The McGee Visit

Whew, two months gone in a flash! That's what happens when you have two sports (baseball included), all the other normal activities that consume our lives; dance, karate, music, gymnastics, church stuff, end of the year parties, DVD's to make, redecorating, company, etc, etc! Can I just hire someone to blog for me? I'm beginning to realize that my most productive time of day is when I now am currently running kids everywhere, getting them fed, bathed, down to bed, etc. and not necessarily all in that order! Back in the day, when the kids all went to bed at 7:00, I was much more productive. A comedian once said, "I'm sick of following my dreams. I just want to ask them where they are going and meet up with them later!" I feel like that these days, as my dreams of a perfectly clean and orderly house, kids all taking music lessons, all doing activities and up on their Faith in God books, scouts, journals, along with me being on top of blogging, journaling for each kid, exercising at least 3 times a week, keeping up on all my friends and having a social life, reading my scriptures, and staying up on my calling is to hard to follow! As long as the wrong things don't suffer, I guess! But journaling has always been top priority for me. I hate back tracking. It's never as good. So sorry kiddos when you read this when I find the time to make a cute blog book for each of you, when all the details aren't included. This is why I tell you to have a lot of detail when you write in your own journals every Sunday!:) Because Mom doesn't have time for it all anymore!

So, where did I leave off? Ok, right after the girls parties! Next was the visit from the McGee's. It's always nice when we get together. It's so relaxed. They are family to us. We all have our idiosyncrasies, but we know what we got and we love each other regardless. It's always so relaxed. We miss having them my us, and one day hope to all be close again. In the mean time we are left to yearly ( sometimes every other) visits! Since the kids were in school, we only took them out when we were going somewhere. The boys actually were only checked out for one day, when we went to the Body Worlds exhibit.

The first day we were here I took Aubrie out for some shopping with Abbie and Sydney. The girls had fun picking out clothes together. They always like to match or coordinate clothing, even though they don't live by one another. The second day we went to the Easter Pageant at the temple. In the 8 years we have lived here, we never made it over to Mesa for the Pageant. It was always too late for our kids. It worked out perfect for us this year, and we were glad to go with the McGees! It was a nice production. It wasn't the same caliber as the Hill Cumorah Pageant, but the Spirit was strong and the message was wonderful. It was kind of hard for the kids to see, but they still enjoyed it.

Temple at Twilight

Temple at Night

Some preshow entertainment!

Wednesday we took the girls (including Sophia) up to Sedona. Ethan had try outs after school for the talent show, and Boston had a field trip, so we didn't take them. We had a great time up there. We ate at the Cowyboy Club, that I have heard so much about. It was really good. We then did some shopping in town, and then did some hiking. On one of the hikes we found a snake. Its scared Aubrie pretty good. It looked like a Coral snake. We didn't get close enough to find out for sure. We just avoided it.

Checking out downtown.

Our favorite stops were candy store where we stopped for ice cream, and the toy store, where I found an awesome search and find book!!! My kids LOVE those books!

The Cowboy Club

Hiking

Our first hike was down the road from Slide Rock. Ben fell asleep on a picnic table, so he didn't do this one with us. Aubrie loved this hike. These rocks were no problem for her to navigate. Her main goal was getting to the other side of the river, which she eventually did!

Our hike by the bridge!

The trail by the bridge took us to here! We had fun throwing huge rocks into the stream, trying to get each other wet!

Our handsome chauffeur for the day!:)

Our last day we took everyone to the Body Worlds exhibit. I don't have any pictures, because you are not allowed to take any. You can look it up online, though. I loved it, of course. I could have stayed in there for hours. But the boys were over it in about 30 minutes, and the girls were spent after an hour. After we did the exhibit we went through the rest of the science museum. The kids had fun exploring and doing the Bed of Nails. The rest of our time was spent playing games, going out to eat, and hanging out in the hot tub, or just talking. It was a sad day when they had to leave.