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. 

March

We got some new Elders in our area. After dinner, the boys decided they wanted to leave with the missionaries, so they made sure they were appropriately attired. ;)

This made me smile and have anxiety all at the same time. Steel was right next to Rubi, right until I took the picture. He had chucked his apple down the stairs and went after it. Right after I took these pictures, I went and sat on the step right below them. You can never be too safe. :)

Preschool!!

The letter "P"!

We Played musical instruments to nursery rhymes and songs. Made Patterns with colored pasta, then made Pasta necklaces. Read The Princess and the Paper Bag. Made the letter P using Playdough. Ate Powdered donuts and Pears. Then I wanted to PLAY some games, but we just ended up playing Freeze Dance. They were oh so into it. I was jammin' too.

It made me laugh when they all sort of gravitated to Olive, like they were helping her dance or something. Olive just stood right where she was, swayin' those hips!

Missy Moo has hit the shoe phase! We can't have any other kids over to play without her finding their shoes and putting them on. She's even got the hang of my heels, and will go all the way across a room in them! (Let's be honest, they're her fav.)

With the diaper sticking out and high heels and skirt, this ensemble was killing me!

One weekend, we had Josie and Brighton over. Brighton played soccer with Travis and friends, we enjoyed some Fratellis, and best of all was Sunday night. I had already had plans to have a sister missionary (Sis. Haughter) over, that we loved. She went home a few months ago and was returning with her mom to show her, her mission. She was one of the sisters that knocked on Terry's door the day before we left a Book of Mormon and bread on his step for Easter. She gave him the first 2 or 3 discussions, but had been transferred before he was baptized. I was already looking forward to having them all over for dinner Sunday night, but having Josie and Brighton there made it extra special. In making small talk, and knowing Terry had taught the High Priest lesson that day, I asked him what his topic was. He said, "joy". My jaw must have slightly fallen open and I looked immediately at Josie. A little later in the conversation, I brought up Josie's project and her emphasis on JOY. She proceeded to tell them about the beginning of it all, including her original mission call to Farmington, her depression and bi-polar diagnosis and everything in between. I wondered how it was being received, but every time I looked at someone's face, they were absolutely mesmerized by Josie. What followed was a very spiritual, open conversation about depression and the gospel. Sis. Haughter's mom opened up about her first marriage and his depression. Terry spoke emotionally about his father and suicide. I don't think there was a dry eye in the room. At one point, Sis. Haughter's mom reached over to put her arm around her  and whispered, "I wonder if this dinner wasn't the very reason we were supposed to visit". I couldn't put it into words if I tried, but it was a very, very special evening. 

Britta and Olive are about 4 months apart. Their squished faces, hanging from the slide had us all giggling. 

Weston is friends with these two boys that are fraternal twins, Sam and Drew. The twins are best friends and really easy to have over. I still cringe at the thought of having twins.

St. Patrick's Day!

I had no plans to celebrate this day, but found some glasses and gold coins I'd bought at the dollar store, stashed away the day before. Then on the morning of- Collin asked if I'd make waffles for breakfast. Since I had enough time, I decided to oblige. Then remembered how fun Rachel is with her St. Patrick's Day breakfast and gave it a whirl. I was pretty proud of my square rainbows, haha. And I didn't even remember to wear green the whole day. Weston was pretty concerned about when the people would be coming over to pinch us. (People??? Poor, confused child :)

 

So this honestly was a pretty huge pay day for me. After we exercise in the mornings, Trav and I go to the front room to read our scriptures. My routine is to write in my journal, read out of the scriptures, then read a Conference talk. I usually have a highlighter in my hand and Collin obviously took notice. He sometimes wakes up while we're still in the middle of this. So he grabbed an Ensign and wanted me to read it to him so he could highlight something he liked. Children really do want to do what's right.

I got a new calling to be in the Young Women's at the beginning of the month. But they asked me if I could still be the Cubmaster while they found a replacement. For my last pack meeting, I decided to do a Raingutter Regatta. Why? Because I like to be stressed, apparently. I ordered an inflatable one online that should have gotten here in time, but it didn't. So off to Home Depot I went to buy actual, metal raingutters! Picture that with two small children in tow! They were a nightmare! Soooo long and sharp on the edges. I could barely fit them in the scout closet. THEN, when it was time to set them up, I realized they weren't water tight. Uhhh, how many websites did I read about this and NEVER did it mention this!!! And we couldn't do it outside because of dumb Gallup's ridiculous wind! So Trav and I duct taped the heck out of those end caps and they STILL leaked! Ugh. I spent at least 4 hours at the church that day just setting up. Plus the hours of the actual event and then staying for mutual right afterward. So happy to see that night in my rear view mirror!

 

I tried to make it pirate themed. So I put this stuff on and gave it my best pirate accent to hand out awards! I know I sounded so silly but everyone laughed and I hope it was a memorable night. 

Here's my treasure chest with the boys' scout awards in it.

Some refreshments. The jello hadn't totally set up when I was taking 40 cups of it to the church. Oi! Luckily, no blue liquid spilled all over the car. 

The boys made their boats out of juice boxes. About half worked and half didn't. Turns out, the sail needs to be very close to the box. If it's high, the boat just falls over. I really wish I had known that. 

The top three winners got a bag of gummy lifesavers and the top winner also got a bag of gold doubloons! ;)

His swagger is pretty warranted. He's won the past two Pinewood Derbys and now the Regatta!

Sooo, my friend's mom emailed her this.

What do y'all think? Haha.

It's always interesting to see how you're perceived by others.. looks or otherwise.

It gave me a good laugh!

Just because she's the cutest darn thing in all the world!!

Daddy snuggles before he leaves to work. Olive was out of jammies so she got one of Weston's shirt and her Christmas flannels. Don't know what it was about that combo, but I couldn't get enough of her!