April Vacation -- California & Arizona

The first of three birthdays I got to celebrate on my trip was Fitzwilliam's first birthday. Josh's parents and his brother Rich and his wife Michelle were also there. We had a really yummy feast followed by the party. Here's Fitz's "cupcakes-in-the-shape-of-a-one birthday cake" (formation?).

He seems to seriously like his new book.

Fitz and Katie really liked his new phone.

You can see how much he really liked his cake and ...

the paper plate!

Here's Jess's three cute boys in the back of their van ready to head out for Disneyland.

These are the only "Disneyland" pictures I took. I left my camera in the hotel room.

My first night in Arizona, I stayed with Alicia and we went out to dinner. Alicia did not want her picture taken.

Lilly and Max ...

Izzy and Max ...

Lilly and Adam . . .

Izzy and Adam . . .

Me and the three kids . . .

I was at Amy's for her birthday. She got a really great breakfast in bed, a crown, tulips, Mickey Mouse plate and napkin, and cards with more food and gifts to come later.

Here's Samuel at his birthday party -- Star Wars theme of course.

Siblings looking on enviously (??) as Samuel opens his presents.

Here's Evan holding his light saber, which was made out of half a pool noodle and duct tape. Each guest received one, and they had a lot of fun fighting with them -- well, mostly fun.

Here's Sally in her frequent perch, hanging off a dining room chair.

Aunt Rachel and Sally . . . probably shortly after rescuing Sally from another dangerous adventure.

At the end of my stay I went back to Alicia and Adam's so I got to go with Alicia and the girls to watch the girls get their hair cut. Isabelle had her very first shampoo at a salon.

The place was called Cool Cut for Kids (or something close to that). They had a fun-for-kids business model. Each child could choose a video game or movie to watch while they got their hair cut. The girls both chose video games.

New hair cut . . .

Lilly's turn ...

Lilly tries to look at me while I was taking her picture, but she can't take her eyes off the game.

The finished product ...

I had fun trip. Unfortunately, I didn't take all the pictures I wanted to take -- too busy talking probably. But I wanted to share the ones I did take -- that turned out, that is.

Now on to Iowa and Washington ...

Duchesne Third Ward Friendship Quilt

In the midst of making 9 quilts for Project Linus and tickets to Disneyland, we were asked to do a square for a friendship quilt. (We assume it's for the just-released bishop.) We were given the denim square and got to choose a cowboy, a cowboy hat, or boot pattern. We picked our own material. Here's our square. It was a lot of work, but I think it turned out pretty cute.

When they put all of them together, here's the result. Isn't it great?

Almost makes me want to make a whole quilt ... almost.

Catchup #4 - IOWA

When Heather fell and hurt her back, I got to make an unexpected but fun trip from Arizona to Iowa. I had never been there before. It was fall, and there were gorgeous trees everywhere. This red one is on the side of their house. That's a neighbor's house in the background.

This huge gorgeous tree is in their front yard. This was before all the leaves fell off. Heather posted pictures on her blog of their yard full of leaves -- mostly all from this one tree.

This is her backyard and her neighbor's house behind her. Sadly, I didn't take a picture of the house they're living in. It's a really nice house. But you'll have to take my word for it -- no photographic proof.

Here's Rick with the girls making cards in their Church. Right after this we went to a retirement home where they sang and gave out the cards. Meanwhile, Heather was home with an icepack on her back.

Here they are singing with the kids from their ward. The bishop (in red) sang with them too.


When Heather's back was feeling better, we went to Howell's Farm, where we walked through a cool corn maze. It's a huge farm -- about 800 acres.

The girls picked out pumpkins. Actually, I think they changed their minds after I took these pictures and picked some other pumpkins, but you get the idea.


They also got to hold rabbits. Audrey squeezed them a little too tightly at first, and the rabbits kept trying to get away and scratching her, but she got the hang of it after a few tries.


We had a few photo opps -- here with a big flatbed full of all different kinds of squash in the background.


And here at a spot setup for taking pictures. I like this one.

Here's two pictures of Audrey's birthday party. They are not very good, but since Heather somehow deleted her pictures, I decided to include these.

I think maybe Audrey was having a reaction to the sugar in this one. She was flushed from playing so hard.

The feather boa and the skirt in this picture are two of Audrey's birthday presents. And Evie got matching ones. There were pink feathers all over the living room after they finished dancing.

I had a great time visiting with the Arnitas. I especially like having a picture in my head of where they are now. It's comforting somehow. Maybe my post will help you have a comforting picture in your head.

Now I'm caught up through October 2009. Whew!

Catchup #3 -- The Zoo

As you can see, it was a beautiful day at the zoo -- well, actually a little hot if we weren't in the shade. But look at the blue, blue sky.

I love this picture of George holding Aaron's hand and walking him along the path.

There were 17 of us in all, plus three strollers. We were a little unorganized at times, but Rachel kept us moving along. Is that Isaac in front going through the door? If so, I think that's the only picture I got of him. I don't think he was camara-shy just busy seeing everything.


Yeah! We're at the zoo!

I'm not sure the babies were as happy as Samuel to be there.



The rest of the kids -- except Isaac. :(



Mallory was not too excited about getting her picture taken. This is the best I got. I think she's saying, "Grammy, don't take my picture."


Adam was the only dad there -- he took it in stride.

How could I post about a zoo trip without some pictures of animals. I'm pretty sure I have a whole box of pictures of animals from zoos, Sea World, etc. -- thanks, Dad!

What's the name of these? I can't remember, but they're pretty.

This is a picture of giraffes not being fed by us. There were signs all over about their new giraffe exhibit where you could feed them. We walked a long way up a hot, dusty trail to find out that we had to pay an extra $3 to be able to get close to them and feed them. That would have cost us $42 so we watched from afar.

I was pretty amazed at how lush and beautiful many areas of the zoo were. Is Isaac in this picture?

Where in the world is Isaac???


Goodbye, Zoo. We had a great time.