. de. best.