Day 12 & 13 - Strongs' house

Wednesday & Thursday were spent hanging out with the Strong family. And we loved every minute of it. We appreciated Dallin's sisters bringing their kids over to play and the awesome meals that Grandma made for us. Thursday morning Dallin & I were able to go to the temple while the kids played with their grandparents. Thanks for everything!

Jacob & Tommy both love games and pulled out Risk a couple of times. Savannah was in heaven being the oldest of this troop of little girls. They had treasure hunts and played games and puzzles and who knows what else.

Connor and some smaller cousins

Connor loved showing Grandpa his favorite Earth Science website on the computer.

Day 11 - Water and friends

Tuesday morning we started out by blowing up the fun water toys that Grandma had. But Landon doesn't really love water and it was time for his nap, so we just let him play in the pool without water. He had a great time until he tried to eat the pool and almost put a hole in it. Then he got banned from it and we put it outside. Life's tough.The older kids had a great time on the triple racing slip'n'slide. They were so happy to get cooled off in the heat.

It was cute watching Jacob try to teach Connor how to slide on his stomach. He's a good big brother.

In the afternoon the kids and I went to Kino Pool in Mesa. The last time I went there was when I was a little kid and it has sure changed. It has a great kid area and a fun water slide. The boys spent most of their time on the diving boards. We don't ever go to city pools because we have our neighborhood pools. But we don't have diving boards. We might have to venture out to more pools because they LOVED it.

My cousin Brenda drove all the way out from Peoria to meet us with her daughter Brayden. We had so much fun with you Brenda! Thanks for driving so far and making our swim so fun.

After dinner and showers at Dallin's parent's house we met up with some Texas friends. Jody Corbett and family moved to Round Rock the same week we did and their kids are mostly all the same ages as ours. They just moved back to AZ a few months ago. Anna Davies and family moved back over a year ago and we miss them tons! Jody and I used to visit teach Anna, so it was a fun reunion. Because of work and scout camp Dallin ended up being the only guy there, but he was a good sport.

The kids LOVED playing all together again. I wish we could do it more often!

Day 10 - Makutu's Island

Grandpa took everyone to Makutu's Island again this year. It was more crowded this time since school wasn't in session, but still lots of fun.Connor & Dallin climbing up the net. All of the adults went up and played at one point or another except Ana Paula, who stayed down to keep an eye on Landon for me.

Pulling Grandma on to the next thing. We all got a good workout.

Grandma and Joshua

Landon practicing climbing up stairs

Lauree & Savannah under the "tree"

Grandma taking a turn watching Landon

Jacob having a "pillow fight" with Uncle Justin

Team effort...Connor riding the motorcycle while Justin does the gas and Dallin steers

Sprinkler Park

We usually go to the sprinkler park a couple of times each summer. We'd been so busy that I hadn't even thought about it until a friend invited us to meet them yesterday. The kids LOVE this place and had a blast like always. We got their early and they had the whole place to themselves for a few minutes.Don't let that smile fool you. Landon did not enjoy the water. This kid doesn't really like water very much, unless Mommy is holding him. He'll only last a little while in the pool and wanted nothing to do with any water spraying on his head.

Jacob borrowed our friends' ball and got it caught in the spray. That was the highlight of the day for all the boys.

The Round Rock...again

The boys have been working hard on cub scout stuff the last couple of weeks. Something that fulfilled an achievement for both of them (for different things) was going to visit the Round Rock that our city is named after. Usually this rock is in the middle of Brushy Creek, but the drought has made it possible to climb right up onto it. We went for Family Home Evening and had fun skipping rocks in what was left of the water. We only lasted a few minutes though since it's been 107 degrees around here lately...VERY hot for Texas.

Firsts & Lasts

Landon has already learned to climb. I found him standing like this on the bench. The only problem is that he doesn't know how to get down. He plops right down on his bum, and in this case that's a long way down. Hopefully he'll learn quick!The week of his birthday we finished Landon's last can of formula, which was also his last bottle. It was a happy/sad thing for me. Happy that we're moving on from that phase of life, but sad that my baby is growing up so fast! He transitioned to the sippie cup and milk great. He's been using a cup with water for a few months and I'd been giving him milk in it for a week or so. I think he missed the bottle for a day or so, but otherwise did great!

Day 9 - Phoenix

We went to church with Grandma & Grandpa LeSueur and then came back to relax for the afternoon. The kids had fun with Grandma's large collection of play-doh.Marbles with Grandma

In the evening my brother Justin, Ana Paula, and Joshua arrived from Holbrook (northeast AZ). Joshua & Connor were very sweet when they saw each other.

Zach patiently teaching Joshua how to play with "guys."

After dinner we celebrated the birthdays, Grandpa's a few days late and Landon's a little early. We found out that Landon LOVES chocolate cake.

During church my dad got Landon giggling so loud I almost had to take him out. He made a game out of his highlighter in his pocket and Landon thought it was the funniest thing ever. So we tried again that night and he still thought it was pretty hilarious.

I love this picture of Savannah & Grandpa. I was his only daughter and Savannah is his only granddaughter.

Ending the night with "pillow monster"...of course.

Day 8 - Mesa

Saturday, July 9 we spent the day with the Strongs in Mesa. The kids had been looking forward to playing with cousins all summer and were so excited! We also got to meet Carrie's new little guy, Masen.Matthew showed the boys the old Nintendo 64 that had appeared since our last visit. Zach was pretty much glued to that thing the entire time, but I didn't care because it kept him occupied and happy. The upstairs at the Strongs is a finished attic area that the kids can run and play in. It's nice to just send them all upstairs so that we can talk and visit. It's a win, win.

Landon practicing his walking with Grandma.

We got to see all of Dallin's family on this trip except for his sister Amy and family who live in California and our brother-in-law Dave, who was on a scout thing for the whole week.

Even Landon has cousins to "play" with. Although at this age their playing involves stealing toys from each other. Someday we hope they'll be friends.